My name is Kim Carter, and I am in a newly created position of Open Educational Resource Consultant at Conestoga College ITAL. Leading OER development, creating ongoing processes and resources to grow and guide OER creation, and overseeing the Open Learning team in Library and Learning Services. I am so lucky to find purposeful work allowing me to pursue a passion for expanding Open Educational Practices at my institution. I am a first-generation learner from a working-class family and relate to some of the barriers that prevent people from pursuing higher education. I returned to school as an older adult, completed a B.Ed. in Adult Education, M.A. in Leadership, and began my teaching career. My teaching has always been influenced by education leaders such as bell hooks and Stephen Brookfield. Still, it wasn’t until I completed the eCampus Ontario Extend Empowered Educator program that I found Open Education an alignment with my values and passion worth pursuing.
In August 2020, I led and worked with a wonderful team of cross-institutional collaborators (including learners) to publish an Open Education Resource (OER) Building a Medical Terminology Foundation. What a wonderful collaboration it was and timely as the resource and many of the accompanying H5P interactives were so helpful for students in remote learning. This was such a wonderful experience that we did it again in 2021. Published in Feb. 2022 with the help of the Ontario Government’s VLS funding are Therapeutic Communications for Health Care Administrators digital text and Therapeutic Communication for Health Care Administrators Game Simulations.
I started a blog when I participated in eCampus Ontario Extend mOOC. Read those reflections here. I took a bit of a hiatus, but I was back blogging again as I participated in the Professional Program in Open Education at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. What an excellent program and I hope you enjoy reading my journey.
