Skip to main content
Ontario Tech acknowledges the lands and people of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation.

We are thankful to be welcome on these lands in friendship. The lands we are situated on are covered by the Williams Treaties and are the traditional territory of the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation, including Algonquin, Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi. These lands remain home to many Indigenous nations and peoples.

We acknowledge this land out of respect for the Indigenous nations who have cared for Turtle Island, also called North America, from before the arrival of settler peoples until this day. Most importantly, we acknowledge that the history of these lands has been tainted by poor treatment and a lack of friendship with the First Nations who call them home.

This history is something we are all affected by because we are all treaty people in Canada. We all have a shared history to reflect on, and each of us is affected by this history in different ways. Our past defines our present, but if we move forward as friends and allies, then it does not have to define our future.

Learn more about Indigenous Education and Cultural Services

Advocacy

Enabling access to freely available content, information, and data is an essential part of a supportive and accessible learning environment - for students, staff, and faculty. Learning about OER, participating in OER activities, and using OER are just some of the ways you can become an OER advocate. In addition, you might want to join the OER Stewards, a cross-divisional, inclusive group that promotes OER use.

Students

#textbookbroke

One of the best ways to mobilize student voices in support of open education is to appeal to the fact that students spend a lot of money on textbooks each term. You can demonstrate wide student support and inform students about the high cost of textbooks through a campaign like #textbookbroke, a social media campaign that can be adapted to any institution.

Learn More

Engage students in programming during events like Open Education Day

Ontario Tech holds OER-themed programming, like panel discussions or workshops, as well as larger-scale events like Open Education Day. These are opportunities to involve students in programming that is normally only appealing to faculty and staff, ensuring that student opinions are heard. You might try to get students involved in event planning processes, ensure students participate in panels or presentations, or advertise events to your fellow students. This allows information to be shared with students that are involved, and student-centric messaging to be shared with those on your campus involved in OER promotion.

Ensure that your own resources and information is openly licensed and share with other student groups and societies.

It is great to talk the talk, but make sure to walk the walk as well. The open education community is very supportive, and we can only be successful if we work together and make our resources open. You can use open licenses for resources your student society creates and adapts, to ensure that you are supporting other student groups and societies in starting their own OER initiatives. An easy way to do this is using the Creative Commons Choose a License feature. Make sure to look for existing resources you could adapt before creating your own.

Attribution: Adapted from How to Advocate on Your Campus by BCcampus, licensed under a CC BY 4.0 International License.


Three students seated outdoors on steps, looking at mobile devices. Photo by Buro Millennial from Pexels

 

Staff and Faculty

#OERThankU

The #OERThankU campaign recognizes the faculty at Ontario Tech who have committed to enhancing student success by adopting one or more OER for use in their classes, replacing traditional resources. This campaign seeks to raise awareness of OER adoption and to highlight these faculty members. Thank U!

Learn More