Thompson Rivers University will host the Open Educational Resource university (OERu) launch on October 31, 2013, as part of a two-day meeting that will bring educators from around the world together to discuss how to make education more affordable and accessible.

It doesn’t have a physical campus or students enrolled, but the OERu will officially open its virtual doors at the conference.

The meeting will include a welcome from TRU President Alan Shaver and a talk from Sir John Daniel, a distinguished leader in open education and an honorary doctorate from TRU. This discussion, entitled Open Educational Resources and MOOCs in a Time of Economic Crisis, is open to the public and will be held on Friday, Nov. 1 at 10am in the Panorama Room of the International Building at TRU.

The OERu is a partnership of 26 post-secondary institutions worldwide. TRU has been a founding anchor partner in the organization since its inception in 2010, and since then the OERu has been steadily growing and is now ready to launch its new website. The OERu partners are gathering to explore issues related to free, open education, such as how to build free courses using open educational resources, use exams to assess learning and offer credit earned through prior learning assessment. They will also discuss what low-cost measures can be offered to support students in their OERu studies. The event will be streamed live to allow people to attend virtually. To participate on Twitter, follow the hashtag #OERu13.

See the full agenda.

For more information contact:
Brian Lamb
Director, Innovation
blamb@tru.ca