#OpenEd21

It should not be assumed that all students have reliable, fast, or any internet access — or computers or mobile devices — at home or on campus. The British Columbia (BC) provincial government reports that, while 93 per cent of its urban households have internet access at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) target speeds of 50/10 Mbps, approximately two-thirds of its rural and Indigenous communities do not. For post-secondary institutions in remote regions, pulling up an online open textbook can be difficult or impossible. In 2019, BCcampus hired an Open Education representative for the northern region of BC. The outcomes of this position are to create a collaborative relationship with smaller institutions in the north region of BC, promote awareness of open education and increase access to less-served institutions, and to provide focused support to smaller institutions in the north to implement and institutionalize use of OER. While OER adoptions and student savings have increased in all the northern institutions, there is a need for offline versions of OER in the remote post-secondary institutions of northern BC. Join BCcampus presenters as they share the realities of access in Northern BC, Canada. Presenters will articulate the challenges of the region as well as potential solutions for access to Offline OER- what they have done to date and what they plan to do as OER usage expands. Presenters will engage the audience in a creative brainstorming activity to generate ideas on additional ways to offer Offline OER to remote regions.

After participating in this session, attendees will be able to:

• Articulate the access challenges faced by residents in remote Northern British Columbia communities
• Identify various solutions for accessing OER in offline formats