Vancouver showcase of online learning innovations available on video

The Justice Institute of British Columbia and Vancouver Community College hosted an ‘online showcase’ on November 30, 2011, sponsored by the Metro Vancouver Educational Developers Network. Video recordings of each of the sessions are now available from the website.

Videos

The videos are bundled into 2 pages:

Parts 1-5:  http://www.jibc.ca/online-showcase-videos1

Parts 6-11:  http://www.jibc.ca/online-showcase-videos2

To look up a specific speaker,click here.

Comment

Once again, Tannis Morgan (JIBC) and Karen Belfer (Vancouver Community College) have pulled together a fascinating selection of innovative applications of online learning from the Greater Vancouver Lower Mainland. These kinds of presentations and sharing of experiences are extremely valuable in helping to raise the quality of online learning throughout the area through demonstration and sharing of what is possible.

This year the showcase focused on three quite different areas:

• Mobile learning
• Accessibility
• Post-secondary and beyond

The showcase web site provides a good guide to what’s in the videos, and as there is almost five hours of video here, I can comment on only a small part. (Session descriptions are here)

There were extremely useful sessions for users of Moodle, both in terms of making Moodle more accessible, and making it mobile in user friendly ways (it should be noted that most of the BC post-secondary educational institutions are now using Moodle).

There was also a demonstration of how emergency services (fire, police, paramedics) are using iPads for integrating operational and ‘on-the-job training’ activities. (I was interested to learn that there is now a mobile app that will locate and alert the nearest available person in the area with CPR training and direct them to the scene of the heart attack.) Much of the material from the emergency services program at JIBC is available as OERs.

UBC has pulled together resource materials such as videos, archived samples, and graphics (some going back to 1986) to provide an integrated Virtual Soil Science web site that covers all 10 types of soil.

There were also sessions on teaching public speaking, and also cooking, online.

The student panel provided useful insights into what students liked and disliked about online learning.

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend as I was at Online Educa Berlin at the same time. However, you can often learn just as much by staying at home, as long as you have people like Tannis and Karen to bring together all the local talent. Making it available as easily accessed video also spreads the word much further. So, if you have similar showcases in your area, please share them with us.