Increase Adoption of OER and Electronic Resources: A Key Action for High-Quality Learning

As indicated as a key action of high-quality learning at Red Forum 2022, the Library Team is here to help support instructors in finding high-quality electronic educational resources. The pandemic has blurred the lines between” in-person” learning and “remote” digital classrooms. The RRC Polytech Library is here to support instructors in locating resources that can withstand the need to shift learning environments nimbly.

We invite instructors who may have struggled with format shifts using their current teaching materials, or those who are seeking alternatives to current textbooks, to consider the shift to Open Educational Resources (OER). These are educational materials such as textbooks, problem sets, slide decks, lesson plans, handouts, infographics, and other educational content that can be used for free and without permission.

Advantages of OER

OERs are published under an open license, such as Creative Commons. This allows several key advantages:

1. Instructors can switch the format of materials with ease and without concern for the violation of copyright, these resources can be printed or remain in digital versions for students.
2. Instructors can Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix and Redistribute the materials freely without violating copyright.
3. OER use allows for cost savings for students when suitable OER can be located to replace course materials students pay for out of pocket.

More Information

Learn more about OER as well as past faculty education sessions held over the past two years: visit the Faculty Support OER Page.

See the impact of our current OER use at RRC Polytech in this 2-minute video: OER Impact Video.

Find support at the RRC Polytech Library to get started with OER: contact the Copyright Officer.

Written by Ebony Novakowski – Copyright Officer

Since we had redesigned the Library and Academic Services website last summer, it was decided that user testing would tell us whether our new site design was effective.

Last fall, we arranged for a small sample of students to review and critique the site. This spring, we decided to do the same using a group of Faculty.

In our site redesign we used principles of user centric design, attempting to create a site for our users, who were defined as two personas: “Average Student User” and “Average Instructor User.”

This particular test targeted instructors, and would evaluate our “Average Instructor User” persona.

Our Academic Support Coordinator, Melissa Coyle, asked for volunteers via Staff News. Not sure how much interest she would generate, she was pleasantly surprised to receive a number of volunteers, all Instructors and EAs, and from different programs and areas of the college. Choosing five candidates that represented an even cross-section of our college, Melissa went ahead and administered a test, one-on-one with each volunteer.

We would like to take a moment to thank the staff who volunteered to take our test. Without you, this entire process would not have been possible. Bravo!

Using a list of twenty-one tasks, consisting of scenarios and questions that could be discovered on the Library and Academic Services website, Melissa monitored the candidates progress in browsing the web pages, taking notes as to the success or failure of the candidate in resolving each task.

It is true that you do not know how easy or hard a designed task might be until you observe an average person attempt to complete it. Melissa did this through a WebEx session with each candidate. It is an ingenious way to conduct a usability test, and Melissa was able to adeptly conduct the testing, all the while taking note of the challenges met by the users.

In case you were not aware, the Library and Academic Services website is quite deep, and contains information on services offered by the Library, Academic Success Centre, and Assessment Services. Some of the tasks were easily resolved by the users, such as:

• Where would you go to find the hours for NDC and EDC campus?  
• You are browsing the LAS website and want to ask a Library staff a question. How would you ask a question or request help? 
• You are an instructor who would like to schedule an in-class Academic Skills workshop for your students. Where would you go to request this workshop?
• You have a student in your class who you would like to refer for tutoring. What instruction would you provide the student to request or connect with a tutor on their own? 
• You are looking for information about Copyright, where would you go to find this?

Other questions posed to be more difficult for the users, indicating adjustments may be necessary on the web site:

• You are an instructor who has assigned a research paper to your students for a specific topic and would like to reserve a selection of books for your class at the Library – how would you do this?
• You have a student who is unfamiliar with LEARN and struggling to access course materials, submit assignments, and participate in online discussions . You would like to connect them with a tutor for help – how would you do this?
• You’d like to share some self-directed resources with your students with a focus on study skills. Where would you find these?

Clearly we have more work to do to improve the Library and Academic Services website. In fact, we recognize that a website must be continuously managed, meaning changes are always necessary, and future testing will always be a smart step.

In addition to areas of improvement, the testing has shown us that our process of user-centric design is working. For the most part, we discovered that our Instructor persona was able to use the website to complete the tasks built into the user-interface.

When we build a web site, we think we can do plenty by considering how users will interact with the site. However, until we have some real users try the site, and we watch how they do it, we cannot know the whole story.

So, take our advice. Arrange for a few users to test your web site!

Mark Nelson
Library Systems Specialist
Red River College Polytechnic

The Academic Success Centre (ASC) is partnering with Career Services to provide a comprehensive, interactive workshop series on the development of employment documents and skills for students.   

The series will be a combination of presentations by the Career Services team supported by ASC workshops on complementary topics including: Job Search Strategies and Networking, LinkedIn Profile Development, Resumes and Cover letters, and Interview Strategies. By attending all workshop, students will gain the knowledge and skills they need to succeed with their job search. The series complements Math, Science, and Communication’s (COMM-2172) Communication for the Workplace course.

These workshops will be designed for students in business related programs. All students are welcome to attend and adapt the information to their field. 

Register Now: To register for the workshops, click here to visit the Get Job Search Ready website. 

Access the LEARN Shell: Click here to self-enroll into the Get Job Search Ready Career Services & ASC LEARN shell.

Workshop Overview

The Nursing faculty invited the RRC Polytech Library to be the sixth stop on their Amazing Race team-building exercise this spring.

Participants arrived at the Library to receive an old-fashioned card catalogue card pointing them to a book on team-building on the Library’s shelves.

A clue hidden within the books pointed the teams to the sunny side of the Library to find another stop in the children’s section (too bad it rained on Tuesday). Surrounded by picture books, the nursing faculty teams found old magazines for their next task.

Fifteen energetic teams participated in the team-building exercise that involved Skills tests, quizzes, random acts of kindness, a College locations scavenger hunt, and a group project to create a creative Representation of Teamwork.

Connect with Us!

Do you have an opportunity to include the Library in your team-building exercises? We make a great stop on any scavenger hunt and are happy to brainstorm activities to fit your team and event.

Connect with us through Ask Us chat, our Ask a Question form, or visit one of our service desks during regular Library hours.

Written by Rosemary Woodby – Reference Technician

This week we are highlighting “The Teaching Professor” A weekly, online newsletter dedicated to helping college faculty improve students’ learning.

Library and Academic Services (LAS) offers many avenues of support to faculty at RRC Polytech. Among those is our subscription to The Teaching Professor; an online, weekly, newsletter aimed at those teaching in higher education.

The Teaching Professor has been lauded for its succinct articles that make the connection between theory and practice in the scholarship of teaching and learning. It covers a wide range of topics such as course development, student engagement, academic integrity, online and blended learning, and professional growth.

Here are some reasons to check it out

The Twenty Minute Mentor is a monthly feature of a 20-minute video program. Check in each month to see what the topic is!

This months 20-Minute Mentor is How Can I Optimize Announcements to Help Online Students Navigate My Class? presented by Nathan Pritts, PhD, professor and lead faculty at the University of Arizona Global Campus.

For Those Who Teach is the long-running weekly column from Maryellen Weimer, the publication’s founding editor and its lead writer from 1987 to 2022.

Resources

The Library Team has taken the time to pull resources from “The Teaching Professor” in three potential areas of interest for faculty.

Please check them out and take time to get to know “The Teaching Professor”.

1. Preparing For Return to Class

At this time of year, everyone is looking forward to the slower pace of summer days! When the time comes for you to start preparing for your return to the classroom, The Teaching Professor can help with some icebreakers for the first week of classes and with setting the tone of your classroom:

How to Welcome Students to an Online Class

Creating Connections: Team-Building Activities for the Online Classroom

Transforming Classroom Culture

Bringing Authentic Humor into the Classroom

2. Academic Integrity

Academic dishonesty in the 21^st century is so different than the days of looking over a fellow student’s shoulder for the answer. The Teaching Professor has many articles addressing this, here are just a few:

How to Keep Your Students’ Work off Study Sites

Cheating: Can We Be Doing More to Promote Academic Integrity?

A More Optimistic Way to Teach Academic Integrity: Standing with Honor on the Shoulders of Giants

Activities that Promote Awareness of What is and Isn’t Cheating

3. Life Long Learning

For educators, lifelong learning is so important. Developing your skills and knowledge after your formal education ends keeps your teaching fresh, allows you to reflect on what you’re currently doing, and gives you new ideas to strengthen your classroom connections. Here are a few articles to get you started:

Energize Your Teaching by Playing to Your Strengths

Why it’s so Hard to Change the Way We Teach

What Ted Lasso Taught Me About my First Semester of Teaching

Pandemic Lessons: Connect More and Hustle Less

Defining and Denouncing Student Shaming: A Teacher’s Reflection

Don’t Forget to Sign Up!

 The above links are just a small sampling of what can be found in The Teaching Professor. To sign up for weekly article summaries please click here to sign up Teaching Professor Email Update Service.

Written by Erin Edwards, Resource Management Technician

RRC Polytech staff and students can now enjoy hassle-free scheduling with the library’s new online equipment booking system.
Find out everything you need to know about the new booking system so you can plan ahead, and be front of the line for fall bookings!

What’s available?

There are many equipment categories to browse and book online:

• Laptops for Staff and Students
• Equipment for meetings and presentations
• Webcams, headsets and computer accessories
• On campus use items
• Light Therapy Lamps for those long winter months!
• And much, much more!

Where to go on Library.rrc.ca to book equipment?

You can navigate to the equipment booking system from the library homepage, either by selecting Book Equipment from the icon bar on the homepage, or find it under browse and borrow from on the homepage top menu.

OR

Where to pick up a booking?

The RRC Polytech Library has two locations, one at the Notre Dame Campus in CM18, and another at the Exchange District Campus in room P214. Our two libraries have different equipment collections, so make sure you select the location you’ll be picking up from, before browsing and setting up bookings.

Add upcoming bookings to your outlook calendar

When you create a booking, you will receive a “Your booking has been confirmed” email with an .ics calendar file. Open the attachment and add the booking to your calendar.

Make sure to add alerts@mail.libcal.com to your safe senders list so you don’t miss any important updates or reminders about your bookings!

Cancel or Change an upcoming booking

Created a booking you no longer need? Need that equipment for a different time? You can cancel an upcoming booking anytime through the link included in your booking confirmation and reminder emails.

To change a booking, simply reply to your booking confirmation or reminder email and let us know the change, you’ll get an automatic email notification confirming when the changes have been made.

Find out more!

Need some help figuring out how to book equipment? Find out everything you need to know on the book equipment help page.

Curious about the student laptop loan program? Check out the laptop loans terms of use.

Find all the loan periods for equipment on the loan period information page.

Connect with Us!

More information about our services and supports is available on our website. You may also connect with us through Ask Us chat, our Ask a Question form, or visit one of our service desks during regular Library hours.

Written by Artemis Hedrich – Reference Technician

A time to honour and learn

June is National Indigenous History Month, a time dedicated to honouring the vibrant history, culture, strength and diversity of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples across Canada. What better time to take advantage of the latest new arrivals in the Library’s Indigenous section?

These timely resources offer the opportunity to broaden your understanding of the experiences and perspectives of Indigenous Peoples. Many thanks to Sarah Lee for maintaining the Library’s Indigenous Collection.

New arrivals to our Indigenous collection

#NotYourPrincess: voices of Native American women / Edited by Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Beth Leatherdale.

Indigenous women across North America resound in this book. #Not Your Princess presents an eclectic collection of poems, essays, interviews, and art that combine to express the experience of being a Native woman. 

Surviving the city / Tasha Spillett; Natasha Donovan.

Tasha Spillet’s graphic-novel debut, Surviving the City, is a story about womanhood, friendship, resilience, and the anguish of a missing loved one. Miikwan and Dez are best friends. Miikwan’s Anishinaabe; Dez is Inninew. Together, the teens navigate the challenges of growing up in an urban landscape – they’re so close, they even completed their Berry Fast together.

Returning to ceremony: spirituality in Manitoba Métis communities / Chantal Fiola.

Returning to Ceremony is the follow-up to Chantal Fiola’s award-winning Rekindling the Sacred Fire and continues her ground-breaking examination of Métis spirituality, debunking stereotypes such as “all Métis people are Catholic,” and “Métis people do not go to ceremonies.”

Me tomorrow: Indigenous views on the future / compiled and edited by Drew Hayden Taylor.

First Nations, Métis and Inuit artists, activists, educators and writers, youth and elders come together to envision Indigenous futures in Canada and around the world. Discussing everything from language renewal to sci-fi, this collection is a powerful and important expression of imagination rooted in social critique, cultural experience, traditional knowledge, activism and the multifaceted experiences of Indigenous people on Turtle Island. 

The Prairie Chicken dance tour / Dawn Dumont.

The hilarious story of an unlikely group of Indigenous dancers who find themselves thrown together on a performance tour of Europe in 1972. The Tour is all prepared. The Prairie Chicken dance troupe is all set for a fifteen-day trek through Europe, performing at festivals and cultural events. But then the performers all come down with the flu. And John Greyeyes, a retired cowboy who hasn’t danced in fifteen years, finds himself abruptly thrust into the position of leading a hastily-assembled group of replacement dancers.

Borders / story by Thomas King; illustration by Natasha Donovan.

A graphic-novel adaptation based on the work of one of Canada’s most revered and bestselling authors. “What side do you come from?” On a trip to visit his older sister, who moved away from the family home to Salt Lake City, a young boy and his mother are posed a simple question with a not so simple answer. And when border guards will not accept their citizenship, mother and son wind up trapped in an all-too-real limbo between nations that do not recognize who they are.

We remember the coming of the white man / editors: Sarah Stewart and Raymond Yakeleya; authors: Walter Blondin [and others].

A work in progress since the 1970s, We Remember the Coming of the White Man chronicles the history of the Dene People in the extraordinary time of the early 20th century. Chapters are transcripts of oral histories of ten Elders.

My privilege, my responsibility: a memoir / Sheila North.

In September 2015, Sheila North was declared the Grand Chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO), the first woman elected to the position. Known as a “bridge builder”, North is a member of Bunibonibee Cree Nation. North’s work in advocacy journalism, communications, and economic development harnessed her passion for drawing focus to systemic racism faced by Indigenous women and girls. 

We all go back to the land: the who, why, and how of land acknowledgements / Suzanne Keeptwo.

Land Acknowledgements often begin academic conferences, cultural events, government press gatherings, and even hockey games. They are supposed to be an act of Reconciliation between Indigenous people in Canada and non-Indigenous Canadians, but they have become so routine and formulaic that they have sometimes lost meaning. Métis artist and educator Suzanne Keeptwo sees the Land Acknowledgement as an opportunity for Indigenous people in Canada to communicate their worldview to non-Indigenous Canadians–a message founded upon Age Old Wisdom about how to sustain the Land we all want to call home.

Did you see us?: reunion, remembrance, and reclamation at an urban Indian residential school / Survivors of the Assiniboia Residential School ; [edited by Andrew Woolford, Morgan Fontaine, and Theodore Fontaine].

The Assiniboia school is unique within Canada’s Indian Residential School system. It was the first residential high school in Manitoba and one of the only residential schools in Canada to be located in a large urban setting. Stitching together memories of arrival at, day-to-day life within, and departure from the school with a socio-historical reconstruction of the school and its position in both Winnipeg and the larger residential school system, Did You See Us? offers a glimpse of Assiniboia that is not available in the archival records. 

Nothing will be different: a memoir / Tara McGowan-Ross.

A neurotic party girl’s coming-of-age memoir about learning to live before getting ready to die. Tara has it pretty good: a nice job, a writing career, a forgiving boyfriend. She should be happy. Yet Tara can’t stay sober. She’s terrible at monogamy. Even her psychiatrist grows sick of her and stops returning her calls. She spends most of her time putting out social fires, barely pulling things off, and feeling sick and tired. Then, in the autumn following her twenty-seventh birthday, an abnormal lump discovered in her left breast serves as the catalyst for a journey of rigorous self-questioning. 

Dadibaajim: returning home through narrative / Helen Olsen Agger.

Dadibaajim narratives are of and from the land, born from experience and observation. Invoking this critical Anishinaabe methodology for teaching and learning, Helen Agger documents and reclaims the history, identity, and inherent entitlement of the Namegosibii Anishinaabeg to the care, use, and occupation of their Trout Lake homelands. 

Indian in the cabinet: speaking truth to power / Jody Wilson-Raybould.

A compelling political memoir of leadership and speaking truth to power by one of the most inspiring women of her generation. This is the story of why Wilson-Raybould got into federal politics, her experience as an Indigenous leader sitting around the Cabinet table, her proudest achievements, the very public SNC-Lavalin affair, and how she got out and moved forward.

Intimate integration: a history of the Sixties Scoop and the colonization of Indigenous kinship / Allyson D. Stevenson.

Privileging Indigenous voices and experiences, Intimate Integration documents the rise and fall of North American transracial adoption projects, including the Adopt Indian and Métis Project and the Indian Adoption Project. Making profound contributions to the history of settler-colonialism in Canada, it sheds light on the complex reasons behind persistent social inequalities in child welfare.

Di-bayn-di-zi-win: to own ourselves: embodying Ojibway-Anishinabe ways / Jerry Fontaine & Don McCaskill.

An indigenized, de-colonized world view for Indigenous leaders and academics seeking a path to reconciliation. Authors makwa ogimaa (Jerry Fontaine) and ka-pi-ta-aht (Don McCaskill) tell their di-bah-ji-mo-wi-nan (personal stories) to understand the cultural, political, social, and academic events in the past fifty years of Ojibway-Anishinabe resistance in Canada.

These are the stories: memories of a 60s Scoop survivor / Christine Miskonoodinkwe-Smith.

A collection of essays from a 60’s Scoop Survivor.

Home waltz / G.A. Grisenthwaite.

A story of love, heartbreak, and tragedy, Home Waltz delves into suicide, alcohol abuse, body image, and systemic racism. A coming of age story like no other, Home Waltz speaks to one Indigenous teenager’s experience of growing up in a world that doesn’t want or trust him.

Life in the city of dirty water: a memoir of healing / Clayton Thomas-Müller.

An electrifying memoir that braids together the urgent issues of Indigenous rights and environmental policy, from a nationally and internationally recognized activist and survivor. Tying together personal stories of survival that bring the realities of Canada’s First Nations into sharp focus, and lessons learned from a career as a frontline activist committed to addressing environmental injustice at a global scale, Thomas-Müller offers a narrative and vision of healing and responsibility.

Tainna = The unseen ones: short stories / Norma Dunning.

Drawing on both lived experience and cultural memory, Norma Dunning brings together six powerful new short stories centred on modern-day Inuk characters in Tainna. Ranging from homeless to extravagantly wealthy, from spiritual to jaded, young to elderly, and even from alive to deceased, Dunning’s characters are united by shared feelings of alienation, displacement and loneliness resulting from their experiences in southern Canada.

Daughters of the deer / Danielle Daniel.

In this haunting, groundbreaking, historical novel, Danielle Daniel imagines the lives of her ancestors in the Algonquin territories of the 1600s, a story inspired by her family link to a girl murdered near Trois-Rivières in the early days of French settlement.

Sugar Falls : a residential school story / David Robertson; illustratration by Scott Henderson.

From Governor-General’s Award-winning writer David A. Robertson comes this special edition of the timeless graphic novel that introduced the world to the awe-inspiring resilience of Betty Ross, and shared her story of strength, family, and culture.

The trail of Nenaboozhoo and other creation stories / Bomgiizhik; illustrated and edited by Christi Belcourt.

This collection presents legends of Nenaboozhoo, the Ojibway creator spirit, along with other creation stories; sacred stories which were transcribed from the oral storytelling of Isaac Murdoch. The Trail of Nenaboozhoo and Other Creation Stories is a book of art and storytelling that preserve the legends of the Anishinaabe people.

Old Stories, New Ways / Vivian Manasc & Frits Pannekoek.

Through the profound lessons of the seven Grandfather Teachings, architect Vivian Manasc came to understand that the process of planning and designing a building should be a circle, with the beginning and end of the story linked together. The stories Vivian tells in Old Stories, New Ways are also framed by these teachings of Courage, Love, Wisdom, Respect, Truth, Humility and Honesty, with each teaching illuminating an aspect of how working with Dene, Cree, Saulteaux, Métis, Inuit and Inuvialuit communities has influenced her design practice.

Have a comment or question? Connect with the Library!

You may reach us through our Ask Us chat, our Ask a Question form, or visit one of our service desks during regular Library hours. We would love to hear from you!

Written by Linda Fox and Sarah Lee – Library and Academic Services

Pride will officially kick off in Winnipeg on May 27^th with the Human Rights Conference. Pride is a celebration of confidence, self-respect, and solidarity as expressed by 2SLGBTQIA+ people, associated with openness about one’s own sexual and/or gender identity, and the celebration of Queer culture and history. It is also a protest in support of human rights and equality for all those who express sexual and gender diversity. This protest demands political, industry, health care, and community leaders address the human rights concerns of the Queer community and move toward positive and informed change.

Encouraging allyship is important for everyone and helps to make the world a more inclusive and affirming place.  We encourage you to activate your allyship by exploring queer resources, data, and history. Our Guides are subject and database specific curated collections of library and external resources, that provide instruction, and “jumping off points” for unlocking your full capacity to find well sourced and high quality resources and information.

Below we have highlighted our Guides that contain resources to support learning about gender and sexual diversity. Learning is an important part of allyship.  The impact of 2SLGBTQIA+ -specific allyship also extends beyond benefiting Queer identities by decreasing the likelihood of implicit and explicit bias, and removing barriers to true inclusion.

Why Diversity Matters:

When talking about the complexities of cultural identities, we sometimes focus on ethnicity, language, or religion. However, gender and sexual diversity also play a key role in our identities and day-to-day lives. As part of our efforts to foster respect and inclusion, we need to recognize our cultural biases or assumptions, regarding expectations of gender roles/expressions. Rather than either/or, gender and sexual identities are unique, fluid and complex.

Use our Guides – Find Information on Gender and Sexual Diversity:

Guide: Intercultural Competence & Diversity – Gender and Sexual Diversity

Why Health and Well Being Matters:

Sexual health can be a challenging issue to discuss in the clinical context. Studies have reported that some health care providers may face barriers to discussing sexual health with their 2SLGBTQIA+ patients, including lack of knowledge of same-sex sexual practices.

“Although 2SLGBTQIA+  people are as diverse as the general Canadian population in their experiences of mental health and well-being, they face higher risks for some mental health issues due to the effects of discrimination and the social determinants of health.”[i]

Use our Guides – Find Gender and Sexually Diverse Health and Well Being Information:

Guide: Gender Studies for Health Professionals 

Guide: Indigenous Health & Well-Being, Two-Spirit Resources

Guide: Sexual Violence Awareness – Education, Prevention and Supports – 2SLGBTQIA+ Perspectives

Why Statistics Matter:

Statistics around gender and sexual diversity help us gain a better understanding of the Queer experience and help researches, advocates and the Queer community use data to illustrate the concerns of 2SLGBTQIA+ people. Statistics can also be used to track the impact of policy changes that effect 2SLGBTQIA+ people as a whole, or within more specific identity groups. This helps ensure data informed decisions are made when advocating for positive change or advocating against changes that will negatively impact the needs of gender and sexually diverse people. Statistics are a powerful lens through which we can view the Queer experience and community.

Queer statistics are often in short supply.  “Earlier this month, Canada made history by becoming the first country in the world to provide census data on transgender and non-binary people! This type of data is so important not only because it allows all Canadians to see themselves in national statistics, but also because it helps to fill a long-standing information gap on gender diversity.”[iii]

Use our Guides: Find Statistics and Search Instruction:

Guide: Health Indicators & Health-based Statistics See “Looking for Specific Populations”

Guide: Statistics Canada See “Looking for Specific Populations”

On behalf of the RRC Polytech Library we wish everyone a safe and happy Pride. We remain dedicated to providing a respectful atmosphere that is diverse, inclusive and equitable to our students, staff and external partners. Our diversity is one of our greatest strengths and our goal is to provide a barrier free environment for individuals to succeed in their academic, employment and research goals.

Written by Ebony Novakowski, Copyright Officer

————————————————————————————————————

[i] “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans & Queer identified People and Mental Health”, Canadian Mental Health Association, https://ontario.cmha.ca/documents/lesbian-gay-bisexual-trans-queer-identified-people-and-mental-health/

[ii] “Representation is an essential part of treating everyone with dignity and equality (SDG 10)”, Colleges and Institutes Canada, last modified May 16th 2022, Perspectives, May 16 (collegesinstitutes.ca)

Keeping your research organized and writing your paper just got easier!

The Library is pleased to announce that IT Services will be pushing the RefWorks Citation Manager plug-in out to all RRC Polytech users.

Offered by the Library, RefWorks is a free, web-based reference management service that simplifies the process of research, collaboration, data organization, and writing by providing an easy-to-use tool. RefWorks lets you build a collection of customized references (and accompanying PDFs), share, annotate, comment, and import directly into your writing.

The RefWorks Citation Manager plug-in integrates your RefWorks account into Office 365, allowing you to insert in-text citations easily and automatically generate your reference lists as you write with a click of your mouse.

LEARN MORE…

• Visit the RefWorks guide for text-based and video tutorials on using RefWorks.
• Watch the RefWorks training session on the various tools you can use when writing a research paper, including RefWorks Citation Manager for Office 365, Write-N-Cite (older Word), ProQuest RefWorks for Google Docs, and Quick Cite.
• Contact us, click Ask Us on our homepage, or visit one of our service desks for one-on-one assistance.

Written by Rosemary Woodby, Reference Technician

Increase Adoption of OER and Electronic Resources: A Key Action for High-Quality Learning

As indicated as a key action of high-quality learning at Red Forum 2022, the Library Team is here to help support instructors in finding high-quality electronic educational resources. The pandemic has blurred the lines between” in-person” learning and “remote” digital classrooms. The RRC Polytech Library is here to support instructors in locating resources that can withstand the need to shift learning environments nimbly.

We invite instructors who may have struggled with format shifts using their current teaching materials, or those who are seeking alternatives to current textbooks, to consider the shift to Open Educational Resources (OER). These are educational materials such as textbooks, problem sets, slide decks, lesson plans, handouts, infographics, and other educational content that can be used for free and without permission.

Advantages of OER

OERs are published under an open license, such as Creative Commons. This allows several key advantages:

1. Instructors can switch the format of materials with ease and without concern for the violation of copyright, these resources can be printed or remain in digital versions for students.
2. Instructors can Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix and Redistribute the materials freely without violating copyright.
3. OER use allows for cost savings for students when suitable OER can be located to replace course materials students pay for out of pocket.

More Information

Learn more about OER as well as past faculty education sessions held over the past two years: visit the Faculty Support OER Page.

See the impact of our current OER use at RRC Polytech in this 2-minute video: OER Impact Video.

Find support at the RRC Polytech Library to get started with OER: contact the Copyright Officer.

Written by Ebony Novakowski – Copyright Officer