Open Educational Resources: the Power of Freely Available Learning Materials in Democratizing Education
Audio Submission
Author: bashar
Journey
Choosing Our Topic When we first selected a topic, we thought choosing social media would be a good idea because it was something all of us were familiar with. Because our topic was the influence of social media (the good, the bad, and the ugly), we did not really need to venture far beyond the…
Research and Progress
Power & Influence of Social Media: Does Social Media Amplify Meaningful Discourse or Fuel Misinformation? Introduction Social media is the culmination of websites and applications that allow users to communicate and share information with each other in a digital environment. What we see on social media can influence our opinions and beliefs on a given…
Blog Post #8 – Open Education Theories
What is Open Education? Open education is a method of education that focuses on making education more accessible to people. This is usually done through online education, utilizing Open Educational Resources (OERs) such as textbooks, videos, articles, personal learning networks, educational platforms and online courses (BC Campus, 2020). I came across three learning theories that…
Blog Post #7 – Accessibility
What is Accessibility? Accessibility is the decision to make something more easily and readily available for people. In the context of learning, accessibility is a way to give learners the ability to learn new information and better themselves. According to Kat Holmes, there are three crucial inclusive design principles that “seek to remove barriers [through]…
Blog Post #6 – Communities in Online Learning
What is an Online Community? Digital Communities have considerable influence on the internet. Online communities become learning environments when people are able to share ideas and knowledge with one another (Christopher Pappas, 2025). Subreddit Community: r/VictoriaBC One such online learning community is r/VictoriaBC. Having been created all the way in 2009 by reddit user “Jescro,”…
Blog Post #5 – Diversity in Learning
Face-to-Face Learning Face-to-face learning is a traditional learning method where a group of learners gather at a specified location, at a particular point in time, and learn course material through in-person activities, in-class tests, and take-home assignments. This method allows learners to connect with their classmates and teacher in a school environment, and makes communication…
Blog Post #4 – Challenges Facing Online Learning
Main Challenges Online learning is a method of teaching a larger number of people in a distributed and asynchronous way. Online learning can take place through digital conferences, online courses, electronic articles and journals, and social media platforms, among other parts of the internet. Despite the vast applications, online learning faces some serious challenges. According…
Blog Post #3 – Connectivism
What is Connectivism Connectivism is defined as the “collective connections between all the nodes in a network that result in new forms of knowledge.” Nodes act as connective blocks, such as a library that connects many books, or a friend in a friend group that everybody knows. Connectivism connects sources of knowledge into a single…
Blog Post #2 – British Columbia Digital Learning Strategy
Digital Learning Recommendations In accordance with the BC Advanced Education and Skills Training (AEST) June 16, 2020 meeting, a list of recommendations were put forward to assist the needs of learners and educators in BC. The meeting considered five recommendations. At the time, two recommendations were created for the purpose of “addressing immediate Covid-Response,” which…