With the COVID-19 pandemic driving college courses into online learning environments, open educational resources (OER) are essential tools for educators because they allow instructors to reuse, remix, revise, redistribute, retain, resources without expense, and without seeking copyright clearances for use, and adaptation of the material. Through collaboration with educators who contribute their subject matter expertise, Open Educational Resources provide a sustainable and customizable option for delivering online teaching methodology.

OER Development at RRC

You may have seen past information from Red River College on its work to drive OER development. The Teacher Education department at Red River College is in the midst of creating an Open Education Resource that will supplement Teacher Education courses and Faculty Development on post-secondary campus’ across Manitoba and Canada.

In partnership with Campus Manitoba and the Manitoba Flexible Learning HUB, a framework for the resource was developed.

For more information on the project visit the OER Project page or view the following video:

How do I use Open Educational Resources?

Most OER resources are digital and can be embedded into the campus’s learning management systems (LEARN). Like using any teaching and instructional material the first step is finding Open Educational Resources that support your subject area. The Library can be a key ally in assisting you with sourcing OER content for your subject area and you can also explore resources on your own.

The library has an OER landing page to get your started finding OER’s to meet your instructional needs. Once you find a resource you would like to use you can download it, adapt it to your needs, and upload it in LEARN or you can link to a completed OER’s online.

How Open Educational Resources Support Students.

Use of OER’s helps to reduce the cost of educational resources for students. As textbook costs continue to rise OER’s can provide free or low cost alternatives to textbooks. The use, creation, and adaption of OERs in teaching and instruction can also provide enhanced opportunities for self-learning at home.

OER’s can act as engaging tools to develop digital literacy skills for: searching, reusing, recreating, disseminating, branding, and networking as you can involve students directly in the adaptation of the resource as part of their learning.

an illustrated version of OER benefits

Jtneill – Own work – Ways in which open education can facilitate flexible learning. CC BY-SA 3.0

OER’s supporting strategic goals on campus.

Use of OER’s can also tie your teaching into the strategic goals on campus. These resources can be Indigenized, to advance Indigenous achievement. Indigenization is a process of incorporating Indigenous perspectives, processes and knowledge systems.  It must be noted that Indigenization does not mean replacing Western knowledge or changing it, rather the goal is to  braid together Western and Indigenous knowledge so teachers and learners can appreciate both. OER’s can be freely adapted for valuable inclusion of Indigenous knowledge systems and perspectives. For more guidance on Indigenizing resources view this post from Campus MB which has some OER content to get you started.  Further to the strategic goals OER’s can incorporate digital tools to help evaluate student success. They foster sustainable growth by encouraging digital learning materials, and curb the increasing cost of instructional materials. They can be used to cultivate strategic partnerships as you can invite alumni and industry partners to contribute to adapting OER’s. Get started investigating OER’s today with the RRC Library and Campus MB, and look for more OER sessions in Fall 2020.

Everyone who has written an academic paper knows that citing research is easier said than done. It’s a complicated process of not only finding all the required information but formatting it correctly.

Books, print periodicals, articles from databases, web resources, videos, photographs, you name it. All have their own citation requirements, and all are formatted slightly differently from one another. Thus, making citations all the harder to do. 

So, I get it; it’s complicated, not intuitive, and seems to change every year-to-year; what if I could tell you that there’s an easier way? 

Let me introduce you to RefWorks.

RefWorks is online software that simplifies the process of research, collaboration, data organization, and writing by providing an
easy-to-use tool for citations, bibliographies, and overall reference management.

Luckily for us, RefWorks is provided to students through the Red River College Library.

If you’re interested, the Red River College Library has created a RefWorks Guide that provides a step-by-step tutorial on how to set-up and use RefWorks. If at any point you have a question not answered on the guide, there are library staff ready to help either in person or online.

I, for one, am taking this opportunity to jump on this fantastic tool. If you’re one of the many who also find themselves struggling with citations, I hope you will as well!

By a fellow student,
Matthew

RefWorks Could Be Your New Best Friend

We all know that writing a paper has its headaches, especially the task of tracking and citing sources. RefWorks, now offered by RRC Library, is a reference management service that streamlines the research and citation process for you. It will store your sources and generate authoritative citations and bibliographies in whatever format you need so you can focus writing your paper. RefWorks also coordinates with Word and Google Docs, allowing you to quickly insert and edit citations and add them to your bibliography as you go.

If you are in the process of conducting research, compiling sources and creating citations, RefWorks will be a lifesaver.

LEARN MORE…

• Visit the RefWorks guide for more information.
• Attend the RefWorks Lunch and Learn session at NDC Library on Thursday, February 27, 12:15-12:45.
• Contact us or visit one of our service desks for one-on-one assistance.

Simply present a Red River College Identification card to borrow a portable charger.

Library Services now offers portable chargers for most mobile devices (micro-USB, lightning and USB-C). If you are a staff member or student at the College, simply present your ID card to borrow one for up to a day.

They are available at the Exchange District Campus Library Service Desk or at Notre Dame Campus Library, AV Services (down the hall toward the back of the Library).

—Posted by  Linda Fox — RRC Library,  AV Services

Would you like to be able to search for books, articles, videos and eBooks in one place?  The Red River College Library now has OneSearch.

OneSearch is the name of the EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) which searches the print material and audio/visual resources owned by the Library.  It also searches the thousands of EBSCOhost ebooks and journals to which the Library has access.

Reference: OneSearch Library Guide

Look for OneSearch in a brand new red search box on our home page, or click the link on the left to be taken directly to the OneSearch search page.

OneSearch image courtesy of the Streaming Video Resources: Locating Streaming Videos Library Guide.

The benefit of OneSearch is finding everything, regardless of the format, which is relevant to your needs.  Of course, should you want to search the resources individually, such as the Library catalogue for print books, or a subject specific database for articles, you can choose to do that.

More detailed OneSearch instructions may be found here: OneSearch Library Guide