An Open Access week event!

Join Alex Podut, Eric Saczuk, James Brewer, & Julia Alards-Tomalin on Zoom for a panel discussion about the impact of the BCIT Open Education grant program on teaching practice.

Registration required. A Zoom link will be emailed to those that have registered 3 hours before the event.

About Alex Podut alex_podut@bcit.ca

Alex works as an instructor in the Power Engineering program at BCIT.  For many years, Alex used reputable engineering textbooks to deliver his courses. Finding affordable textbooks was a challenging quest. All that changed in 2018 when Alex adopted and adapted an open textbook for one of his courses. Students currently work with the open textbook and the respective ancillary resources to work through problem sets. The course has been delivered in this format for the last 4 years and the content has been improved year after year.

About Eric Saczuk Eric_Saczuk@bcit.ca

Eric is a Geomatics instructor and Director of BCIT Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS, or drones) hub at BCIT. Open Education has been an excellent gateway for Eric to consolidate some of his work with drones and disseminate it to a much wider audience than previously possible. By using Open Education Resources, Eric has involved students in co-authoring projects, both from BCIT and from high school volunteer programs.

About James Brewer James_Brewer@bcit.ca

James is a Physics instructor at BCIT. His open education journey began when he took a poll in his Astronomy 7000 class and found that, on account of its cost, none of the students had bought the recommended text. To counter this, he switched to using the OpenStax astronomy text, and made a work booklet (based upon OpenStax problem and solution sets) to replace the online homework system of the previous text. James has switched his physics courses to be zero-cost material courses (ZCMCs).

About Julia Alards-Tomalin jalardstomalin@bcit.ca

Julia Alards-Tomalin works as an instructor in the Renewable Resources department at BCIT and teaches into both the Forest and Natural Areas Management diploma and the Fish, Wildlife and Recreation diploma programs. Julia has been using and creating OER's since 2019, including a plant identification card game, a winter tree/shrub identification textbook, a series of plant ID videos and self-guided plant ID tour maps. She is passionate to share her love of OER's with other people and inspire them to begin creating their own.