Author: eschudel

Camosun Story #109: Dwayne

A recipient of a Camosun College Accessibility Recognition certificate in 2024, Dwayne is currently the Associate Dean of the School of Health Sciences and Human Services (HSHS), but his time at the college goes back about 19 years. “I was a student at Camosun in the nursing program, then went to the University of Victoria. After graduating, I worked in the Victoria area as a nurse mostly in the emergency room, then came back to Camosun in 2006 as an instructor in the nursing program. I eventually became a program leader and then the chair of the nursing program. And for the past two years, I’ve been the Associate Dean.”

After so many years, and so many roles, I asked Dwayne what keeps him coming to work. “I’ve always had an interest in education, even when working as a nurse, I enjoyed working with students completing their clinical practice. But once I began working as a nurse educator in 2006, I haven’t looked back. As my journey continued, I completed my masters, looking more at educational organization and curriculum ultimately taking it to the leadership level. While I certainly miss interacting with students, I hope that by moving into a leadership role, I can have a broader positive impact on both faculty and students.”

Dwayne spoke about how important it is that we understand our role as educators. “Whatever our role, student, faculty, leader, support person, we all have a part to play in a student’s journey, from admissions all the way to the end. What I’ve learned over the years, is that every student has their own story. While it can be easy to make assumptions about students, we need to recognize that we don’t know what their journey has been to get to the college, and we should be mindful of treating them as individuals. This is especially true today, with so many people struggling with food insecurity, high cost of rent, education, transportation, etc. Most students today have to work, they may have student loans, they may be living on their own with no support system. So as instructors, as an institution, even as we face our own challenges, we need to consider how we can assist those students. That doesn’t mean we have to decrease the rigor, but we can, for example, look at different ways of evaluating or providing more flexibility where we can.”

I asked Dwayne if he could tell me a little bit about the work he has done around accessibility. “That’s been a learning journey. Every year, there are more and more students requiring Centre for Accessible Learning (CAL) accommodations. For myself, moving into that leadership role, I am concerned as students go out into the community, or into clinical and practicum, looking at how accommodations need to travel with the students. Of course, the classroom is different from the clinical setting, and while some accommodations cannot be met outside of the classroom (depending on required essential skills), some can. It’s been a journey not only educating faculty about accommodations and our responsibilities as an institution but also working with our community partners and health authorities around their responsibilities with regards to student accommodations. This means having lots of conversations to educate and inform, but also to collaborate so that students are not having to advocate for themselves without support.” Dwayne says they have only really been taking those conversations into community for the past four or five years, and that it can sometimes be challenging for everyone to understand the duty to accommodate whenever possible. “Part of it is reminding both faculty and our stakeholders that students are not being employed, they’re being educated, and we are here to accommodate them in their educational journey. What happens after they have completed their programs is out of our control, but for the here and now, we will do what we can to accommodate students, within reason.”

I wondered if Dwayne could share an example of accommodation in a clinical setting. “We had a student who wore digital hearing aids, and they would wear a microphone to amplify sound. They could also read lips, but this was during COVID when everyone was wearing masks which meant it was challenging for this student to understand everything because they couldn’t validate what they were hearing by reading lips. So, we worked with the health authority and discussed options with the staff who were working with the student. It was decided that staff would either wear clear face masks, or they would speak directly into the student’s microphone.” Dwayne had to navigate a few privacy concerns, mainly to ensure that the microphone was not recording, but going directly to the student’s hearing aid. “We had three or four meetings with the health authority, then they met with the staff on the unit, and we worked together to work out the solution, then had to have conversations again each time the student moved to a new unit. In the end, while there was a little trepidation to begin with, we were able to accommodate the student, and she was ultimately able to graduate.”

In addition to accommodations, Dwayne has also been exploring Universal Design for Learning (UDL) strategies to support all students. “Something I’ve advocated for, as courses and assessments are redesigned, is making them accessible for everybody because not only is that helpful for a student with an accommodation, but also for students who can’t get a CAL accommodation. If you build in accessibility from the beginning, the challenge of creating accommodations in the moment is gone. One example I can think of immediately involves our exams. If exams are three hours long and a student has an accommodation for time and a half, what if we just make the exam an hour and a half? Then any students, with an accommodation or not, can stay for a full three hours. This removes any stigma a student may be feeling and doesn’t overload CAL with trying to facilitate these exams.” Then, Dwayne says, they can build on that practice as it becomes normalized. “We could then look at due dates and extensions and ask ourselves if due dates have to be firm or could there be some latitude for all students.” And as they continue to have conversations about accessibility, they can also provide new faculty with guidance and resources around UDL, “making accessibility part of our everyday language, so it’s not something else to worry about, it just becomes part of our work.”

One thing I was curious about related to the many lessons learned about accessibility during the COVID pivot. “The silver lining for me is that we’ve now learned that the traditional way of delivering content isn’t the only one, and when we all work together, we can do things differently.” Not that everything should be online, but we have the opportunity now to consider what the best delivery option might be for various courses. “It may be a hybrid course, or asynchronous, or maybe it has to be face-to-face. It could even be Hyflex, although we know this mode also creates challenges around workload and technology. And having flexible options helps our students fit their learning in around outside responsibilities.”

And related to these lessons learned, I was also interested in learning more about a new program HSHS is running soon, a bachelor’s degree in dental hygiene, that is designed to be completed online. “As we explored the audience for the program, we realized that most dental hygienists work full time, so we wanted a program they could access outside of working hours, as well as create both full time and part time options for the students. All the dental courses will be fully online, as will many of the electives, or they could take electives face to face if they chose.” And as Dwayne noted, this is a great example of how we can provide flexible educational opportunities for a diverse population of students.

This program especially interested me as a potential model for future new program development in HSHS. “As many of our programs go through program review and renewal, we need to examine if the courses could be designed to be more flexible, whether through a blended delivery, or moving it completely online. We want to encourage that exploration wherever possible, but ensuring we choose the most appropriate delivery method for the particular content or course.” And I also wondered about port-time options. Because of life’s complexities “more and more students may be looking for part-time pathways, so we need to build those in from the beginning as we look at course design, and pre- co-requisites, as opposed to trying to adapt everything after designing it for full-time.” But Dwayne notes that we also need to consider our institutional financial responsibilities. “If we create part time options, we have to be able to operationalize it as well.”

Turning back to his experiences, I asked Dwayne, after all these years, how he keeps his work interesting and fresh. “Part of my master’s work was looking at organizational change, organizational culture, so part of keeping it interesting is looking at our systems and how we might improve them. That doesn’t mean that we have to do anything differently – change for the sake of change is not necessarily a good thing. I’ve also learned that change can be tiring. Sometimes we need to stick to the status quo for a period of time, because people need time to breathe and get grounded again before we can move on. It can be a delicate balance when we have a lot of people who are very enthusiastic to make change, but maybe not everyone is as enthusiastic. So, we try to work with everyone around what can be done, and what can’t be done, and while I never want to stop change, sometimes we have to prioritize which can be challenging because everyone’s feels their passions are priorities.”

I asked if Dwayne could share any specific memories that have stuck with him over his years at Camosun. “There are students that I taught years ago who are teaching with us, and I hope that maybe I played a small role in them coming back. And sometimes new people coming on board comment that I was a role model to them as an educator. Those moments provide some validation. I try to do a good job and I try to be a mentor, but I make mistakes. I have my good days, and my bad days, but overall, I try to keep things moving in a positive way.”

As we came to the end of our conversation, I asked Dwayne what advice he might have for a new instructor coming to teach at the college. “I’d say that it can be very overwhelming when you first start teaching, when you have to learn the technology and the language of the college. And if you haven’t taught before, it can be a very steep learning curve, so try not to do everything at once. Also, know that we’re here to support you, and will try not to overwhelm you with too much information at once. In addition, think back to when you were a student. What worked for you? Who was your favorite instructor? Who did you learn from? And then apply those examples to your own teaching. And finally, remember whether you have eight students or 40 students, each one of them has a different story.”

Camosun Story #108: Katie

Katie, a recipient of an Open Education/ZTC Recognition award,  a Teacher Recognition award, and the Arts and Science Award for Teaching (2023,) has been teaching Anthropology at Camosun for almost 10 years, She is also chair of the Social Sciences Department which consists of the following programs: Anthropology, Geography, Gender Sexuality and Women’s Studies, Political Science, Sociology, and Social Work. When she told me she is a forensic anthropologist by training, I was intrigued. “I think forensic anthropology is about discovering people’s stories and returning them home to their loved ones. Specifically, my PhD research examined the effects of fire on bones and explored how we can tell a person’s story from burned skeletal material.” Katie said that she (like many of us) had read forensic anthropology mystery books like those of Kathy Reichs prior to entering the field, but she says her focus today is different from where she started. “I used to think it was cool to look at a bone and figure out what happened to the person. But now I think about who that person was – about their social identity, their humanity, their personhood. I recently developed a class called The Science of Identity where we talk about biological identity (our DNA, our fingerprints, our skeleton) and our social identity. When we’re trying to do an identification, we’re collecting a lot of data on the biological identity, but the point is to find out who that person is as a human, and who they’re connected to. Biological data can tell us what a person ate when they were four, but it doesn’t tell us who that person is.”

Katie, like many faculty members I have talked to, stumbled into teaching. “During my PhD studies, I thought I should teach a bit. But when I started teaching, I hated it. While teaching was terrifying, I knew that if I kept teaching, I would get better at it and would enjoy it.” Over time and with practice, Katie gained confidence in her teaching and is currently working on the Provincial Instructor Diploma Program (PIDP). “In the PIPD, I am collaborating with colleagues who don’t have as much teaching experience as I do and I wonder, when did that happen?”

I wondered what Katie likes most about teaching. “Every semester I meet a new group of students with a new set of needs, a new set of challenges, and a new way of doing things, and I feel like I know nothing again. But from my ten years of experience, I know that you’re always going to feel like you don’t know what you’re doing.” But the students are only part of the fun. “I have the joyful, amazing privilege of working with two of the best people in the college in terms of their personhood, their culture, their community, their support: Nicole and Tara in Anthropology. They are the best primates (or, as we three together are sometimes known, trimates) for creating a team where we can lean on each other strengths, push each other, and share ideas and resources with each other.”

Katie and her Anthropology colleagues support each other to teach both in-person and online courses. With regards to teaching asynchronous, Katie feels she has grown a lot as an online instructor but is always trying to improve that skill set. “Right now, I’m rewriting most of my online class because while it worked last year, this year it’s not working as well with a different group of students who have different expectations.” And she will share what she learns with her colleagues, just as they share with her what they are doing in their classes. “Nicole does more applied stuff in her class, so I can piggyback on her ideas when I need to do applied stuff, and when she takes on the online class for me while I’m chair, she will take what I’ve been doing and build that into her own material. Nicole can turn something into an applied in class activity by blinking at it, while Tara can explain those complex cultural connections and nuances in ways I hadn’t thought of. But once I learn how she does it, then I can too.”

Speaking of being the chair, I wondered how Katie envisioned that role for herself and her colleagues. “For me, it’s about trying to create a community – a space of openness and sharing – which cannot be done by one person but needs to be set up and established as a culture of connection and engagement. I can try to model that behavior as an individual, but unless it’s mirrored by others in the group, it’s not going anywhere. It’s difficult because each program in the Social Sciences department has its own culture, expectations, personalities, routines, and ways of doing things, and it’s very difficult to break out of those. I can only lead and be a chair in the way that I naturally am.” But part of the job of a chair leading such a diverse group is to “learn how each of their disciplines work, as well as how they make decisions, coordinate, and work, and ask what they need from me to support them. And finally, to create space for them to come together, especially for my colleagues who are a discipline of one.”

Turning back to her teaching, I recalled that during a recent Teaching and Learning Community of Practice session, Katie brought up the challenges of creating a culture of academic integrity particularly in online classrooms, and I was curious about her thoughts on this. “In my PIDP courses I explored this idea, but I don’t know what that answer is. One suggestion I came across was to address an incident of academic integrity with the whole class, not just with an individual, especially in an asynchronous online space, so you can address it as a group. But the biggest challenge with online is building relationships and community where you can have conversations like this.” Katie understands this challenge, not just as an online instructor, but also as an online student in the PIDP program. “The PIDP class I’m taking right now is about cooperation and collaboration in a college classroom and about building relationships: student to student, peer to peer relationships, student to instructor which I think is the biggest challenge with online. Many of the conversations we have in this class revolve around building long-term relationships and investments in working together. But what if building those relationships and collaborations becomes a hoop people have to jump through? For example, my current PIDP class partner works, has kids, and is taking this class because it’s the last one they need to take before their capstone. Life is busy, and even when one is committed to their learning, it’s still difficult to do collaborative work.”

Considering options of bringing the best of online and in-person together, I asked Katie if her department, Social Sciences, was exploring offering blended courses. “We are increasing the number of blended offerings in social science. At first, it was only geography courses, but then I ran a blended course myself last year and we have more instructors interesting in trying blended. We do have to figure out how to communicate to students, though, to ensure they know they’re signing up for a blended course. I’m excited for blended because it provides a good mix of giving students less scheduled time in class, while focusing on relationship building and the working with each other during that class time. In my blended class, the students talked to each other way more than I’ve ever seen before, starting the labs talking about the readings and asking each other questions, and engaging in peer-to peer-teaching in the online space – but they needed the physical scheduled in-person space to make that happen.”

We then moved the conversation to some of the ways Katie has been supporting students, namely the use of H5P and running Zero Textbook Cost courses. “I just created my 100th H5P object to support student engagement in my asynchronous classes. I know from a pedagogical perspective, it’s good to include something active for students to do, even if not everyone completes them. H5P activities also provide different ways to access and apply information. In my in-person classes we do a lot of think-pair-share and other activities, and H5P turns those activities into interactives for students in the online space.” In addition to creating H5P objects, Katie has worked to move her courses to Zero Textbook Cost (as have her Anthropology colleagues.) “There are a number of different reasons we’ve done this work. One is that, especially in biological anthropology, the content changes all the time as new discoveries are made, so textbooks become out of date very quickly. Also, I have a lot of students in my 200-level class who are not going to carry on in biological anthropology – it’s an elective that looks interesting to them. And I don’t want to burden them with additional cost for a textbook that won’t be a part of their continued education.” Luckily for Katie there was an open textbook that worked for her course. “The nice thing about an open textbook is that I can pick and choose the parts I want to cover and the students can pick and choose how they interact with it, because you can listen to it, you can move it on the screen, or you can download the PDF.” And in the Anth 104 course, they have gotten rid of the textbook entirely “partly because we weren’t consistently requiring students to read it and partly because it’s hard to learn from a textbook because it can be dull and bland and does not represent the voices of the instructors of the course. So, instead, Tara and Nicole have started building content in D2L web pages, adapting material from the online course, and adding a glossary and key terms.”

I wondered if Katie had any memories from her years of teaching to share. “Honestly, the richest learning for me is where I am learning with them, we’re collaborating, and we’re figuring something out together. One example is in the labs where you’re problem-solving alongside students, figuring out the answers based on the facts we know.” Another memory Katie had involved community engagement with middle school students. “A few years ago, my evolution of diversity students built evolution activities for students from Lansdowne Middle School who came up to the college to engage in the activities and ask our students questions. It was so awesome to see the Camosun students’ confidence grow in the role of experts.” And the most recent example Katie discussed was working on the Camosun Bear with Nicole where “Nicole and I shared our experience, asking questions of each other, learning alongside the students.”

Once Katie had mentioned The Camosun Bear, I had to hear more. “It’s really Nicole’s bear and Nicole’s story, and I had the wonderful opportunity to jump in. Nicole was gifted a bear carcass, by an Indigenous colleague in 2021. Nicole worked with Facilities to dig a hole on campus and bury the remains. Then we forgot about it until one year, students did an archaeological survey to try to find where it had been buried. Then last year, using archaeological principles, Nicole’s archaeology students went through the process of excavating the bear skeleton. During the excavation, the Camosun preschoolers came to visit the bear as did Indigenous Studies (IST) cohort students. Sandee Mitchell sang the bear awakening song and the IST students taught us many of the protocols for how we should care for the bear during the excavation process. And then my forensic students cleaned and labeled the skeleton. And now the Camosun bear is part of our teaching collection.” And in addition, Nicole made a video of this whole community-engaged learning experience which is available at Unearthing the Camosun College bear, along with a more extensive story about the project.

My final question for Katie, after so many fascinating and exciting insights into her time as a faculty member at Camosun, was around advice she has for new colleagues. “You’ve got to teach your way. Your colleagues may inspire you, but nothing is more effective than you teaching with your authentic voice. You can steal ideas – I’m great at stealing ideas from other people – but trust your gut. The best teaching in your classroom will always be your own.”

Camosun Story #107: Tom

“Tom exhibited excellence in his approach from the very first day of class, where he explained that his most important value is kindness. He followed through with his promise of kindness each time we saw him, providing relevant examples of effective communication, and encouraging us to care about clear communication. He selected diverse material, for a very mixed-demographic class. Tom was extremely clear in his delivery, varying lessons to meet the needs of both ESL students and students who spoke native English, without resulting in one group or the other being “left out”. He created many opportunities for practice of during class and was entirely non-judgemental with feedback. I’ve spoken to many students who’ve taken Tom’s class, and each one has recounted similar opinions.”

Tom, a 2025 recipient of a Teacher Recognition award, has been a faculty member in the English department for seven years. He taught English at Lambton College in Ontario before moving to Victoria to complete his master’s degree in contemporary American literature, after which he came to Camosun, first as a tutor in the English Help Centre. Then he says, “an opportunity came up to fill-in for a sick colleague, after which I slowly ingrained myself into the department. I’ve now been full-time for about three years teaching mostly English 151 classes,” adding that while he teaches mostly composition classes, he also enjoys teaching technical writing.

I wondered what Tom enjoyed most about teaching. “I was raised in a family of teachers and never wanted to become one myself. But then, I started working for the Learning Disabilities Program at York University, teaching people how to use technology, and realized that I had become a teacher. What I like best about teaching are the interactions and getting to know the students. Connection with students is central to my teaching philosophy. Obviously, we’re here to deliver knowledge and help people build skills, but I also try to build kindness into the classroom. I want these people who are with me for 14 weeks to look back fondly on the experience, and I want them to be able to take a deep breath and relax when they come into the classroom.” Tom says those interactions are what keeps him coming back even when he is tired. But he also recognizes that the communication skills he teaches go beyond the classroom or a student’s program and are “skills that will make their lives better overall.”

Knowing that English 151 brings in a wide diversity of students I asked Tom who those students are. “It depends on the course, but for the most part, I have a mix of students. Some are just about to turn 18 or experiencing their first time away from home. Some are mature students coming back for a specific program. I teach engineering students, business students, criminology students – it’s all over the map, which is one of the invigorating challenges we have at Camosun.” But, while diversity in the classroom can be challenging, it also brings opportunity, especially in courses that teach communication skills. “Students learn that while other people don’t think the same way, we need to find ways to communicate with each other. One thing we talk about in my classes is how we need to rethink ‘argument.’ Argument is not just combative but can be a sharing of different ideas with the purpose of coming together to change how we think. And even if we experience complex emotions when someone thinks differently from us, we can learn to stop, think, and then engage productively with that argument, which is a skill that’s particularly important as we try to navigate everything happening in the world today.”

While Tom does not integrate formal debates in the classroom, he does have students engage with other perspectives, usually in a light way. “For example, early on, I have them debate whether a hot dog is a sandwich, because people have very specific views on this silly little thing. Other times, a topic will arise and I think it would be fruitful to discuss, or we have a reading that lends itself to class conversation. And part of my job is to be there in the room to make sure everyone’s feeling safe.”

I asked Tom if he teaches in-person or online. “I prefer being in person because I like being in the classroom with the students. In my opinion, there’s no substitute for that in-person interactive, iterative learning process.” At the same time, Tom is curious about blended (a blend of in-person and online) teaching. “I have no experience with it, but it seems like an intriguing way to maximize the benefit of both modes. Especially for English, where there are times when you have to sit with a new idea for awhile before you really understand it.”

Tom recently was also a recipient of a 2025 Open Education/ZTC Recognition award, so I turned our conversation to the open textbook Tom created for his English 151 course. “During my Scheduled Development (SD) time, I developed a supplementary grammar text for use in all of my courses, although so far, I’ve only used it in English 151. I can only discuss a certain amount of grammar in class, and I wanted a resource students could use to fill in gaps without it costing $130.” Tom set up an account on the BCcampus Pressbooks site, so he had a place to build his textbook. “I found the process of creating a Pressbook easier than I thought it would be – there are a couple of guides I found useful, but the interface is pretty intuitive. What I’ve done is create an online grammar textbook divided into 13 chapters containing a combination of my own write-ups, and I’ve used H5P to create different types of grammar questions – multiple choice, matching, clickable graphics, etc. This way, I can keep the explanations short and encourage students to engage in the material. And it’s free for them.” Tom is hoping to carve out more SD time to expand on his textbook. “I’d like to add a module on rhetoric and to find a way to integrate the social annotation tool, Hypothes.is, because rhetoric is a concept that I find some people understand quickly, where others need a more support.”

In addition to creating an open textbook, Tom also runs Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) courses. “All of my course readings are either available publicly online (set up as a link in D2L) or are fair use documents I distribute in class. I don’t have a course pack anymore. I do, however, have to be careful to ensure that none of the online documents are behind paywalls. And I’m constantly finding new sources to work with.”

I wondered what students think about not having to purchase course materials in Tom’s classes. “When I let them know that there are no textbook costs, they like it. Students were never happy having to buy a giant textbook. I still use excerpts from traditional textbooks, but now there’s no pressure on me to make sure I use every single part of the textbook, even in places where it doesn’t make sense. In addition, if I am on the fence about a reading, I can change it and students haven’t sunk a whole bunch of cost into something that doesn’t work, so it’s a win-win.”

In addition to the cost benefits for students, Tom feels that creating his own textbook holds huge advantages for him. “Using Pressbooks allows me to tinker, and I’m an absolute tinkerer. I feel like I have a bit more professional agency because I am fully in control of the material. I can link chapters into D2L, I can hide chapters students don’t need to read, I can move things around. It gives me a lot of flexibility and I don’t see any downside, aside from the labour set it up initially. And now I don’t have to worry about creating course packs and meeting those deadlines. And finally, I can write in the level of language that you think will work best for students or for how I will be exploring the topics.”

Moving back to teaching, I asked if Tom could share any memories from all the classroom experiences he has had over the years. “The things that stand out to me are the trajectories of students. I was in an airport looking at a stranger who gave me this guarded look, and I thought, that’s the look I get on the first day of class from new students. But over time you discover all these things about them and by the end of the term, I find myself genuinely feeling sad that I’m saying goodbye to these people I’ve known for 14 weeks. In the end, I think I think they learn better, and I teach better, when we have a connection.” And getting to know new students every term keeps Tom’s teaching interesting. “Every term I meet new people with different stories to share. We’re working on the same skills every term, but we’re doing it in different ways which is invigorating.”

As our time together was nearing an end, I asked Tom what advice he had for new faculty members coming to teach at Camosun. “Reach out to the people on your team – being bashful doesn’t help anyone. I actually didn’t have to do a lot of reaching out because people reached out to me. I’ve got great colleagues. Also, go slow in the classroom and take your time. It can all seem very fast paced and high stress the first time you teach something, and you probably won’t do as good a job on your first time through a course as your tenth. Give yourself a break and remember that you’re there for a reason.” And as for more practical advice, similar to the advice Tom gives students preparing for oral presentations, is to rehearse. “A week or a few days before the start of the term, I go into all of my classrooms to get a sense of the space. I’ll stand up at the front and imagine what it would be like to speak to the people here so that the first day of class I already know that the computer’s at an awkward desk, that I have to pull the mouse cord out, so I’m not having to fiddle in front of the class. For a first day’s piece of advice, that’s definitely it.”

Zero Textbook Cost Courses at Camosun Story #7: Communications

For this seventh story of Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) courses at Camosun, I am showcasing Communication department programs.

The Communication department offers two programs: Digital Production, Writing, and Design (DPWD), and Comics & Graphic Novels (COGR). Each of these programs offers courses that are ZTC, and in fact 19 of 22 courses offered by Communications are ZTC, with readings and resources typically available online or through D2L.

According to the main Communications website, “Communication studies provide a fundamental understanding of why we communicate and how to understand each other. This is vital in any situation, from interpersonal relationships in a variety of settings (social, family, academic, and the workplace), to understanding intercultural communication and persuasive messaging.” In addition to the two programs, students can also take individual courses for university transfer or as electives for other Camosun programs.

And now, here the ZTC courses in Communications:
Digital Production, Writing, and Design Certificate: “In the Digital Production, Writing and Design program students use digital media tools to create products to be used in a variety of ways, such as advertising and marketing materials and to tell stories using media tools.”

  • CMNS 105: Communication and Technology
  • CMNS 160: Digital Journalism
  • CMNS 165: Persuasive Writing for the Web
  • DIME 115: Digital Production 1
  • DIME 116: Digital Production 2
  • DIME 125: Graphic Communication 1
  • DIME 126: Graphic Communication 2
  • DIME 145: Applied Digital Photography

Comic & Graphic Novels Certificate: “The Comic & Graphic Novels program teaches visual storytelling, a language composed of interconnected words and pictures. With the broad and diverse skill-set students will acquire, they can create comic books, graphic novels, webcomics, and comic strips in any genre, as well as storyboards for gaming, film, video, and animation!”

  • CMNS 120: Culture of Visual Storytelling
  • CNMS 140: Wordcraft for Visual Stories
  • VIST 110: Storytelling Layout
  • VIST 111: Character Design
  • VIST 122: Structural Drawing 1
  • VIST 123: Perspective Drasing
  • VIST 125: Structural Drawing 2
  • VIST 130: Technique 1: Traditional Tools
  • VIST 131: Technique 2: Digital Tools
  • VIST 151: Comics Publishing & Promotion

Additional ZTC course in Communications:

  • CMNS 150: Introduction to Digital Media

I want to thank Lois Fernyhough, chair of the Communications department, and all the faculty in her area for taking the time to provide me with this information.

Zero Textbook Cost Courses at Camosun Story #6: Economics

For this sixth story of Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) at Camosun, I am showcasing the Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) courses in the Economics, Quantitative Methods, and University Transfer Business department.

In addition to offering service courses taken by students from across the college, this department runs an Associate of Arts Degree in Economics, which has a Co-operative education option. According to the website, “this two-year, 20-course program gives students a head start in economics, statistics, science and English, as well as a choice of electives. Graduates can choose to continue your studies, or you could find employment in academia, in a bank, within government, business, international development or research organizations.”

Several courses offered by the Economics, Quantitative Methods, and University Transfer Business department are Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) with some of them using open textbooks.

  • ECON 103: Principles of Microeconomics (three sections using open textbooks)
  • ECON 104: Principles of Macroeconomics (two sections using open textbooks)
  • ECON 315: The Economics of Sport (no assigned textbook – course materials available in D2L)
  • BUS 230: Business Statistics (three sections using open textbooks)
  • BUS 231: Quantitative Methods (optional textbook only)

Some of the additional required and elective courses for the degree program also have ZTC sections, for example:

  • MATH 108: Applied Calculus
  • STAT 218: Introduction to Probability and Statistics
  • ENGL 151: Academic Writing Strategies
  • ENGL 161: Literary Genres

And finally, here is a list of the open textbooks being used by faculty in the Economics, Quantitative Methods, and University Transfer Business department.

ECON 103

ECON 104

BUS 230

I want to thank Ocean Lu, chair of the Economics, Quantitative Methods, and University Transfer Business department, and all the faculty in her area for taking the time to provide me with this information.

Camosun Story #106: Matt

Matt began teaching at Camosun in 2014 after completing a master’s degree in economics and working for a start-up company doing data analysis for mobile advertising. These days he teaches primarily statistics and economics courses in the Economics, Quantitative Methods and University Transfer Business department.

After over 10 years of being here, I wondered what Matt enjoyed most about the teaching experience. He told me that one reason teaching appealed to him was that it is not a nine-to-five, isolated at your desk job, but he says “[e]ven when was young, I enjoyed teaching my younger brother how to write the alphabet, testing him, and then grading his work. And looking back at my life, I can see all these small moments that have contributed to why I’m here and why I enjoy being here. I also think it’s the joy of interacting with different kinds of people I wouldn’t normally interact with. In this job, I get to learn about students’ experiences in their own lives which is something I look forward to every semester. Even though the content I teach rarely changes, the students make it fresh and unique every single semester.”

Because I had heard accolades from other faculty members about how he supports his students, I asked Matt what that support looks like in his classrooms. “I don’t think I do anything differently from other instructors.” But Matt notes that it has not been that long ago since he was a student, so he wonders if its “the similarity in our ages that brings a sense of trust, where they feel supported right away. I tell them I am not trying to trick them, and if they follow along with the process, they should do just fine – but I’m always there to support them.”

Because many of the students Matt teaches are taking his courses as transfer electives, I wondered how he worked with those students who may have a fear of mathematics and numbers. “I often hear from students who have pushed one of my courses to the end of their program because of their fear of numbers. I like to think I support students over that barrier by using examples that relate to their day-to-day lives, for example, examples related to Tik Tok, Instagram, Spotify, etc. If they find something they can relate to, I think that often helps a lot of the students get over their fear of numbers.” In addition, Matt has heard that his teaching approach, to “go through things slowly and intentionally, and address particular exercises several times to ensure every single student in the class has that same foundation before moving into more involved complicated material, works very, very well, especially in that introductory course.”

I asked Matt if he could provide a specific example he has used in class. “One previous exam question was related to Taylor Swift and ticket prices, asking students to discuss what percentage of people will pay X dollars compared to Y dollars, for example. A lot of students understand expensive Taylor Swift concert tickets, so when I ask them to link that concept to statistical concepts, it becomes less theoretical.” Matt says he provides examples like this in most of the exercises in his statistics course. “And in my sports economics course, most of my exercises are relevant to North American sports, for example, basketball, football, hockey, baseball, soccer, because most of the students taking that course are aware of teams like the Los Angeles Lakers or the Vancouver Canucks when I bring them into the discussion. I think that can get them over those initial barriers, by finding ways to relate economics back to sports. That’s how I try to make things as relevant as possible.”

Many other instructors have noted that their experiences during COVID taught them lessons about how to be more flexible in their teaching, and I wondered if the same held true for Matt. “I think I am now more accommodating and flexible with examinations and how I grade, trying to recognize that there is more to the student than being successful in my class. I understand that many of them take other courses, work part-time or full-time jobs, so I give them a lot of time to complete specific tasks in the course. For example, instead of quizzing students at the end of each week, topic by topic, I often give them several weeks, maybe even a month, to complete several of these quizzes, giving them an opportunity to complete them at their own pace. Many students work through them when they have extra time, but they don’t feel pressured to submit something they may not have put their best effort into because it’s due at the end of the week.” Since COVID Matt has also been providing all his students, including those in his in-person courses, with course materials in D2L. “Essentially, many students can now choose how they complete my course. Even if they sign up for the face-to-face version, I still make available to them recorded lectures that are near identical to the experience they would get in class. Some students do rely solely on these recorded lectures, but the majority find that the face-to-face experience is still superior to the recorded version of it. I try to provide them with as much content as possible, and it’s up to them how and when they reference it.”

Matt told me a bit about the students he has had over the years. “When I started teaching, many of the courses were an even a mix of domestic and international students. But for few years after COVID, almost all of the students in my courses were international students. But now I am seeing more domestic students again.” But, given that he teaches primarily service courses that lead into courses required by various programs, Matt doesn’t see many of his students again. “After they take my class, I may see them strolling around in the hallway, getting to their other classes. But there’s handful of students I run into downtown, or who connect with me through LinkedIn to tell me that they’ve found a new job or something like that. That’s kind nice that they keep in touch.”

I asked Matt how, after 10 years, he keeps his teaching fresh. “I always change up the examples I present in class to make them as relevant as possible. Last semester, Moo Deng the hippo was popular, so I used her in one of my examples. In my economics of sports course, I always have to update the material if there are changes in team venues, team names, coaches, etc.” In the course he teaches to sport management students, he has them research their favourite teams for their term project which gives the students agency but also means variety for Matt as well. “A lot of the students have found that project to be interesting, because they take the theory they’ve been taught and apply it to a team they are interested in. Most of the time, students choose teams like the Vancouver Canucks, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Dallas Cowboys. But I also see students (often international students) choosing European soccer teams like Barcelona, and Real Madrid, which they find more relevant to their interests, and some other students explore golf, cricket, volleyball, or even Formula 1 Racing.”

Finally, I asked Matt what advice he might have for new instructors starting out at Camosun. “I would say be flexible, be accommodating, and don’t assume that how you’re delivering the material is the best for all for all your students. Every single semester, every single year, I look back and reflect to see what I can do better – there are always ways to improve.”

Zero Textbook Cost Courses at Camosun Story #5: Civil Engineering

For this fifth story of Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) at Camosun, I am showcasing the Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) courses for the Civil Engineering programs.

The Civil Engineering department offers three programs: Civil Engineering Access (Certificate), Civil Engineering Technology (Diploma), and Civil Engineering Bridge to UBC or UVic. I am especially excited to see so many ZTC courses in these programs considering that one of the important aspects of Civil Engineering is sustainability.

The Access Certificate was designed to prepare students for the Civil Engineering Technology Diploma program. In this program, students take upgrading math, physics, and English courses, learning skills courses, as well as courses in technical drawing, graphics, and computing. Note that some upgrading math, physics, and English courses are ZTC depending on the instructor.

The Bridge programs “are unique and recognized across Canada as an excellent transition from a technology diploma to an Engineering degree (UVic) or Applied Science degree (UBC). Students study advanced topics that aren’t typically found in technology programs.”

And finally, Civil Engineering Technology, where students learn to “plan, design, and maintain structures and public works, while respecting and responding to the natural environment. For example, Civil engineering technologists assist engineers in protecting human lives at the most basic level: water that doesn’t carry disease, seismic upgrading, ensuring homes don’t flood, and building roads that are safe to drive on.”
Here are the courses in Civil Engineering that are Zero Textbook Cost.

  • CIVE131: Graphical Communication 1
  • CIVE132: Graphical Communication 2
  • CIVE141: Surveying 1
  • CIVE142: Surveying 2
  • CIVE152: Transportation Engineering
  • CIVE181: Civil Sustainability Project
  • CIVE210: Sustainability in Civil Engineering
  • CIVE251: Asset Management
  • CIVE255: Municipal Design
  • CIVE261: Soils and Materials 1
  • CIVE262: Soils and Materials 2
  • CIVE276: Hydrology
  • CIVE278: Water and Waste Management
  • CIVE282: Managing Construction Projects
  • CIVE289: Civil Capstone Project
  • ENGR166: Geology for Engineers

I want to thank Robin Ley, chair of the Civil Engineering department, and all the faculty in her area for taking the time to provide me with this information.

Zero Texbook Cost Courses at Camosun Story #4: Athletic & Exercise Therapy Bachelor’s Degree Program

For this fourth story of Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) at Camosun, I am showcasing the Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) courses for the four-year Athletic & Exercise Therapy Bachelor’s Degree program.

The Bachelor of Athletic and Exercise Therapy (BAET) is a comprehensive applied degree program focused on preventing, assessing, treating, and managing orthopaedic injuries and health related conditions. The BAET program equips students with advanced knowledge and skills in athletic and exercise therapy, exercise science, and high-performance sport, ensuring graduates are ready to contribute to the field of health and wellness in a variety of settings.  In this applied program, students will integrate theoretical knowledge and hands-on skills through classroom and laboratory activities in conjunction with practical development opportunities in various clinical and field settings.  Students apply foundational knowledge to the assessment and treatment of a variety of musculoskeletal conditions and injuries. Using evidence-informed decisions students design and implement conditioning and rehabilitation programs to aid individuals in their return to sport, work, and activities of daily living. Students learn to educate and counsel clients on physical, psychological, and emotional well-being, promoting a holistic approach to health and wellness. Applied learning of sports-related emergency care, physical fitness assessment and optimization, and business acumen, prepares graduates to operate a successful practice and work with a diverse population.  The BAET program is accredited by the Canadian Athletic Therapists Association (CATA). Graduates must successfully complete the CATA National Certification Examination to be eligible for designation as a Certified Athletic Therapist.

ZTC for the Bachelor of Athletic and Exercise Therapy means that the courses either provide all course materials for no cost, have recommended textbooks only, or use textbooks already purchased for another required course. With that in mind, the courses in this program which are currently ZTC are:

  • AET201: Placement 1
  • AET202: Placement 2
  • AET261: Emergency Conditions 2
  • AET273: Field Prevention/Injury Care 2
  • AET301: Placement 3
  • AET302: Placement 4
  • AET320: Human Motor Control
  • AET341: Anatomy of the Upper Extremity
  • AET401: Placement 5
  • AET402: Placement 6
  • AET411: Independent Research Project
  • AET420: Business Management for Therapists
  • AET430: Concepts of Manual Therapy
  • AET440: Anatomy of the Spine
  • AET450: Ergonomics
  • AET470: Pharmacology and Exercise
  • AET481: Clinical 3 Spine

In addition, some of the other required courses for this program (for example, students also have to take English 151, Kinesiology 135, 210, 240, Health 110, and a few other non-AET courses), may also be ZTC, depending on who is teaching those courses.

I want to thank Isabel Grondin, chair of the Athletic and Exercise Therapy department, and all the faculty in her area for taking the time to provide me with this information.

Textbooks and Tariffs: A case for Open Educational Resources and going Zero Textbook Cost – Accept the Challenge!!

If there was ever a time to invest in adopting/adapting Open Educational Resources (OER) and going Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC), it is now. According to Mélanie Brunet in the University of Ottawa Library OER Program Evaluation Report, “It is estimated that textbooks prices in North America have increased by 150% since January 2000, and several surveys report that more than 50% of students do not purchase required textbooks during their studies due to cost (Florida Virtual Campus, 2022; Inclusive Access & SPARC, 2022; Stephens et al., 2024; Versluis et al., 2017; Vitez & Nagle, 2021). They find other ways to access course materials, sometimes dubiously or even illegally, or they go without altogether, risking their academic success.” And now, the increased threat of tariffs between Canada and the United States is creating fear that the price of books, including textbooks, will continue to rise dramatically, making higher education even less affordable for our students.

I discussed this issue with a group of Open Education supporters during a recent BC Open Education Community meeting, and here is what some of our colleagues at other BC and Canadian post-secondary institutions had to say:

From Columbia College: “Just last week I presented a department with the new price of their main textbook with the tariffs included. There’s a new edition of their textbook coming out this summer, so there are no used copies for students to purchase. That department is now planning to spend the summer working as a group on creating course packs and homework banks to make sure students actually have access to their learning materials. It was really a shock for them to hear how much more it would cost, and they are clear that students just will forgo having that book. The book is Successful College Writing, with the 9th edition coming out for the fall semester, and the list price is $147.99 CAD. We get a discount which works out to almost the same as our freight cost, so we are calculating the 25% on the list price and letting the freight and discount cancel each other out. That comes to $184.98. It has been our practice to add 10-15% to help cover overhead, effectively splitting our discount with our students, which would be $203-212.”

From Vancouver Community College: “Most commercial textbooks are printed in the U.S., which is a major problem for affordability due to the tariffs on goods imported into Canada from the U.S. This will increase the cost of textbooks for students, worsening the unaffordability crisis. I was asked to speak to institutional leadership about textbook affordability and the advantages of OER.”

From Vancouver Island University: “We are planning to host a panel discussion in May with the bookstore and Copyright & Open Licensing Librarian to talk about the opportunities for adopting OER in face of the tariffs.”

From Sask Polytechnic: “Our first-year business programs are converting to OER, due to strategic targeting [right time with tariffs looming.] We approached the business department at the right time with the right elevator pitch and got them to buy in.”

From me: “Remember that the cost of virtually everything (including food, rent, other course-related supplies) will be going up due to tariffs, not just the cost of textbooks. Because students will struggle even more with affordability than usual, they will need OER more than ever!”

And here is a formal statement from the University of Northern BC: “As you may know, the Government of Canada has issued a Notice of Intent to Impose Countermeasures in Response to US Tariffs on Canadian Goods. The 25% retaliatory tariff will take effect April 2nd, 2025, and this will include print books/textbooks. Unfortunately, even Canadian material is often printed and distributed by the US. The tariff will not only impact the UNBC Library’s print book collection but will also increase the cost of textbooks for students. To help our students with these increased costs to their education, we recommend that faculty consider utilizing open educational resources, open textbooks, and/or to work with the UNBC Library to obtain electronic copies (if available). The CTLT and Library can help you navigate and recommend resources for your courses that will keep costs lower for students.”

I would like to challenge faculty members and program teams to examine the price of the textbooks assigned for their courses, compare costs today with last year, and consider what would happen to those costs if 25% tariffs were applied to these books. If you assign only an e-text, that may escape the price hikes of tariffs but remember that students generally have only limited access to those books, and they are often lacking accessibility features required by many students.

Additional information about 2025 tariffs and their potential impact on the price of books

Finding Hope Circuits: A CETL Book Club Reflection

This past Winter term, the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning Book Club participants read Hope Circuits: Rewiring Universities and Other Organizations for Human Flourishing by Canadian educator, Jessica Riddell. I chose this book after it was introduced to me at a meeting of the B.C. Teaching and Learning Council last May. Aside from the word “hope” in the title (aren’t we all searching for hope these days?), I was especially intrigued because the book is grounded in a Canadian post-secondary education context. In this post I will introduce you to the book in general, then jump into some of my own thoughts coming out of the discussions our group had over four weeks. Note that I will be presenting points from the book based on my own takeaways, and the ideas I have chosen to focus on arise from the context in which we find ourselves today, both in our post-secondary institutions and on the world stage.

Riddell poses many questions in Hope Circuits, but in general asks: “How do we model abundance and generosity – in teaching, in learning, in leading organizations, particularly non-profits – when dealing with fiscal austerity and other forms of scarcity thinking?” To explore this, she has divided the book into a series of chapters related to what it might mean to conceive of and build what she calls “Hope University.”

In Chapter 1: “How do we Hope?” Riddell explores the nature of higher education and the connection of post-secondary institutions to our broader societies. She explains the concept of hope circuits, which was inspired by research into mapping electrical pathways in the brain, saying “if we can understand the logic of how an electrical system is wired, how a brain uses wiring to transmit information that shapes behaviour, and by extension how we live and work within systems that wired us in certain ways, then we can begin to illuminate where and how we might go about rewriting systems for human flourishing.” And we can ask “what does it look like if we can build hopeful systems where individuals and communities flourish?”

Not surprisingly, Riddell recognizes the many disconnects when considering institutional values (which should lead to flourishing) versus what we reward and support systemically in our institutions (which often lead to conflict and discouragement,) stating “to move past what is rotten at the system level, we must be willing to remember and unlearn.” In other words, maintaining our status quo will not lead us forward into a flourishing future, or into Hope University. To move beyond our current state, Riddell advises us to acknowledge some of the realities of our higher education systems:

  • Our systems are built on mystification and exclusion.
  • Our systems are built on precarity and insecurity.
  • Our systems are built to be siloed and hierarchical.
  • Our systems are built on conditions of austerity and scarcity.

While we like to believe we are moving away from these realities by embracing Indigenization, decolonization, equity, diversity, inclusion, Universal Design for Learning, innovation, etc., Riddell wonders if this is true when our current systems “are built on mystification and exclusion, predicated on colonization, racism, ableism, classism, and other forms of discrimination” and when “many [of our] policies no longer serve our communities, and many more never served equity-deserving and historically excluded groups.” She adds, in fact, “at many of our institutions, innovation, delight, and transformation happen despite the conditions in which we work and learn, not because of them.”

Finally, in her discussion of the concept of “hope,” and creating frameworks for it, Riddell states that for her purpose, “hope is a theoretical framework and a verb, a moment and a mindset…hope is as much a thought prompt as a call to action. It will be different for each reader.” Most of all, though, she says “hope is deliberate and intentional…[and] manifests when we intentionally perform incremental steps toward solutions we imagine. Only then can hope move from a thought experiment…to a set of actions, a mindset, and a social movement.” And most importantly, for the discussion in our book club group, hope is NOT optimism, and “in our pursuit of hope, we must also be mindful there is room for hopelessness…” The last thing we need when trying to navigate through challenges and crises is to deny that hopelessness (as well as rage and heartbreak) is an integral part of the process, rather than the opposite of hope. Then, to build hope circuits (and Hope University), Riddell tells us we need to slow down, surface our systems, practice divergent thinking, commit to learning and unlearning, live in the questions, stay with the trouble, reimagine authority and expertise, take a systems-level approach, change our language to change the world, and build intentional community.

From there, Riddell plunges us into Chapters 2 through 10 which are concerned with specific themes around what Hope University can be and how we Value, Learn, Teach, Mentor, Lead, Research, Govern, Fund, and Build it, with each chapter exploring these concepts as they exist in post-secondary institutions now, and how we need to rethink them to create something new.

Throughout the book, Riddell poses many questions based on conversations with hundreds of people in the post-secondary sector, but she provides us with no easy answers, acknowledging the presence of a certain amount of “gappiness” in her discussion. Some specific ideas that stood out to me as I read and discussed the book include:

  • The timeliness of this book and the subject of finding hope and rethinking higher education considering the current conditions Canadian post-secondary institutions are finding themselves in.
  • The idea that crisis is a feature of life and the world, not a flaw, and that we should use times of crisis to lean into creativity (and my own thought around this is that this is very difficult if you do not feel that your entire institutional community is on board with leaning into creativity.)
  • The definition of learner (humans) versus students (units) and how we are often encouraged to count/track student numbers to support our financial stability.
  • The concept of governance versus leadership and how governance exists to sustain an institution over the long-term, while leadership is temporary and based on an individual’s short-term goals and vision.
  • The puzzle of what it means to flourish, and that happiness is a moment whereas flourishing is a mindset (and for me, flourishing takes a village – it is very challenging to flourish if you feel you are alone.)
  • How in some ways we are trapped as part of a hierarchical, colonial institution which leads us to ask ourselves: can we simply renovate our systems, or do we need to demolish them and rebuild them in a new image? I wonder though, can we truly re-vision post-secondary education if we leave existing governance, support, and policy systems in place? Can we truly Indigenize and decolonize an institution without pulling apart institutional systems (it’s not just about Indigenizing your curriculum…)?

In the end, my own conclusion around the concepts Riddell discusses in Hope Circuits is rebuilding or re-visioning our institutions is challenging when people in various roles (from the faculty who support students in the classroom, to institutional leadership, to governance bodies) have different ideas of what post-secondary education should look like. And right now, we seem to be stuck between our belief that education is a fundamental human right that should be accessible to all, and needing to make money to survive (in part due to decision-making outside of our institutional control), therefore making post-secondary education inaccessible to many.

Our discussion group, on our last day together, asked ourselves what gives our work as educators meaning, and we wondered: Is the purpose of higher education to produce workers or to support students to grow as human beings? But whatever our purpose, in order to realize it we need to take a systemic approach – it’s not about us as individuals, or even as an individual institution – we are part of a much larger network. But for the moment, what we can do is to discover what creates meaning for ourselves, to see students as learners, not beans to be counted, and to lean into what we do well and support each other to do better.

If you are considering joining the next faculty book club, please see CETL’s Calendar of Upcoming Events.

(Interview with Jessica Riddell)