Riding the Waves of Open Education

Kwantlen Polytechnic University has a world-wide reputation for being a leader in Open Education. KPU is often seen as an early adopter of new initiatives and as a place where institutional supports make work in Open Ed easier. Colleagues from around the world often come to us with questions about our programs and processes. However, like in any institution KPU’s Open Education journey has had its challenges, its ups and downs, as well as victories and celebrations. We have had to work together to come up with solutions to new problems as our programs grew, and deal with all the other normal challenges that institutions have to deal with. This lightning talk will discuss KPU’s open education journey, its successes and struggles, how the resilience of our team has helped us pull through and adapt, and provides a glimpse into our future plans. We will touch on the beginnings of Open Education at KPU, when most work was done in specific departments by faculty champions as well as in the library by passionate librarians, and eventually in an open education working group. This was followed by a period of formalization, with the creation of the position of special advisor to the provost on open education and the creation of the open education office. The library set up a more formal open publishing program, with dedicated staff. Eventually KPU created a higher administrative position for Open Education, and the hiring of open education strategists meant that work was further formalized and expanded. The work on our Zero Textbook Cost programs expanded exponentially, our Open education grants evolved and expanded in several ways, and our publishing program grew. Both challenges and opportunities arose as Open was further integrated in the wider KPU system. The AVP Open Education position ceased to exist, and the Open Education office was terminated and rolled in the Teaching and Learning Commons. This ensured that it had an integral place in the university but also gave it a smaller presence overall. We lost one of our open education strategist positions but gained more focus from the Director of Learning Technologies & Educational Development, as well as more support for administrative tasks. The library team saw several retirements, leaves, and key persons stepping away from Open Education work, positions that were not backfilled. The Open Education Working Group was disbanded and replaced by a grant adjudication committee with a narrower scope. These changes have also brought opportunities, as our resilient team sought collaborations with other groups, such as students, deans, and liaison librarians, and worked to further streamline and integrate our processes with those of the wider university. The creativity of the KPU community means that we are confident in the sustainability of Open Ed at our institutions and hopeful about its future.