on the Verge writing contest

Co-sponsored by UVic Libraries and the office of Equity and Human Rights (EQHR), and with significant support from other units on campus, the annual on the Verge writing contest deadline is next Wednesday, February 15.

As many of you know, the contest showcases and celebrates emerging UVic student voices with an annual theme under the broad rubric of equity, diversity, and human rights. This year’s theme is DIALOGUE and our guest judge is interdisciplinary spoken word artist Johnny D Trinh.  $1600 in cash prizes are available in the categories of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and spoken word — $250 for first place and $150 for second place in each category.

Please share widely with your faculties, departments, and faculty champions. For more information please visit our contest webpage.

For more information, please contact otvcontest@uvic.ca.

UVic Libraries Publication Launch: in CIRCULATION

We are pleased to announce the library’s new signature publication, in CIRCULATION––a magazine focused on library impact at UVic and abroad.

Featuring stories about podcasting, digital preservation, the Peter and Ana Lowens UVic Libraries Special Collections Student Fellowship, and recent library news, this donor-focused magazine celebrates the committed work of library staff on campus and in the community.

in CIRCULATION will be published annually with a small print run.

Please share widely with your colleagues and friends.

Best,
Lisa A (on behalf of Christine, Samantha, Artie and Shahira)

OTESSA Journal volume 2, Issue 1 & 2

Please check out the latest work published in the OTESSA Journal (Volume 2, Issues 1 and 2 published Dec 2022). The journal is using a continuous publication model, so will be posting articles as they move through the editorial process. It is an open-access journal with no Article Processing Charges, so your membership, sponsorship, and conference registration supports the publication activities of OTESSA among the other work we do as we build and grow. The journal is now quietly welcoming submissions from the global public in the discourse, research, or practice sections. To join or renew your membership, please visit the membership form on our website.

We will be pushing out our social media promotion of these works from our @OTESSA_org, @OTESSA_fr, and @OTESSAjournal accounts on Twitter and other platforms. Thank you in advance for helping to promote these works as they are shared! We encourage you to share these works out using the #OTESSA and #OTESSAjournal hashtags in addition to those relevant to the article content.

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1 

 Discourse Articles

Outside-In: Entangled Openness as Subversion Influencing Emergent Change, Maha Bali

Research Articles

A Synthesis of Research on Mental Health and Remote Learning: How Pandemic Grief Haunts Claims of Causality, Stephanie Moore, George Veletsianos, Michael K. Barbour

Crowdsourcing the (Un)Textbook: Rethinking and Future Thinking the Role of the Textbook in Open Pedagogy, Michelle Harrison, Michael Paskevicius, Irwin Devries, Tannis Morgan

Practice Articles

The UK Open University COVID Response: A Sector Case Study, Martin Weller

Humanizing with Humility: The Challenge of Creating Caring, Compassionate, and Hopeful Educational Spaces in Higher Education, Sarah Driessens, Michelann Parr

ePortfolio Pedagogy: Stimulating a Shift in Mindset, Rita Zuba Prokopetz

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 2

Discourse Articles

On the Misappropriation of Spatial Metaphors in Online Learning, Jon Dron

Research Articles

Surveillance in the System: Data as Critical Change in Higher Education, Samantha Szcyrek, Bonnie Stewart

Introducing A Reflective Framework for the Assessment and Recognition of Microcredentials, Francisco Iniesto, Rebecca Ferguson, Martin Weller, Rob Farrow, Rebecca Pitt

Integrating Technology With Instructional Frameworks to Support all Learners in Inclusive Classrooms, Diane Montgomery

Elders’ Conversations: Perspectives on Leveraging Digital Technology in Language Revival, Melissa Bishop

Love Data Week 2023

For Love Data Week 2023, UVic Libraries is again collaborating with our colleagues at SFU, UBC, and UNBC to deliver an exciting program of seminars and workshops celebrating all things data.

Some program highlights include talks on Reproducible Research from Monique Grenier and Dr. Stephen Lindsay, Accessing Modern and Historical Census Data from folks at StatCan, Community Engagement and Ethical Data Practices from the Provincial Health Services Authority, and many more!

Information about the sessions can be accessed from our workshops calendar libcal.uvic.ca, as well as UBC’s Research Commons.

Many thanks to Daniel Brendle-Moczuk for coordinating on behalf of UVic.

Maximizing UVic Libraries eBooks for Students

eTextbooks for Students (2022-2023)

We are continuing with UVic Libraries pilot project, started in fall 2021, to track the use of library licensed electronic books assigned in courses for the spring 2022-23 academic term. The eTextbooks project supports access and affordability efforts that are important to student success. The website lists the ebooks by title, Course number, term, and Instructors’ last name.

This project complements the Libraries’ advocacy efforts around open education resources (OER) and aligns with its Strategic Directions. Our OER initiative includes an annual offering of OER grants, cross-campus collaborations with Learning Teaching Support & Innovation, the Bookstore, and the Undergraduate Student Union (UVSS). The project gave us the opportunity to scan the university landscape to determine the extent to which the Libraries’ licensed resources were being used at all levels of course work. The Libraries’ expanded ebook collection allows instructors to assign quality course materials, while providing affordable solutions for students.

With the assistance of our Young Canada Works intern, Liam McParland, we identified 280 total titles used in 394 courses during the fall and spring terms. We searched the University Bookstore’s textbook catalog to identify titles adopted by instructors. In adopting the Libraries licensed resources for their courses, we believe instructors saved UVic students a total of $794,469 and in doing so created high impact for students’ access and affordability to a quality education. These savings improve students’ access to affordable, quality education and is closely aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals #4.

sdg-4

CALL TO ACTION:

FACULTY: Lets us know if you are using an open textbook or a UVic Libraries licensed resources for you course this academic year.

STUDENTS: Let us know if you are accessing an open textbook or library licensed resources for your course!

UVic 2022 “Pathways to Impact” Grant: Eric Higgs

 UVic’s “Pathways to Impact” fund aims to move original research that aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and move it into real-world applications for greatest impact. The fund is a partnership between UVic’s Research Partnerships and Knowledge Mobilization (RPKM) unit and UVic Libraries. Funded projects will make their research openly accessible, including via UVicSpace, contributing to the democratization of knowledge and knowledge equity. The inaugural UVic fund is one of a few institutionally led knowledge-mobilization funding initiatives across Canadian research universities and among the first to directly target the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Sentinels of change: Rising treelines and raising knowledge.

UVic researchers address cultural, ecological and environmental urgency behind the Mountain Legacy Project.

UN Sustainable Development Goals: 6, 13, 14 and 15

Among the seven projects that were selected for the 2022 Pathways to Impact fund is Sentinels of change: Rising treelines and raising knowledge, led by Prof. Eric Higgs, a professor at the School of Environmental Studies (Faculty of Social Sciences) at the University of Victoria. The research project uses historical photographs from the Canadian Rocky Mountains to analyze tree line change over the last century. The results will be applied to discuss the effects of climate change on such ecosystems and possible practical implications. The funded project is part of the Mountain Legacy Project.

Besides an article in Scientific Reports, an open access journal by reputable academic publisher Nature…

Trant, A., Higgs, E., & Starzomski, B. M. (2020). A century of high elevation ecosystem change in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Scientific Reports, 10(1), Art. 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66277-2

…an episode of the appraised podcast Future Ecologies was recently published in connection with the project:

“In a forgotten corner of a national archive, some very heavy boxes held a rare promise: an opportunity to look back in time at a landscape scale.”

Listen to the episode here.

Find a list of achievements and publications by Prof. Higgs on his website and on his ORCiD profile.

UVic Libraries congratulates Professor Higgs and his team on the successful application and their valuable research contribution to the fulfillment of the United Nations’ SDGs.

Mt. Assiniboine and Magog Lake: A. O. Wheeler, 1913 & Mary Sanseverino, 2017Mt. Assiniboine and Magog Lake: A. O. Wheeler, 1913 & Mary Sanseverino, 2017

Digital Scholarship Commons – December 2022 workshops

We are happy to release our online workshop schedule for this coming month. Many, but not all of our workshops, are available in-person and via Zoom so that you choose how to participate:

  • Intro to Data Analysis with Excel
    December 7, 9:30am – Register Now
  • Smartphone Photography
    December 8, 2:30pm – Register Now
  • Qualitative Data Analysis with NVivo
    December 9, 11:00am – Register Now
  • Intro to Data Analysis with RStudio
    December 13, 2:00pm – Register Now
  • Data Management Plans (DMPs)
    December 15, 10:00am – Register Now
  • Intro to Podcasting
    December 15, 10:30am – Register Now
  • Advanced Qualitative Data Analysis and Coding with NVivo
    December 16, 2:30pm – Register Now
  • Intermediate Research Statistics with RStudio
    December 20, 2:00pm – Register Now

To see all of our upcoming workshops, please check out our website.

If you are a UVic professor and would like us to run a workshop just for your class, please contact Rich McCue, and we’ll do our best to work with your class’s schedule, and customize the instruction to best meet the learning objectives of your class and needs of your learners: rmccue@uvic.ca

Mobilize Your Knowledge!: An Introduction to Creating Open Textbooks using Pressbooks

Presenter: Liam McParland (University of Victoria)

Are you a UVic faculty member who is interested in creating/adapting and disseminating accessible educational resources? This workshop will introduce you to Pressbooks – an open source, online authoring and publishing platform.

By the end of the workshop, you will be able to:

    • Create and build an e-text
  • Create accessible headings, tables, and footnotes
  • Insert accessible media into your material

When: Wednesday, December 7, 2022
Time: 2:30pm – 3:30pm (Pacific Time – US & Canada)

This is an online event. Event URL will be sent via registration email.