BCIT is an OpenETC member
On May 26th, 2022, the Educational Technology and Learning Design Committee (ETLDC, part of Education Council) voted to endorse use of the OpenETC for open education purposes.
Welcome to OpenETC
The OpenETC is a community of educators, technologists, and designers sharing their expertise to foster and support open infrastructure for the BC post-secondary sector. Its services are hosted by BCNET in British Columbia and funded by BCcampus. Most post-secondary institutions in BC are members.
A shared approach
The OpenETC’s main tools (Mattermost and WordPress) are in place to complement existing BCIT infrastructure, not replace it. They represent open options in addition to officially supported tools, with support coming from a community of volunteers. This is a form of platform cooperativism where BCIT’s involvement can help us help others and in doing so identify common needs across institutions in BC. OpenETC supports its services, not BCIT.
WordPress (including H5P) is officially supported at BCIT, though OpenETC’s implementation has key differences to support open education, especially open pedagogy.
Key differences
There are important differences between OpenETC tools and those officially supported by BCIT:
- Students can independently use the tools, developing digital literacy
- All platforms are open source
- Content can be shared openly outside BCIT
- Supports collaboration across institutions
- Student retain access to their creations after a course concludes
OpenETC tools also provide ethical alternatives to unsupported technologies which may profit from student personal information and engage in undisclosed surveillance or monetization of personal information.
Questions or need help?
Contact Ian Linkletter, Emerging Technology & Open Education Librarian.