Festival of Learning 2018

A central campaign of the BC Federation of Students (BCFS) advocates for the widespread implementation of OERs on campuses across the province. Students recognize the rising costs of textbooks are representative of an education system with increasing financial barriers. This presentation will include a detailed overview on the BCFS campaign, from the initial stages of identifying access to open resources as a fundamental issue for students, to its development in collaboration with students across multiple institutions. Presenters will illustrate how the campaign operates at micro-levels (tool-kits for institutions) and macro-levels (provincial lobby meetings), and will discuss the challenges and solutions to both. The session will conclude with a discussion of how students, faculty, staff, and senior administration can work better together to achieve common goals. The session would be beneficial for those interested in students’ perspectives on open educational resources, and for those wanted to learn about advocating with students and student organizations.

The BC Federation of Students represents post-secondary students at 13 institutions in every region of BC including the Kootenays, the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, and northern BC. For more than 40 years, the BCFS has advocated on a breadth of issues that are of concern to post-secondary students. Most recently, BCFS advocacy resulted in the elimination of tuition fees for adult basic education and English Language Learning, and in the reduction of interest on student loans.