Authors: Lena Patterson, Lindsay Woodside
Institution: eCampusOntario
Country: Canada
Topic: Applications of Open Education Practices/Open Pedagogy/Open Education Research
Sector: Higher Education
UNESCO Area of Focus: Building capacity
Session Format: Presentation
Abstract
Since 2017, eCampusOntario has engaged over 850 educators to enhance digital fluency for teaching through the Ontario Extend professional learning program. Grounded in the belief that the impact on learning should be the primary motivator for technology-enabled and online learning experiences, Extend educators are offered an opportunity to explore the foundational set of skills, knowledge and attributes for effective teaching in a digital environment.
Extend is customizable, openly licensed and critically relevant in a COVID-19 teaching and learning environment that is significantly impacted by technology. The team at eCampusOntario believes that a high quality digital learning experience starts with an empowered educator. Open practice, open pedagogy and open communities of practice are embedded in the Extend philosophy.
With a recent adoption and adaptation of the Ontario Extend program by Otago Polytechnic and OERu in New Zealand, the Extend team is excited by the possibilities of sharing this program with a global audience. In this brief presentation, audience members will have the opportunity to learn more about the value of an open source professional learning program for educators and how to adopt and adapt the program in their jurisdiction.
A three minute video is also available to share with the OEGlobal community: https://extend.ecampusontario.ca/about-us/
Keywords
open education practices (OEP), educator development, online learning
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Greetings OEG Community,
My name is Lindsay Woodside and I work as a Digital Learning Associate at eCampusOntario, conference hosts of the Eastern time zone. This is my first OE Global conference!
I am very excited to be joining forces with @Lena (Profile - Lena - OE Global Connect) as we co-present our live session titled Ontario Extend: An Open Program to Enhance Digital Fluency for Educators The Ontario Extend Program is a free, openly licensed and customizable foundational professional learning program designed for educators in a digital age.
This is a pivotal time for Extend and the importance of this program is in its value as a holistic baseline for digital skills. We have witnessed local program participation rates in Ontario increase by a transformative 300% for the same period last year and we are proud of the global adoption of this program by our colleagues at Otago Polytechnic in New Zealand, as detailed in this pilot explainer video “Bringing the Ontario Extend suite to New Zealand”
We encourage you to watch this 3min primer video titled “Introducing Ontario Extend”
and review the attached “Anatomy of an Empowered Educator” program framework prior to our session.
We also want to encourage you to think about the ways in which you have either participated or facilitated in professional development/learning opportunities in the last 12 months. What cornerstone features, attributes and/or components did you appreciate about those opportunities?
We will share our Google slides through a follow-up reply in this space closer to our session date/time.
Please feel free to connect with me anytime at lwoodside@ecampusontario.ca
See you soon!
Lindsay Woodside
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Greetings Everyone!
We are getting excited to present our upcoming session on Monday. Please see our Google Presentation Slides for your reference.
Cheers, Lindsay
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This looks great @LindsayWoodside & @Lena! I will be presenting at the same time - but would otherwise be in your session. I look forward to viewing the recording and thanks for providing the primer video, slides, and other resources. 
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