Category: Instructional Technologies

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Titi Kunkel

Dr. Titi Kunkel
Department of First Nations Studies

“The first class I taught for UNBC was Business Ethics at the Cariboo Chilcotin Weekend University. The students were political leaders from Shuswap and Southern Carrier Nations. In-class conversations about resource development within their territories and the unequal distribution of wealth highlighted the need for better access to post-secondary education within rural and remote communities.

My work at UNBC is about increasing access to UNBC programs for rural and remote communities in the region.”

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Lisa Dickson

Dr. Lisa Dickson
Department of English and IASK

Dr. Lisa Dickson uses the UNBC blog platform to post course syllabi, announcements, and assignment descriptions which has effectively made all of her courses paperless. Students are instructed to check the blog before each class in order to stay up to date, which ensures high traffic on the blog. All of the information on the blog is open and students are encouraged to post comments, making it an interactive learning experience. In order for the blog to be effective, the students must be educated on using it from the very beginning of the course. Use of the blog is dependent upon an engaging classroom culture that motivates students to contribute to the discussion by adding links to share with the rest of the class and posting comments. Student feedback has contributed to the development of the blog over several years, making it more user-friendly.

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Guy Plourde

Dr. Guy L. Plourde
Chemistry Department

Open Textbooks

  • 100 Students = $20,000 for one course textbook.
  • In Fall 2015, 26% of my students said that they could not afford the textbook.
  • Every two years a new version comes out and I have to rearrange my notes/slides….ENOUGH!

After finding out that my textbook was going to be in its tenth edition for Fall 2016, I surveyed my class and got the statistics noted above. Wanting to alleviate the financial burden for future students, I decided to write a textbook that can be used by everyone (students or instructors) at UNBC or elsewhere. This open access textbook is targeted to be available in Fall 2016. It will include 20 chapters covering the principle topics and functional groups of organic molecules. It will also include end of chapter problems with solutions. I plan to write an accompanying study guide (also free) in years to come.

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Dezene Huber

Dr. Dezene Huber
Department of Biology

Early on in my time at UNBC I began to experiment with blog assignments for my various courses. Over the years I have worked to improve the way that I offer this portion of my course.

When students are asked to blog and to put their creations “out there” for the larger world, they are highly motivated to produce high quality posts on novel subjects that they approach in often unconventional and surprising ways. Many also find ways to link topics to their own lives and experience, increasing the authenticity of their writing.