Ian Linkletter
My name is Ian, I am an Emerging Technology & Open Education Librarian employed by the British Columbia Institute of Technology, and I am fortunate to work in a field which shares my values.
OSS @ UBC
Ian Linkletter, Faculty of Education
http://bit.ly/osspresentation
Open Source Software
- freely available
- may be redistributed
- may be modified
Awesome UBC FOSS
A curated list of free and open source software projects at UBC
Open Source Educational Technology:
UBC Faculty of Education Context
- edX
- WordPress
- Mattermost
- Canvas
edX
Open edX is an open source Learning Management System built for the delivery of instructor-paced and self-paced Massive Open Online Courses.
UBC and edx.org
UBC and edx.org are partners and offer many MOOCs together. The service is hosted and administered by edX in the United States.
- This is an example of an open source technology operated by a third party with additional cloud functionality.
8 offerings since 2015
33,763 registrations
5,569 passing learners
Open edX at UBC
https://ubcxonline.exl.ubc.ca
UBCxOnline is an Open edX server hosted and operated by UBC:
- More enrolment flexibility
- Full platform control
- Accessible from every country
- Our server, our policies
- Can scale up at minimal cost
- Ideally suited for big impact fast
Open edX at UBC: UBCxOnline
teachmentalhealth.org
Open edX at UBC: UBCxOnline
teachmentalhealth.org
WordPress
WordPress is used by multiple courses in the MET program to host content on the open web and private data in a protected Canvas environment.
The "non-disposable assignment" is employed to allow students to co-create knowledge and make it public (if desired).
Many, many other uses.
I don't know what I don't know.
Mattermost
Mattermost is an open source team chat tool that facilitates "any-time" communication.
This was a novel tool, so it made sense to pilot an open source technology. It was so useful in some cases that it became officially supported.
Open source technology allowed us to explore and discover with no vendor breathing down our neck.
Think "Slack" or "Microsoft Teams"
Novel tools benefit from open source pilots.
Open source technology allowed us to explore and discover with no vendor breathing down our neck.
Through a pilot evaluation, we can gain insight into novel tools. How can we procure something we don't understand?
This is an example of an open source tool hosted by UBC, but with a paid license to enable CWL login and course user sync.
Canvas
Canvas is an open source LMS
- UBC licenses the cloud version of Canvas from Instructure, Inc.
- Cloud computing means increased reliability, speed, and updates
- This is another example of an open source technology operated by a third party with additional cloud functionality.
Privacy and OSS
No tracking
No data monetization
No sovereignty issues
Join the OpenETC Mattermost community: https://bit.ly/openetc
From opened.ca:
The OpenETC is a community of educators, technologists, and designers sharing their expertise to foster and support open infrastructure for the BC post-secondary sector.
Questions?
Conversation?
Thanks!
OSS @ UBC
By Ian Linkletter
OSS @ UBC
Presentation to UBC Open Education Working Group describing some of the ways open educational technology is being used at UBC.
