University of Toronto – Digital Learning Innovation Digital Learning Innovation

eCampusOntario recently announced the newest recipients of funding for the adoption/adaptation of existing open textbooks and open educational resources.* We are excited to have two new projects and extend our congratulations to Bill Ju for his proposed text Neuroscience – Canadian 1st Edition Open Textbook and Sanja Hinić-Frlog for her project An Introductory Open Textbook for Animal Physiology.

In addition to the cost savings for students, one of the biggest advantages of choosing to adapt an existing open textbook or other open educational resources is it gives faculty the legal right to add to, modify, or delete the content of the textbook to fit their specific course needs . As the copyright holder has already granted permission by releasing their work using an open — or Creative Commons — license, instructors may use and reuse, share, copy, retain and modify the textbook without any hindrance. **

©opensource.com via Flickr CC-BY-SA

The Neuroscience – Canadian 1st Edition Open Textbook will provide over 1200 undergraduate students with online access to recent research advances in neuroscience at no cost. It will be the first modifiable open textbook within the discipline that provides the flexibility to address instructional content needs related to the rapidly changing technologies, theories and concepts in neurosciences.

An Introductory Open Textbook for Animal Physiology will also integrate several resources in a single comprehensive presentation in order to enhance the quality of learning within the UTM Introductory Animal Physiology course and serve as a model for other instructors in biology and other related discipline areas. Where currently there is no individual textbook that meets the instructional needs of the learners, some 500 students will benefit with this new, adaptable, single resource.

Professors appreciate the ability to customize and reuse content to improve the learning experience, while students benefit from cost savings as the resources are delivered digitally, with no fees to access or download. Both instructors and their teams have already begun work on their projects and we look forward to seeing the results in March 2018.

* Projects funded by The Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development

** Benefits of adapting open texts modified from B.C. Open Textbook Adaptation Guide by Lauri Aesoph is used under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.

The University of Toronto internal deadline for Expressions of Interest is Monday, June 5, 2017 (Note: Previous deadline of June 2 has been extended). Please email a short general description of your project idea (maximum 200 words) to Vice Provost Innovations in Undergraduate Education  at vp.iue@utoronto.ca with copy to digital.learning@utoronto.ca.

Proposal consultation and development support is available for both the Open Textbooks call and the Digital Inclusion Research RFPs. If you are interested in pursuing this funding, please contact Laurie Harrison, Director of Digital Learning Innovation at laurie.harrison@utoronto.ca or 416-978-1703. As this is the fifth round of provincial funding in this domain, we have a well-developed, strategic approach to provision of institutional supports and processes for curriculum initiatives and special projects which has proved successful in past years.

Full proposals are will be submitted by the Provost’s office on June 19, 2017. Award announcements will occur in August, with projects to be completed by March 2018 for this round.

Detailed Funding Program Information

Open Textbooks Initiative:

The Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development has provided funding to increase the use of open textbooks through both creation and adoption in several priority areas. eCampus Ontario is accepting two types of proposals:

1. Funding up to $15,000 per project is available to incentivize adoption/adaptation of existing eTexts and open educational resources in the following categories:

• Textbooks for high-enrolment first and second-year courses
• Original French-language content
• Indigenous studies content
• Trades and technical skills content
• Content supporting the settlement of immigrants and refugees

2. Funding up to $40,000 per project is available for creation of new eTexts in the following categories:

• Original French-language content
• Indigenous studies content

See RFP site for more information on the Open Textbook Initiative Call

Digital Inclusion Research

As a centre for excellence in online learning, eCampusOntario has a mandate to support leading edge Ontario research in the field. In this Call for Proposals, the Ontario Digital Service has provided funding to support researchers who wish to explore digital inclusion and related areas of focus, such as inequities in access to the Internet and digital skills, practices of design which exclude groups or individuals, and explorations of the concrete ways in which people can benefit from the application of digital skills and access across sectors (e.g., healthcare, education, civic participation) as well as ways in which people may be put at risk as a result of lack of knowledge, or skills in digital technologies.

See RFP site for more information on the Digital Inclusion Research Call

Coleen Scully-Stewart Recognized for “Contribution to Teaching”

Congratulations to Coleen Scully-Stewart, the Program Coordinator for OISE’S new Online/Hybrid Master of Education on receiving OISE’s 2017 award for Distinguished Contribution to Teaching.  As part of the Educational Leadership & Policy Program expansion, Coleen spearheaded planning for this new cohort-based initiative which has now launched a second cohort, reflecting the demand from students throughout the province of Ontario and beyond.

The program is exceptional in the overall design of the learner experience, specifically developed to meet the unique needs of an online learning community of working professionals.  These graduate students are provided with an opportunity to engage in exploring questions of leadership, policy, change and social diversity in schools, while linking theory to practice in their own work environments. Coleen led the process of establishing a well-integrated cohort, collaborating with the instructor team and with OISE’s Education Commons to create a virtual community space that extends beyond required coursework. The team attended the CTSI Course Design Institute as a group to join efforts on the course planning process. Also, Coleen and her team worked with the OISE Registrar to develop an UTORid access process that would not require students to physically come to campus to the T-Card office – a first at UofT.

According to Coleen, the most challenging aspect of establishing the program was “designing an online space that would foster a strong sense of community for cohort members.”  However, this hard work has had its rewards. Our award-winning faculty member notes, “it is gratifying to know that we are able to provide an OISE  MEd program in Educational Leadership and Policy for students who, until now, would not have had access.  The learning for all is enriched by having perspectives from widely varying contexts across the province and the globe.”

Congratulations to Coleen on her leadership in the development of an Online/Hybrid Master of Education Program that exemplifies a comprehensive and fully integrated approach to ensuring a positive graduate student experience.

As this term comes to an end we look forward to a new year, a new semester and new offerings of online courses.

Online Learning Strategies has developed a new resource page that is open to use and share with students to help prepare them for learning online.

Is Taking an Online Course Right for Me?

This resource, developed with the input of various instructors of fully online courses, offers potential students an opportunity to consider if they have the technical capacity as well as the motivation and self-management skills to benefit fully from the online classroom experience.

It also offers students who pursue online learning some tips and strategies to start off right in a new course and continue the momentum as the course progresses.

A slidedeck summary is also available to share as a link or embed in a course Blackboard site.

Any instructor leading a fully online course, or an online component in a course, is welcome to use and share the resource. Having a reference available to help clarify common misconceptions will help students transition into this new mode of teaching and learning. As enrollment in online courses grows our goal is to ensure every student new to it will have a better understanding of what online learning is and how to be successful in these offerings.

The University of Toronto internal deadline for Expressions of Interest is August 5, 2016. Please email a short description of your project idea (maximum 250 words) to Vice Provost Innovations in Undergraduate Education  at vp.iue@utoronto.ca with copy to digital.learning@utoronto.ca.

Proposal consultation and development support is available. If you are interested in pursuing this funding, please contact Laurie Harrison, Director of Digital Learning Innovation at laurie.harrison@utoronto.ca or 416-978-1703. As this is the fourth round of provincial funding in this domain, we have a well-developed, strategic approach to provision of institutional supports and processes for course and curriculum design in place which have proved successful in past years.

eCampus Ontario Information on Categories for 2016-2018:

Open Content Initiative: Under this project area, institutions can submit project proposals to fund the creation of high-quality digital course content that can be freely reused, revised, adapted, remixed, redistributed, and retained by institutions to support online and technology-enabled teaching and learning. Applicants can propose to develop a complete set of course modules or an etextbook. eCampusOntario is also funding projects which propose to adopt or adapt existing open content for the creation of a fully online course. The Open Content Initiative is the first step towards eCampusOntario’s vision for high quality, free and accessible digital course content to support an excellent online student learning experience. Funded Open Content projects are intended to incent uptake of these resources across the province, encourage buy-in from faculty members across Ontario institutions, and support the early adopters at a grass-roots level. Click here for Open Content Call

Online Course Development: The Online Course Development project will fund the development of a small number of individual courses that offer flexible delivery options for students. Successful proposals will focus on curricular bottleneck courses with high repeat rates and low retention. By providing high impact, high demand courses in an online format, students can experience greater flexibility and prevent delays in completing their program of study. Click here for Course Development Call

New Program Development: eCampusOntario is also providing targeting funding to facilitate growth in innovative online programs in Ontario. It is the goal of the New Program project to encourage new packaging or delivery options for credentials and to support the development of new collaborative and interdisciplinary online programs that address areas of current and future labour market demand. Click here for New Program Call

Full proposals are due Sept. 30. Notably, the deadline for completion of projects has been extended to March 2018 for this round. As in past years, the initiatives that duplicate the work of previous projects will not be funded (See list of courses and modules funded in previous years [UPDATED]).

eCampus Ontario will be posting and updating an FAQ document which will be updated every Friday.