Articles / Open AU

Farewell to Open AU online

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 15:45:20 MDT

Open AU closes its doors to make room for a better way to share AU stories online.

The news team at Athabasca University is making changes. To streamline and improve how we share university stories with students, alumni and the AU community at large, we're closing down Open AU online and featuring stories at an easier-to-find place: the banner at the top of our athabascau.ca home page.

You'll find more AU news in the News and Announcements feeds at the bottom of the home page, and we'll continue to publish Open magazine, our print magazine for the AU community, once a year. Look for the next issue in spring 2013.

There are also other ways to keep in touch with AU:

Follow us on Twitter @AthabascaU.
Visit us on Facebook.
Sign up to the Landing, AU's social network for students, staff and alumni.

Thanks to all the AU folks who've been featured in Open AU. We look forward to continuing to share your stories in our home page news, in Open magazine, and in social media.

See you at athabascau.ca!

Sincerely,
Erin Ottosen, Editor of Open Magazine
erin.ottosen@athabascau.ca

Open Our World makes its public debut

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 15:45:20 MDT

Join Athabasca University in Calgary on June 20 to learn more.

Athabasca University's Open Our World campaign went public on May 23 and 24 with celebrations in Athabasca and Edmonton attended by about 200 friends, supporters, partners, faculty, staff, alumni and students of AU. And on June 20, the campaign will continue celebrating its successes to date at the Lougheed House in Calgary.

"It's now time to announce the campaign to the public, to make people aware of ... our priorities and to finish the fundraising," said Heather Kennedy, the chair of the Open Our World campaign cabinet, a member of AU's Board of Governors and the vice-president of in situ projects at Suncor Energy.

The campaign, which began in 2008 and is focused on the future of learning, already has much to celebrate - as of May 2012, Open Our World has achieved 75 per cent of its $30-million fundraising goal thanks to the support of over 300 donors.

For the public phase of the campaign, its final phase, Open Our World will focus on four priority areas: student awards, research, community service and learning innovation.

"Athabasca University is a leader and a pioneer in flexible, accessible online learning, and we're focused on the feature of learning," said Kennedy. "To lead us into that future, we need the best resources and support that we can gather. The world is changing more quickly than it ever has, and for education to keep up with that change, and stay relevant, and meet students' needs, which are ever increasing, it's got to be nimble, flexible, accessible and responsive.... AU wants to stay at the forefront of that."

The difference that AU's accessibility and flexibility makes in the lives of students was brought home at the Open Our World celebrations by two AU alumni who addressed the guests.

"Distance learning [through AU] made it possible for me to keep my job while studying, and to be able to study from the community of my choice," said Brian Hall, the alumnus who spoke in Athabasca. "Speaking for myself and I'm sure many of my classmates, few of us would have advanced our education had it not been for the AU distance learning format."

For Heather Ruhl, the alumna who spoke in Edmonton, AU enabled her to finish her degree after life events conspired against her completing the degree at a traditional university.

"When I started looking at finishing my degree ... I spent a year trying to fit in the box I thought I wanted," Ruhl said. After running into roadblocks at other institutions, she received a different response when she approached AU. "Over and over I heard, ‘We can do that, we can do that, we can do that.' And the AU experience did not stop there. My ordinary university program became an extraordinary university program."

The Open Our World campaign cabinet and the president and Board of Governors of Athabasca University invite you to learn more about Open Our World in Calgary on June 20.

Attend the Open Our World celebration on June 20

Celebrating Open Our World
A Campaign for Athabasca University
4 - 6 p.m., Wednesday, June 20
Lougheed House, 707 13 Avenue SW
Calgary, Alberta

Please RSVP to Jim McLeod

jmcleod@athabascau.ca
780-428-7285 (Edmonton)
1-800-788-9041 ext. 7285 (toll-free outside of Edmonton)

Visit Open Our World online

By Erin Ottosen

Living the promise of great things

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 15:45:20 MDT

Meet Heather Ruhl, AU alumni award winner.

Nominations are now being accepted for Athabasca University's Alumni Awards. Here's one of last year's winners, Heather Ruhl (BComm, 2011).

Working on her Athabasca University Bachelor of Commerce degree wasn't always easy, Heather Ruhl admits. There were days when it was tough slogging fitting assignments and deadlines into a pressure-packed personal life that included family commitments, full- and part-time work, her wedding, building a new home and volunteering.

But, as she says, "I was living my life for me" and "doing what I always do," so she didn't think she was doing anything special -- which is why receiving AU's Future Alumni Award last spring was such a surprise.

"I can't describe how immensely flattering it is for someone to nominate me, let alone to win the award," she says. "I don't live my life trying to prove anything to anyone. So it's truly humbling to have someone from the outside look at what you're doing, say it's worthy of recognition and believe you're going to do great things in the future. I'm only one of 35,000 AU undergraduates who have potential to do great things."

There's no false modesty in Ruhl's statements. She's so familiar with pressure that it's become routine, and she knows how to turn its negatives into positives. "Sometimes life is going to trip you up, and no matter how well you do, it doesn't quite work out. So much of life is beyond our control."

When life threw obstacles in her path and prevented her from completing her degree in the traditional way, she took another route through AU and found, much to her joy, that AU offered just what she needed: the flexibility to earn her degree in the way that worked for her, and the opportunity to gain invaluable skills and perspective.

"I needed a university where I could be in Edmonton near my family and could continue my degree where I left off," she explains. "I didn't have to compromise or move again because AU said, ‘We can do this.' It was an incredible gift, and I don't know what I would've done without it."

Learning at a distance also honed her self-motivation, determination and time management skills, as well as her ability to carry a significant workload and get things done, all of which she's using now in her job as a business process management analyst at ATB Financial.

Prior to discovering AU, she acknowledges that it was difficult to watch friends graduate, start careers and earn professional degrees while she was working to make ends meet. But as things have turned out, she believes she's better for the experience.

"What I've done just seems normal and natural to me, but I realize now that in the time it's taken me to get to where my friends are, I've lived an incredible journey. I've done things I'd never planned and never thought I'd do."

AU, she says, was a huge part of it. "It challenged my understanding of who I am and what I'm capable of, giving me the courage to face my next great adventure."

Link

Athabasca University Alumni Awards: Call for Nominations
Do you know an AU alum who's making a difference? Nominate a friend, colleague or family member for one of the AU Alumni Awards. The nomination deadline is April 27, 2012.

By Cathy Nickel

A hub for corporate social responsibility

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:45:20 MDT

AU Faculty of Business relaunches the Online Centre for Corporate Stewardship.

"Ethically and morally, we know how we are supposed to run our businesses," says Dr. Anshuman Khare, a professor of operations management in Athabasca University's Faculty of Business. "At the same time, the world is struggling to come up with sustainability standards and agreements."

To help address this issue, Khare teamed up with Terry Beckman, an assistant professor of marketing in the Faculty of Business, and they revamped and relaunched the Online Centre for Corporate Stewardship (OCCS). The centre, which is an initiative of the Faculty of Business, provides access to sustainability frameworks, best practices, research, and other networks and organizations that promote sustainability.

"The Online Centre for Corporate Stewardship and its online community are stepping stones to helping people understand what sustainability is -- how it touches all businesses and individuals in some form," says Khare. "But the overarching goal is to get businesses and organizations to put corporate social responsibility and corporate stewardship into practice."

When it initially launched in 2003, the OCCS served as a connecting point for people at AU who were interested in corporate social responsibility (CSR). It was not a website so much as an internal database. "Last year we changed directions, and new faculty member Terry Beckman came on board," says Khare. "Our goal now is for the site to become a hub for people anywhere interested in the topic to take part and enrich it."

"For example, we have a Community section where we would like to engage in discussion with anyone -- not just people in our program -- interested in CSR. No one else is doing this, and we are very excited about the possibilities."

Both Beckman and Khare are also incorporating and encouraging a strong multidisciplinary focus for the OCCS.

"To succeed with sustainable practices, we must meet the needs of all stakeholders," says Beckman. "These stakeholders include end consumers, businesses, and governments. Neglecting the needs of any of these stakeholders, or having one group bear more cost than the others, results in non-sustainable programs."

"Corporations should see social responsibility and sustainability as opportunities," adds Khare. "We have the technology to manage our resources better. Companies with products and services that demonstrate excellent utilization of resources will do better in the future than those that continue to conduct business according to past standards. Today's world presents corporations with opportunities to demonstrate corporate stewardship."

One of the initiatives of the revamped OCCS is a book called Mitigating Climate Change: The Emerging Face of Modern Cities. Produced in collaboration with the Alexander von Humboldt Cities and Climate Change Network, the book will be of use to policy makers, city planners and others who are helping cities develop strategies for energy efficiency, mobility, and habitat and infrastructure design in the face of climate change. Chapter proposals were accepted until mid-February.

Khare and Beckman invite anyone with an interest in CSR to join them at the OCCS. "We want to create a space that is of interest and value to all stakeholders in our never-ending quest for knowledge," says Khare.

Links

Online Centre for Corporate Stewardship (OCCS)
Visit the revamped OCCS.

Alexander von Humboldt Cities and Climate Change Network
Both Khare and Beckman are members of this new network of CSR researchers and practitioners addressing climate change.

AU Faculty of Business News: Winter 2012
This issue features a more in-depth look at the OCCS, a story about the new CMA Canada accreditation for AU's Bachelor Commerce, a progress update on the Project Management Research Institute, profiles of faculty, students and alumni, and much more.

By Athabasca University Faculty of Business

Demystifying sociology

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:45:20 MDT

AU professor brings sociology down to earth with The Socjournal.

Dr. Mike Sosteric believes that it's time to bring sociology out of the ivory tower -- and he is doing so through a new media journal called The Socjournal, which is attracting a million hits a month.

Sosteric is an assistant professor of sociology in Athabasca University's Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. A couple years ago, he became frustrated with traditional modes of academic communication such as scholarly journals and academic conferences.

"I felt it just created bulkheads between professors and the real world," he said. "This is a particular problem in sociology where there are no journals designed to raise awareness of sociological research and discussions."

Sosteric wanted to do something that would create a broader awareness of sociology and its contribution to society as a whole. He also wanted to invigorate the sociology program at AU.

The Socjournal, founded in 2010, functions "by providing content interesting to students, in a language students can understand, in ways students can relate to, in forms easily accessible to them," he says.

With a million hits a month, The Socjournal is proving extremely popular. The readership is made up mostly of students but also includes some professors. In addition to those in humanities and social sciences, there are also readers from fields such as the natural sciences, agriculture, law, business and the military.

Content includes articles contributed by students and faculty members from both AU and other institutions. Sosteric also posts student papers from his advanced sociology courses that he thinks might be of interest to Socjournal readers.

"I turn down a lot of material written by academics," he says, "because it is in traditional form (e.g., scholarly paper, etc.). We are not a peer-reviewed journal, and some academics have a hard time seeing past the publication blinders they wear."

Since The Socjournal first appeared, registration in AU's Sociology 287: Introduction to Sociology I has increased by 30 per cent, Sosteric says. While he acknowledges that other factors are contributing to the increase, he says, "I suspect a large part of the increase is a result of the efforts I've taken with The Socjournal to point potential students toward our sociology program."

Links

The Socjournal
Visit The Socjournal to see first-hand what it has to offer.

Sociology Program at Athabasca University
This website provides an overview of the sociology program at AU.

Sociology Courses at Athabasca University
Browse the more than 20 sociology courses at AU.

By Diane Morrison

Bringing the Internet to students in Nepal

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:45:20 MDT

AU's donation of 48 laptops helps to launch the first computer lab at a Nepal public school.

When Dr. Mohamed Ally and Susan Bainbridge visited a public school in Kathmandu, Nepal, in early January, the last thing they expected to see was the entire community, the prime minister's wife and the minister of education out to greet them. But they were bringing a very special gift with them -- a donation of 48 laptop computers -- and the Nepalese community was keen to show its appreciation.

"There were tears in the parents' eyes, and the students started to shout and cheer when we showed them a computer," said Ally, chair of Athabasca University's Centre for Distance Education.

"Dr. Ally and I were smothered in garlands of flowers and greetings of 'Namaste!' We were hugged by grandmothers and children and their parents. It was really quite overwhelming," said Bainbridge, a doctoral student in the Centre for Distance Education.

The 48 laptops are being used to set up a computer lab at the Mansingh Darma School in Kathmandu, the very first public school in Nepal to have one. The computers, reconditioned units that were due to be retired from use by AU faculty, give the Nepalese students something their peers in the West take for granted: access to the Internet.

The idea for the donation came out of an earlier trip that Bainbridge took to the mountainous country in South Asia. While visiting Kathmandu, she asked a tour guide to take her to a local school. When she got there, she was shocked at how basic the facilities were -- and there were no computers. She contacted AU, and the idea to round up the used laptops was born.

The computers all have wireless capability, important for use in a country with poor transportation and infrastructure and little wired connectivity to the Internet. They also open the door to online education, which Ally calls the great equalizer. According to Ally, online education places students in developing countries like Nepal on an equal footing with their much better resourced peers in the developed world.

"Providing computers to students in developing countries will allow them to connect to the world," said Ally. "Computers and Internet connectivity empower the new generation of students to learn in the emerging global education system of the 21st century."

Ally is working with a group of educators from around the world to provide similar donations to other students in developing countries. He hopes that some of the students will eventually use the donated computers to take online post-secondary courses like those offered by Athabasca University.

By John O'Brien

A performance by AU's new writer in residence

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:45:20 MDT

You're invited to a special performance by Tololwa Mollel on Jan. 26.

Many authors, if you ask them to present their work, are content simply to read aloud. Not Tololwa M. Mollel.

Mollel, Athabasca University's new writer in residence, has always infused the written word, and written stories, with live performance and oral storytelling. He's worked as an actor and a theatre lecturer, authored 16 children's books and several plays, and made a habit of telling his stories on his feet to children and adults alike.

And on January 26, when Mollel shares one of his stories at a reception celebrating AU's Writer in Residence program, he's not going to read it -- he's going to perform it with a 10-year-old co-star, live musical accompaniment and the guidance of theatre director Jan Selman.

If you happen to meet Mollel, it's easy to understand why he has a hard time separating writing from performing. In conversation, he slips easily into storytelling mode. His eyes light up as he describes one of his university professors in Tanzania (a big, bald, sweaty man with a beard that made it seem as if all the hair on his head had gone to his chin), and he leans forward and grins as he recounts the traditional tale of a trickster spider named Anansi who tries to steal all the common sense in the world.

"I like that story, because there are so many things you can make of it. How do people behave when they don't have common sense, for example?" says Mollel. "To do that story, you'd probably have to show what the world would be like with no common sense, so there's an opportunity to make some commentary."

That opportunity for commentary, says Mollel, is one of the things that draws him to adapting traditional tales from countries such as his native country of Tanzania.

"There are so many traditional tales where you can actually inject a lot of your own views on what is going on around us," he says. "What attracts me to particular tales and not to others is what do they have to offer to the present?"

"If I find the possibility of tweaking a story and providing my own twist, then I say, ah-ha, I can make it my story ... But I try not to violate the spirit behind the story, because then you might as well come up with your own story."

In addition to his work with traditional stories, Mollel is a strong advocate of the adage to write what you know. When he teaches children about writing, he often focuses on helping them tell their personal stories.

"It's so easy for them to model their writing on something they're reading, which is fine. But at the same time, they have to realize that there are things in their life that are worth drawing on ... I think it's very empowering for young people to tell their own stories."

Members of the AU community with an interest in writing, along with any other writers who are interested in being mentored by Mollel, are welcome to attend the January 26 reception in Edmonton. See below for more information.

Athabasca University's Writers in Residence
A Reception in Celebration of Athabasca University's Writer in Residence Program

Featuring:

A performance by Tololwa M. Mollel, award-winning children's author, playwright, actor and storyteller, and AU's 2011-12 writer in residence
Reflections from Joseph Boyden, award-winning novelist and short story writer, and AU's 2010-11 writer in residence

When: 5 - 7 p.m., Thursday, January 26, 2012

Where: Expressionz Café, 9938 - 70 Avenue, Edmonton

Food will be served, and attendees are permitted to bring guests.

Seating is limited. Please RSVP by January 19 to Amanda Demko: ademko@athabascau.ca

Members of the AU community with an interest in writing, along with any other writers who are interested in being mentored by Mollel, are welcome to attend.

Links

Athabasca University Writer in Residence
Learn more about Mollel's mentoring services for writers at AU's Writer in Residence website.

Website of Tololwa M. Mollel
Visit Mollel's website to learn more about his work.

By Erin Ottosen

Improving quality of life for dementia sufferers

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:45:20 MDT

AU dean and research partners look at how to share caregiving best practices more effectively.

Improving the quality of life for people with dementia -- and for their caregivers -- is the focus of a new research pilot involving Dr. Pamela Hawranik, dean of Athabasca University's Faculty of Graduate Studies.

Thirty-three per cent of Alberta seniors reside in predominantly rural regions, and the proportion of seniors in a population increases as the distance from urban centres increases. Both formal and informal caregivers in rural areas have often said they lack the knowledge and skills to appropriately meet the needs of people living with dementia, and living in a rural area affects their ability to obtain up-to-date information or share effective strategies for caring for someone with dementia.

"Basically we want to train someone called a 'knowledge broker,'" says Hawranik. "This person would help informal and formal caregivers in rural communities learn about the latest research on dementia and how to use these research findings to care for someone with dementia."

"The pilot study will enhance our understanding of the factors that will influence the success of a knowledge broker in facilitating the spread and uptake of the latest evidence regarding dementia care best practices. This will include sending a survey to home care health professionals to capture the factors in their home care centres that facilitate the mobilization of new caregiving knowledge."

Besides Hawranik, the pilot team consists of researchers from the University of Alberta and the University of Saskatchewan as well as policy-makers and knowledge users from Alberta Health Services. Dr. Dorothy Forbes of the University of Alberta is the principal investigator.

The pilot, called Contextual Factors within Northern Home Care Centres that Influence the Spread and Uptake of Research Evidence: A Pilot Study, recently received $10,000 from Alberta Health Services to look at ways of sharing knowledge and best practices with care providers in rural Alberta. The pilot research is foundational work required for a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Partnerships for Health System Improvement grant application that will be submitted in November.

That larger study will examine:

the role of the knowledge broker,
the processes that help and hinder integrated knowledge mobilization, and
the impact on clients, informal care partners, home care providers and northern Alberta home care centres.

By Diane Morrison

Ottawa meet-and-greet for graduate students Nov. 17

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:45:20 MDT

The latest of several networking opportunities offered by AU grad students' association.

The Athabasca University Graduate Students' Association (AUGSA) is hosting a meet-and-greet this Thursday, Nov. 17, in Ottawa at Parliament Pub (101 Sparks Street).

"Meet-and-greets provide the valuable experience of networking with fellow students in person -- something that is missed when you attend a distance education university," says Denise Ferris, vice-president of student life for AUGSA and a student in AU's Master of Arts - Integrated Studies (MAIS) program.

The meet-and-greet this week is the latest in a series of meet-and-greets that AUGSA has held in Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg. Meet-and-greets are one of two major networking initiatives that AUGSA is using to promote dialogue among AU's graduate students, says Ferris. The other major initiative, which is just getting started, is town halls.

"AUGSA wants to ensure a positive relationship and good communication between our students and the association, and to achieve this, students need regular opportunities to ask questions, share concerns and make suggestions," says Ferris. "To facilitate open communication and dialogue, AUGSA will be hosting bimonthly town halls."

Each town hall will run for 45 minutes and will focus on open dialogue in a fun, relaxed environment. "It will be similar to a student association coffee house, except at this point unfortunately you will need to provide your own beverage," says Ferris.

AUGSA president Amanda Nielsen says she's looking forward to the town halls, especially after the success of the meet-and-greets that have taken place so far.

"The meet-and-greets have been a lot of fun," says Nielsen, who is also a MAIS student at AU. "They're a great opportunity for AU graduate students to come together, network and share stories in a casual interdisciplinary setting.

"We're really looking forward to meeting our Ottawa-based members on the 17th."

Nov. 17 meet-and-greet for AU graduate students in Ottawa

When: 5 - 8 p.m., Thursday, November 17

Where: Parliament Pub, 101 Sparks Street, Ottawa

Athabasca University Graduate Students' Association council members in attendance:

Amanda Nielsen, president
Greta Kirstein, vice-president (external)

Contact: Amanda Nielsen

This meet-and-greet is co-hosted by AUGSA and AU's Alumni Relations office.

Upcoming town halls for AU graduate students

When dates for town halls are determined, they will be posted at AUGSA Events and shared in AUGSA's monthly newsletter.

By Erin Ottosen

Preserving the voices of Alberta women

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:45:20 MDT

The Alberta Women’s Memory Project invites you to its Nov. 15 fundraiser.

Almost 30 years later, Jean Crozier still remembers the irksome comment made by an acquaintance, a comment that also happens to illustrate why the Alberta Women's Memory Project is so important.

One night in 1983, Crozier was with friends and gearing up to view The Dinner Party, the famous installation by artist Judy Chicago that featured, on ceramic tiles, the names of 999 women who had done important things.

Someone in her group, a young male librarian, said, "How would you ever find 999 women who had done anything important?"

Crozier, a library consultant herself, says she was peeved to hear such a comment coming from a fellow librarian, a person with supposedly solid research skills who really should have known better. But, aside from implying that few women have accomplished anything notable (not the case, of course), the comment did touch on a legitimate issue that Crozier and others are addressing with the Alberta Women's Memory Project.

"The history of women, and their influence on history in general, is not as well documented as is that of men," she says.

As a member of the committee responsible for the Alberta Women's Memory Project, Crozier is helping to make sure that historical records relating to Alberta women are digitally documented. Once these records are loaded onto the project website, researchers, students and the general public can access them from anywhere in the world and learn about Alberta women's influence on history. And on November 15, the project is holding its inaugural fundraiser, A Celebration of Women's Voices from the Past to the Future. (See below for event highlights and ticket information.)

"Unless we record the past, people just won't know what went on," says Crozier. "The women of my generation went through a hell of a lot."

For example, in the 1960s in Alberta, the sale of condoms and other birth control devices was technically illegal. "If you wanted to buy a condom, you had to go up to the pharmacist, and ask quietly," says Crozier. "Many women who became pregnant were forced to ‘go to away their aunts' -- a euphemism for being sent to a home for unwed mothers. Several hundred women died each year of botched illegal abortions."

And in the 1980s, female businesswomen still received a rather cold shoulder from their male peers, Crozier says. As an entrepreneur who started an eventually successful information management company, Crozier vividly remembers her struggle to take her place in male-dominated business associations and to connect with other female entrepreneurs, as at that time, organizations like Alberta Women Entrepreneurs simply didn't exist.

Although documenting the past is vital to the Alberta Women's Memory Project, Crozier says that documenting the present is just as vital. "Lots of time people think we're looking for materials relating to things that happened 100 years ago, but history is not just what happened a long time ago -- history is what's going in your mind, in your heart, in your workplace, in your school, whatever's going on today. It's important to preserve what's happening currently.

"I believe each one of us can benefit and need to benefit from the knowledge of both the people who were living and the people who are living."

The Alberta Women's Memory Project collects and digitizes items such as women's memoirs, photos, letters, material collections and videos. "Donors provide us with materials, which we digitize," Crozier explains. "The physical materials, if the donor wishes, will be donated to an archive of the donor's choice so they can be preserved forever.

"The project is ready to be unveiled to the public, and the committee is ready to show off its work and initiate a fundraising process to ensure the project has a firm financial footing. Athabasca University has provided exceptional administrative and technical support, and our fundraising event is also receiving fabulous support from the University of Alberta, several of its faculties, and private donors."

A Celebration of Women's Voices from the Past to the Future: A fundraiser for the Alberta Women's Memory Project

When: 4:30 - 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, November 15

Where: TELUS Centre, University of Alberta, 87 Avenue & 111 Street, Edmonton

Event highlights:

Special guest speakers Paula Simons, Edmonton Journal columnist, and Dr. Kelly Dabbs, renowned breast cancer surgeon
Exhibits and live music
Opportunities to speak with women whose memoirs and material collections are on the Alberta Women's Memory Project website

Tickets: Tickets are $30. To avoid the lineup at the event, please buy your tickets online.

Links

The Alberta Women's Memory Project
This website is the digital home for the historical materials that the project collects and digitizes.

Tickets for A Celebration of Women's Voices from the Past to the Future
To avoid the ticket lineup at the event, please visit this webpage to purchase your tickets online.

Women's & Gender Studies at Athabasca University
This website provides an overview of women's and gender studies courses and programs at Athabasca University.

By Erin Ottosen

The rise of the retail nation

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:45:20 MDT

AU professor Donica Belisle signs her book Retail Nation: Department Stores and the Making of Modern Canada.

The experience of walking down a department store aisle replete with displays, ads and products galore is so common that we often forget mass retail barely existed in Canada a century ago. And while the department stores that spread across Canada prior to the Second World War offered jobs and affordable goods, they also had negative repercussions on Canadian society even as they modernized it, argues author Dr. Donica Belisle.

In Retail Nation: Department Stores and the Making of Modern Canada, Belisle traces the beginnings of Canada's transformation into a modern consumer nation. And this Saturday in Edmonton, Belisle, who is also an Athabasca University assistant professor of women's studies, will sign copies of her book. (See below for more information on when and where.)

During the first half of the 20th century, Belisle says, Canada's largest stores at the time -- Eaton's, Simpson's and the Hudson's Bay Company, for example -- asserted that they strengthened the nation by bringing affordable goods to all consumers and providing jobs for many Canadians. "However, my book disagrees with this premise," she says.

"Department stores, together with consumer capitalism, helped to enforce social and economic inequality in this country. A central argument of the book is that department stores, together with the consumer culture they promoted, helped to create a modern Canadian culture that was alienating and dependent on social disparity."

Retail Nation presents department stores as agents of nationalism and modernization, but the book also argues that the white, consumerist, middle-class nation that department stores helped to define was not a portrait of reality.

"Department stores tended to privilege white, affluent, male workers and customers over other employees and shoppers," Belisle says. "This treatment created disempowering, alienating work and shopping environments for people of African, Asian and Indigenous heritage, as well as for women and low-income people."

The department stores' sexist, racist and classist ways did not go unchallenged, Belisle maintains. For example, over 500 Eaton's employees walked out during the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, and in 1934, a crowd of over 700 unemployed people held a sit-in at the Hudson's Bay in Vancouver and demanded food and shelter.

"My book documents these activities and more," she says, "and shows that, despite the dominance of mass retail in contemporary Canada, Canadians have a rich history of resistance and protest against both giant retailers and the alienations caused by capitalist consumer culture."

Retail Nation book signing in Edmonton Saturday, November 5

Where: Chapters Strathcona, 10504 - Whyte Avenue, Edmonton

When: 12 - 4 p.m., Saturday, November 5

Links

Retail Nation: Department Stores and the Making of Modern Canada
Visit UBC Press to download a sample chapter and order the book online.

Website of Donica Belisle
Visit Belisle's website to learn more about her research.

By Diane Morrison

Oct. 24-28 is Open Access Week 2011

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:45:20 MDT

Webcasts look at what's in store for the open educational resources (OER) movement.

The movement to use open educational resources (OER) is still in its beginning stages, but Dr. Rory McGreal foresees a time in the near future when educational institutions routinely use OER. (OER are learning resources such as textbooks that are made available online to both students and educators for free).

"I would like us to be free of the proprietary publishers in 10 years, using OER for all our course materials. This is eminently possible," says McGreal, chair-holder for Athabasca University's UNESCO/Commonwealth of Learning (COL) chair in OER and associate vice-president of research at AU. "I expect that in the next year or two [the OER movement] will reach a tipping point driven by the exorbitant demands of the publishers increasing costs of texts [and] large increases in the costs of licensing for course packs."

The OER movement, along with AU's first 10 months of work as an OER chair-holder, are the focus of this year's Open Access Week activities at AU, October 24-28.

Five lunchtime webcasts open to both the AU community and the general public (see below) will explore various facets of these topics, including how the post-secondary system might restructure itself to accommodate OER better (October 25 presentation by AU president Dr. Frits Pannekoek) and how AU is moving towards using OER more widely as an institution (October 27 panel discussion with several AU administrators).

"With the growth in accessibility to digital content using tablets, mobile phones and other devices, learners [should] be able to have full access to the world's knowledge using the Internet. Unfortunately, this knowledge is being closed off ... by proprietary content owners," says McGreal. "They purposely 'cripple' these devices by disallowing copying, highlighting, sharing, format shifting and other educationally useful features."

"Because of restrictions on proprietary content, it is essential for educational institutions to switch to OER that are open to whatever use we want, whether that be format shifting, mixing, mashing or augmenting. With OER, we can make learning materials better."

See below for more information on AU's chair in OER and the AU webcasts for Open Access Week 2011.

AU's Open Access Week activities are organized by the university's Library Services.

Ten months in the life of AU's UNESCO/COL Chair in Open Educational Resources

2011 has been a productive year for Dr. Rory McGreal and the rest of the AU team working on OER initiatives. Some of the projects they've undertaken:

AU is implementing OER in courses and making AU-created OER readily available to others. Open lessons, modules and courses are available at the Athabasca University OpenCourseWare site. AU is also a member of the OpenCourseWare Consortium.
AU co-founded an OER university network initiative that aims to facilitate free learning opportunities for students everywhere in the world and to create pathways for people to earn credible post-secondary credentials for what they learn through OER.
In conjunction with the Open University of the Netherlands, which also has a UNESCO chair in OER, AU is creating a knowledge cloud repository of OER research along with supporting the creation of an international PhD in OER research.
AU has embarked on a mapping exercise to track and report on the organizations around the world that are creating, adapting and sharing OER.
AU continues to raise awareness of OER in Canada through means such as liaising with Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC).

AU's library and open educational resources

A key supporter of OER at AU is Library Services. "We make our tools, digital contents and mobile learning resources freely and openly available to the general public, without asking users to pay fees," says Tony Tin, head of digital initiatives and electronic resources at AU's Library Services. "Open educational resources have allowed the library to improve access to learning resources and facilitate the transfer of knowledge and information to learners more efficiently."

Library Services has undertaken a variety of initiatives related to OER, says Tin. For example:

The library has developed a federated search tool that allows users to search OER repositories easily.
The library is working on its own repository dedicated to OER, a fully searchable database that will provide easy access to e-books, learning objects, articles, audio and video files and other open educational resources.
The library has also developed OER for mobile devices that offer lessons on English as a second language, workplace English and French.

"Providing knowledge for free allows the library to equalize access to educational opportunities across the world," says Tin. "By sharing and reusing resources, the costs for accessing and producing such resources can be reduced. Openness is the breath of life for education and research."

AU webcasts for Open Access Week 2011

These free webcasts are available to both the AU community and the general public. Please make sure your system is properly equipped for a webcast well before the webcast begins. Also, if you can't catch a webcast in real time, you can access a recording later at AU's Open Access Week site.

Fun and Fear in Open Spaces
Monday, October 24: AU professors Dr. Terry Anderson and Dr. Jon Dron discuss the motivation for, the design of, and the challenges encountered during the first two years of the Athabasca Landing, a social networking environment for the AU community powered by elgg, an open-source social networking engine.

Post-Secondary Leadership and the OER Movement
Tuesday, October 25: Dr. Frits Pannekoek, president of both AU and the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE), explores how the post-secondary system should restructure itself to create a sustainable OER ecosystem.

Making Sense of Complexity in Open Information Environments
Wednesday, October 26: OER can prevent fragmented views of topics: a TEDTalk here, an OpenCourseWare lesson there, and so on. George Siemens, a social media strategist at AU and a founder of the connectivism theory of learning, shares new research on how learners make sense of and find their way in complex, fragmented online information environments.

Moving to Open Educational Resources at Athabasca University
Thursday, October 27: In this panel discussion, AU administrators and library staff reflect on recent OER projects at AU and the design principles underpinning OER projects. With:

Dr. Cindy Ives, director of AU's Centre for Learning Design and Development;
Dr. Lisa Carter, dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology and interim director of the Athabasca River Basin Research Institute;
Tony Tin, head of digital initiatives and electronic resources for AU's Library Services; and
Colin Elliott, Library Services digitization coordinator.

OER and Sustainable Innovation: Low Cost, Low Risk, But High Impact
Friday, October 28: This webcast provides an update on the various initiatives under the umbrella of the UNESCO chairs in OER. With:

Dr. Rory McGreal, chair-holder for AU's UNESCO/Commonwealth of Learning (COL) chair in OER and associate vice-president of research at AU, and
Dr. Wayne Mackintosh, director of the Open Education Foundation in New Zealand.

Links

Open Access Week 2011: Athabasca University
The full scoop on AU's participation in the international Open Access Week.

Open Access Week 2011
How other organizations are celebrating Open Access Week around the world.

Athabasca University UNESCO/COL Chair in Open Educational Resources (OER)
Learn more about OER initiatives at AU at this official website for AU's UNESCO/COL chair in OER.

AU Establishes Research Chair in Open Educational Resources
Open AU's story about the establishment of AU's UNESCO/COL chair in OER in January 2011.

By Erin Ottosen

Managing IT and tutoring for AU

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:45:20 MDT

Martin Kempton turns his lifelong love of learning into a second career.

When Martin Kempton began his career, computers were enormous machines that filled rooms, and university-level distance education was a concept just beginning to gain traction. But Kempton dove into both fields. He landed his first computer job in the late 1960s at age 16, and in 1970, he was among the first students to enrol at a new distance learning university in his home country of Britain.

Over 40 years later, Kempton is still on the frontlines of both computer science and distance education. After 11 years as chief information officer (CIO) for the Alberta Motor Association (AMA), he recently retired and is devoting more time to tutoring computer science courses for Athabasca University. He's now been tutoring for AU for 30 years.

The art of computer programming

Kempton's initial reason for joining AU was pragmatic. It was 1981, and he and his family had just bought a house. Interest rates were in the teens. To finance the house, he needed a second job, and he heard AU was looking for tutors. "I'd received my bachelor's degree from The Open University. Having been a student of distance education, I thought it would be interesting to sit on the other side and be involved in its delivery," he says.

Initially, Kempton planned to tutor only for a year or two. "But I came to enjoy it so much ... I find a very real pleasure in helping students understand a subject I am passionate about."

"We call [computer programming] an engineering science nowadays, but as much as anything, it is an art ... You are writing something, and there is a beauty, an elegance, in the same way that mathematical formulas have beauty to them."

When Kempton was starting out, he thought his future was in programming, but he was soon asked to be a supervisor. "I fell into the role of looking after a couple of people. And then a couple of people became five. And then five people became 10. And so gradually your role changes," he says.

The unexpected benefits of tutoring

Kempton says his AU tutoring helped him to develop skills that served him well in quadrupling his IT department at AMA from about 25 to 100 staff.

When he joined AU, the university trained him on communicating with students over the phone. "The three Ps: pace, pause and pitch," he says. "You listen for those and you try and ... sense the mood."

"You really learn how to listen to people," he continues. "We have two ears and one mouth for a purpose. We should listen twice as much as we talk."

Kempton says the skills he acquired in listening and reading people helped him become adept at recruiting high-calibre staff who would stick around. "You can recruit in haste and regret it later," he says. "I really did learn how to read people and recruit people for the long run."

Tutoring has also provided him with another unexpected benefit. "Computer languages have changed dramatically over the last 30 years," he says. "[To tutor AU courses] I've had to learn programming languages, which, normally, somebody who's an executive would never have to learn." This has kept him up to date with technology and given him intimate knowledge of the IT work he's managed.

Although he's loved keeping up with computer science and programming at the nuts-and-bolts level, what's really kept him tutoring all these years is the students. "What I enjoy most is the interpersonal -- working with students and moving them forward," he says. "The Athabasca University student typically is motivated ... There's something different about teaching people who want to learn."

And ultimately, it's the human component of both tutoring and managing that has rewarded him the most in his career. "As complex as computer programming is today, people are much more complex, and therefore more rewarding. Debugging people is so much more rewarding than simply debugging code."

Links

School of Computing & Information Systems
Visit AU's School of Computing & Information Systems website to learn more about the computer science courses and programs offered at Athabasca University.

By Erin Ottosen

When the box goes live

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:45:20 MDT

This fall, AU journalism students and Canadian soldiers prepare for working in a war zone by practising in a simulated one.

It's called "the box:" 620 square kilometres of rugged Alberta land at the Canadian Manoeuvre Training Centre (CMTC) in Wainwright that, for five years now, has been standing in for Afghanistan. This October, the box goes live again.

Eight "villages" have been built in the box. During this fall's training exercise for Athabasca University journalism students and Canadian soldiers, about 200 civilian role players and 300 military ones will move among the villages and pretend to be the people you would encounter in a real war zone.

Each day -- and quite often, night -- the soldiers will deal with events and incidents that imitate the scenarios they might face in the real world. Refugees may swarm in and ask for food and shelter, for example, or the soldiers will be shot at by insurgents. Meanwhile, the journalist students will tell the stories that emerge from these scenarios, producing print and broadcast news on a daily basis under the guidance of experienced news producers.

"Once the exercise begins, the box is live continuously, 24 hours a day, seven days a week," says Tom St. Denis, the AU adjunct professor and former Canadian Forces public affairs officer who played a key role in creating the exercise. "Something is happening virtually every hour of every day."

Initially an offshoot of the training program for soldiers at the CMTC, the exercise has since become a program in its own right and the cornerstone practicum for AU's Journalism in Conflict Zones course. The course is open to journalism and communication studies students and recent grads as well as working journalists interested in a unique, hands-on learning experience.

"They have an opportunity to do everything," says St. Denis, adding that the students can write, film, edit, be on camera, and take a turn being the news anchor. "Whatever they want to do is available for them to try."

"Everybody starts off hesitant," he continues. "They're dealing with a different culture, a different environment ... But at the end of the exercise, after doing real journalism intensely for 14 days straight, you can see people have grown in confidence and really have a grip on what they're doing."

And they leave with a DVD portfolio of their best work. "There they are [in their broadcast pieces], with their helmet on and their fragmentation vest," says St. Denis. "Tanks may be rolling past them in the background; you can hear the shooting in the distance ... It certainly sets you apart from the competition when you look for a job."

The journalist students aren't the only ones who benefit, St. Denis adds -- the soldiers also learn how to work with media, an increasingly important part of their job. The win-win nature of the program helped St. Denis sell it to the CMTC back when he was getting it started, and it's been so successful that he and the Canadian Forces are working on expanding it into a more wide-reaching program. This expansion work is part of his duties as an adjunct professor with AU, a new role for him that he took on this summer.

St. Denis was also recognized this summer for his work on the program with a 2011 Innovation Award from the Department of National Defence (DND). Though he appreciates the recognition, he's quick to deflect the spotlight. "I'm really not that good," he says. "If I've got one talent, it's the ability to get good people to work for me, and they make me look good."

But St. Denis is pleased that he and his program colleagues have come up with a practical solution for a problem he observed when he worked as a public affairs officer for the Canadian Forces.

"Journalists would come [into a war zone] for a 10-day visit, and for the first five days, they'd be virtually in a daze. They'd have no idea what's going on," he says. "So you'd spend the first part of the visit getting them to the point where they could ask intelligent, meaningful questions. And that was frustrating, for us and for them.

"So that's what we're trying to do: equip journalists with a whole lot more knowledge and boots-on-the-ground experience in covering the military. They'll benefit, the military benefits, and the Canadian people benefit."

Links

Journalism in Conflict Zones
Learn more about this unique practicum course. CMNS 453 is the one-credit version that includes only the practicum. CMNS 451 is the three-credit version that includes additional coursework beyond the practicum.

Feature Article in No. 2 Open Magazine (Page 12)
This in-depth feature on the Journalism in Conflict Zones course was in the 2009/10 issue of Open magazine.

By Erin Ottosen

All over the world

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:45:20 MDT

AU social media strategist George Siemens honoured for connecting with international audiences.

Technology is bringing people closer together -- geographically, intellectually and pedagogically. And the barriers and borders that used to restrict the exchange of people's ideas are being scaled back by technology more and more.

One indication of this is the award recently presented to George Siemens, a social media strategist with the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute (TEKRI) at Athabasca University.

Siemens received the 2011 International Education and ICT (Information and Communication Technology) Prize from Fundación Telefónica, a foundation based in Spain and South America, and OEI (Organisation of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture).

The award, worth 6,000 euros, is for "personalities who have excelled in applied educational innovation through ITC."

The ideas and influence of Siemens are clearly being felt all over the world.

"The award recognizes that the discussion of ideas and concepts is no longer confined to one language or one country," Siemens says. "Ideas have influence and impact around the world."

Over the past year, Siemens has been involved in online presentations about education technology targeted to audiences in the European Union as well as a course on social media offered in conjunction with the University of Valencia in Spain. He has also given a number of English presentations in Spain, and his book, Knowing Knowledge, an exploration of how the context and characteristics of knowledge have changed, has also been translated into Spanish.

Siemens joined AU in November 2009 and has spent much of the last few years analyzing how social media can help educators provide students with an enhanced learning experience.

"The value of social media -- blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networking -- in learning is readily apparent," Siemens says. "Any opportunity or technology that enables the formation of connections between learners and educators is worth exploring."

Siemens is one of the leaders of the connectivism perspective in education. Connectivism is the assertion that knowledge is networked, and learning is the process of growing, pruning, and extending networks. These networks exist on three levels:

neural (the biological process of learning),
conceptual (depth of learning), and
social or external.

With the growing complexity of society, networks allow people to make sense of continuous change.

This coming spring, Siemens will also receive an honorary doctorate from the University of San Martín de Porres in Lima, Perú.

By Diane Morrison

Brandon Best finds the student hidden within

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:45:20 MDT

BMgmt student discovers the key to his academic success.

Brandon Best has figured out a great way to avoid Edmonton's evening rush hour traffic -- instead of hitting the road after work, he hits the books.

"I've got a full-time job, I do part-time work as an independent contractor, and I live an adult life," explains the Bachelor of Management student who is majoring in marketing. "I have a mortgage to pay, so going to school full-time isn't an option. I have to fit school into my schedule."

He does that by squeezing some studying into his lunch break and then doing another couple of hours right after work. Once traffic slows down, he heads home, has dinner and might hit the books some more.

Best acknowledges that it isn't always fun, but it's what he has to do in order to get the kind of career he wants. After completing a management diploma and working for 10 years, he discovered he needed more education to get a job he wanted and to advance in his chosen field of marketing.

And since starting the Athabasca University program in 2009, he's discovered he's a much better learner than he ever thought. "I'm the type of person who doesn't really enjoy school," he says of traditional in-class learning. "I had trouble focusing, paying attention and listening to instructors lecture in the classroom. But teaching myself is much smoother.

"I found I have to be personally motivated, and then it's more enjoyable. I'm seeing the results quicker, and it's giving me a better outcome. I've noticed my grades are a lot higher, and it makes it easier to get motivated when you can see those results."

He admits to being somewhat apprehensive about learning independently through an online program, but he's since learned that the combination of the AU program's flexibility and his own motivation is the key to his academic success.

"It is working out really well for me -- it makes sense for me," he says. "I think most people would surprise themselves once they started learning this way. I was never a really good student and didn't do that well in school ... With AU, I've learned to apply myself more. Now I'm a student."

By Cathy Nickel

“Was it hard? Absolutely.”

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 15:45:20 MDT

Christie Hall explains why her communication studies degree from AU belongs to her whole family.

Everyone has a story to tell, and Open AU wants to hear from you. Are you an AU student or graduate? How has AU changed your life? Let us know, and your story could appear in Open AU. Don't forget to include a high-resolution photo! Send Us Your Story

I was at a crossroads -- suddenly a single mother of two young children, unemployed, and not as educated as I needed to be. I found a retail job that would pay the bills, but it was not what I wanted to do for the long term. I wanted something more for myself, and more importantly, I wanted something more for my children.

I dreamed of completing my post-secondary education begun over 10 years previous. Juggling work and two children on my own was challenging at the best of times. Adding a demanding class schedule into the mix seemed impossible. Athabasca University provided the perfect solution.

I transferred my previous credits from a local university and enrolled in Athabasca's Bachelor of Professional Arts in Communication Studies. Although I wasn't sure what direction I would go with it, I did know that it would open up any number of options for my future career.

I loved the flexibility of working around preschool and kindergarten schedules and not having to pay the extra costs of child care and transportation to class. At a time when my kids had been through the turmoil of a marriage separation and moving to a new house, I was able to be there for them whenever they needed me. I felt like I was able to accomplish my own goals while still ensuring that the kids were my first priority.

Over the course of three years, I spent many late nights at my desk. I lost track of how many papers I wrote and how many emails went back and forth between myself and my instructors. Was it hard? Absolutely. There were many times when I felt overwhelmed by the amount of work still ahead of me. There were nights when I struggled to stay awake and finish one more chapter or one more assignment. But quitting was never an option -- I wanted my kids to see me finish this. I wanted to be the first person in my family to complete a university degree. And more importantly, I wanted to be an example of what it means to persevere and to never give up.

During my time with AU, I bought and renovated a house, got remarried, changed jobs, and watched my children grow from preschoolers to smart, articulate, happy, well-adjusted elementary school kids. I finished my degree without taking time away from them because of the flexibility of distance education at Athabasca University.

My kids understand what homework is, because they saw me do mine. They understand that learning is an enjoyable process, because they saw the joy it brought me. They understand what working hard in school can accomplish, because they've seen what it did for me.

Completing my degree was a huge accomplishment for me at a time when many people thought I wouldn't be able to do it. My self-confidence got a much-needed boost from reaching this goal. That self-confidence led me to start my own business as a communications consultant. And I now continue to enjoy the flexible schedule I discovered while studying at AU by being my own boss and working from my home office. I can be there for my kids after school, volunteer for class trips, take them to swimming lessons and dance classes, and have all the neighbourhood kids over to bake chocolate chip cookies. Just like when I was studying, I still spend many late-night hours at my desk, but my daytime hours belong to my kids.

We couldn't make the trip to convocation, but when my degree arrived in the mail, I had it framed immediately, and the kids officially presented it to me (in their own goofy way). That degree represents so much to me and to our family. It belongs to all of us and hangs on the wall in my office as a constant reminder of the value of hard work, perseverance, and what can be accomplished when you refuse to give up on a dream.

By Christie Hall

Edmondson’s evolution

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:45:20 MDT

MAIS alumna Jill Edmondson enjoys her newfound success as a mystery novelist with a TV deal for her Sasha Jackson novels.

"My initial dreams of being a writer were very loose, very nebulous," admits Jill Edmondson, an English instructor at George Brown College and a 2009 alumna of Athabasca University's Master of Arts - Integrated Studies (MAIS) program. "Becoming a published author was less a goal than what seemed to be a natural evolution from bookworm [and] mystery fan."

And now Edmondson's evolution as a mystery novelist is continuing at a rapid rate. Since 2009, two of her novels about private investigator heroine Sasha Jackson have been published, and a third is due in bookstores this November. And, this summer, her Sasha Jackson mysteries were optioned for development as a TV series by a Canadian production company.

"I can't give many details yet," says Edmondson, "but they are developing it for a cable network. I have no idea how involved I'll be, and I know it will be ages before cameras start rolling, but it's exciting nonetheless!"

Edmondson did her MAIS concentration in cultural studies with an emphasis on literature, writing and drama. "I have been able to parlay much of my MAIS experiences ... into my personal-professional-publishing life," she says.

For example, her final paper in MAIS 635: Equality in Context indirectly led to her second novel Dead Light District.

"The final essay was on human rights and the sex trade," she says. "I did tons of research for the assignment and learned all sorts of interesting -- and horrifying -- things about the world of commercial sex and human rights. A lot of the information simply didn't make it into the final essay. I hated the idea of not using it somewhere, somehow. Eventually, I used a lot of that leftover info as the background to the plot of Dead Light District."

Additionally, two independent reading courses on crime fiction with assistant professor Dr. Veronica Thompson benefited her greatly when she was working on Blood and Groom, her first published novel.

"I learned so much and built extensively on my background and knowledge of crime fiction, especially women in crime fiction, that I had a good idea of what novels were already in stores, what was lacking, and what fans of the genre, and publishers, would like to have."

This foundation in mystery fiction paid off. "I wrote Blood and Groom in six months and sent out query letters to prospective publishers," she recalls. "I landed a publishing contract in three months, which really is fast in the book world."

When Blood and Groom came out, she was thrilled to see reviews in newspapers such as the Globe and Mail and to walk into bookstores and see her book on the shelf.

"My novel in stores and libraries all over Canada? Wow! I wouldn't have guessed it 10 years ago," she says.

Every writer hopes their work will be received well by readers, and Edmondson is encouraged by the response to both Blood and Groom and Dead Light District. "I love hearing that people really like the Sasha Jackson detective character and that readers are looking forward to the next Sasha book, The Lies Have It," she says. "What a feeling!"

Fans will be pleased to know that further titles in the series are in the works. "Book four, called Frisky Business, is well underway, and I've done the outline for book five, which is tentatively called Home Sweet Homicide."

As for the TV series, "I'm busy fantasizing about who will be cast to play the various leading roles!" Edmondson says with a laugh. "I'm really happy that the producer has the same vision for Sasha Jackson as I do. They won't dilute Sasha's character -- this is why it's being developed for cable. Sasha's edgy and sexy -- think of a rock-and-roll Nancy Drew all grown up and swilling a martini! They also plan for the TV series to be set in Toronto, which I think is very important. If it were changed to New York or Chicago or something, it would lose a lot of its essence."

Links

Jill Edmondson Website
Visit Jill Edmondson's website for more information about the Sasha Jackson novels, media reviews and more.

a-MAIS-ing Newsletter
For more news about AU's Master of Arts - Integrated Studies (MAIS) program, including a longer feature on Jill Edmondson in the summer 2011 issue, check out the a-MAIS-ing newsletter.

By Gloria Filax

A future beyond coal, oil and gas

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:45:20 MDT

AU embarks on a community sustainability project for Hinton and Grande Cache.

Faced with dwindling coal, oil and gas reserves and the environmental concerns that come along with extracting these non-renewable resources, Alberta towns Hinton and Grande Cache are looking for other ways to fuel their economies and sustain their communities -- and a group of AU researchers are lending them a hand.

Several AU professors are partners in a project called Advancing Economic, Environmental and Social Sustainability: An Academic/Municipal Partnership for Resource-Based Communities in Alberta. The multi-year project focuses on Hinton and Grande Cache.

"Rather than live in a province or nation of ghost towns, looking after the needs of current and future generations of a community is of moral concern," says Dr. Aris Solomon, an associate professor in the Faculty of Business and one of the researchers involved.

"One approach is to try and combine social, economic and environmental concerns into a forward-looking plan."

The project came about because Hinton and Grande Cache were moving forward with sustainability plans and were looking for assistance, says Dr. Dietmar Kennepohl, AU's associate vice-president, academic, and a member of the project team.

The project was a good fit for AU, he says, because a number of AU faculty members have related research interests, and AU was also looking for research projects that could tie in with the university's Athabasca River Basin Research Institute. (Both Hinton and Grande Cache are close to the Athabasca River.)

The Alberta Regional Development Network provided funds to help the communities form a partnership with AU and NorQuest College.

"Our college partner, NorQuest, has a strong culture of providing foundational learning opportunities with expertise in aboriginal education, applied research and workplace solutions. They are also very community-based," Kennepohl says.

"Then there is AU's own culture of open access and breaking down barriers, coupled with a strong sense of consensus-building and experience in engaging a wide range of communities."

The project's first conference, Setting the Stage, was held in Hinton. The research team is now in the second phase of the project.

How AU researchers are contributing to the project

Dr. Aris Solomon's research in corporate governance and accountability will look at the sustainable impact of corporate and industrial activity and government.
Dr. Pat Fahy's research relates to community education and includes work force assessments, literacy and English-as-a-second-language training.
Dr. Lorna Stefanick's research in community transition is exploring the political environments in Grande Cache and Hinton. She will develop recommendations for mountain and resource communities undergoing change.
Dr. Deborah Hurst's research in transition leadership development is examining community readiness, leadership knowledge and skills transferability and the realities impacting change.
Dr. Michael Gismondi's research involves the social economy (co-operative, not-for-profit, enterprising non-profit and the voluntary sector) and emphasizes local control, community development and the role of local politics in the transition to sustainability.

By Diane Morrison

A physical milestone for a virtual university

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:45:20 MDT

AU opens its new Academic and Research Centre (ARC).

Three storeys tall, over 5,000 square metres (53,800 square feet) and just under four years in the making, Athabasca University's $30-million Academic and Research Centre (ARC) is almost complete, and the university community officially opened the new building on July 29 with guests and friends such as Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach.

"The ARC is the first new building on the Athabasca campus since the original building was opened in 1984," said Barry Walker, chair of the Athabasca University Governing Council (AUGC).

"It will provide much-needed work space and services for the university to grow here in Athabasca. We are very proud of the design of the building, particularly given our new architectural program and our commitment to being green."

With a number of environmentally friendly features such as high-efficiency heating and air conditioning systems built into the floors rather than the ceilings, the ARC is on track to earn a gold certification from Canada's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.

But more than that, the ARC is a breathtaking building with a design that diverges from the box style of so many buildings from the 20th century.

The ARC's east wall curves gently out, and the roof, which is at a 15-degree angle, is constructed from spruce and pine trees. Large windows are a prominent feature on all three floors, providing panoramic views of the surrounding countryside. The windows have also been configured so that sunlight will always shine into the building as the sun travels across the sky.

These design features and many others will create a healthy and energizing work space for the 120 faculty and staff members moving into the ARC this fall.

Dwindling space for faculty and staff has been an issue for AU ever since the university began to experience rapid growth in the late 1990s. Over the years, AU has had to find new spaces in Athabasca and Edmonton to house staff, and more faculty members have elected to work from home.

"So many times [people said to me], ‘You're building a building for a distance institution. Why do they need buildings? Aren't they virtual?'" said Vivian Manasc, senior principal of Manasc Isaac Architects, the firm that designed the ARC.

"Yet it's because AU is a virtual university that this building is so important," Manasc said. "It creates the social capital, the hub, the heart, the physical representation of the most significant open university in this country."

Moving towards a knowledge-based economy in Alberta

The ARC wouldn't have been possible without the Government of Alberta, which provided the $30 million needed to construct the building. Jeff Johnson, MLA for Athabasca-Redwater, thanked Premier Ed Stelmach for supporting the ARC.

"That support is going to enable these excellent folks at AU to keep up the great work they've been doing for Alberta," said Johnson, who was a member of the advocacy group that lobbied for the construction of the building.

"[The advocacy group's] vision for Athabasca University certainly caught the attention of government," Stelmach said. "Now is the time to take the proceeds [from oil and gas] and convert these proceeds into a knowledge-based economy. That is where we've got to be, because the world is changing rapidly, and it's education, innovation and research that's going to get us there."

Links

The Building of the Entire ARC in One Minute and 12 Seconds
This video of time-lapse construction photos shows the entire building process for the ARC in just over a minute.

Academic and Research Centre (ARC)
This website tells the full story behind the building of the ARC.

By Erin Ottosen

Earth's first Trojan asteroid discovered by AU professor

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:45:20 MDT

Discovery feeds into NASA and Obama space exploration plans.

Athabasca University professor Dr. Martin Connors and two colleagues have confirmed the existence of the first known Trojan asteroid associated with Earth. The discovery is highlighted in the July 28, 2011, edition of Nature magazine.

"The discovery is important because it proves that Trojans can exist in orbit around the sun in a very earth-like orbit," says Connors. "And since U.S. President Obama announced NASA's intentions to land a man on an asteroid by 2025, we may find Trojans or related asteroids that are the ideal candidates for that landing."

The Trojan, called 2010 TK7, was first detected by Connors and colleagues Paul Weigert and Christian Veillet using NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite launched in 2009. The discovery was confirmed using the ground-based Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in April 2011.

Previously, Trojans associated with Jupiter, Neptune and Mars were known to exist. 2010 TK7 proves that they also are found in stable orbits similar to Earth's. "This should make it easier for scientists to get telescope time to look for other Earth Trojans," says Connors. "I'm confident others will be found, giving the space program a number of candidates for a landing by the president's goal of 2025."

Dr. Rory McGreal, associate vice-president of research at AU, is thrilled with the discovery by his colleague.

"I know that Dr. Connors has spent many nights scouring our northern skies and days trudging through the snowy fields of northern Alberta searching for meteorites. This Nature article is a clear demonstration of the importance of his work and adds to his international reputation."

Connors is the Canada Research Chair in Space Science at Athabasca University. He is in charge of the Athabasca University Geophysical Observatory in northern Alberta and is a world-renowned expert in asteroids and near-earth objects.

Links

Earth's Trojan Asteroid
This article in Nature, an international weekly journal of science, describes the discovery of the Trojan asteroid in detail.

Canadian Scientists Find Earth's First Companion Asteroid
Edmonton Journal story about the asteroid.

Trojan Asteroid Discovered in Earth Orbit
ABC News story about the asteroid.

By John O'Brien

Blanke’s game plan

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:45:20 MDT

WHL hockey player and AU student Andrew Blanke shoots for both goals and grades.

As a centre for the Swift Current Broncos, Andrew Blanke knows firsthand how a big play in the first period can make all the difference in the game's final score. It should come as no surprise, then, that he's acting now to prepare for his future -- by taking courses through Athabasca University.

Blanke is one of 11 Broncos who are studying with AU while playing for the Western Hockey League (WHL), thanks in part to a 2009 agreement between the WHL and AU.

"I had always thought I would have to fully commit to either hockey or school and make a choice [between the two]," says the 19-year-old from Swift Current who is in his third season with his home team. "But with online learning, I can do both at the same time."

Courses in microeconomics, financial accounting and calculus match his strengths in math and science. In addition to earning an A average, he's also honing his self-motivation, self-discipline and time- and money-management skills, all of which are important to his success both on and off the ice.

Growing up following the Broncos and being a big fan -- "they were my heroes" -- he's relishing being a part of his hometown team, and he acknowledges that hockey is and must be his first priority right now.

"When you're playing at our calibre, you have to put hockey first or you won't be on the team," he says. While he's doing all he can to take his hockey career as far as it will go, with the ultimate goal to play in the NHL, he knows "you always need to have a backup plan. By taking courses now, I'll be able to pick up school when I want to."

Blending play and school can require deft stickhandling. With three to four hours of practice every day, travel, games and community events, "there are times when it's really busy and you have to balance everything; you have to prioritize." Having teammates with similar life goals has helped.

While online learning was new to him, Blanke quickly realized that not having to squeeze his time into a pre-scheduled on-campus class offered great flexibility. "Sometimes it is really challenging to teach yourself, and the biggest thing is that you have to be motivated," he admits. "It's easy to say ‘I'll do it later' because no one is pushing you. So there's a parallel between the discipline needed to be good in hockey and to be good in school."

Making the Broncos lineup "was a sweet thing for me and my family," Blanke says, and he fully intends to make the most of the opportunity -- and that includes his AU studies, which are paid for by the WHL.

"In 10 to 12 years when I have my degree or I'm playing pro hockey, I'll be able to look back and realize how much... it paid off, how important it was."

Taking steps towards health

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:45:20 MDT

AU professor's HEALD study tailors an exercise and diet program for people with diabetes.

Nearly one in four Canadians either has diabetes or pre-diabetes, and more than 20 people are diagnosed with the disease every hour of every day. The number of people with diabetes has risen dramatically because of factors such as rising obesity rates and increasingly sedentary lifestyles.

Unfortunately, when people are diagnosed with diabetes, they don’t always receive a great deal of medical support to help them live healthier lifestyles, says Dr. Steven Johnson, an assistant professor in AU’s Faculty of Health Disciplines.

“It’s a very confusing and scary time for people, and most patients get little more than a 15-minute talk on diet and exercise,” says Johnson. “Fifteen minutes or an hour to change your lifestyle probably doesn’t do it.”

Johnson’s Healthy Eating and Active Living for Diabetes (HEALD) research project is investigating how much support diabetes patients need to positively change their lifestyles as well as how much that support costs.

The study, which has been ongoing for over a year now, pairs Type 2 diabetics with an exercise specialist in a group setting. Participants learn about using the glycemic index to help manage their diet, and they’re taught how to set goals around daily walking. They’re also encouraged to walk faster (but not run). Meanwhile, researchers track changes in their weight, blood glucose, blood pressure and lipids.

Walking with the right intensity

Many health agencies recommend that people walk 10,000 steps a day to be healthy. The HEALD study grew out of Johnson’s concern that people with Type 2 diabetes weren’t getting the health benefits they need from simply walking 10,000 steps a day.

“I developed the program after I questioned whether simply walking more was enough to impart health benefits for people with Type 2 diabetes,” he says.

In previous research, Johnson used pedometers (which count the number of steps a person takes) to track the walking habits of Type 2 diabetics. He found that even though they might be walking 10,000 steps a day, the speed and intensity of their steps was not high enough to bring about significant health benefits for them.

A walking program monitored by a fitness professional, however, can help ensure that diabetics are walking at the right intensity level and speed to get fit, lose weight and lower their blood pressure.

In 2009, Johnson and colleagues at the University of Alberta published an article in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism showing that if people increase their total daily steps for 12 weeks and then, for another 12 weeks, walk faster for 30 minutes three times a week, their body weight, blood pressure and resting heart rate will all be reduced.

“[In that study] we reduced folks’ cardiovascular disease risk in 24 weeks,” says Johnson.

They also came up with the recommendation that people with diabetes should walk for at least 30 minutes three days a week at a level of moderate intensity, and each walk should equal about 30% of their total daily steps. “This means that for many people, 3,000 steps in 30 minutes should [give them good health benefits],” Johnson says.

That being said, curbing the effects of diabetes is not as simple as doling out this recommendation to patients. “There are individual patient considerations and also health system considerations -- it is an extremely complicated multi-level problem,” says Johnson. “That’s the reason I’m studying the issue.”

The cost of diabetes for the Canadian health care system in 2010 was about $12.2 billion, nearly double the cost in 2000. Costs are expected to rise to $16.9 billion by 2020.

In addition to the HEALD study, Johnson is part of a group at AU seeking a Canada Foundation for Innovation grant to build a health research lab for the Faculty of Health Disciplines. This lab would benefit a number of health-related research programs at AU and would be available to faculty members and students.

By Diane Morrison

And the iPad goes to...

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:45:20 MDT

Winner of the Send Us Your Story contest announced.

Rachel Cossar has won Open AU's Send Us Your Story contest. Rachel, a professional ballet dancer who is studying political science with Athabasca University, was selected through a random draw to win an iPad.

Thanks to all the students and alumni who sent us their stories. We plan to share a few more of them over the coming months.

Here's Rachel's story:

From a very young age, my life took an unusual turn. I did not attend my local elementary or secondary school. Rather, my parents had decided to enrol me in rhythmic gymnastics classes, and before I (or they) knew it, I was attending special gymnastics and ballet schools in different cities all over Canada. It turned out I had a special talent in it, so I had to go to special schools for it.

For better or worse, my talent took me away from traditional formal education, and I found myself pursuing my studies sometimes alone, sometimes with other gymnasts, but always at a distance and hardly ever in a classroom.

Learning took on a different complexion for me from the very beginning. It required total independence of mind and self-discipline. I was never able to sit in a chair and be a passive participant in the learning process. If I did not make learning happen, it simply did not happen. I thought learning was just like anything else I did -- a personal challenge and another form of competition.

At 17, with my Ontario scholar high school diploma in hand, I accepted a position with the Boston Ballet to be a professional ballet dancer. Unlike many professional dancers, I decided to continue my post-secondary education. The only way to make this possible would be to pursue university studies by distance and online learning.

I thus registered for a bilingual degree in political science with Laurentian University. The academic advisors at Laurentian University have been such a huge support for me. After having exhausted all of their online political science courses, they sent me to Athabasca University.

Here, I had one of my first major academic challenges. During my upper-year course on Canadian federalism, POLI 390, my instructor pointed out some pretty basic structural and stylistic flaws in my writing. I had breezed through most of my studies up until this point and had had very little in the way of critical feedback. Suddenly, I was being asked to produce concise, coherent essays on vague political topics. After my initial indignant reaction, I appreciated the criticism. I have since applied myself to addressing the criticism and have been slowly making improvements in my writing.

I am now beginning my second course through Athabasca University; I will pursue my efforts towards a more fine-tuned style of writing. It is very difficult to complete course after course in an online setting; however, at this point in my life, I see no other way to pursue both my passion and my profession while continuing down the road of academia.

University institutions such as Athabasca make it possible for me to continue my studies at my own pace and within my own lifestyle. I am able to pursue my dream and my reality while securing my future.

I am often reminded of the famous poem by Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Thanks to Athabasca University, I believe this difference can be made true, and I wish to someday incorporate all that I have learned and continue to learn in the ballet environment, on stage and in the studio, with the world at large.

The voice of AU’s graduate students

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 15:45:20 MDT

Athabasca University Graduate Students' Association (AUGSA) introduces itself.

Samuel Butler, 20th-century author, conveyed the pitfalls of alliances brilliantly when he wrote, "Union may be strength, but it is mere blind brute strength unless wisely directed."

The Athabasca University Graduate Students' Association (AUGSA) was established to be that directing force for AU's 4,000 graduate students.

AUGSA is a student-run, student-driven organization. We provide services for AU graduate students and advocate to both the university and the government on their behalf for outstanding, affordable education.

Being a young student association (we formed in 2005, and major foundational changes occurred in 2009), the recent years have been times of breaking barriers and establishing a wisely directed voice for AU graduate students.

Who's on AUGSA

AUGSA is managed by an elected council of student executives and student representatives from AU's four faculties and the Centre for Distance Education. One full-time employee, Adam Snider, supports us in carrying out the association mandate.

AUGSA services

Here's a snapshot of the services we offer our graduate students:

E-newsletter
Orientation sessions
Awards (e.g., Graduate Citizenship Award, Outstanding Distinction Awards, travel awards for students attending conferences)
An annual research translation and professional development conference
Resources for skills development (for example, we recently offered a course on how to use social media to enhance one's learning)
In-person meet-and-greet networking events across Canada
Online discussion forums
Volunteer opportunities (looks great on your CV!)

Advocacy for AU graduate students

An important priority of AUGSA is advocating for our graduate students' needs within the university community, provincially and federally.

AUGSA sits on the Athabasca University Governing Council (AUGC) and advocates for:

Increasing graduate student representation on AUGC
Creating teaching assistant and research assistant roles for graduate students
Offering AU email addresses for graduate students
Increasing scholarships and bursaries for students living outside of Alberta
Developing a better course evaluation process
Ensuring students have access to consistent and high-quality academic advising as they map out their programs

Provincially, AUGSA regularly discusses graduate student needs with MLAs, including the minister of Alberta Advanced Education and Technology. AUGSA is also a member of the Alberta Graduate Council, a provincial lobby organization that represents the 18,000 graduate students at Alberta's four comprehensive academic and research universities (University of Alberta, University of Calgary, University of Lethbridge and AU).

Federally, AUGSA is a member of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA), a federal lobby group representing over 320,000 of Canada's one million post-secondary students. CASA meets with MPs and proposes policies that aid graduate students, ensuring the federal government hears the voice of graduate students from across Canada.

Getting involved with AUGSA

If you're a graduate student at AU, we need you! We need you to get involved and voice your opinions and concerns.

We have various committees that we encourage you to join:

Awards Committee (administers awards that recognize student, faculty and staff achievements)
Bylaw Committee (reviews and interprets AUGSA bylaws)
Newsletter Committee (writes and edits our e-newsletter)
Policy Committee (assists in researching and drafting AUGSA policies)

Working together, we will create a stronger, wiser guiding force for AU graduate students.

For more information, visit the links below, or email us: augsa@augsa.com

Links

Athabasca University Graduate Students' Association (AUGSA)
AUGSA's website is the place to go for comprehensive information about its services and activities.

AUGSA 2011-12 Executive Committee Video
AUGSA's Executive Committee introduces themselves in this one-minute video.

AUGSA Council Member Bios
Visit this webpage to learn more about the members of the AUGSA council.

Graduate Student Awards
This webpage lists some of the awards, scholarships and bursaries that are available to AU graduate students.

By the Athabasca University Graduate Students' Association

Broken laws

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:45:20 MDT

AU study finds that Alberta child labour laws are often violated and rarely enforced.

An AU professor’s study on child labour has made headlines in Alberta with its finding that employers are frequently breaking the province's laws around working conditions for kids.

“Alberta’s child labour laws are not adequately enforced,” says Dr. Bob Barnetson, an associate professor of labour relations in AU’s Centre for Work and Community Studies and the author of the study.

“Children and adolescents frequently work in prohibited occupations. Employers routinely violate rules around hours of work, wages and deductions. Few complaints are filed, and employers face no chance of penalty.”

If child labour laws are to be meaningful, Barnetson says, government has to enforce them through means such as conducting random inspections of workplaces and penalizing violators.

“Or they should repeal Alberta’s child labour laws and face the political heat,” he says. “But enacting laws and then not enforcing them is simply deceitful.”

The purpose of Barnetson’s study was twofold:

to determine how many children (ages nine to 11) and adolescents (ages 12 to 14) were employed in Alberta and
to assess the degree that their employment conditions complied with Alberta’s child labour laws as set out in the Employment Standards Code.

Barnetson surveyed 1,200 Alberta homes in 2008 and 2009 to collect data on child and adolescent employment rates and fields of employment. He then followed up by interviewing 20 working children and their parents to put the statistical findings into context and get a sense of what sorts of violations were occurring.

He says the study stemmed from his experience in Alberta Employment and Immigration. “We always thought there was child labour in violation of Alberta’s child labour laws, but no one knew to what extent it was happening,” he says.

In addition to kids working in occupations prohibited by law, the interviews revealed widespread violations of other employment standards such as kids working too many hours and receiving less than minimum wage and illegal payroll deductions for uniforms.

Barnetson’s study was funded by the Alberta Federation of Labour and appears in Volume 16 of Just Labour: A Canadian Journal of Work and Society.

Key findings of Bob Barnetson’s study on child labour in Alberta

About 8,200 kids aged nine to 11 (6.3% of Alberta children) had jobs. Of these, 78% were working jobs that are illegal for their age group such as janitorial services and newspaper delivery. The remaining 22% had jobs such as babysitting and yard work.
About 26,000 kids aged 12 to 14 (19.4% of Alberta adolescents) had jobs. Of these, 21% were working jobs prohibited for their age group such as janitorial services and working for sports teams and on golf courses.

By Diane Morrison

Adventures in research

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 15:45:20 MDT

AU students blog about their research trip in Borneo with Ethical Expeditions.

Three Athabasca University students are on a research adventure this summer: they’re in a Borneo field school organized by Ethical Expeditions, a non-governmental organization (NGO), conducting research in ethno-cultural studies and biodiversity.

As they do their research, they’re also blogging about their adventure, and Open AU is publishing some of these blog entries here. We will announce each new entry via Twitter.

Enjoy!

For more information about the Ethical Expeditions 2011 Borneo field school, visit: Ethical Expeditions

Please note: The views expressed in this blog are those of the students and not Athabasca University.

July 3, 2011: The end is upon us
(Michael Babcock)

Well, we have been to the forest and back. Incredible. That is all I can say about the forest. Incredible. As I walk down the rivers and see the tall, tall trees and the sunlight that squeezes down to the ground; as I fall down in the river and drink the cold, clear water directly from its source; as I listen to the sounds, really listen, allowing myself to get overwhelmed by beauty, all I can hear are Wordsworth’s famous words echoing through the trees:

... and that I, so long
a worshipper of nature
hither came, unwearied in
that service...

I have travelled to a couple of interesting places in my life, but the Hutan Lindung is a really, really, special place. Really special. I don’t know how up-to-date you are on the current situation in Kalimantan, but there are very few places left like the Hutan Lindung, and perhaps because most of the island of Borneo actually looked like this only 40 years ago, maybe it makes it that much more special?

Don’t call me a conservationist. Don’t call me this or don’t call me that for that matter, but think about this: when something is everywhere it is nothing special, and it is only once we start to lose what was once abundant that we feel compelled to do something. Don’t let the words “should have” or “could have” enter your vocabulary, is the sage advice that this young man can give.

Furthermore, why is it that we always feel regret when it is too late? If we do something that we know is wrong it is not at the time of the decision that regret is felt; isn’t that funny? I may as well drop this subject, I reckon; I don’t want to get overly philosophical, and you probably don’t want that either...

Anyway, my time in the forest was not the only special time that I have had in the last couple of days. I reckon I mentioned in an earlier post that my family was preparing a bash? I still have no idea what it was for, but it lasted three days and was great fun. The second night we stayed up partying, and then there was a wonderful transformation at about 3:30 a.m. when everyone ate, put their drinks away and began to work. I slept on the kitchen floor for about 30 minutes and then went outside to help make a fire to cook rice.

This is rice country. They prepare a special rice for these bashes that is wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in bamboo over the burning embers of a previously large fire. I got to participate in all aspects from the cutting of the bamboo to the washing to the -- oh no wait, that is a lie -- I did not actually try to put the banana leaves into the bamboo, but I filled the bamboo flutes with rice and then kind of helped start the fire. We can consider drinking coffee and eating cake helping, right? Sorry, sidetracked; I helped in a number of ways and can claim to have completed the majority of the steps that are needed to cook plooh. That is all I am trying to say.

Anyway, the special moment came as I walked out of the house at 4 a.m. and saw six men cutting wood in the darkness. Fifteen minutes later there was a huge blaze that lit the entire yard and the surrounding houses, and as more and more men came out of their homes to help with the preparations, we all sat in silence, smoking cigarettes, drinking coffee, and staring at the fire.

As my final blog entry for this trip, I want to leave you all with this: no matter where you go and no matter what language people speak when you get there, there are certain events and moments that speak nothing but beauty and fraternity. It is an eternal, all-encompassing bond, and I truly believe that we all become family as these moments of serene beauty and intense emotion beg us all to stop, watch, and listen.

We leave the village tomorrow. And thus the end is upon us.

Ding Siang.

June 24, 2011: The biggest dilemma in the world today
(Michael Babcock)

Greetings everyone.

What is happening in the community of Nehas Liah Bing? This is partially what we are trying to figure out while we are here. Of course, we will not be able to figure it all out in the time that we have, but we will talk to as many people as we can and try to form a small understanding. So, I want to talk about the community and money. Okay, get ready for some of my opinions, please.

I think that money can have a somewhat negative impact on a community. Well, perhaps not money, but businesses and where people choose to spend their money. My real problem is what I like to call the monoliths that now decorate the outskirts of many towns and cities across North America. Sure they have cheaper goods for people in the community, but is it better for a community, for community unity and social cohesion, to have these huge, often outsider-owned, businesses?

What people do with their money is of course their own business, but what happens when businesses come into a community from outside? Could the assumption be made that a larger portion of their earnings exit the community compared to a locally owned business? Does this actually happen or am I completely wrong about this?

Where do large corporations that do business in medium-sized communities hire their accountants and lawyers from? Do they do it within the town, or are some of their matters sent to their corporate offices somewhere else to be dealt with? Conversely, how much money spent in the local business stays with locals and in the community? How much spent in the non-local business stays in the community? I have no evidence and I don’t want to make any critical judgments (actually, yes I do, but not here), and this is only what I think. About. Sometimes.

So back to Nehas Liah Bing. This is a small village with many other villages surrounding it. Those who live in this village are predominately Wehea Dayak (Indigenous) people, and those who live in the surrounding communities are mostly from other parts of Indonesia. I wonder who owns the businesses and where money spent goes in the community? What impact does this have on the community itself?

Where do people work? Well, I know that answer to that question; they work either for themselves in their homes and their farms (Ladangs) or they work for one of the many large corporations that have interests in East Kalimantan. There are mining companies and there are also palm oil plantations, and we actually went on a tour of a plantation a while ago. It was interesting, but I reckon we saw the best of what they wished to show us.

There is a parallel to these extractive industries and that in Alberta -- where I am from -- and I wonder what will happen when all the coal is gone and whether or not the palm oil plantations are sustainable and thus represent a source of long-term income?

I am wishing to welcome you into the biggest dilemma that I think exists in the world today: how do you have development and jobs and at the same time protect the natural environment? How I attempt to relate this to the community of Nehas Liah Bing is basically like this: who wishes to work for these corporations and who does not? How does this affect the community? If these corporations and businesses bring money in the form of wages into the community, then where do my ideas about money affecting unity and social cohesion stand?

Those are just some of my thoughts. In other news, the football has been going well, and I actually managed to score a goal with my head the other day, something that I have never done before. However, I must tell the whole story, and really it was nothing that I did at all, but it was a brilliant pass from me mate Paul (a member of the research team) who put the ball right on me head from a long, long ways away. He is good, but don’t tell him that I said that. I was as shocked as anyone to see the ball go in the net. Maybe I was tripping on a piece of wet soil and that is how it happened? I can’t answer that.

Everything else is good. My family is getting ready to host a big bash in a couple of days, so they have been preparing for a week with rice and cutlery and building a new kitchen. It should be a rip-snorter.

All the best. -- Mick B. (a.k.a. Ding Siang)

June 17, 2011: Research in soccer and parties
(Michael Babcock)

I hope that all is well since the last time I was able to write. Not much has changed in the village since the last post, but it is still as peaceful as ever. The research is going really well and we are starting to collect many interesting observations from the villagers.

The best part of my research so far is the daily football match (soccer) that takes place every afternoon. Unfortunately for myself, I somehow managed to score in the first three minutes of the first match and since then, I have, well, umm, made lots of nice passes and a lot of friends?? Ya, okay so I haven’t scored in the six matches since then. Whatever.

I want to make the point, while I can, that although this nation is situated a long way from Canada, life here really is not that different then it is at home. Children still love to fly kites; the girls play with makeup and run away when boys approach; the boys cover themselves in mud and push each other in the river; grandparents coddle the children and give them sweets when their parents are not around (I read somewhere that grandparents and grandchildren get along so well because they have a common enemy); men sit around after work and sip palm wine on the porch; and the women (and I am sorry if my views here offend everyone) kind of go everywhere, do everything, and hold the whole village together. I guess that life everywhere is different yet the same.

In other village news, we have been participating in many ceremonies, and they have been a bloody blast. When I use the word ceremony I could also use the word party, but I would not like to discount the importance of the traditions that occur. There is traditional singing and dancing; they sacrifice pigs and have a huge meal that lasts for about two days; and there are important parts that village elders participate in that really give meaning to the ceremony.

The most ceremonious that I became at the first festival was helping to make cookies and helping to drink the local spirit. Of course, some people would not consider drinking a mildly sweet alchoholic beverage as help at all, but why do we want this to descend into a torture of language? There was some of the drink, and it appeared to me that the objective was to finish it, so I was helping.

Unfortunately, I got a little sick over the past couple of days and have not been able to do a whole lot. I don’t know what it was that got me so sick, but it was a rough one. Now I am touring the village and stopping in wherever there is a ceremony happening, because there is always a fair bit of food to go around. The community spirit is alive and well here, and I hope that I have gotten past the stage of being a curiosity and people actually like me, and that is why they invite me into their homes. But if not, that is still okay...

Oh ya -- I think they are letting me score when we play football now because I seem to get a goal every match. That is alright with me, however. I can be shallow in that respect and take the goals....

June 16, 2011: Balikpapan (reprinted from Ethical Expeditions)
(Nabila Ibrahim)

Not quite what I had expected, this bustling populous city is a pleasant surprise, full of culture and incredibly hospitable inhabitants.

The ride from the airport to the hotel was a delight to my senses, so reminiscent of the towns of east Africa: winding roads, dust-filled in the wake of vehicles racing by. We traversed the neighbourhoods exchanging our fondness of the diverse variety of fruit found here: guava, durian, srikaya (custard apple), sirsak (sour sap), nangka (jackfruit), and much more, while the inescapable heat confirmed my arrival.

It didn’t take long to delve into the city’s many treats: the 5 a.m. call to prayer, es campur -- Indonesian-style slushy, a mixture of shaved ice and coconut, kidney beans, and sweetened milk, drizzled over with syrup -- as well as the markets, remarkable in their own right and seldom visited by “bules” or foreigners.

Pasar Pandan Sari, a remarkable market spanning several neighbourhood blocks, densely dotted with vendors selling everything from rubber boots to cell phones, cassava to apples brought in from the United States, strangely enough, was the highlight of my stay.

Word of our presence quickly spread. Schoolchildren rushed to their windows, heads jutting out, just to get a glimpse of this rare occurrence. The only local in the area who spoke English took his opportunity to engage with foreigners. A lovely man in his mid-thirties, Kaseem took delight in “interviewing” a few of us while expressing with pride the wonderful aspects of his country -- most notably, the people.

The conversation continued over teh manis (sweet tea) at a friend’s food stall. At night, the all-pervasive street food is a temptation to any palate, inviting passersby with the aroma of nasi goreng (fried rice), ikan goreng (fried fish), ayam bakar (grilled chicken), and the absolute essential condiment to every meal, sambal: a super spicy chutney made with chilis, garlic, shallots, shrimp paste and a pinch of salt. Indian and Indonesian music can be heard everywhere, making me feel very “at home” half-way around the world.

I was the first of 12 students to arrive in east Kalimantan. The founders of Ethical Expeditions, an international non-profit organization, along with a cultural anthropologist from Canada and two Indonesian translators were already here. The remaining members of the field school slowly trickled in over the next few days and by May 24, all were present and equally curious about what was in store. Class began on the next morning; a bit of a shock to most still overcoming jet-lag. The introductions were a good start, and a collaborative spirit was in the works.

The field school, situated in both the Wehea Forest and the village of Nehas Leah Bing, is where research -- consisting of biodiversity and ethno-ecological components -- will be conducted. The team will split up for about a month, with five heading to the forest and the rest remaining in the village.

It will be interesting to see the results of our efforts as well as the impact our individual experiences will have on us personally -- psychologically, emotionally and physically. I am certain we will learn as much about ourselves as we will of the village and forest, if not more.

June 8, 2011: The people in the village
(Michael Babcock)

Greetings from Kalimantan. I hope that this message finds you well.

We have arrived in the village of Nehas Liah Bing in east Kalimantan and it is, hmmm, I don’t know. I would use an adjective to characterize it and then perhaps that would not be best because it seems to be one of those places that really defines description. I could write all about it, could show you a thousand pictures, but you would really have no grasp of the beauty and specialness of the place. I am sorry if that sounds rude, but anyone who has ever been to Varanasi, India, would know what I mean; some places just defy explanations.

All of us on the expedition are living with local families. I am not going to try and be objective, so here it is: my house is the best. My “parents” are legendary and their daughter who lives with them has taken it upon herself to feed me and spoil me at every opportunity. Their two-year-old daughter Dai Lah is still reconciling herself with having me around the house and splits her time around me being either boisterous or hiding behind/under things, but I do kind of look funny, so any fault does not lie in her. Actually as I am writing this I am just having a funny encounter trying to give them a couple of fruit and nut bars that I have from Canada. They have never seen them before and now all I can think is, “I hope none of them has any allergies?”

I think it best to try and explain a little bit about the people in the village. I don’t wish to use clichés, but the people here are something really, really special. It happens on a daily basis that as I walk down the main street someone will call me onto their patio to have coffee and something to eat.

Within our research parameters (I am specifically with two other students working within the Ethical Expeditions framework), we are trying to determine the degree of community unity or social cohesion. Are you wondering how we are doing this? We are working within resilience analysis and complexity theory, especially the idea of social ecological systems, and one of the puzzles of this wonderful analysis/framework is the conundrum of bridging qualitative and quantitative data. (I could be proved wrong here; perhaps someone has solved this dilemma, but please trust that I have not. If you have, could you email us, please?) How do you determine qualitative data and then present it in a scientific analysis? How can we try to determine, in a scientific manner, which will hopefully allow us to make predictions in the future, an abstract concept such as community unity?

An interesting parallel is what has occurred in Slave Lake recently. How cohesive is the community? How strong is the desire of the community’s members to reorganize and regenerate their community after a huge disturbance? (A disturbance is resilience speak for a disaster or an event or a scenario.) I have to add that I have no knowledge at all about what is happening in Slave Lake at present and I absolutely do not want to offer my opinions about what is happening there; I am only trying to draw a parallel for you.

A disturbance here could be a fire as well, or a flood, or even the opening of a coal mine nearby. If we had prophetic powers perhaps we could have done research within the community of Slave Lake before the fire there and then (perhaps) we might have been able to predict the community’s response to the fire.

Why would we wish to have this predictive power? Well, it has to do with sustainability. What is sustainable? Is a small town in northern Alberta that is dependent on the oil and gas industry resilient and/or sustainable? What happens if the price of a barrel of oil drops to $10 a barrel? What if someone, somewhere invents an engine that does not need nearly as much fuel, or uses an alternative? Is the industry even sustainable?

Hmmm, do you agree is an interesting question? I greatly look forward to any comments that anyone has on any of these topics. Our research is built on a foundation of humility. We don’t know what we don’t know and are always willing to learn from anyone, anywhere, at any time. Please feel free to email me and I will try to respond when I can. The Internet in the village is with cellular sticks and is quite slow, but I greatly look forward to any comments. -- Mick B.

Michael Babcock's email: michael_babcock@hotmail.com

June 1, 2011: Welcome to Kalimantan
(Michael Babcock)

Greetings from Kalimantan. I hope that this blog entry finds everyone well.

First, my name is Michael Babcock and I am a student of the arts at Athabasca University. I am not going to tell you how long I have been a student; just suffice it to say that I am working towards a degree in political economy!

A reason that my time at Athabasca University has taken longer than I have expected is due to one reason: travel. With Athabasca University I have been able to study and travel at the same time. A couple of years and a couple of continents and I now find myself in east Kalimantan with an NGO called Ethical Expeditions. Our work here in Kalimantan is going to be all about resilience theory and how societies, social systems, and just about anything can respond to change and what is called disturbances.

However, before we talk about that, let’s talk about Kalimantan: what a wilderness, or what was a wilderness. I am sure that you have heard of the island of Borneo (where Kalimantan is found; it is the Indonesian part, as the island is split between Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei) and the tremendous deforestation that has occurred here over the past 25 years. One of the reasons for this deforestation is palm oil plantations. Why? Well, palm oil is used in an incredible array of products, from shampoo and chocolate biscuits to flex-fuel.

As the demand and the profit for palm oil has surged in the world, so too has the amount of tropical forest being chopped down to create plantations. I will say it flat out, and I am sorry for it, but if you feel good about putting eco- or flex-fuel in your cars at home, you might be contributing to the deforestation of tropical rainforests. I know -- unintended consequences for what might seem a good, healthy, environmental decision. But what does the destruction of Kalimantan’s forests mean to you? What does it mean to me?

Well, briefly, we need to recognize that nothing in the world comes from anywhere except nature and natural resources. Your new iPhone does not come from the moon. Everything that has been used to construct that device has come from the “bowels of Mother Nature,” if you will permit me to be so crude. So nature and conservation do matter. That is, if you like things.

Another reason is that climate change is a problem. As forests lose their ability to perform their natural regenerative and cleansing functions, the world could face an absolute crisis. But you know all that; you don’t need me to repeat it. What about the human element? What about the people who used to live in and around the forests and have now been displaced because of the plantations (please refrain from inserting your comment here about “job creation” because I do not wish for this to descend into an empty polemic on economics). These people end up moving to crowded cities where there might not be the job capacity to absorb them.

Further, if people who were formally living in rural areas, and most probably working in agriculture, have left for the cities, who is producing food for the increasingly crowded cities? What happens when people do not have enough food, or when scarcity kicks in and food prices rise drastically? How much did food prices have to do with the Arab Spring that we have just witnessed? I don’t know, but here is what I think. When people cannot get food or have to pay more for food (and we could add are forced to relocate from a rural area into a city), do you think they are going to be politically settled? What happens if a revolution kicks off? What if a revolution spreads? Hmmm. I am not saying that this will happen, but could you, dear reader, please contemplate the idea.

Those are some rough thoughts that I have at the moment. We have left the city of Balikpapan and are currently at an oranguatan conservatory an hour out of the city. Tomorrow we are leaving for the 17-hour drive north to the village where we will be conducting research. It is hot, mosquitoes are not so bad, food is good, and everything seems fine.

I will get back to you when we get to the village (including the name, sorry) and we can start to go a bit more into what resilience theory is and what exactly we are doing here for research. Until then, ditch the car and the flex-fuel and ride a bike. The remaining forests of Kalimantan send their warm regards. -- Mick B.

Applying education every day while helping at-risk youth

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 15:45:20 MDT

Jimmy Vu tells his story for the Send Us Your Story contest.

My name is Jimmy Vu, and I am an AU grad student. How has AU changed my life? Well, to begin, AU has allowed me to pursue my educational goals. As someone who suffers from attention deficit disorder (ADD), I need the flexibility that AU offers.

After transferring from a conventional university to AU, I quickly turned my 1.9 GPA into a 3.6 GPA, allowing me to graduate with distinction with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Sociology. I am currently pursuing a Master of Arts -- Integrated Studies degree and expect to experience the same level of success I have experienced for the past three years.

The flexibility of AU has also allowed me to pursue my professional aspirations. For the past four years I have been a direct support worker for the Boys and Girls Club of South Coast B.C., a non-profit agency that provides social services to at-risk youth.

One of the successful programs that I developed is a wood-working program where I give young girls the opportunity to learn basic carpentry skills. The goal here is to help these girls develop into strong independent women.

I have also volunteered abroad, teaching basic elementary school lessons and providing direct support to orphans in Hohoe, Ghana, and Ben Tre, Vietnam. For my commitment, I have been rewarded with scholarships from the Boys and Girls Club and the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC).

For many students, a semester-long practicum is the only opportunity that they have of applying their education to real-world situations. For me, the flexibility of AU has allowed me to apply my education every day as I provide support to children, youth, and their families. This has been deeply satisfying to me, and I can only hope that the community has benefited from my service. For the next chapter of my life I plan to pursue an administrative role in the non-profit sector, here at home and abroad.

Win an iPad with the Send Us Your Story contest

Open AU is holding the Send Us Your Story contest until July 1, 2011. If you have an inspiring story about post-secondary education in your life, write it down and send it to us, and you could win an iPad. Your story might also be published on Open AU.

For more information, visit: Send Us Your Story

Broncos score WHL scholastic award, and Athabasca University assists

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:45:20 MDT

AU/WHL partnership helps Broncos team and other WHL players prepare for life outside hockey.

The Swift Current Broncos, a Western Hockey League (WHL) team, grabbed an important win off the ice at the end of the 2010-11 season: the team was named the WHL’s Scholastic Team of the Year for achieving the highest overall academic performance during the season. And 11 of the Broncos study with Athabasca University.

“A smart person is a smart hockey player,” says Broncos general manager and head coach Mark Lamb. “Years ago when I played, it was all about hockey, and schooling was secondary. Now it’s the other way around -- and education has become a competitive part of the league.”

Thanks to a partnership launched in 2009 between the WHL and AU, 70 active and eight former players have blended post-secondary education with practice, travel, games and community activities this year alone.

Only 1% of WHL players go on to a professional career. To help players prepare for other futures besides professional hockey, the league offers a strong financial incentive for them to take their studies to a higher level, paying for one year of post-secondary education for every year played.

The Broncos’ education advisor, Colleen MacBean, works with each player to develop an education plan. For those pursuing university studies, distance education through AU has made the process easy.

“It’s a huge benefit to the players to be able to take their education with them wherever they go,” she says. “There’s a wide range of choices and courses, and they can do their coursework around their hockey schedule. If they move, their education is totally portable and they don’t lose any credits.”

“Education will be important in their future,” MacBean says, noting the increasing demand for ever-higher levels of education for career entry and advancement. “The team has to expect the pursuit of education to be as diligent, and the players as committed, as they are to practice. It takes the efforts of many to ensure this happens.”

Broncos centre Andrew Blanke, who just turned 19 and is in his third season with the team, is one of the players studying with AU.

“I didn’t want to lose my schooling while I played hockey,” he explains. “But I had always thought I would have to fully commit to either hockey or school and make a choice, but with online learning I can do both at the same time.”

Taking courses including microeconomics, financial accounting and calculus, he’s preparing for a day when he might want to have a career in business. He’s also honing his self-motivation, self-discipline and time management skills, becoming more confident as a student and a player -- both of which are important to his future success.

In that respect, although their circumstance is certainly unique, Blanke and his league mates are no different from other AU students who typically blend higher education with their personal and career commitments.

“The agreement with the WHL is a perfect fit for us,” says Michael Shouldice, an AU student recruitment officer. “We are all about providing access for non-traditional students. This is an ideal example of where AU’s flexibility, adaptability and responsiveness makes it easy for players to start their university education.

“There’s no reason why students can’t play good hockey, have that wonderful experience and get their education, too.”

By Cathy Nickel

Letters from the Lost wins Alberta Readers’ Choice Award

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:45:20 MDT

The moving story behind this award-winning AU Press book.

AU Press book Letters from the Lost won the Alberta Readers' Choice Award on June 11. This is the story of how the book came to be.

Helen Waldstein Wilkes was 60 when she was reunited with a family she didn't remember -- a family who lived the last chapter of their lives in unthinkable circumstances.

Helen and her parents immigrated to Canada from Czechoslovakia in April 1939, just before the Second World War. That the Waldsteins, a Jewish family, received permission to leave Czechoslovakia is a miracle. According to Helen's father, they may have been the last Jewish family to receive an exit stamp in Prague.

Aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents... Most were never able to escape Europe. Instead, they sent letters to Helen's parents for as long as they could. As a child, Helen was sheltered from the contents of these letters. It wasn't until she turned 60 that she decided to read the letters.

"I knew abstractly who these people were," she says, "because when I was a child, my mother would sometimes leaf through her precious photo album and say, ‘This is your aunt, and this is your grandmother,' and so on... But I had nothing to flesh them out with.

"Once I read the letters, human beings came to life for me... I saw them as living, breathing, three-dimensional [people], and to me, they were crying out, ‘Give us life. Tell the world we existed.'"

Initially, Helen wanted to publish the letters on their own. But when she took a creative non-fiction class, she was advised that her family's story would be more interesting if she wrote herself into it. She ended up interlacing the letters among a memoir of her life, and the result is AU Press book Letters from the Lost: A Memoir of Discovery.

"I never dreamt my book would get into the hands of the general public," she says, explaining that originally she had envisioned her main audience would be academics.

"I was thrilled when I saw stacks of my book [in a bookstore] and realized people were reading them... that people were responding to the book as I had hoped they might.

"I think no writer can ever dream for anything better than an audience that gets what the author is trying to say."

In the case of Letters from the Lost, Helen hopes her audience is reminded of the adage coined by philosopher George Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

And in remembering her own past, Helen has found that her present has been profoundly changed.
"I have a completely different sense of who I am and of what matters in life, and what is trivial and irrelevant and not worth spending time on or getting upset about... [This book] really has opened a whole new chapter of my life."

By Erin Ottosen

An amazing journey

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 15:45:20 MDT

AU's class of 2011 converges in Athabasca to celebrate their graduation.

Thousands of Athabasca University graduates, family members, friends and well-wishers gathered in Athabasca for AU's three-day convocation June 9-11.

AU's class of 2011 consisted of 1,351 graduates from across Alberta, Canada and around the world. Some travelled from as far away as Portugal and the Middle East to attend convocation. For many graduates, it was their first visit to AU's main campus, which is used mostly to house offices for faculty and staff rather than teach students face to face.

"Most of us have never met [in person] before this weekend," said Victor Jensch, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) graduate who delivered an address to his fellow graduates on June 11.

"I think that at some subliminal level, most of us secretly believed that our peers and coaches online were actually figments of our imagination," he joked.

Jensch praised AU for making university education available on a global scale and for enabling him to continue studying even as he travelled for business and emigrated from South Africa to Canada.

"It's a proud day for all of us to be graduating from an institution that stands for such high-quality learning while simultaneously prioritizing accessibility to all throughout the world," he said.

"It just feels wonderful to finally be here," echoed Carol Blenkin, a Master of Distance Education graduate who lives in Indian Head, Saskatchewan.

"From your very first course all the way to today, I hope the journey at Athabasca has been an amazing journey for you," said AU president Dr. Frits Pannekoek. "I hope the degree you've earned will help you continue your journey of growth and accomplishment."

Honorary doctorate Dr. Dempsey Bob

On June 9, artist and teacher Dr. Dempsey Bob received an honorary AU Doctor of Laws in recognition of the historical and cultural significance of his art and his commitment to the preservation of Tahltan-Tlingit artistry.

"For his commitment to community, his creation of community, and his dedication to learning and sharing community with the world, Dempsey Bob [was] nominated for this award," said Dr. Tracey Lindberg, an associate professor at AU.

Dr. Bob's work can be seen in collections around the world including those at Canada House in London, England, and the Smithsonian Institution.

Order of Athabasca University inductees Dr. Lisa Priebe and Dr. Tim Nerenz

On June 10, psychologist and AU alumna Dr. Lisa Priebe was inducted to the Order of Athabasca University for her dedication to ensuring a high-quality student experience at AU.

"Lisa did much more than study with us," said Dr. Dietmar Kennepohl, AU's associate vice-president, academic. "She embraced the university and really became a part of it. She made a difference. Her service, dedication and commitment at AU have resulted in a more organized and engaged students' union and also a higher-quality learning experience that subsequent students now enjoy."

While Dr. Priebe completed two undergraduate degrees with AU, she served as president of the Athabasca University Students' Union (AUSU) and also as a student member of the university's Governing Council. In these roles she spearheaded several improvements to the AU student experience such as increasing the number of bursaries for students in financial need.

On June 11, MBA alumnus and president of Oldenburg Group Incorporated Dr. Tim Nerenz was also inducted to the Order of Athabasca University for his tireless championing of AU.

"You can count on Tim, and we have," said Marilyn Wangler, director of marketing and communications in AU's Faculty of Business.

"He is a relentless and passionate leader, learner, activist and advocate, and he's an inspiration to all of us at AU who have been lucky enough to know him and work with him," Wangler said.

Dr. Nerenz was the first American student and graduate of AU's MBA program. He has served on both AU's Centre for Innovative Management advisory board and the Governing Council and is the university's "man in America," said Wangler.

"He never misses an opportunity to tell others about the powerful learning experiences offered by AU and the powerful connection he has with our university," she said. "Tim's dedication to the mission of AU has been unstinting."

By Erin Ottosen

Persevering in the midst of tragedy

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 15:45:20 MDT

Angela Johnson shares her education story for the Send Us Your Story contest.

I am Angela Johnson, a fourth-year Athabasca University student, and this is my story.

My journey with Athabasca University began nearly a decade ago, in 2002. I was a single mother of a spirited and loving18-month-old little boy, and I was quickly realizing that working in the restaurant industry wasn't the career path I needed in order to be the most successful mother I could be. I decided to work towards a bachelor's degree so that I could eventually become a teacher. I couldn't think of a better fit for my son and I as we could finally have the same schedule, and I wouldn't have to spend my evenings away from him.

I'm not going to suggest that my Athabasca journey was easy. It was tough to begin with. I had some successes and some failures, but I always appreciated the flexibility and support of my tutors and slowly worked towards my goal, learning from my mistakes and pressing on.

In 2005 I had completed three years of my degree when my world fell apart. That magical little boy who inspired me to become a better mother and a better person was in a horrific car accident in Calgary along with his dad, who was killed instantly. From the moment I was notified until he died in my arms three days later, I was so lost and so numb. I felt like my world was over, and I didn't know where to begin to start to rebuild my life.

I spent a year doing some soul-searching and found a hero and a rescuer in my high school sweetheart, who I fell in love with all over again amidst this tragedy. Slowly I found myself again, and the following year I became a police officer. Again it was hard work, but I graduated from recruit training with an achievement award for "Instructor's Choice." I finally was feeling success again, and I passionately threw myself into my job for four years.

Last year, after giving birth to a beautiful daughter, I felt a strong desire to finish that degree and once again better myself. I had put so much time, money, and effort into the first three years of my degree, and I wanted all of those hours spent away from my son to count for something. Ultimately now, I would become something better for my daughter, and it is partly because of her big brother.

Athabasca has provided me with the opportunity to fit education into my life, even when it's seemed impossible. I am just beginning my final full semester, with just one course to complete after this term. I look forward to graduating in early 2012, and I will hold my head high at convocation with pictures of both of my inspirations in my cap. I've envisioned that day for a very long time.

I know that there are other Athabasca University students out there who have challenges and struggles like any student. My hope is that they will never give up, no matter how long it takes, and achieve their dream like I am doing now. I hope one day to further my bachelor's degree in psychology and obtain a master's degree. I would be the first in my family to do so, despite the odds being against me at times. Perhaps that is what drives me.

Thank you for reading my story, and good luck with your successes.

Send Us Your Story contest

Open AU is holding the Send Us Your Story contest until July 1, 2011. If you have have an inspiring education story, send it to us, and you could win an iPad.

For more information, visit: Send Us Your Story

Athabasca University's rally to help Slave Lake neighbours

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:45:20 MDT

How AU staff responded when a wildfire sent Slave Lake residents to their doorstep.

Athabasca University staff members were some of the first to respond when over 1,800 evacuees from Slave Lake began to arrive in Athabasca late at night on May 15.

As high winds pushed a raging wildfire straight into the town of Slave Lake, residents had just minutes to get themselves and whatever they could grab out of harm's way. Over the next two weeks, many of them would stay at the evacuation centre established at the Athabasca Regional Multiplex just across the road from AU's main campus.

About 90 staff from AU volunteered at the multiplex, helping with everything from reception and registration to taking care of family pets. "People just wanted to know how they could help and where they should go," says Butch Brennan, AU's emergency response coordinator and director of risk management.

For the first two days, staff from the campus cafeteria and other volunteers were busy providing three meals a day for the evacuees. Food was prepared in the cafeteria and then taken over to the multiplex.

In the coming days, the university would find plenty of ways to donate its facilities. Parking and power hook-ups for RVs and trailers were provided in various parking lots. A cyber café was set up in AU's Maple Room. To provide some semblance of normalcy for the Slave Lake children, classrooms were set up in a portable building on the main campus. The first day, organizers were expecting 25 students, and 56 showed up. The university had to find three additional rooms in the main building.

"Teachers [from Slave Lake] were able to proceed with lesson plans, and it got the children out of the multiplex," Brennan says. "It gave parents some time to deal with other issues. The students were very well-behaved and respectful of the workplace."

By May 20, the number of evacuees staying in the multiplex had dropped to just over 100. There were also about 50 RVs remaining in AU parking lots. On May 26, the Slave Lake residents were given permission to return to their community on a phased re-entry schedule. By May 28, all of them had left, and volunteers took on their last big job: cleaning up the multiplex on May 29.

The Athabasca evacuation centre was so overwhelmed by donations from everywhere in Alberta that tons of material had to be turned away, Brennan says. In the end, 32 trucks of donated goods were sent up to Slave Lake when people started returning.

Overall, the evacuees received an incredible outpouring of support from both the AU community and others, Brennan says. "We could have assisted more, but it wasn't needed."

Athabasca is 115 kilometres south of Slave Lake.

By Diane Morrison

A million things on the go

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 15:45:20 MDT

Bailey Zimmer shares why she's an AU student for the Send Us Your Story contest.

My name is Bailey Zimmer, and I'm an AU student. I'm also a registered EMT-A (emergency medical technician) within the province of Alberta; an independent business owner of FirstHand FirstAid, teaching first aid and CPR courses; and a homeowner with my boyfriend of five years (not to mention the owner of a Husky and two cats).

I live an hour outside of Calgary, Alberta, and find it hard to drive into the city every day. I also recently lost 50 pounds and am looking to volunteer with the Foothills Regional Victim Services helping emotionally and physically abused people prepare for their court dates. Did I mention I'm 21? I have a million things on the go, and I will probably have a million more by the end of the year.

I need a more flexible way to finish my courses as I'm looking to get back into EMS (emergency medical services). It's hard to be a full-time student when you're working 48-hour shifts. I eventually want to get into search and rescue with my Husky, and after I finish my degree I want to offer crisis intervention counselling for EMS practitioners. In other words, I need to get my courses done!

Athabasca University allows me to be flexible to work when I can and finish as many courses when I can. This is not only helping me finish my degree -- it's helping me move on to the next chapter of my life, in which I'm going to spend a lot of time travelling while using my degree to make a difference. So what's next: Haiti or Japan?

Send Us Your Story contest

Open AU is holding the Send Us Your Story contest until July 1, 2011. If you have have an inspiring education story, send it to us, and you could win an iPad.

For more information, visit: Send Us Your Story

Remembering the past so we don’t repeat it

Tue, 24 May 2011 15:45:20 MDT

The story behind ARC Award finalist and AU Press book Letters from the Lost.

Helen Waldstein Wilkes was 60 when she was reunited with a family she didn’t remember -- a family who lived the last chapter of their lives in unthinkable circumstances.

Helen and her parents immigrated to Canada from Czechoslovakia in April 1939, just before the Second World War. That the Waldsteins, a Jewish family, received permission to leave Czechoslovakia is a miracle. According to Helen’s father, they may have been the last Jewish family to receive an exit stamp in Prague.

Aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents… Most were never able to escape Europe. Instead, they sent letters to Helen’s parents for as long as they could. As a child, Helen was sheltered from the contents of these letters. It wasn’t until she turned 60 that she decided to read them.

“I knew abstractly who these people were,” she says, “because when I was a child, my mother would sometimes leaf through her precious photo album and say, ‘This is your aunt, and this is your grandmother,’ and so on… But I had nothing to flesh them out with.

“Once I read the letters, human beings came to life for me… I saw them as living, breathing, three-dimensional [people], and to me, they were crying out, ‘Give us life. Tell the world we existed.’”

Initially, Helen wanted to publish the letters on their own. But when she took a creative non-fiction class, she was advised that her family’s story would be more interesting if she wrote herself into it. She ended up interlacing the letters among a memoir of her life, and the result is AU Press book Letters from the Lost: A Memoir of Discovery. Letters from the Lost is one of five finalists selected for the 2011 Alberta Readers’ Choice (ARC) Award.

“I never dreamt my book would get into the hands of the general public,” she says, explaining that originally she had envisioned her main audience would be academics.

“I was thrilled when I saw stacks of my book [in a bookstore] and realized people were reading them… that people were responding to the book as I had hoped they might.

“I think no writer can ever dream for anything better than an audience that gets what the author is trying to say.”

In the case of Letters from the Lost, Helen hopes her audience is reminded of the adage coined by philosopher George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

And in remembering her own past, Helen has found that her present has been profoundly changed.

“I have a completely different sense of who I am and of what matters in life, and what is trivial and irrelevant and not worth spending time on or getting upset about… [This book] really has opened a whole new chapter of my life.”

Links

2011 Alberta Readers’ Choice (ARC) Award
Letters from the Lost is one of five finalists selected for this award. The winner is being determined by online voting. Visit the above webpage to cast your vote. You are permitted to vote once day until May 31. The winner will be announced on June 11 at the 2011 Alberta Book Awards Gala.

AU Press Our Lives: Diary, Memoir, and Letters Series
Letters from the Lost is one of a growing collection of books published by AU Press that capture the personal histories of Canadians through diary, memoir and letters.

AU Press Book a Finalist for Alberta Readers’ Choice Award
Previous coverage on Open AU about Letters from the Lost.

By Erin Ottosen

Course completion rates at Athabasca University

Tue, 17 May 2011 15:45:20 MDT

The Office of the Vice-President, Academic, reflects on AU's 85% pass rate.

One of the questions we are asked from time to time at Athabasca University is about our course completion rates -- how many students pass their courses?

As part of our 2010 Middle States Commission on Higher Education review, we decided to make our 2009-2010 course completion data available to our students on the undergraduate course registration screen. As was the case in previous years, 85% of courses started by undergraduate students were successfully finished, while the other 15% withdrew or failed. (Graduate and "non-starter" course registrations were excluded.)

Interestingly, a February 2011 paper about online learning in Ontario painted the same picture; the universities there also had an 85% online course pass rate. As Canadian post-secondary consultant Tony Bates concluded in his February 26 blog, this "[puts] to bed the lie about online courses always having high drop-out rates. The Ontario completion rates also suggest that the quality of online learning is consistently strong throughout their institutions (or that their students are particularly determined)."

Athabasca University's students throughout Canada and the world show the same level of focus. Together, they stand in the face of the myth about online learning completion -- and all that is thought to mean.

Residential institutions tend to focus their completion metrics on years and programs, making course completion rates harder to come by. And, some have argued, one shouldn't necessarily try, because comparing online and residential pass rates is not an exact science. Important differences exist in areas such as:

admission policies (e.g., Athabasca has an "open" admission policy at the undergraduate level);
whether students study together according to a predetermined schedule or at their own pace (Athabasca offers both delivery modes); and
the higher number of under-represented students in online education (who often need more support).

As Tony Bates pointed out, 85% is a strong showing that demonstrates what quality online education can do. We need to keep abreast of rates at other institutions, and ensure that we continue to support our students to facilitate their success.

Robert Nash's study of U.S. community colleges came to the not uncommon conclusion that the average is often well below 80%, highlighting the challenges online and distance learners face. While most Canadian rates have a stronger showing, many -- including the Ontario colleges in the February online learning report -- do fall below the Athabasca University/Ontario institutions mark. In addition, online institutions need to work harder to engage "non-starters" -- those who register but never begin their coursework. (Louis Giguère discusses this issue in his 2007 course completion benchmarking paper.)

So -- while we're doing well, we know there is always more we can do to improve!

By the Athabasca University Office of the Vice-President, Academic

Adventure show seeks techno-dependent students

Mon, 16 May 2011 15:45:20 MDT

Operation Unplugged wants to send you into Canada's great outdoors.

Are you a student who loves being plugged into the Internet, social media and all manner of techno-gadgets? If so, a new TV show wants to take them all away from you... and reward you generously.

Operation Unplugged, a six-episode TV series that will air on the Travel and Escape channel, is unplugging eight post-secondary students from their techno-vices and whisking them away on an outdoors competition this summer.

The eight students cast for the show will have all their travel expenses paid, and they'll also earn $1,000 a shoot week plus a $4,000 bonus.

The competition will take them from coast to coast on a tour of Canada's national parks, and they'll be guided by Alan Bishop, a world adventurer who has also served as a producer on Survivor and The Amazing Race.

You may be the perfect candidate for Operation Unplugged if you're what casting associate Marilyn Fabrizio calls "techno-dependent."

"Techno-dependent means you are techno-obsessed and cannot bear the thought of being unplugged," she says.

You must also be:

18+
enrolled in full-time higher education or career training for the fall
available for up to five weeks in a row this summer
outgoing

Applicants must answer a questionnaire and submit photos and a video. The application deadline is May 27. For more information, please visit the Operation Unplugged website.

By Erin Ottosen

Going beyond text

Tue, 10 May 2011 15:45:20 MDT

The Showcase Courses project produces a crop of multimedia learning enhancements for AU courses.

AU has added more than 20 new multimedia learning enhancements to high-registration courses as a result of the Showcase Courses project.

"This project has created an opportunity to present more information to students in a variety of formats that go beyond text on a screen," says Stephen Addison, an AU learning designer and a coordinator of the project.

"The main focus was on course content that students find more difficult to learn," he continues. "So we developed interactive learning objects and other enhancements as a way of helping students engage more successfully with such content."

For example:

In Music 267, a crossword puzzle with audio clues helps students learn to hear the difference between a major chord and a minor chord.
In Human Resource Management 386, students test their knowledge of occupational health and safety by completing a multiple choice quiz accompanied by pictures and audio narration. Supplementary information also pops up to explain why the answers they choose are right or wrong.
An animation that can be used in many courses engages students in learning the ins and outs of plagiarism by telling the story of a female student who is also learning about plagiarism as she works on an assignment.
In Biology 325, students practice identifying species of bacteria by working through the branches of a taxonomy tree. Their understanding of different types of bacteria is reinforced by connecting dots that link the tree's branches and illustrate the relationships between classes of bacteria.

"Information about identifying bacteria is in the textbook, but this tree offers students a grand synthesis of the information," says Biology 325 course coordinator Dr. Shauna Reckseidler-Zenteno.

"Creating something like the tree, which presents information in a way a textbook can't, is really helpful," she says. "It's an excellent way to cater to different learning styles and help students master the course learning objectives."

The Showcase Courses project was one of six projects at AU funded through the Government of Canada's Community Adjustment Fund (CAF). While the project officially ended on March 31, 2011, the learning enhancements produced by the project will continue to be adapted for further use in various courses.

"I'm very pleased with the quality and range of learning enhancements that have come out of this project," says Dr. Cindy Ives, director of AU's Centre for Learning Design and Development.

"We've accomplished more than what we set out to do, which was to increase the usability, interactivity, accessibility and learning efficacy of selected online courses. We've developed skills and resources to help us expand our abilities to design enhancements for other courses."

For more information on AU's CAF projects, visit the KIP & CAF Projects website.

By Erin Ottosen

AU Press book a finalist for Alberta Readers’ Choice Award

Tue, 03 May 2011 15:45:20 MDT

Letters from the Lost: A Memoir of Discovery is vying for the Alberta Readers' Choice Award throughout May.

AU Press book Letters from the Lost: A Memoir of Discovery is one of five finalists vying for the $10,000 Alberta Readers' Choice (ARC) Award throughout May.

Letters from the Lost is the gripping story of Helen Waldstein Wilkes discovering and coming to terms with the traumatic history of her Jewish family, which was fractured by the Holocaust.

In the book's foreword, history scholar Elizabeth Jameson writes, "Letters from the Lost differs from most [Holocaust] narratives because Helen Waldstein Wilkes was one of very few children to escape with her parents, and one of even fewer to enter Canada before the formal onset of the [Second World] War.

"Her narrative speaks not only to the Holocaust, but also to her difficult transition to Canada as an immigrant Jewish child. The search for her roots, for those who were murdered and the few who survived, also helped unlock how her parents' experiences, and the memories they had hidden or forgotten, affected her own ability to connect -- with people, with Canada, with Judaism."

The book is composed of letters written by various family members as well as a narrative by Waldstein that chronicles her journey of learning about her family's history, much of which was unknown to her until she read the family letters at age 60.

"This is a very moving story about the Holocaust, immigration to Canada, denial, survival and guilt," says Sharon Budnarchuk, co-owner of Audreys Books, in her explanation of why she championed Letters from the Lost to be nominated for the ARC Award. "It is a rather unique approach to the telling of a Holocaust story."

The ARC Award will be given to the finalist that receives the most votes during the period of May 1-31. Voters are permitted to vote once a day every day in May. The winner will be announced on June 11 at the 2011 Alberta Book Awards Gala.

To view Letters from the Lost online, visit the eBook edition.

To vote for Letters from the Lost, visit the Alberta Readers' Choice Award website.

By Erin Ottosen

KIAS Conference Promotes Undergraduate Student Research

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:45:20 MDT

A social sciences, humanities and fine arts conference invites students from around the world to participate.

Undergraduates in the social sciences, humanities and fine arts have an opportunity this year to take part in an Edmonton research conference and engage with their peers in scholarly work and creative activity.

From August 17 to 20, 2011, the Kule Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS) is hosting Tomorrow's Ideas, Now, a major international undergraduate conference.

This conference will feature research from the top undergraduates at Alberta universities along with universities worldwide. It will provide an opportunity for students to nurture their global citizenship as they address socially relevant issues cross-nationally and across disciplines.

KIAS and the conference have three research themes:

1) stewardship of the planet;
2) place, belonging and otherness; and
3) culture, media and technology.

These themes encompass ideas that are of crucial global importance. They ask questions that require socially responsive answers, and they allow researchers to work with new lines of inquiry and forge new connections between disciplines and fields. The outcomes of this conference will be groundbreaking, interdisciplinary, comparative research -- the heart of the KIAS mandate.

Application forms and 300-word abstracts are due Monday, May 9, 2011, 4 p.m. (MDT). For applications and more information about eligibility guidelines, please visit the KIAS Undergraduate Student Conference website.

For more information about the work of KIAS, contact Gillian Edwards, KIAS executive manager:

gillian.edwards@ualberta.ca
780-492-6436

KIAS is a research institute based at the University of Alberta, established with a $4-million endowment from Peter and Doris Kule. KIAS facilitates transformational interdisciplinary and comparative research at the highest levels nationally and internationally.

By Diane Morrison

AU helps skating champion enter next phase of life

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 15:45:20 MDT

"I did an Internet search of online schools in Canada, and AU had the best reputation," says Bryce Davison.

Bryce Davison is at a turning point in his life. Still recovering from knee surgery last fall, and dealing with the end of his nine-year skating partnership with Jessica Dubé, it's time for a change. The three-time Canadian pairs champion and 2008 world bronze medalist is more excited than scared about what comes next and is focusing on the opportunities.

"Previously things were pretty well mapped out for me. There was little in the way of choice. But now I get to make decisions based on what I want to do," he says.

To give himself more options for the future, Davison decided last summer to go back to school, and AU is an important part of his transition strategy. "I did an Internet search of online schools in Canada, and AU had the best reputation. It also had the best variety of courses I wanted to take.

"I've always been interested in science, but physiology interested me because of the insight it gives me into my own physical abilities. It's helping me understand how I do the things I do in all parts of my life. I understand how my body works, and I can recognize the signs of fatigue so I know when to push hard and when to back off."

Currently working on a six-credit biology course, he says he likes distance education because it lets people like himself, who are otherwise engaged in a demanding life, to work at their own pace. "I have some flexibility, but not too much. The course keeps you on deadline."

Davison recommends scheduling study time and designating a study place where you can leave your books and papers out. This makes it easy to jump back into your schoolwork whenever you want.

He says he is not leaving skating behind; he's just making a transition to the next phase."I will never leave skating behind, but that doesn't mean things won't change. I've been on skates since I was two-and-a-half and figure skating since I was four. The past four or five months is the longest I have ever been off skates."

At this point, career options include coaching, business, broadcast and sports medicine. Wherever the next phase takes him, Davison will likely take it on with the same full-out approach he took to skating and is currently taking with his studies.

"There is a passion, drive and determination you find with any amateur athlete who is at a high level of international competition. Talent takes you only so far. The rest of it is how hard you train and how much you want it."

On the Road to Health Promotion

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 15:45:20 MDT

Linda-Lee Stewart uses her triathlete skills to pursue an AU degree that will help her champion physical activity.

Linda-Lee Stewart knows that making it across the finish line requires perseverance and commitment. A former competitive swimmer turned triathlete, the Edmonton-based student is using those same talents to complete her three-year Bachelor of Management degree at AU.

"When I started at AU, I was working full-time and it suited my schedule," she says. "And later, I was also training for triathlons and coaching part-time in the evenings -- and I was a volunteer at the Vancouver Olympics -- so the flexibility made it really convenient."

After completing a diploma at Lakeland College, which she transferred to AU, she admits to being a little nervous about switching to online learning. "I wasn't sure about the level of help that would be available or who I could go to," she says.

But she quickly discovered that tutors were there when she needed them, and the process worked well for her. "I really enjoy the flexibility of working on my own," she says. "I'm flexible in my own schedule, and the university is as well."

She acknowledges that self-motivation and discipline is needed in order to succeed. "In a classroom-based program, you have classmates reminding you when things need to be done. But AU is up to you. There's nobody telling you when to get things done."

That wasn't a problem for Stewart, and she credits her sports background for instilling those core skills. "I'm used to doing that because of competitive sports and triathlons, so it relates to what I do in my life. I actually found it much easier than a regular course because I could focus on core content. I was able to focus on what I needed to learn, and I learn better that way."

Stewart is confident that the high quality of the AU program is going to open many doors in the future. "I hope to blend the management degree with health promotion," she explains. "Physical activity should be part of everyone's life. It's always been clear when I was growing up that this is the work I would do."

By Cathy Nickel

Opportunity Overcomes Adversity

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 15:45:20 MDT

It wasn't all that long ago that AU student John Mills was homeless, living on the streets, unemployed and illiterate.

Today he's a published author, a recipient of a 2007 Canada Post Community Literacy Award, a husband and a father -- and he's finishing his Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) degree from Athabasca University.

The Burnaby, B.C., resident's book, I Could and I Did, is an inspirational autobiography about overcoming roadblocks and ignoring naysayers -- from teachers and counsellors to friends and family -- who are more interested in putting up barriers and knocking people down than in helping them reach their dreams.

"You have to believe in yourself," he says simply. "Once you do that, everything else follows. But it's hard when all the voices around you say you can't. I've been beaten down, but I never listened to them. You have to replace the negative thoughts with positive thoughts."

At AU, he found a university with a similar attitude. "They just opened the door. They gave me a chance," he says. "It has really surprised me. The online support, the helpful staff, so many answers to questions. Martin [Reaney, professional services coordinator] saw my drive to succeed. He saw the potential -- but for me it was just being me."

Despite having seen more than his share of adversity, his dogged determination has enabled him to get a post-secondary education. "It wasn't easy," he admits. "People would rather discourage than encourage. But if no one will you give you a chance, you have to give yourself one."

The book is a compelling and emotional story written, he says, because today he's satisfied with where he is in life. "Now I'm in a place where I can share and help people. Life has so many distractions that it's good to realize what can be done. This will show people that it can be done, and 'now it's your turn.' You have to believe in yourself and face your fears."

For Mills, AU means opportunity and the chance to reach a personal dream. When he completes his degree this fall, he hopes to take some time off, spend a little more time with his wife Yira and son Vicente, and enjoy what hard work has brought him. "I'd love to be a counsellor," he adds. "I can relate to people because I know what it's like to be there.

"I understand that I've done something unique, but I'm really no different than anyone else. If I can do it, you can do it."

For more information about Mills' journey and his book I Could and I Did, visit the I Could and I Did website.

By Cathy Nickel

AU establishes research chair in open educational resources

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:45:20 MDT

AU's new research chair strives to make education more accessible through open educational resources (OERs).

All too often, education is available only to those who can afford it. And cumulatively, poverty and other barriers prevent billions of people from taking part in educational opportunities.

Groups like the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) are working with educators to explore means for improving access to education. One of the educators pursuing this goal in partnership with them is Athabasca University (AU), which has been awarded a UNESCO/COL Chair in Open Educational Resources (OERs). The chair was announced and celebrated on January 31.

"There are nearly seven billion people in the world. There are all kinds of problems. But I know this: whatever solutions we come up with, education is going to be part of those solutions. And we've got to find ways of educating six-and-a-half billion people," said AU's associate vice-president of research Dr. Rory McGreal. McGreal is leading the team of people at AU who will work on initiatives related to the chair.

"We've got to look at new ways of going about it. And I think OERs are going to play a major role in promoting that mass education."

An OER is a tool for learning that can be found online and is free. "It could be a textbook, a group of lessons, a program, a game, an application... It could be anything that's used for learning and is available online," said McGreal.

Technology is transforming some OERs into resources that are radically different than their printed counterparts. These OERs offer students rich learning experiences quite unlike being in a classroom or reading a textbook.

"OERs are not just about putting text and documents up online," McGreal said. "They can offer a whole new range of learning experiences that will help people around the world learn faster and better."

Consider textbooks, for example. "We don't want to just put the old type of textbook online," he said. "We want a textbook that adapts to the way you learn. And we want to use semantic technology so you can find the textbook instantly, the exact type of textbook you want, by just popping online and doing a quick search."

In his role as chair-holder, McGreal will lead research on how to make the best use of OERs. "We're talking about action-based research to find out how we can mobilize people to use OERs for the benefit of everyone," he said.

Another crucial part of the chair work will be forming a network of organizations that actively share, use and promote OERs. While interest in OERs is growing rapidly, there is still much work to do in propelling their use to the realm of common practice. Part of the challenge lies in persuading educators to adopt a new approach towards curriculum development.

"The idea is you don't create courses anymore -- you assemble them from OERs," explained McGreal. "You take a lesson here, a lesson there, this piece over here, and you assemble your course. That cuts down costs tremendously. Then, after you do that, your full course is still open-access, so others can use it."

McGreal described how a colleague used OERs to fast-track a course in green computing. "He was going to design his own course from scratch. I said, ‘Look online first.' He did a simple Google search and found a whole course from Australia, and all he had to do was add a few Canadian examples to it. And having added the Canadian examples, the Australian professor who originally wrote the course said, ‘Great, I want to use those!'

"The grand concept with OERs is that everyone contributes, and this creates a huge pool of resources that people can use and adapt for their own purposes. It's cheaper than buying proprietary resources and more efficient than developing courses from scratch. And everyone benefits from each other's knowledge and expertise."

McGreal sees a critical need to move away from proprietary ownership of educational resources. "You can't do anything with them. They come with a huge group of restrictions," he said.

"We want to get out of that milieu. There are all stratifications of copyright licenses, so you can make your resource public domain, and anyone can use it. The most popular one is the Creative Commons license where you own it and anyone can use it or change it, but they have to give you credit for the original work."

While copyright restrictions make sense for some types of creative work, they just don't make sense for educational resources, McGreal concluded. "We must move toward making more educational resources open," he said.

Another key priority for the chair is investigating how OERs can promote gender equality and benefit marginalized groups in developing countries, particularly countries in Africa; Aboriginal Peoples in Canada; youth; and people living in rural and remote areas.

There are almost 700 UNESCO chairs at universities around the world. AU's chair is the first UNESCO chair in Alberta and the Prairie provinces.

One other UNESCO Chair in Open Educational Resources has been established at the Open University of the Netherlands. "We're working with that Chair to promote OERs internationally and to enlist UNESCO chairs on each continent to propagate the use and creation of OERS," said McGreal.

AU's UNESCO/COL Chair in Open Educational Resources is supported by:

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
Commonwealth of Learning (COL)
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Alberta Advanced Education and Technology's Access to the Future Fund

Links

Education for All
UNESCO's Education for All movement strives to overcome barriers such as poverty so that education is equally available to everyone.

Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA)
TESSA, a program developing OERs for teachers and teacher educators in Sub-Saharan African countries, is another initiative supported by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL).

KIP and CAF Projects at Athabasca University
Funding from the Government of Canada's Knowledge Infrastructure Program (KIP) and Community Adjustment Fund (CAF) has supported the development of OERs at AU through several innovative information and communication technology infrastructure projects.

AU Press
AU Press is AU's open access scholarly press. All of its books and journals are available online for free.

By Erin Ottosen

Students Wanted for Expedition to Borneo

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 15:45:20 MDT

Unique field study opportunity in Borneo!

Students interested in ethno-cultural studies or biodiversity have an exciting opportunity to take part in an expedition to Borneo next spring. Sponsored by Ethical Expeditions, a non-profit society dedicated to conserving the natural world through education and community empowerment, the expedition is looking for students to take part in two studies with the Wehea Dayak people of Borneo.

Janelle Baker, an AU anthropology tutor, is looking for as many as 12 students to join her from mid-May to the end of June 2011 for a unique field study opportunity. Students will start their expedition in Balikpapan, Indonesian Borneo, and will travel to Wehea, participating in field lectures and real world experiences along the way.

"The ideal student is passionate about preserving biological and cultural diversity," says Baker. "They will seek to make a difference, and be inspired to understand other cultures. We're looking for students who are interested in the complex issues facing the island of Borneo."

The students will then be split into two groups: one will participate in an ethno-ecological study with the Wehea Dayak and will assist in community development projects, and the other will join a scientific team conducting the first comprehensive biodiversity study of the Wehea Forest.

The cost for the trip is US$5,500 and includes university credit, all meals, accommodation, internal travel and educational materials. Students will be responsible for their own airfare to Balikpapan, visa costs, travel insurance and personal spending money.

For more information, contact Janelle Baker at janelleb@athabascau.ca.

You may also visit the website at Borneo 2011 Expedition.

Are the Copyright Trolls coming?

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 15:45:20 MDT

By Rory McGreal

They set the bait ... and then they pounce.

Remember the sad experience of Research in Motion, Canada's leading wireless company, which was successfully sued in a Virginia court for more than US$600 millon by U.S. patent troll NTP? Get ready for another incarnation - the copyright troll. Trolls are companies that buy up intellectual property for the sole purpose of suing users. These "non-practising entities" create nothing and have no intention of marketing their intellectual property.

There are two business approaches to controlling copyright. Traditionally, those that simply want their copyrights respected have dominated the field. Those owners would send out a cease and desist letter and would be satisfied when the offender removed the offending material and apologized. Problem solved. Copyright trolls have developed a new approach, hoping to earn cash not by marketing their products, but by swooping down on unsuspecting small operators with few resources to fight back, and making exorbitantly punitive demands. They set the bait by allowing their copyrighted video, picture or text to be freely available and then they pounce. In the USA, the copyright act provides for damages of up to US$150,000 for a single infringement. In Canada the $20,000 penalty is much less, but like the US law, the fine can be levied without proving damages.

The Recording Industry Association of America has led the way in suing users for copyright infringement in the United States. But there's a new kid on the block, Righthaven, a Las Vegas-based legal firm set up for the sole purpose of buying copyrights and suing infringers. What makes it unique is that it seemingly first scours the Internet for possible infringements, and only then buys up the copyright from owners in order to sue unsuspecting web site operators. It is how the company can make a fast buck by "shaking down" the "infringers". The company director, and former Michelle Obama colleague, Steve Gibson claims that there are billions of infringers out there and so Righthaven is planning a rapid expansion. And that could bring the company to Canada. Republican Sharron Angle, a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Nevada, is in Righthaven's sights. She's being sued for "unspecified damages" because her campaign website website contained a reprint of a newspaper article, a pretty common practice in western democracies. In another case, Righthaven has sued the source of the information on which an article was based. An interviewee simply posted the published interview on his web site and this was enough to trigger a Righthaven lawsuit. Another unfortunate blogger quoted two lines from an article and then linked to the appropriate newspaper webpage. He is now being sued for US$75,000 and the loss of his domain name. Righthaven has stated that it will not tolerate blogs that print even a few sentences from copyrighted articles. So much for fair use rights that allow permit copying for education, research, parody, satire etc.

The multimillion dollar business case relies on the threat of harsh penalties and costly legal fees that scare users into settling out of court. Righthaven even threatens to take away the user's domain name. This company doesn't send out a "takedown" or "cease and desist" notice to give the users a reasonable opportunity to comply, but rather goes straight for the jugular. In true cowboy style, it shoots first and asks questions later. These shakedowns have so far been about 30% successful and range from $2,000 to $5,000 per victim.

One attorney has described the trolling approach to setting a wild boar loose in a china shop with a hidden piece of bacon. The boar will get the bacon but in so doing will destroy everything else. This approach can only undermine the legitimacy of copyright. The original creators of copyright who intended it to support "learning and the useful arts" must be rolling over in their graves. These trolls have succeeded in mutating copyright into a caricature of its original intent. They are clearly abusing the legal system for profit and deliberately misusing and undermining copyright law for personal gain.

And if you think you are safe up here in Canada from the likes of Righthaven, think again. Remember RIM.

After the earthquake

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Tales of an AU communication student living in Santiago, Chile

One week after I arrived in Santiago de Chile, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck at 3:34 am and lasted ninety seconds---the longest ninety seconds of my life. It is said that this earthquake was so powerful that it shifted the Earth's axis by eight centimetres and may have shortened the length of our day by 1.26 microseconds. Santiago was displaced twenty-four centimetres to the west. It didn't end there. Only twenty minutes later we had an aftershock with magnitude 6.2 on the Richter scale followed by two more within an hour measuring 5.4 and 5.6. By March 6, I had experienced 130 aftershocks, thirteen of which were 6.0 and above. To put things into perspective, the Chilean earthquake was 500 times more powerful than the earthquake that struck Haiti just a month before.

Living in a foreign country is a challenge at best. My Spanish (or lack there-of) has been a major barrier for me as well as the cultural expectations that have not been met. I have travelled a lot through my work and I know that wherever I am, I will eventually have to deal with culture shock, a malaise set off by the loss of my familiar signs, and symbols of social interaction. However, add to this the shock of an 8.8 earthquake and the loss of electricity, water, gas, communication and worst of all, confidence, and I faced a personal quake of a magnitude that was off-the-scale.

The day after the quake, I assessed the damage around me. My apartment was a disaster ... furniture tipped over and my personal belongings, some irreplaceable were lying smashed on the floor. My computer, however, was safe and beside it was the package I had received from Athabasca University: Communications Studies 301. Little did I know how important this package would become to me.

In the next months I buried myself in the books and in the assignments, reading and writing much more than was required by the course. The work helped me cope with the destruction that surrounded me by forcing me to focus my attention on the beauty of the ideas I was studying. Aristotle, Kenneth Burke, Roland Barthes, Stuart Hall, Harold Innis, and Marshall McLuhan became my constant companions. Their ideas came alive and I began to understand many more things about my Canadian culture and the other cultures in which I have been living and working for over the past six years.

The benefits of having my course at hand anytime and anywhere helped me through some sleepless nights just because I felt connected to something "finer" than the chaos I was experiencing. I have been able to learn in my own style, using the varied suggested resources available on the web and to re-read the material provided in the excellent Study Guide which is, in effect, a book of summary lectures.

My homework questions which I answered every second week, are asked from a Canadian perspective. I found this doubly instructive as I could examine what may be my Canadian answer with my Chilean answer. There were rarely fundamental differences: perhaps differences of tone and colour, but not substance.

One such question appeared in Unit One. We were to describe how technology can effect a shift in world view and how this shift has affected how we live, work, and think. I ultimately wrote about Neil Armstrong becoming the first person to walk on the face of the Moon and how globalization had become a bona fide shift. But my first thoughts went to the light bulb and all the technology that was subsequently made possible by this invention.

The computer on which I am now writing this piece, with its seeming omniscience, was once only a fantasy in science fiction tales. It is the progeny of the light bulb along with its older cousins, the radio and the television. These tools have made communication almost instantaneous and global, they have facilitated unprecedented economic growth in the last century, space exploration would have been impossible without them, a greater level of education has been made possible for distant communities. I buy books with Amazon, I pay bills with PayPal, I can buy and sell on EBay. From my apartment in Santiago, I can call my family using Skype using real time audio and video. Facebook helps keep me in touch with the activities of my young nieces and nephews. It has reduced the world to a village.

I have the double privilege of having grown up on a farm in Alberta and being able to spend large amounts of time on a small family farm in the south of Chile. This jewel is owned by Lucho Perez and his wife Ana in the land of lakes, rivers, and mountain ranges with active volcanoes; all breathtakingly beautiful. Lucho's farm is humble, not like some of his neighbours to the north who have accepted the North American blueprint of industrialized agriculture.

Lucho and Ana work from morning's light until dark. They time their chores accordingly, following the rhythm of the days, followed by that of the seasons. Life is slow and relatively simple. Lucho and Ana get up with the sun and allow it to sink only hours before they retire to bed. Their coal oil lamps do not shed the light necessary to do the rough work outside nor the detailed inside tasks.

.... I remember when electricity came to the farm and when my father installed a lighting system in our barn: more cows could be milked for a longer period of time. The afternoon chores transformed into late-night chores that seemed to last forever. But it was my mother's life that changed the most. Her day now had no natural end. It was only when she turned off the lights that she took rest. My life patterns changed as well. I stayed outside to play under the yard light, putting off my homework for later. I had, after all, a lamp on my bedside table. I was often tired when I did my homework, drifting off to sleep head-on-arms....

As soon as the sun sets on their Chilean farm, Ana lights the coal oil lamp. The circular halo of light that it sheds is the distance of the relationship that Lucho has with Ana, and that they have with me. Our faces glow with reflected light and we communicate with each other in close proximity watching every facial nuance. We live as a family around that kitchen table, talking, playing games, and singing to Lucho's guitar. Entertainment is in relating and joining in.

.... I remember when my father brought the television home. We started living a "modern" lifestyle. We started taking our plates in front of the television, sitting in a row on the sofa like birds on a taut wire. The warm yellow light of our lamp, the lamp so similar to Ana's, was now replaced with the bluish glow of the tube. My family stopped communicating with each other as we once did and that inanimate electronic device took on a role of importance beyond its station....

Lucho and Ana do not suffer any type of separateness in their lives. They do not have a computer, they do not have a home office where they work around the clock. They do not play poker with people in other countries, nor do they share their personal lives in chat rooms. They rarely eat apart; they never play, laugh nor cry alone. Unlike their neighbours to the north, they do not live alone inside a bubble of technology where communication with family means writing an e-mail or sending a text message.

Up until now, I have misunderstood the significance and the consequences that the technological tools I have at my disposal, have in my life. I live in Chile yet, I can call my family and friends to see what they are up to Canada. I don't miss a thing. Or do I? The question asked of me in Unit 1 has forced me to ask a lot of other questions of myself, questions that Lucho and Ana have never asked of themselves --- Where do I really live? Where do I belong?

Communications Studies 301 was my stanchion during the aftermath of the earthquake and now it was playing devil's advocate. I never thought a course could do all that. Neither did I think that a course could become a best friend, but it has. Like any good friend when times get tough, CMNS 301 pulled me through intact and with more confidence and understanding of myself and the world I live in. What more can one ask from a friend?

George Siemens

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:45:20 MDT

E-learning expert brings social media savvy to AU

By Patrick Mears

George Siemens joined Athabasca University in November 2009 and has spent much of the last few years analyzing how social media modelled on the likes of Twitter and Facebook could help educators provide students with top-class courses.

"The value of social media - blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networking - in learning is readily apparent. Any opportunity (or technology) that enables the formation of connections between learners and educators is worth exploring."

Born in Mexico, Siemens moved with his family to Canada before he had any meaningful contact with technology. However, his first encounter with a computer left a lasting impression, and he subsequently started working as an educator.

"My move into education wasn't planned," said Siemens, who is a social media and networked technologies strategist and researcher at the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute (TEKRI) at the university. "However, once I started teaching with technology, I discovered so many new opportunities for improving the learning process that I was hooked.

Prior to moving to Edmonton, Siemens spent eight years at Red River College in Manitoba. In the late 1990s, his department was the first in Canada where students were issued laptops. The project provided a valuable opportunity to experiment with how technology influences teaching and learning. In 2007, he took up the position of associate director, research and development, for the Learning Technologies Centre at the University of Manitoba.

"Athabasca University has a strong reputation for researching and utilizing technology in teaching and learning," said Siemens. "The opportunity to work with top researchers in the field, like Dr. Terry Anderson and Dr. Jon Dron, was significant in my decision to come to AU."

And Siemens encourages everyone to embrace lifelong learning. He said: "Continual learning is critical in a field that is changing as quickly as this one. The opening of education provides educators with numerous learning opportunities. I'm constantly taking courses and engaging in informal learning through online lectures, conference recordings and podcasts. The barriers to learning are greatly reduced in a digital age."

Bill C-32: Not-so-fair dealing

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Digital lock trumps fair dealing rights,
By Frits Pannekoek, PhD

On November 2, the Government of Canada tabled Bill C-32, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act, for second reading in the House of Commons. As an author and creator of copyrighted material, I support many provisions of the act, which are intended to fairly compensate people for their intellectual work. But as a university president, and more importantly an educator, there are measures in this new law that I simply cannot support. These are measures that will have a significant impact on how we teach, and may well put a severe strain on our resources for years to come. I'll highlight just a couple.

Bill C-32 proposes to give institutions access to free materials through a fair dealing exemption for educational uses while also protecting digital locks on content. So far so good. But the bill also contains a provision that effectively states that the application of a digital lock trumps those fair dealing rights. If a creator of an electronic device, file or recording puts a digital lock on it, forget about fair dealing. By breaking the lock, researchers or students will also be breaking the law, no matter their intent.

At Athabasca University, our faculty has for the past few years been investigating the use of smart phones to deliver course content. To do this, they often had to break digital locks placed on the devices by the manufacturer. They did this not for commercial gain, but to develop and test multiple educational applications in different environments. That research would come to a halt under C-32.

Perhaps an even more contentious provision of C-32 is the requirement for the destruction of borrowed documents. The bill allows researchers just five days to examine documents borrowed from libraries or databases, after which they must be destroyed.

In addition, another provision requires that educational institutions destroy lessons 30 days after students enrolled in the course have received their final course evaluations. AU has continuous enrolment and this rule would present significant challenges to the institution. Depending on how the law is interpreted, the university may have to destroy course materials at the end of each student's examination, making it reliant on open access materials.

These are but two of many reasons Athabasca University cannot support C-32 as it is now written. As a university, we've spent the last year or so highlighting our objections to the new act, and in partnership with other universities across the country we've been successful in getting some changes made. But more changes are needed to protect the traditional and long-standing rights of scholars and students.

We can only hope that, as the bill makes its way through the committee process, that MP's on all side of the political spectrum will take a close look at some of the more damaging aspects of the bill and make the appropriate changes. The future of post-secondary education and research in Canada hangs in the balance.

Playing doctor

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Diagnosing simulated patients in a virtual world

By Diane Morrison

You may think spending your time in front of a computer screen playing Second Life is a waste of time. You might want to think again. The virtual world, with its virtual citizens, or avatars, is starting to have some applications that could help real-world people.

Scientists and researchers are adapting Second Life to train medical students to practise their interviewing, diagnostic and treatment skills by interacting with virtual patients presenting particular diseases or illnesses which the students go on to diagnose and treat.

A similar computer program being developed by medical educators at the Florida State and Ohio State universities is making computerized case development easier and less expensive. Dr. Bob Heller and Dr. Mike Procter with the Centre for Psychology at Athabasca University are working with this new programmable web interface tool that enables experts to enter information needed to create the case directly into a database without having to work with a computer programmer.

Traditionally, medical students practice conversational diagnostic skills with standardized patients, actors who have been given a script and are playing a role. These actors are programmable to some extent, Heller said, but they rely on the script and they can't go outside that information. Students often have limited access to these standardized patients and the cost can often be prohibitive.

"The sense of immersion of a virtual world provides the feeling of being in an actual office talking to actual patients, who can be programmed with different personalities," Procter said. "Access to a virtual patient is unlimited and on demand. It will not necessarily replace other simulation tools, but it is the best suited of all the models in terms of diagnostic skills development. It is easily programmable and provides an inexpensive and changeable training option to learn how to handle a wide variety of situations and patients."

Procter, an electrical engineer with 30 years of experience with information technology, is working on creating the script of patterns and appropriate responses that enables the behaviour of the virtual patients to be tied to events and to the environment in which the interaction takes place.

"An important part of this work is being able to have the virtual patient deal with a situation when it doesn't know how to respond. It may show ignorance but behave intelligently," Procter said. "If the medical student were to ask about last night's hockey game, the virtual patient might respond by being surprised and asking why that is relevant."

Heller is an experimental psychologist usually working in the field of aging and cognition. His interest in the virtual patient came from a conversation with a colleague about populating a virtual world with famous psychologists such as Freud, Piaget and Skinner. His work on this project concerns the level of engagement and the learning outcome.

While the research into virtual patient simulation is being done around the world, Procter cautions that the programs are not yet ready for prime time. "My impression is that it's a growing field. Different people are interested in investigating the technology. But it still remains to be proven."

Heller agrees: "The research question is, do we see that patient as a real person and will we interact with them as such? The hypothesis is if the student believes they are real, the student will be more deeply engaged and will have a better learning outcome. The assumption is that when people feel immersed in a physical space, it leads to better learning. But some researchers feel that immersion is a distraction. So the research is equivocal at this point."

Of monkeys, organ grinders, IP and Canadian copyright law

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 15:45:20 MDT

On the struggle to balance digital rights and digital access

Contributed by Leslie Main Johnson, CWCS and CIS (with assistance from Jay Smith)

With changes in technology and the arrival of the digital age, a rather staid seeming topic, copyright legislation, has risen to public prominence, and affects the way that ordinary citizens and academics alike conduct business and carry out their lives. Political science professor Jay Smith gave a talk on October 8 at Athabasca University Edmonton on Canada's proposed new copyright legislation entitled "Is Canada the Monkey or the Organ Grinder when it comes to proposed copyright legislation? (The title calls to mind some rather convoluted images, but the topic is a serious one that affects us all as individuals and especially as scholars and on-line educators).

As Smith reminds us, twenty years ago copyright was not foremost in the minds of most people, and terms like Intellectual Property or organizations like the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) were yet unknown. Now, when all of us access and use digital information, and when the Internet makes dissemination of such information ubiquitous and easy, the topic is of critical importance. The balance between the rights of users and producers is increasingly difficult to maintain. Conventionally, the concept of fair use has included satire and scholarly study, and more recently, personal back-up copies of software. These rights are under threat because of the phenomenon of digital locks installed by owners of digital information.

The US has led successful efforts to export and enforce its notions of copyright internationally, first through the Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement in 1994 at the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (now WTO). Later came the 1996 WIPO Internet Treaties that recognized the principle of digital locks as a means of protecting intellectual property. Canada has signed but never formally ratified the treaties and is under tremendous pressure by the US to do so but on its terms. In 1998 the US enshrined, as its ratification of the WIPO treaties, the draconian Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that criminalizes the breaking of digital locks for any purpose.

After 1996 WIPO began to be a forum in which the voices of developing nations were being heard, including those promoting traditional knowledge and indigenous rights, and was no longer as receptive to US influence. The US and some major corporate players, increasingly fearful of the growing ease of high quality digital reproduction, have sought to bring the rest of the world on-board with the restrictive DMCA which imposes a much higher standard than did the WIPO treaties. In 2007 the US, a few countries and major corporations, decided to create their own forum to negotiate this approach to digital rights protection, by means of the secret multi-lateral treaty negotiation called ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement). Canada is part of this treaty process, as is the European Union, Japan, Mexico and some other countries, while Brazil, China and India were not permitted to participate. The negotiations have now concluded, and the terms recently released.

Surprisingly, global resistance lead the United States to drop its insistence on the globalization of its DMCA, which is of great significance to Canada which is proposing DMCA like restrictions in its current attempt to amend the copyright act, Bill C-32. (Current, in the sense that previous attempts at reform by minority Liberal and Conservative governments failed.) The present effort, Bill C-32, appears to be a reasonable compromise between the rights of users or "digital consumers" and digital rights holders, enshrining rights to fair use, including scholarly study and right to satire. However, as presently proposed, it follows the US line laid out by DMCA in terms of digital locks, such that digital locks trump all other rights and render them meaningless. The terms of ACTA, released after Bill C-32 was introduced, are actually less draconian in terms of their restrictions on the breaking of digital locks. In brief, Canada is only obligated to conform to international (WIPO or ACTA), not US, standards in terms of intellectual property protection but if Bill C-32 is passed in its current form, it would be, in fact, conforming to American standards.

Smith and the other panelists, Mark McCutcheon (CLL and CIS) and Rory McGreal (AVP for Research) emphasized that lobbying the government to modify this aspect of the bill is critical to enabling the other rights described by the proposed law, and also that our functioning as scholars who teach in an on-line environment will be seriously impacted if the law goes ahead in its present form. Mark showed that the US is by far the world's largest exporter of intellectual property. Rory reminded us that blogger and commentator Michael Geist demonstrated that the Fair Use economy in the US is nearly as large as the rights protected economy, so the stakes are large in this whole discussion. Rory noted that unauthorized copying of digital material is NOT theft, but is actually "infringement", a much less inflammatory term. There was a lively discussion that touched on implications for educators, such as the need to destroy online course lessons when the class ends, or short-term access to online research articles after which they must be destroyed as is currently required by the proposed legislation.

This was a complex talk. To learn more, please access the talk on Elluminate (preferably using Internet Explorer).

Become informed. Some additional sources:
Library of Parliament, "Legislative Summary of Bill C-32:
An Act to amend the Copyright Act".

For summary and criticism of Bill C-32 and ACTA see Michael Geist's Blog and his ACTA website.

This site makes it easy to write your Member of Parliament

These are some blog links by Mark McCutcheon:
http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=99
http://wp.me/soR4A-fixc32
http://wp.me/poR4A-bb
http://wp.me/poR4A-aG

Building a better future

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 15:45:20 MDT

First Nation chief puts AU learning into practice in her community
By Cathy Nickel

The Brokenhead Ojibway Nation, located just outside Winnipeg, has set economic development and business creation as its top strategy for achieving better living conditions and future self-sufficiency. In recent years it has completed a number of high-profile community and business enhancements.

Guiding the nation on its journey to greater opportunity and prosperity is Deborah Chief, MBA (2010), the first female chief elected in her community, the first woman from the community to earn a master's degree and the first chief in Manitoba to hold an MBA.

"My MBA degree will enable me to provide strong, reliable leadership for my nation," Chief says. "We've done many noticeable developments in our community and are in the planning stages of more business ventures. I attribute the success of our community to the knowledge I've gained at AU and the leadership skills I've acquired over the years."

Being a chief is a 24-7, 365-day-a-year job, which typically makes it incompatible with traditional models of higher education. AU's distance learning model, by contrast, offered the flexibility and support that enabled Chief to work at her own pace and to complete her MBA.

"I managed to persevere through many unplanned incidents in my community and my life," she says of the years spent working on her degree. "There were times where I just couldn't see myself finishing because there was always something happening. It took many extra hours and late nights ... but it was worth every minute."

Now that she has her degree, she says she has greater confidence that she can achieve her goals and dreams. "It has opened my mind for creative thinking and knowing that anything can be done with the right planning and education," she says. "It has opened up the world and the ability to recognize that which is in the best interest of my community."

Chief also says that she hopes the fact that she was able to complete her master's degree, despite the inherent challenges of being chief, will help young people in the community enhance their own education. "I am a firm believer that one needs to lead by example," she explains. "I'm constantly relaying the message that education is one of the most important aspects in life, especially for young people."

While her MBA has her name on it, Chief acknowledges that the accomplishment is as much about her community as it is about her own achievement. "My family, my council, my friends, the nation which sponsored me ... I am grateful for all the support I received along the way. Meeqwetch!"

Evelyn Ellerman

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Program coordinator helps bring university experience home

By Patrick Mears

Breaking down the barriers to education for students with heavy domestic and work commitments is a subject very close to the heart of an Athabasca University communication expert. Dr. Evelyn Ellerman originated the communication studies program at AU and continues to coordinate the initiative today. However, when she joined the university in 1996, Ellerman was a single mother whose responsibilities made it difficult for her to work a traditional nine-to-five shift.

"After completing my post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Alberta, I applied at AU because it was a distance education university," said Ellerman. "At the time I was a single parent with a very sick child, and the opportunity to start up a new collaborative degree program while working from a home office seemed perfect to me.
"The students are the best part of the work. It is a privilege to be able to offer a university experience to so many people who otherwise would find it difficult or impossible to complete their degrees."

"When I was a young girl, the only occupations we could aspire to were secretary, nurse or teacher. I knew that I would be hopeless at the first and dangerous at the second, so I opted for teacher."

Ellerman has been a teacher for most of her working life, although she did work for the federal government for a while and owned a communication company. She remembered, "In my early working life, I operated a general store in the country with my husband and parents - I was the butcher."

Perhaps not surprisingly, the former butcher's path to a master's degree did not follow a conventional route. Ellerman took an undergraduate degree and then went straight into a master's program. But she was burned out from studying so hard and dropped out of grad school. Then she worked at various jobs for 13 years before returning to university for an MA and PhD in comparative literature.
The AU academic firmly believes in flexible learning. She said: "The program that I work with is a collaborative degree program, which is the sort of forward-thinking program that you would hope to find at an open university like AU. Over the years, I have seen the positive benefits of this program for students and I am proud to have been associated with it."

And it is teaching that provides Ellerman with those valuable moments of true inspiration. "Often when I look at the accomplishments of our students despite all sorts of impediments, I marvel at the human spirit," she said.

Access copyright – Canadian students to pay

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Access Copyright wants to increase the yearly fee from less than $4 to $45 per student.
By Rory McGreal

How would you like to get a ten-fold raise this year? The collective society that charges universities and its students for copying scholarly works is making the case for just that - and it wants Canadian students to pay.

Access Copyright wants to increase the yearly fee from less than $4 to $45 per student. It's pushing for this tariff along with the digital extension, because educational institutions are increasingly using less and less print and more and more digital copies. Universities are using far more open educational resources and content that is already licensed by their libraries than ever before. Instructors are posting their lectures online or referring their students to online articles, while making less use of printed handouts. Because of this,
Access Copyright now wants to put a tariff on using the Internet. If accepted, that would leave Canadian instructors and students as the only people in the world with no right to freely visit open websites.

By an overwhelming vote of 98.5%, the Canadian universities have rejected this "deal". In response, Access Copyright has now petitioned the Copyright Board of Canada to require the universities to provide it with an "advance on payments due" through an interim agreement. Its petition is couched in terms of "extending the previous agreement" but in fact, it is making a conscious ploy to covertly extend its reach from print to digital resources and limit the fair dealing rights of university students and faculty.

With the utmost cheek, Access Copyright unapologetically demands this extension to "fund staff salaries" and to "fund the tariff proceeding". It expects universities to not only give it an advance on salaries, but also to pay the costs of its actions, which the universities are challenging. Access Copyright has been receiving $16 million annually from post secondary institutions and now they want an advance from them in order to fight them at the Copyright Board. Furthermore, it is also insisting that universities do all the record keeping, auditing and sampling for it.

Even more outlandish is the demand that universities be disbarred from objecting to the tariff. Access Copyright claims that neither universities nor student organizations, nor teacher associations are "bona fide" objectors. Even the government of Alberta should not be allowed to object according to its claim. So, it wants an "advance" from universities and other affected organizations, while petitioning for their exclusion as objectors.

Of course Access Copyright needs the money. The latest annual report shows that a full 29% of its revenue goes to salaries and for other administrative purposes, not to authors or publishers, as is its mandate. The norm for non-profit organization is less than 10% for salaries and administration. It also refuses to publish those salaries. In addition, it makes constant reference to a "repertoire" of licensed works that it will not reveal. Universities have, in the past, discovered that they have been charged by Access Copyright for content not in this "hidden repertoire".

The public may not be aware of Access Copyright's stringent licensing practices. For example, did you know that its license prohibits stenciling or drawing in the classroom? It prohibits scanning documents and transmitting them, unless they are immediately printed out and the electronic copy is destroyed. Interestingly, it insists on getting electronic copies of reports from universities, while expecting universities to live in the pre-digital age. Universities must store content in filing cabinets, while Access Copyright uses a database.

Canadian taxpayers are supporting Access Copyright through onerous tariffs on our students and educational institutions. Do we now have to give them an advance so that they can impose a tariff and pay for their lawyers to challenge the right of universities to object?

Making learning enticing

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Alberta's youngest MLA praises AU's open education model

By Cathy Nickel

Manmeet Bhullar, BA (sociology, 2005), believes in the power of an educated community - and he's putting that belief into action.

After more than a decade of community involvement and working with youth, Bhullar "went public" in 2008 and was elected member of the legislative assembly for Calgary-Montrose. At 28, he was then the youngest member of the Alberta legislature and the youngest parliamentary assistant in the country, serving in that capacity for Alberta Advanced Education and Technology and for Municipal Affairs.

For Bhullar personally, Athabasca University was "the perfect fit," enabling him to earn his degree without giving up his job or his extensive community work. Its open philosophy welcomes all students, not just those who score high marks. "Students like me rarely give 100 per cent to academics," he acknowledges. "I'm the type of person who needed to be enticed into post-secondary education. I saw AU's open university concept and thought it was brilliant.

"Now as an MLA, I see so many young people with so much potential, but they get hung up on a couple of small barriers and don't pursue higher education," he says. "My hope and dream is that we promote post-secondary education and continuous learning in every corner of the world. Every student, including those who never thought they were capable of higher education or never thought it was important, should get an education. Some students grow up in families where generation after generation hasn't completed any post-secondary education. I think that limits our potential as a nation."

As an MLA, Bhullar is in a position to promote change. He has championed Motion 508 (to create a provincial education system that's innovation- and competency-based) and Bill 4 (which allowed Mount Royal and Grant MacEwan colleges to become universities) and is a member of the Province's Inspiring Education Committee.

"AU is an example of what we're doing right. It says, ‘Come in, be educated, empower yourself.'
I love that principle. It represents my ideals of spreading education throughout every corner of society. It's not easy to do, but a little creativity and innovation can take us to a whole new level.

"Public education is the most important tool we have to ensure that all kids, and especially those growing up in environments where education isn't appreciated, can thrive. We have to make education more open so more people can get in.

"As a legislator, I'm working toward that."

Alumni awards

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Nothing tells the story of Athabasca University better than the success of students and alumni.
By Cathy Nickel

Nothing tells the story of Athabasca University better than the success of students and alumni, people who are making their mark on the job and in their communities, succeeding in their professional and personal lives. The 2009 AU Alumni Awards proudly recognized the achievements of four individuals who attest to the university's strong and continuing connection to community.

Do you know an AU alumni who's making a difference? Send us your nominations by December 31, 2010 by email aualumni@athabascau.ca or call 1-800-788-9041, extension 7319, for more information about the awards and nomination process.

Distinguished Alumni Award
Corrine Scott

The superintendent of the Winnipeg Police Service, Corrine Scott, graduate diploma in management (2005), MBA (2006), has gone where no woman has gone before: she has held every rank from constable to superintendent, earning numerous professional honours, in her more than 25 years with the WPS. The founder of the WPS Policewomen's Network was the first female aide-de-camp to the Hon. John Harvard, lieutenant-governor of Manitoba, and actively promotes continuing education within the service. She was awarded the Order of Manitoba in 2009. "We live in a knowledge-based world and to be successful, education is important," she says. "This award reaffirms my belief in lifelong learning."

Rising Star Award
Derek Prue

Since founding SkyRider Developments in Stony Plain, Alta., in 2005, Derek Prue, BA (psychology, 1997), BA (English, 2001), MBA (2004), has carved a distinctive niche for his land development, project management and construction company. Its adaptability and flexibility have opened the doors to many projects and the company has earned a solid reputation for its work with First Nations communities. "AU let me move ahead with my education and business goals at the same time," he says. "This award aligns with what I've achieved in the corporate, personal and academic aspects of my life. I'm honoured to receive it."

Future Alumni Award
Teang Tang

Mingle Event Management Inc., a Calgary-based event-planning company that specializes in environmentally responsible events, was set up by president Teang Tang, B.Comm., while she was a part-time student at AU. "The university has given me the tools, skills and knowledge to create the life that I want to lead," she says. "It helped me develop my intrinsic motivation - a key factor in helping me succeed and be true to myself." Of receiving the award, Tang says that she is "honoured that AU has chosen me, proud that I have been recognized and empowered to continue with my business and scholastic endeavours."

Volunteer Service Award
Dr. James Pau

Dr. James Chi Ming Pau, BA (general studies, 1982), has spent the past 35 years helping marginalized people, especially seniors and those with drug addictions, living in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. He blends Western and Asian principles to heal body and spirit and, as president of the North American Buddhist Order, is a passionate advocate for world peace and social justice. "I do it because I am human and we should live as a family and help each other," he says simply. "It is very inspiring to receive this award. Even though I have retired, it helps me move forward."

A focus on quality

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Prominent distance educators meet in Banff to discuss a new framework
By John O'Brien

Perception, they say, is often more powerful than reality. That's especially true when it comes to distance education and e-learning, and these days perceptions aren't that good. Changing those perceptions, which question the quality of online and distance education was the focus of a symposium in Banff in September, sponsored by Athabasca University and the Campus Alberta Quality Council.

Participants, from all over the world came to Banff to begin the long process of developing a set of standards that will enable educators to measure the quality of education not just at distance universities, but for any post-secondary institution that offers distance education programs..

Distance education has been around for more than a century. For most of that time, it has been a well-respected component of the post-secondary sector. That changed in the last decade or so, with the advent of online and e-learning. It's not that the technology itself is suspect, but that some of the players taking advantage of the new opportunities have had motives other than educating students. That has brought the entire sector under the microscope.

"In some peoples minds, open and distance learning is considered a revenue opportunity, it's considered what the private sector does, it's where the cowboys operate, ``said Dr. Frits Pannekoek, president of both Athabasca University and the International Council on Distance Education (ICDE) and one of the organizers of the Banff symposium. ``It's considered the frontier, and the students be damned. It's all about the revenue."

Dr. Mark Bullen, Associate Dean of the Learning & Teaching Centre at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, agrees that the perceptions created by `degree mills` - especially those operating in the United States - is hurting legitimate e-learning and distance education institutions. And he says distance education is being unfairly singled out.

"One of the things that bothers me about the quality issue is that it only seems to reach the top of the agenda when e-learning is involved. The discussion seems to always start from the premise that the quality of e-learning is inherently suspect and we need to ensure it meets the same standard as our face-to-face instruction. In fact, there are no system-wide quality standards for teaching and learning in higher education and most higher education institutions rely almost entirely on student satisfaction and graduation rates as their measures of education quality."

So what would a set of quality standards look like? That's where the real debate begins, judging from the two days of discussion at the Banff symposium, and at similar forums held at the same time in Europe and Asia. A wide set of issues to be resolved, including course development, student and faculty support and evaluation and assessment came under scrutiny at the symposium. But the general consensus seems to be that any set of quality standards must be student-centered and must focus on learning outcomes.

It's a big challenge according to Dr. Carolyn Jarmon, vice-president of the National Center for Academic Transformation in the United States, and one of the participants at Banff.

"The problems with quality standards are partly because people haven't talked about it, they talk about grades. You have to pose the question ‘what are students learning?' I think you have to treat (quality standards) for distance education exactly the same way. ‘How do you know that students who graduate from this program are as ready to serve (in their fields) as students who graduated from a traditional face- to-face institution?'"

That would involve a massive change in traditional thinking about quality in a university setting, where the credentials of the instructor, not the outcomes of their instruction, have been the benchmark for centuries.

"At the very grassroots level, we have to be able to say to an instructor ‘here's a set of tools you can use, and here are a set of outcomes you can demonstrate that the quality of your instruction in this area would be valuable.'" said Dr. Peggy Patterson, a member of the Campus Alberta Quality Council.

So when will we see a set of quality standards that can work across the post-secondary spectrum? Not for a long time yet. But the important first steps are under way - with senior educators talking about quality measurement in a new way. And for distance educators who've borne the brunt of false perception and whispered innuendo, that conversation is a welcome change.

Visit Athabasca University President's Website

A beautiful future - Disha Sandhu

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:45:20 MDT

"What do I really want out of my career?"

By Eva von Buchenroder

Disha Sandhu doesn't dream small. The professional stylist and makeup artist has an image consulting business, ImageGen, and plans to own and operate an online retailing site specializing in women's skin and hair care products.

Her success so far is no accident. "Three years ago, I took a hard look at my life and contemplated on the question, what do I really want out of my career? My contemplations led me to the decision to acquire further training so that I could make a living doing work that I love."

Sandhu, who lived in a rural community in India before moving to Toronto, was unsure of her prospects at first. "As an immigrant newly arrived to Canada, I never thought it possible to complete any form of higher education due to time and financial constraints," she says. But after going to school for image consulting and completing training as a makeup artist, she enrolled in the B.Comm. program in 2009. Now, she's realizing her aspirations for the future.

"A large part of our life is (lived) at work, so having a job that brings you happiness is important.... Careers with meaning, with an abundance of positive human contact, are often recognized as the most fulfilling ones. This includes careers like the makeup artist, stylist or other jobs where you're working with others to improve their lives."

Sandhu concludes, "I'm able to develop deep and meaningful relationships with people, not the superficial ones that are so prevalent in everyday existence. There's deep fulfillment in knowing that the work you do helps to improve others' lives."

Someone to count on – Mike Stewart

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Being there for everything and everyone

By Eva von Buchenroder

For Mike Stewart, who is working toward his bachelor of arts degree in history, family is a very big priority. The transfer student from UBC and Briercrest College didn't initially plan on becoming an AU student, but ended up enrolling in the BA program so that he could be there for the people most important to him.

After Stewart's father was diagnosed with a rare blood disease, his parents moved to Vancouver to be near St. Paul's Hospital. The history undergrad has a younger brother, Scott, who was enrolled in high school in Kelowna. Stewart decided to stay behind with his brother and act as a parent in whatever capacity he could. He and his fiancée, Leah, who lives in Calgary, were also busy with preparations for their upcoming wedding. "Because of these factors," Stewart explained, "I am simply unable to attend scheduled classes."

These days, the resilient student is working hard as an irrigation foreman who even finds time to "chip away at assignments during my lunch break," and preparing for his nuptials by doing marriage counselling with Leah through his church. Despite the distance between them, the couple see each other regularly because Stewart is able to write his exams in Calgary.

He's still weighing his options for the future, but is thinking about either teaching elementary school or pursuing graduate studies. With the dedication he's shown to every commitment he takes on, he'd be sure to excel at either.

Education with a little adventure – Matt Burnett

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 15:45:20 MDT

"the best thing that ever happened to me"

By Eva von Buchenroder

Matt Burnett is pursuing a bachelor of human resources and labour relations and working at SaskEnergy in the administration and business policy department. Previously a University of Regina student, Burnett appreciates the fact that he can now schedule school around his life. "This allows me to work enough to pay for school and do the majority of things that I enjoy," he says.

He picked the program, he explains, because he likes working with people. He adds, "I am constantly finding that the knowledge obtained in this program is very useful on a daily basis. Employment relationships are a huge part of every adult's life."

When he's not hard at work, Burnett welcomes the freedom being an AU student affords by travelling. "I've gone on ski trips and vacations to Jamaica and Mexico," he says. "It's nice being able to get away when the resorts are not packed with people."

AU has been such a perfect fit - he describes it as "the best thing that ever happened to me" - that Burnett doesn't plan to stop at just a bachelor's degree. "The way Athabasca operates works great with my life. I will definitely pursue my master's through Athabasca."

New learning possibilities - Angela Batsford

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 15:45:20 MDT

... I wouldn't have been able to continue my studies
By Eva von Buchenroder

After completing an online master of education program in 2008, Angela Batsford was ready to move on to a doctorate program. But the closest university to her hometown that offered one was over three hours away, and the school where she'd done her master's degree didn't offer an online doctorate program. That's when she found AU.

"Without a distance education program at this level, I wouldn't have been able to continue my studies," she acknowledges.

Batsford, a teacher who also develops and administers courses at Keewaytinook Internet high school, an aboriginal online high school, is using what she's learned to benefit others who know that getting an education can be a challenge. Her students live in remote northern communities where traditional high schools and colleges don't exist. Prior to the KIHS program, 14-year-old students had to leave their parents to move to a city several hours away in order to attend high school.

Batsford wants her students to know they don't have to compromise to get an education. "There are options available to them," she affirms. She's certainly leading by example.

Healthy ambition

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:45:20 MDT

RN, student, entrepreneur - this nurse is almost never off the clock
By Eva von Buchenroder

Kristy Hermann, a master of nursing student, is a self-described "skilled juggler." She's not talking about sleight of hand, but rather her busy life. Hermann says she chose Athabasca University for its flexibility - and she's certainly made use of it. Aside from being a few courses away from completing her program, in which she has a straight-A average, Hermann also works as a registered nurse in neonatal intensive care and runs a retail business called Wee Love Baby Boutique.

Hermann is clearly passionate about working with children and their parents. "I love interacting with new moms and dads and seeing their expressions on their faces looking at their new baby.... I also love the challenges of working with children. They cannot always articulate what is wrong or what they are feeling (and their) physical status can change extremely quickly."

Hermann explains that she felt drawn to nursing as a teenager and began working toward a career in the field immediately after high school. It was after teaching nursing at the college level that she realized she wanted to get an MN to go into nursing education. Her nursing background also helped inspire her choice of business.

While Hermann admits that her life is occasionally overwhelming, "the rewards and benefits far outweigh the detriments." Up next for the RN, hopefully, is a much-deserved vacation. Adds Hermann, "Who knows ... maybe a PhD someday ... I never thought I would be doing my master's, but here I am. You just never know what the future holds. The sky is the limit!"

Spanning the distance

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:45:20 MDT

China's distance education community building partnerships

Athabasca University played host to a delegation from the People's Republic of China on September 14. The visit was part of a North American partnership-building mission by members of China's distance education community: the Shenyang Radio and Television University, the Tianjin Radio and Television University, and the China Central Radio and Television University. Formerly known as the China Central Radio and Television University, the Open University of China (OUC) is based in Beijing. The OUC operates on a scale that few institutions can match - with approximately 1400 learning centres across the country serving 400,000 students.

The visitors were seeking input into their development of learner support systems and quality assurance and are keen to deepen their relationship with AU. With the Chinese distance education environment in flux, a dialogue with AU is viewed as a valuable step in enhancing the profile and quality of the country's distance learning efforts.

Following discussions with Dr. Nancy Parker, Dr. Dietmar Kennepohl and Vice-President Academic Margaret Haughey, the group was heading east for meetings at the University of Toronto and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston.

New frontiers in e-learning

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:45:20 MDT

AU projects create jobs, make school a leader in learning technology

By Patrick Mears

A digital dawn is spreading across the horizon in Canada and around the globe as new educational technologies illuminate the landscape with rays of knowledge. Startling developments in information technology are beginning to impact upon education, and Athabasca University is at the forefront of a march into e-learning thanks to two innovative initiatives. AU's exciting Community Adjustment Fund (CAF) and Knowledge Infrastructure Program (KIP) projects will ensure students get a world-class education that will equip them for the challenges posed by the 21st century.

A significant number of inventive projects are currently electrifying the virtual and brick-built corridors at Athabasca University, where dedicated staff are working diligently to turn a vision of e-learning into reality. The projects all differ and are in various stages of completion but have one major feature in common: improving teaching at AU.

Director of the Centre for Learning Design and Development, Dr. Cindy Ives, said: "Athabasca University is becoming a centre of excellence for e-learning. The CAF and KIP programs will construct a framework, which we can then build upon and improve as the years go by, leaving us in a great position to offer courses that will appeal to students in the digital age."

Under the CAF program, four projects will combine to digitize and enhance course content. And 33 Open Knowledge Environment projects (OKE) will join forces to refine and recharge IT infrastructure at the university.

The CAF Course Materials Digitization project involves converting at least 450 courses into a format compatible with online learning. As part of the Showcase Courses project, up to 20 of the university's highest-enrollment courses will be enriched with digital enhancements such as blogs and podcasts. The Copyright Materials Digitization project is directing the digitization of 17 filing cabinets full of legal documents.

In total, $6.4 million has been made available for the CAF projects through the federal government's Community Adjustment Fund, Alberta's Access to the Future Fund and in-kind as well as private donations. That money is helping to create jobs in rural parts of northern Alberta that were hit hard by the recent economic downturn. So far the projects have created more than the agreed-upon target of 55 full-time equivalent positions.

AU's $7.65-million OKE program is being fully funded by money from the provincial and federal governments. This has already helped to create 33 new positions. The initiative comprises a number of projects which are extremely innovative, including the virtual media lab. The lab will be a dynamic space for teaching, mentoring, research, peer review, display and practice - a combination of the separate functions that university labs have traditionally performed.
The Landing project aims to create a social networking site for use by everyone at AU - academics, staff and students. It contains aspects of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook and houses them together under one roof.

Vice-president of information technology at AU, Brian Stewart, said: "We are inventing the future of e-learning, working in a consistent and systemic fashion to construct the whole methodology for creating and developing e-content. No one has done this before. This process will allow us to move into a space where we can make the most of existing technology and emerging technologies."

The digital revolution unleashed

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:45:20 MDT

World's Best First Year online - endless possibilities
By Frits Pannekoek, PhD
President, Athabasca University

Much has been made of late of the eventual disappearance of the traditional university campus. The digital revolution has unleashed an intense intellectual competition to make learning, particularly post-secondary learning, more accessible, more affordable, more imaginative, more socially engaging, more student centred and more flexible. E-learning is now considered by many to be synonymous with open learning or distance education, and it is increasingly becoming a natural part of the residential university experience. Early examples of free or open online content are MIT's OpenCourseWare project and the Open University's Open Learn Project.

Paradoxically though, e-learning is often associated with for-profit education rather than with the process of democratizing advanced education and increasing its availability to students outside a traditional campus setting. When all of the world's educational activities are taken into account, the preponderance of post-secondary learning remains toll-gated, credentialed and paper-based. This situation maintains despite the fact that the next generation of learners will be demanding a more aggressive e-based pedagogy that will include mobile learning devices and other digital technologies.

The question, then, is how can we best achieve an open access environment in courseware and course content given the considerations outlined above? Continuing to put up sample course content or course outlines in various subject and institutional digital repositories might be an appropriate and easy route. Certainly, this approach has not been without success. Will it, however, engage the next generation of learners? Will it engage the world community of scholars who specialize in online learning discourse and dialogue?

I propose a simple first step toward a new online paradigm: the World's Best First Year online. This new open courseware option would consist of a digital repository of the world's best courses for a generic first-year university program. The courses would all be made available online-fully accessible, totally free, completely adaptable, always changing and, to ensure intellectual excellence, peer reviewed. They would represent the best pedagogy in combination with the best available content. Most importantly, this set of courses would include the universally difficult courses, those with the highest failure rates.

At Athabasca University, we are testing the possibilities of developing a best first-year online course by focusing on introductory calculus. A difficult course with high failure and drop-out rates everywhere it is taught, calculus presents even greater challenges to online teachers and learners related to the representation and manipulation of mathematical symbols on the web. In spite of the technical and pedagogical demands involved in designing this open course, we think our experiment will offer a dynamic and engaging learning experience to students. As well, we will learn more about designing open courseware and be able to apply that knowledge to other subjects.

Profiles of today's learners, the net generation, reveal learning preferences that we neglect at our peril. Seventy-two per cent of college students rank search engines such as Google as their number one choice for finding information; only two per cent use libraries as a source; over 57 per cent of American teens are media creators and 55 per cent use social networking sites; and 40 per cent of children in grades three to five use online tools. These data are a harbinger of a shift in learning needs that demand new pedagogies, shaped by learning and the learner.

There are, however, barriers to this new paradigm, ones erected by governments and the traditional post-secondary establishment. Passage of the United States Higher Education Reconciliation Act for example, disallows government student loans to American students taking foreign distance education programs, including from Athabasca University which is accredited in both Canada and the United States. The antipathy toward open and distance learning in The United States does not bode well for digital learning.

This fear manifests itself in various ways: some universities work with their national governments to restrict e-learning opportunities, and many residential universities either reject online teaching with evangelical fervour or limit their understanding of online teaching to the use of video lectures or the marginal use of learning management systems. There remains considerable resistance, despite all good intentions, to online learning and consequently to the removal of barriers that might encourage the development of the best course content embedded in the best and most appropriate pedagogies for mass audiences.

The real question might be how universities, colleges could or students use the World's Best First Year? Some universities might adopt all or some of the courses as the basis of their curriculum and contribute changes to the originators. Some students might want to test their understanding against the online versions to determine their own knowledge. Some universities might well decide to offer interactive student services to support the courses, whether or not they are credentialed at their institution. Some may decide to do it for a few courses, while others may see it as a marketing tool-a loss-leader. The possibilities are endless and would depend on the individual institutions, their capacity and their imagination.

Advocacy the key to opening digital locks

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Proposed copyright legislation could restrict access to learning materials

By Patrick Mears

Copyright is currently one of the most controversial topics occupying the minds of academics, administrators and educators across Canada. Universities are among a number of organizations calling for the government to amend the recent C-32 bill. Now, in the wake of copyright law expert Dr. Michael Geist's visit to Athabasca in June for the ABC Copyright Group conference, Open AU online takes an in-depth look at the new bill.

"Flawed but fixable" - that is how Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa who also holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and e-commerce law, has described the bill. Bill C-32 proposes to give institutions access to free materials through a fair dealing exemption for educational uses while also protecting digital locks on content. And it appears that the digital locks issue has persuaded many at institutions across the country, including Athabasca University, to conduct a "copyfight" based on advocacy in a bid to force the government to rethink the proposals.

As educational institutions, universities have an extremely keen interest in copyright law. This legislation dictates what materials a teacher or lecturer can use in the classroom, whether that classroom is virtual, as is the case at Athabasca University, or built of bricks and mortar. It also shapes what institutions will pay for that content. But universities also have an interest in protecting copyright as producers of intellectual and creative content.

In his blog, Geist said: "The bill contains some important extensions of fair dealing, including new exceptions for parody, satire and (most notably) education.
"Unfortunately, the legal protection for digital locks - unquestionably the biggest and most controversial digital copyright issue - is the one area where there is no compromise. Despite a national copyright consultation that soundly rejected inflexible protections for digital locks on CDs, DVDs, e-books and other devices, the government has (...) brought back rules that mirror those found in the United States."

At a distance learning institution such as AU, the issue of digital locks takes on added significance because a relatively large number of the university's courses are online. One school of thought says the concessions granted under fair dealing are in fact a mirage - the digital locks are the trump card that will always win.
Dr. Jay Smith, professor of political science at AU, said: "There's always been a historical balance between those who use materials and those who create or own them. With the introduction of digital locks, that balance will be tilted in the favour of the owners of copyright. Universities depend on information being in the public domain so this poses a risk to the environment in which universities function.

"Copyright will affect the lives of every individual in this organization. Digital locks will be placed on content more and more, meaning individuals may have to pay to make copies of music and TV programs - even if they already own the product."

This year, the theme of the ABC Copyright Group's annual conference was advocacy and openness. Advocacy is needed to fight parts of the bill such as digital locks, said Rachel Conroy, the event organizer and copyright officer at AU.

"The way that we use materials has changed dramatically over the last ten years," said Conroy. "We now use multimedia such as videos, images and podcasts in courses, generally mixing and mashing people's work. The point is that anyone who uses third party materials should consider themselves an advocate if they wish to keep using them at a reasonable cost. Advocacy is the key to opening the digital locks."

Conroy joined Athabasca University about 10 years ago and since then the copyright office has almost doubled in size. Now, AU has 17 filing cabinets packed full of documents related to copyright agreements, trademarks and intellectual properties. So that goes to prove, if proof were needed, that copyright is big business.
Dr. Cindy Ives, director of AU's Centre for Learning Design and Development, said that open educational resources - materials that have been posted online and are free to educational users for non-commercial purposes - could help to provide a solution. However, according to Ives, the movement needs to grow before it can provide a sustainable answer.

"One important aspect is cost," said Ives. "The university spends a lot of money on copyright every year. In tight financial circumstances we need to find ways to reduce costs without reducing quality.

"It's partly the model. In our distance education environment, courses are made up of resources that we bring together to get the best possible learning materials for our students. But these are difficult financial times, so if the bill remains unchanged then the university will need to make decisions on what third party materials it is able to pay for."

Other parts of the C-32 bill which have caused frustration among educational institutions include a clause which gives researchers only five days to examine digital documents borrowed from libraries, after which they must destroy them, posing problems for faculty, staff and students.

In addition, the 30-day rule suggests that educational institutions should destroy lessons 30 days after students enrolled in the course have received their final course evaluations. AU has continuous enrolment and this rule would present significant challenges to the institution. Depending on how the law is interpreted, the university may have to destroy course materials at the end of each student's examination, making it reliant on open access materials.

Over the coming months, copyright conversations will be held across AU at operational and executive levels. Numerous representations have been made to the government by AU faculty and staff, and Ives, Conroy and Smith are keen for that to continue apace.

In his online blog Geist concluded: "In the days and weeks ahead, Canadians must speak out to ensure that the compromise positions found in C-32 remain intact and that the digital lock provisions move from the no-compromise category to the compromise one."

For more information about copyright issues and about the conference visit the ABC Copyright Group.

Make your school spirit official on Facebook

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:45:20 MDT

University-run page provides reliable information, new ways to connect

For years Athabasca University students have been gathering on Facebook to chat about their AU experiences. With more than 400 million active users, half of whom log in every day, Facebook is the most popular online social networking site. Currently a Facebook search for "Athabasca University" delivers over 67 group pages. Most of these groups are run by individuals and are meant to foster group discussion around a common area of interest. In the past, AU as an organization had no way to control or direct the discussions.

But that all changed when Facebook created fan pages. Now known simply as pages, they allow organizations to broadcast information to their fans. Only authorized representatives of an organization can run a page, which means that AU now has a vehicle to reach current and prospective students on Facebook in an official capacity. Students can still participate in any of the AU group pages, but the advantage of the AU page is the access to official and reliable AU information.

The AU page lets the university communicate with both current and prospective students by sharing news and upcoming events and facilitating discussions. Students can chat with each other and AU representatives on the wall and in discussion posts. They are also able to access Ask AU to receive answers to many of their AU questions.

AU's fan base, which totals over 700 people, continues to grow steadily. Experts in social media say that a fan base needs to reach 1,000 to really start adding value to the community. In order to get there, AU will continue delivering meaningful updates.

If you're on Facebook, visit AU's page and click "like" to join.

Beyond expectations

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:45:20 MDT

AU alumna surprised by her own post-grad accomplishments

Vera Dolan has immersed herself in the world of distance education, including earning her MDE from AU in 2009.

"In 2001, I became an MBA instructor of an online university headquartered in Chicago. That was the first time I came across distance education, particularly via the Internet. I always had gratifying experiences in my relationship with my students, even though I had never met them face to face. In 2004, my school asked me to start training and mentoring new and seasoned instructors. I liked this type of work even more than teaching, so I decided to gain formal credentials in the field. It was natural for me to become an online student. I did not plan to stop working while pursuing my master's, so the flexibility of this environment ended up being quite an attractive option. I did quite a bit of research and I was extremely satisfied with what I learned about the AU program and the school's reputation. I'm still very happy with my decision and I would do it all over again, so much that I have applied to the EdD program at AU.

"I'm not the same person I was back in 2005. I'm better. I feel better. With this master's I gained access to the highest-calibre professionals and academics who work on research - one of my areas of interest - and in other areas such as instructional design. After I graduated, I did things that I'd never imagined doing before. I even wrote a book chapter in collaboration with two other academics. In addition, a few people who read my thesis have invited me to work with them on other researches. I'm truly excited with the possibilities I see in my horizon.

"The AU master's program went much beyond my expectations, particularly because I did not learn only about distance education; rather, I learned a lot about myself, and this has been priceless."

Enjoying the challenge

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Canadian Forces officer highlights top three reasons he chose AU

Marcel Ducharme (MDE 2009) is a training development officer (TDO) in the Canadian Forces. He currently fills the position of senior staff officer, standards, in the Canadian Defence Academy. The Academy is an organization that is responsible for all common officer and non-commission member training and education in the Canadian Forces, along with other assigned training for occupations - logistics, cooks, padres, etc. - that span the land, sea and air environments.

"There were three attributes that drew me to Athabasca University. First was its excellent reputation for providing quality adult education. Second is AU's innovation and application of technology to make learning accessible, especially as I was required to travel due to my job. The third attribute was the flexibility of the master of distance education program as it would allow me to work at my own pace so I could balance my family, work and community commitments with my studies.

"From a professional perspective, the MDE program has provided me with a breadth of knowledge and skills that I've been able to apply in my current job - from being involved in the development of new courses, to overseeing revisions to the CF's instructional design manuals, to chairing or advising on various committee/working groups pertaining to training and education in the CF.

"Completion of my degree from a personal perspective has been extremely rewarding as I've always enjoyed challenging myself and achieving personal learning goals. I think it also has demonstrated the importance of education to our children.

"Now that I've completed the program, I've considered AU's EdD but recognize this goal may have to wait a number of years to put the needs of my family first after the support they've shown over the last number of years, although that does not preclude keeping up my reading from a professional-development perspective and maybe even taking the odd course."

Opening up opportunities

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Distance education helps alumna continue career in N.W.T.

Kristy Feltham (MN 2009) is working as a primary health care nurse practitioner in the Northwest Territories.

"I selected AU because it provided the program I was looking for in a distance education setting. I was working in Nunavut in an expanded role as a nurse. I knew that I wanted to do my master's but I wanted a program that was clinical-based. The distance education portion was also a huge deciding factor for me. I wanted a program that would allow me to continue working in the North and allow me to complete my courses at the same time. I also spoke with some of the AU students currently in the program and received positive feedback about it.

"There were times that I questioned whether or not I was making the right choice, but I think that is all part of taking on a program of this calibre while working full-time and enduring the stresses of everyday life. Sometimes it can be a little difficult to balance.

"Completing my MN is one of the things that I decided I wanted to do after graduating with my BN. This was a personal goal for me and it has provided me with a great sense of accomplishment. Professionally, I feel that completing my master's will open up a number of job opportunities and help me excel further at a career that I love. I love learning, and completing the AU program has provided me with that opportunity both professionally and personally.

"In the end it has been a great overall experience, and I have recommended the program to several friends and colleagues."

Finding a supportive community

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Classmates helped inspire and motive master's student

Kona Bryson (MDE 2009) has applied the knowledge from her master of distance education degree as an educator working in northern Saskatchewan with both high school students and adult learners.

"I selected AU because it was respected and flexible and because of empowerment. For the first time my formal education was my own. I was responsible and accountable for it. I looked for the answers to my own questions and I found them. I stayed with AU because the faculty, staff and my fellow online students were understanding, personable and generously shared their experiences. I was treated as a valuable contributor to the courses I was enrolled in. Whenever I felt inadequate it seemed I was quickly given guidance, feedback and practice, which provided opportunities for mastery and competence. I am grateful to my fellow students who generously shared their knowledge and experience with me during this educational journey. They motivated and inspired me to keep going when I felt exhausted, isolated and atypical. Their humanness was the essence of this program for me.

"Staying with AU was one of the best decisions I ever made. I continue to work at www.edcentre.ca online school, and this position allows me to assist in creating more opportunities in northern distance education. Professionally, having my master's has increased my job security, knowledge, skills and confidence. It has also been an invaluable experience as my empathy towards my students and colleagues has also grown and continues to expand.

"Personally, my MDE has given me a calm and confident self-assurance. I am very proud of my accomplishment and encourage all my students to set their goals and work towards them in small increments. If I could do it, I know they can do it."

Growing as a person

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Former skater never lost sight of the future

Jason Dietrich (BA 2009) is a former competitive figure skater and the owner of the Figure Skating Boutique. He followed in his mother Denise's footsteps (MHS 2003) when he turned to AU for his educational needs.

"I selected AU as I found it hard to work full-time, train full-time and attend a conventional university. I went to AU after doing some minor correspondence courses with another university and finding that they were very hard to deal with and communicate questions and concerns [to]. I am very happy with the decision to attend AU as I would not have a university degree had I not done it this way, and I also would not have had the opportunity to buy a business and expand my prospects for the future.

"Professionally, obtaining my degree has taught me perseverance and dedication to something you believe in. This also has increased my abilities and confidence when it comes to running a business. Being self-starting, independent and persistent are ... attributes that define an entrepreneur, and these are aspects I have learned from studying independently that have allowed me to grow as a person and a businessman.

"Being a national-level competitor is hard on many levels. Being a champion or the worst person on the ice still involves many hours on the ice. I was never an elite skater and probably overachieved ... [in terms of] where I should have been in the skating world. However, my personal goal was to make the national championships and skate the best I could. For the most part I achieved this.... Skating led me to the career I have now and the experience of seeing much of Canada through travel.

"AU allowed me to continue my studies and grow as a person. I found many skaters did not value education as they were going to be the next big skating name. I, on the other hand, realized that [it would only take] one injury and I would not be skating at all, so thinking of the future was important as also valuing the present. Valuing education came from my mother, and getting my university degree was important to both me and my family.

"Attending AU allowed me to skate competitively and get an education. These have helped me develop into who I am today."

Moving forward with knowledge and confidence

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 15:45:20 MDT

AU offers education "how it should be," says recent grad

At the time of her graduation, Bernie deMunnik (MHS 2009) was program manager of a hospital emergency department where her role included leadership of 80 staff working collaboratively with 25 ER physicians and specialists. Since completion of her degree, she accepted a secondment to a Ministry of Health-funded position where she will be until June 2010. After that, she anticipates continuing to contribute in project management at her organization.

"I selected AU for a few reasons. First, that AU knows how to accomplish distance education so well. My undergrad was completed through distance education at a different university; however, I experienced many frustrations in the process, from receiving course materials in a timely manner [to] submission of assignments and connecting with and obtaining feedback from the professor. I had completed one undergrad course through AU and the difference was remarkable. I thought, ‘This is how it should be! This is how it can be!'

"Second, AU knows how to meet the student needs in a predictable, standardized manner. As an adult learner who also juggled a full-time management-level role, and a mother of four active children, it was important to me to be able to depend on my educational process. I appreciated it so much that I could participate online - no more rushing to the post office or courier at the last moment to submit assignments or waiting for results. The wonderful bonus was the feeling that I was part of a learning environment. The ability to be part of a class and to contribute and learn together was so amazing.

"It is a wonderful sense of accomplishment to have completed my degree. This has provided the confidence and freedom to seek additional learning opportunities and application of the knowledge and skills I have gained. I am glad I did it. I would do it again. I am also glad I am finished and able to move forward with the knowledge and confidence to continue to challenge myself in life."

No barrier to personal fulfillment

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Mature student finds satisfaction in learning

Norma Inch (BA) was the most senior member of the class of 2009.

"I selected AU because my late husband was already sick, and leaving him alone for hours to attend university lectures was not an option. It was my daughter who found AU on the web and encouraged me to sign up for courses. I have never regretted the decision and look on the years I spent working towards my BA as one of the most positive decisions I've ever made. I proved to myself that I could go back to school as a very mature student and succeed.

"Right after convocation I was busy with my daughter's wedding. I then travelled to Israel for my nephew's wedding and on to England to visit family and friends there. As well as indulging in my love of travel, I am also very involved with friends in Toronto and get together with them for coffee, lunches and dinners, and visits to movie theatres, live theatre and cultural events. I recently saw the Dead Sea scrolls exhibit, which was awe-inspiring. I also volunteer once a week at one of the Toronto hospitals, assisting at their ambulatory transplant clinic where people, both pre- and post-transplant, come for outpatient appointments. I still intend to learn a new language starting sometime this year.

"I don't think that completing my degree has impacted my life professionally, but on a personal level, it has made me feel that I have proved that age is definitely no barrier to personal fulfillment.

"I would definitely do it all again. Learning should be a lifelong experience, and as long as my brain functions properly, I intend to keep learning something new every day."

“Explorer” or “pinball” – what’s your learning style?

Fri, 07 May 2010 15:45:20 MDT

New research could make workplace training more effective

Do you take to new technology like a duck to water? Or do you feel like a Luddite when it comes to learning a new computer program or application? According to recent research conducted by Deborah Compeau, from the Richard Ivey School of Business, Barb Marcolin, an Ivey PhD graduate, and AU's Alain Ross, assistant professor of e-commerce, people fall into six categories when it comes to embracing or rejecting new innovations:

-Purposive planners are very structured and self-disciplined in their approach. They plan carefully and with a lot of attention to detail, and once they've made their plan they act on it.

-Explorers find time to learn on their own because they find it fun or useful. They might, for example, stop in the middle of a task and spend some time looking into new areas.

-Visionaries are people who find out about new technologies and think about what these could do for them personally and in their organizations. Visionaries are sometimes explorers. They tend to be lateral thinkers and look at technology from a very strategic perspective.

-Problem solvers are not necessarily interested in technology but are very interested in mastering their workplace tasks. They tend to have a strong task-oriented mindset.

-Pinballs are people who don't think about learning but simply bounce around between technologies picking up knowledge. They tend to do a lot of incidental learning and some actually become quite capable users of technology.

-Reluctant learners are people who don't really see the value of technology in their jobs. They simply focus on what they have to learn to survive in the organization.

This research is a new area for Ross, but one that she was very interested in.

"Organizations introduce information technologies in order to meet strategic and operational goals," she said. "Yet the extent to which these goals can be met is contingent on how well users can work with the technologies. Therefore, how users develop their IT competencies is a critical question. Coming from an IT consulting background, it seemed clear to me that organizations could really benefit from this understanding."

The research was carried out as a field study in a single firm called ChemCo. An organization-wide survey was implemented to identify factors associated with IT competency development. Then researchers interviewed 19 individuals with varying levels of user competency to hear how they described their IT competency development over time.

The researchers haven't finished all of their analyses yet, so the full implications of the research are still to come. Ross feels that being able to identify different types of IT learners will help managers understand the kinds of learning support they can provide to their employees.

"It shows that a menu of IT learning options is essential because different learners require different types of support. Classroom learning, for example, will be helpful for one set of learners - those we call purposive planners - but providing a ‘learning sandbox' will be more helpful for visionaries and explorers."

The research also showed that IT learning is a social activity for many learners. Reluctant learners and pinballs in particular benefit from coaching and peer support. However, some learners avoid social learning environments because they don't want others to see them as incompetent. Managers need to be sensitive to these identity issues that may interfere with IT learning.

"Developing IT competence is more complex than previously thought," Ross said. "This challenges managers to be more creative in providing learning support to their employees. This creativity, however, is likely to be rewarded with employees who are more comfortable and effective with the technologies they use in their work. Along with creating a more satisfying workplace, this gives managers an important tool in optimizing their IT investment."

Confidence through learning

Wed, 12 May 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Degree made possible through AU-MRU collaboration shows student she "can make it"

After graduating in 2009, Kathryn Anderson has continued on her educational journey: she is pursuing graduate studies.

"I chose AU because it offered me the freedom to continue my education at Mount Royal College (now Mount Royal University), a place I had come to love with professors I admired and respected, but also the ability to receive a university degree, something MRC could not give me on its own. I chose to pursue a bachelor of arts in psychology because it was a solid place to start to pursue my goal of receiving my master's in speech language pathology. I also love learning about why and how things work, including people. We equate to very complex machines.

"Earning my degree has allowed me to continue on in my studies and my goal to become a speech language pathologist. Earning my degree has also helped show that I know how to learn and can turn around and apply what I have been taught. Having a degree also shows that I am dedicated to what I do, and I believe that many people in the professional world see those qualities as transferring over to a professional situation. Personally achieving my degree has shown me I can make it. The road to getting there has taught me a great deal about myself and those people around me. The path I chose to follow to that final destination has impacted who I am today by impacting my physical location, the people I have met, and the challenges and successes that I have had along the way.

"My goal has always been to pursue graduate studies in speech language pathology. I never had the intention of being done school after my (bachelor's) degree. I want very few things more than I want to be an SLP, and graduate studies are what will get me there. I could not practice without my master's, so that is what I will do - get my master's.

"I am eternally grateful to the professors that I have had along the way who challenged me to move beyond where I was personally and academically. They set the bar high and then helped me find the tools that I needed to get there. I think AU is fabulous because it allowed me to stay at Mount Royal, and the education I received through that collaboration was outstanding. I do not believe I would have had a similar experience elsewhere and I would not trade it for the world. I believe that AU and the professors it employs truly care about ... students and their goals."

Undercover education

Fri, 21 May 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Alumna completes degree in Arctic, stuns family

Sharon Garon pulled off one of the biggest surprises on record when she completed her studies for her bachelor of human resources and labour relations and qualified to attend convocation 2009.

"After a period of unemployment, the job I found was in the Arctic. I made the move and spent four years living and working in the Northwest Territories. I had the time and opportunity to pursue a degree, but with working full-time, AU was an easy choice because it was the perfect fit for my schedule and it had a degree program that was also a perfect fit for me.

"I remember how intimidating the first couple of classes were, how thought-provoking they were, how relevant they were to my work, how some of them became almost enjoyable.

"I must be crazy but for six years, I kept the fact that I was studying to myself. Apart from my partner and my mom, none of my family knew. It was easy when I lived in the Arctic. They weren't around to see that I was studying. I wanted to keep it a surprise and I did. I called all my family together to read them my letter from AU informing me that I had completed all of the requirements for my degree. They were shocked, to say the least, but so proud. And of course, so was I.

"Between my two daughters they have five-plus university degrees and they have shown me how perseverance and determination brings about such a wonderful sense of achievement and confidence. I spent years thinking about studying at university but I didn't believe it was in my future. I always felt school was for young people and that I had missed my chance years ago. I experienced such a sense of accomplishment and I will never forget the experience. This has been my life's dream come true."

Cracking the books

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Nurse balances hard work with a little humour

Heather Avis completed her bachelor of nursing in 2009. In her current position her main responsibilities are in the area of public health, but she also works in a teen and young adult health clinic.

"I began taking my post-RN BN through another university but quickly found that commuting into the city for classes in the evening after work was exhausting. Then kids came along and I wanted to have more flexibility. So when my youngest went into Grade 1, I went back to school.

"This experience has been a very positive one for me. The tutors were always so helpful and encouraging, and the courses were well laid out. I was nervous going into a distance learning program but once I got going, I found I really loved the ability to work my studies around my family and work schedule.

"One of my most comical and memorable moments will always be when I finished a course I didn't enjoy particularly. As is our annual tradition, my family and I were around our backyard firepit burning our year-end school work. I have kept most of my textbooks, but this particular one (I thought) was not a keeper, so my son took the hatchet to it and bore a hole through the centre of it. A friend of my daughters retrieved the sorry-looking book and took it home, later to present it to me in a shadow-box frame. It now hangs in my office!

"I feel that one of the greatest achievements in this educational endeavour was showing my children that learning is a lifelong experience."

A fresh start

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:45:20 MDT

AU removes barriers, helps graduate carve new career path

Jen Shields had a career as an emergency medical responder but had to give up her ambition to become an emergency medical technician due to illness. AU and Mount Royal College (now Mount Royal University) helped her achieve her degree.

"I chose AU as I was able to continue my studies at MRC via the AU program and complete a double major. I decided to pursue a BA with majors in English and psychology as I believed that the two disciplines complemented one another well and would enhance my ability to become an advocate. I am still examining different career paths, but my BA gives me ample flexibility and a diverse scope of areas to pursue.

"Earning my degree, particularly in liberal arts, connected me with individuals from varied walks of life and enabled me to gain perspective into many areas of social concern. My studies in psychology, English and sociology have changed many of my thinking patterns and have prepared me to interact with a variety of individuals in a genuine, respectful and empathetic manner, regardless of circumstance, be it the clerk at the grocery store, or a student I am supporting in an Office of Student Conduct hearing.

"My experience with the AU instructors was very positive. I have ADHD as well as an autoimmune disorder. This combination of long term conditions can prove disruptive, and the instructors were always compassionate and flexible when my physical challenges made my studies difficult.

"AU provided me with all the tools I required to successfully complete my degree. Whenever I made an inquiry to AU about additional supports, such as my academic strategist for the summer months, the answer was always ‘we will find a way to accommodate you,' and they always did. Regardless of (the) inquiry, I always received a can-do response.... AU truly supports its students and the staff members' endeavour to ensure that student success is within the reach of those who are prepared to try."

Inheriting a love of education

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:45:20 MDT

BPA grad found fun in learning at early age

Angela Bethune earned a bachelor of professional arts in communication studies in 2009. She was eagerly anticipating saying "I have my degree" rather than "I will have my degree."

"I chose AU because after completing a diploma, I looked into two communication degree programs. AU had the program I could do while I worked at my job in another province, it had the 2+2 program (prior learning recognition) which would give me two years' credit, plus it was a ... reputable institution.

"My husband encouraged me to go back and finish my degree many years after I had taken my first course from AU. My parents always supported me and believed that I would achieve my educational goals. My grandpa used to let me sit in the big chair with him as he read and did crosswords when I was a little girl. He taught me how to read before I went to kindergarten. And my grandma let me pick out a new activity or colouring book when I was a kid and taught me that learning was fun. Without these early childhood experiences, I would not be the person I am today.

"As the oldest in my family and the first to complete a degree, I hope to start a new trend and that I have inspired my sister and brother to achieve their dreams too.

"Of this experience I will remember the thrill of learning, thinking and broadening my academic horizons and knowledge and how AU helped me make my dreams of a degree a reality by offering a way to study and work at the same time.... The best thing about having completed my degree is the sense of accomplishment and pride, especially because of the unique challenges of completing it through distance learning. The next best thing about finishing is the doors that open in regards to job prospects once you have a degree on your resumé."

Fast track to success

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Young AU grad prepares for long career while commending school's flexibility

At 20 years of age, Amy Sovereign had the distinction of being the youngest graduate at convocation 2009. She and her four brothers had been homeschooled, and she credits this experience with allowing her to complete Grade 12 by the time she was 15. Sixteen days after she turned 16 (AU's minimum age requirement), she started her university degree.

"I chose AU because of the flexibility it offered. I was able to fit my school around my life instead of fitting my life around school. After I started taking courses, I continued because of how organized and willing to help everyone was. It didn't feel like they were just there for your credit card, but that the tutors really did want you to pass the course.

"I will remember the days when I could sit outside in the sunshine with my laptop getting my school work done or the cold winter days when I could curl up on my bed and still do school work. I will remember the fun of meeting fellow students from all different walks of life and from all different areas of the world.

"I plan to use all the information and the skills that AU has taught me in my career. I plan to use the school to pursue a designation as an accountant. I'm slowly working towards achieving my CGA designation. The courses that I took through AU are helping me to excel in my work as well as to tackle the remaining requirements in the CGA program. I'm looking forward to utilizing all the different areas in my career that are now available to me because of the schooling I gained through AU."

Skills to Last a Lifetime

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:45:20 MDT

John Ahern (BA 1986) built upon his degree and career in law enforcement to become a prosecutor in one of the most high profile murder cases in Canadian history. But he still has ties to AU.

"I selected AU because I could not attend a traditional university with set day/evening classes, fixed exam schedules, and so on. I was living in Leduc, Alta. at the time, working for the RCMP, and was on shift work, which made this impossible. So initially it was the time flexibility of the AU model that drew me in. I have happy memories of studying at AU, especially the frequent contact with my tutors in almost all my courses."

Two years after obtaining his degree he was accepted by the University of Victoria Faculty of Law. He says that never would have happened if he had not been able to study at AU, "as I simply would not have been able to obtain my BA at U of A or another traditional university, given the restrictions on my time imposed by being an active RCMP member."

Ahern has been a lawyer for over 15 years, all spent in the Metro Vancouver area. Most of that has been as a prosecutor with the Attorney General of British Columbia. From 2002-2007 he was one of the prosecutors on the infamous case of serial murderer Robert William Pickton. He is now with the Commercial Crime, Proceeds and Securities Prosecutions Section in Vancouver.

Ahern shares his advice to current students. "Stick with it. It can be hard doing distance education at first, as no one is breathing down your neck to hand in an assignment by such and such a date. It all comes from inside. But if you learn how to do this, you'll have self-motivation and organizational skills that will last you a lifetime."

New Career Paths Accessible

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Julianne Cumming (BPA-Communication Studies 2008) enjoyed her AU experience so much that she has undertaken studies in the Master of Counselling program.

Diverse could be a word used to describe Julianne, which may explain why she was awarded an AU community leadership scholarship. In addition to coaching badminton, in the World Masters Games held in Edmonton in 2005 she competed and won a gold medal in ladies doubles, silver in ladies singles and a bronze in mixed doubles. She gardens and landscapes. She tends to her husband and their two sons. She has developed three successful businesses that she could run from home, including a travel business where she enjoys leading tours and helping people go on journeys of learning and self discovery.

The major impact she experienced from earning her degree was in the people she met along the way. "The staff members of the BPA-Communication Studies program are inspiring and very helpful. After completing my degree I had more choices and although I started my graduate studies I could also have taken career paths not previously accessible."

She says Athabasca University has a solid reputation for providing courses and academic programs for those who need to study from home. "Don't worry about how long it takes to complete the degree. A journey begins with a single step!"

Growing Pains: A history of intentions and promises

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:45:20 MDT

New study delves into oral agreements accompanying written treaties between Crown and First Nations

Planting, farming, and reshaping the landscape are practices normally attributed to European colonizers in Canada. However, First Nations oral history and archaeological and archival records demonstrate that First Nations people in present-day Manitoba have a rich and ancient history of farming.

Growing Pains: The Dynamics of First Nations Agriculture in Manitoba, 1850s-1960s is a study of First Nations agriculture covering the era of direct colonial intrusion and indigenous cultural change and adaption in what is now southern Manitoba. Winona Wheeler, associate professor with the Centre for World Indigenous Knowledge and Research at AU since 2006, is the co-applicant on the three-year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council research project, working with colleague Sarah Carter of the University of Alberta.

"I have been working with the Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba as their research strategist for almost three years," Wheeler said. "The treaty right to agricultural provisions and the promises of the numbered treaties were identified as one of their priority research areas. First Nations contend that the Crown has not lived up to its treaty obligations in this regard. Growing Pains is one component of a potentially larger research project that will cover all the treaty regions in present-day Manitoba."

Interpretation regarding the intent, nature and quality of the treaty provisions and promises made all across Western Canada has been hotly debated in politics and law since the ink on the treaty documents dried, Wheeler said.

"Basically, there are two understandings of the treaties: a literal reading of the written provisions, which would be the Crown perspective, and the oral history accounts of the spoken negotiations and promises that passed down from generation to generation, which is the First Nations perspective.

"For example, the treaty texts spell out a list of agricultural implements to be provided to First Nations as soon as they were ready to move onto their reserves and farm. But the intent of that provision, as told in historical documents surrounding the treaty negotiations and in First Nations oral history, indicates that they were promised farming support so they could make a living by it. A literal interpretation is that the Crown only promised the list of implements they wrote in the treaty documents - hoes, rakes, one set of oxen, one bull and some cows, etc. - not whether the people were enabled to cultivate their land, but whether the ‘cows and plows' were provided."

The "outside promises" that the research will also cover are those promises made by the Crown's representatives but not included in the treaty documents. In Treaty No. 1, for example, First Nations were promised agricultural support, but the Crown did not live up to that promise because it wasn't written in the text, Wheeler said. The First Nations petitioned the Crown, and a few years later an addendum to the treaty added agricultural support. "It is important to note that the Crown initially refused but was forced to comply when the local newspaper provided documented evidence that those promises were indeed made," she said. "All across present-day Western Canada other outside promises were made, but because of lack of supporting documentation, the Crown refused to live up to them."

Combining oral history and the documentary record, Wheeler said the project will represent a unique scholarly contribution that will be of interest beyond the academic community.

"The oral history component of this research is important because it provides a more human side to the story. Many elderly First Nations (people) experienced the agricultural support and prohibitions implemented by the Department of Indian Affairs, but this material does not form part of the written record. The documents tell us what the regulations, policies and procedures were, and how they were implemented. Oral histories tell us how it all transpired and impacted people on a very personal level."

Amateur photographer snaps up national prize

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:45:20 MDT

AU staffer's photo tops thousands of entries

A family bike ride, a tranquil lake and a perfect moment. When Athabasca University grounds technician Rob Koons came across the scene at Eleanor Lake in southeastern British Columbia last August, he knew he had a good photo opportunity. What he didn't know at the time was that he also had a Canadian award winner.

Koons's picture is the grand prize winner of Canadian Geographic's 25th annual photo contest and was judged best of more than 10,000 entries. And it's a moment that netted Koons a prize package worth $14,000.

"It was a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing; it looked like a great picture so I snapped it," said Koons.

Contest judge David Barbour, a professional photographer from Ottawa, called the photo authentic. "It's a beautiful, truthful image," Barbour told Canadian Geographic. "It goes to show how colours, repetition of shapes and subtle compositional elements really make a photo."

Koons's prize package includes a nine-day schooner tour through the Queen Charlotte Islands and a Nikon D5000 camera plus a printer and scanner.

You can see the gallery of contest winners and runners-up.

AU receives accreditation in European Union

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Collaboration with Greek institute raises AU's international profile, creates new possibilities

A very important step for Athabasca University's international profile was taken on November 5 when the university signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Technological Education Institute of Kavala in Greece. Part of the process of developing the MOA involved the accreditation of AU's master of distance education and of AU by TEI Kavala. And with accreditation in Greece comes accreditation in the European Union.

AU is the first external distance education university to be accredited in Greece, says Mohamed Ally, the director of the Centre for Distance Education.The collaboration started when a graduate of the MDE from Greece, who is a strong advocate of both distance education and of Athabasca University, wanted the degree to be offered in Greece where no such program currently exists, Ally says. Preliminary talks took about one year. This alumnus will now be AU's contact in Greece.

This agreement has tremendous potential for recruiting students for the MDE from Greece and from the rest of Europe, Ally says. "The prospective increase to our international student registrations is great."

Agreements covering other AU programs are also a possibility. While Greek representatives were in Edmonton, they met with the Centre for Innovative Management about a possible MOA for the executive MBA.

Arrangements like these provide exciting new opportunities for academics as well. Ally, noting that there was quite a bit of media interest when the agreement was signed in Greece, says that "Greater exposure in Europe also sets the stage for the possibility of collaborative research in Greece and in other European countries."

The athletes of AU - Madeleine Williams, Cross-Country Skiing

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:45:20 MDT

At AU I was able to make my schooling fit around my skiing because I was unwilling to make skiing fit into school.

Madeleine Williams has been the second-ranked female distance cross-country skier in Canada for the past two years. She has been a World Cup team member in 2008 and 2009, the national championships silver medalist in 2009, overall Nor-Am Champion 2007 and 2009, national senior team member from 2004 to 2007 and world junior championships and junior national team member in 2001, 2002 and 2003.

In 2009, she graduated from Athabasca University with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Her passion for skiing began at a very early age, but she says she started racing when she was 12, following in her brother's footsteps. After that, there was no looking back. "My first season racing I was successful and all other pursuits suddenly came second to skiing."

She turned to AU for her education when she realized after completing courses at the University of Calgary that "I was never going to finish a degree there while skiing was my priority. (At AU) I was able to make my schooling fit around my skiing because I was unwilling to make skiing fit into school. There isn't anywhere else that I know of the offers that kind of flexibility."

She also selected AU because "I knew that I would get a quality education there." As her mother is a professor at AU, some inside knowledge was provided.

With her degree under her belt, her focus returned to skiing - specifically the goal of competing in Vancouver 2010. Although she was on senior national and World Cup teams since 2003, she still had to qualify at trials races in December to represent Canada. She qualified in the 30km classic Olympic trials race and made her Olympic debut before enthusiastic hometown crowds.

When she is no longer skiing competitively, she plans to pursue grad studies in forensic psychology then to move on, possibly, to law school.

The Athletes of AU - Perianne Jones, Cross-Country Skiing

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:45:20 MDT

"I spend three quarters of the year away from home at training camps and races, so it's perfect to have AU courses that I can do anywhere."

Perianne Jones had always been very dedicated to skiing but she fully focused on the sport after graduating from high school, moving to Canmore from Ontario.

She had tried to go to the University of Calgary for the first few years, "but the driving in and out was cutting into training and recovery time, so I decided to take some courses from AU. It seemed like the best option and many of my teammates had taken courses from AU, so I signed up!

"AU allows me to take school on the road with me and gives me something other than skiing to focus on (which is nice once in a while!). I spend three quarters of the year away from home at training camps and races, so it's perfect to have AU courses that I can do anywhere."

She was a member of the junior team for three years and is currently on the senior national team. Last winter she paired up with Sara Renner at the world championships to come sixth in the sprint relay. She had already qualified for the Olympics by the summer of 2009, and in the intervening months "all I had to do was lots of good training and preparation!" She and teammate Madeleine Williams made their Olympic debuts as part of the 11-member Canadian cross-country team that competed in Whistler.

The athletes of AU - Jaime Robb, Biathlon

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:45:20 MDT

AU courses work with my schedule because I spend roughly one third of the year on the road training and competing in biathlon.

Jamie Robb began skiing when he was two and by the ripe old age of nine, he was keen to try shooting. Biathlon was a good fit. After he graduated from high school in 2002, he moved to Canmore, Alberta to train with the junior national biathlon team. Competing at the Olympics became his full-time pursuit. Full time, that is, with the exception of his Athabasca University studies.

"The first course I took was a political science course and I loved it (though I admit, I needed an extra extension!). I chose AU because the courses are easily transferable to other post-secondary institutions. It is important to me to be able to continue my studies while pursuing sport and AU was a great option to do so. AU courses work with my schedule because I spend roughly one third of the year on the road training and competing in biathlon. I need to be able to bring my coursework with me so I can work at my own pace in any environment."

He has competed in 16 World Cup races, spent nine years on the national biathlon team and has won a bronze medal at the 2009 IBU Cup and a bronze medal at the world junior championships. He was unsuccessful in his bid to qualify for Vancouver 2010.

He still has many goals in his future, including finishing his bachelor's degree and perhaps continuing with further studies. "I am keen to start working and am looking to give back to my community through public speaking and coaching efforts."

The athletes of AU - Sandra Keith, Biathlon

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:45:20 MDT

"After a long morning of skiing on the glacier and a big lunch, everyone pulls out their textbooks and starts working away".

Sandra Keith is no stranger to competing on the world stage. She won a gold medal at the European Cup in 2003 and represented Canada in 2006 at the Turin Olympics. She had a breakthrough year in 2008 with an 11th place finish at the Biathlon World Cup.

She has been a Bachelor of Commerce student since 2002. "The most vivid memory I have of everyone working on their AU courses together is when we're ... in Kananaskis Country (Alberta) ... at a training camp for elite cross-country skiers and biathletes. After a long morning of skiing on the glacier and a big lunch, everyone pulls out their textbooks and starts working away. Whenever our coach complains that our bags are too heavy or we have too much stuff, we always blame our AU textbooks!"

Despite a health problem that severely impacted on her ability to compete, she was able to get strong enough in summer 2009 to re-qualify for the World Cup team. But the illness persisted into the fall and her results on the World Cup suffered significantly. She was unable to qualify for the Olympics. "I wish my all my heart that things had turned out differently, but I've now learned that sometimes life throws you a curve ball." In spite of her disappointment, she still went to the Games as a spectator and cheered on her teammates.

In addition to her athletic accomplishments, Keith has received both the AU Academic Leadership Scholarship and the Community Leadership Award, presented to students who maintains a high academic standard and who have proven leadership skills combined with active participation in extracurricular activities.

The Athletes of AU - Zina Kocher, Biathlon

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:45:20 MDT

"I love to learn and wanted to continue some education while pursuing sport."

AU student Zina Kocher has earned her spot on Canada's Olympic biathlon team and will compete in Vancouver 2010. As the veteran on the women's four-member team, one news report has called her "Canada's best chance at a biathlon medal."

She strapped on her first skis when she was four years old and at 15 she was introduced to the sport of biathlon. She hasn't looked back. After graduating from high school, she moved to Canmore and started training full-time. In her first world junior championships she earned a 14th place finish, plus two top 20's. She has been on the national team since 2001, has been named Biathlon Canada Female Athlete of the Year three times and competed at the 2006 Olympics.

"I love to learn and wanted to continue some education while pursuing sport. I could not have attended another institution in the traditional sense due to our travel, training and competition schedules. In order to be a member of the national team, we must be present at either the Canmore or Valcartier training centres for at least 75% of the training and competition year, which makes attending a university somewhat a challenge."

In this all important training year "every workout has been very focused on what I need to do in order to be the best that I can be on February 13th - Day One of the Olympic Winter Games. Every shooting session and every ski specific workout was focused towards perfection with the Games in mind."

"My dream is to place on the Olympic podium during my career, and I am aiming for a top 10 at these Games. For this current season, my goal is to place on a World Cup podium again. Most likely I will continue for the next Olympics in Sochi 2014. With that in mind, over the next five seasons I would like to win a World Cup, a world championships and an Olympic medal."

Changing thinking and broadening perspectives

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Journalism prof gains insights into teaching through online studies at AU

Judy Charles (MAIS, 2007) is a journalism professor at Humber College in Toronto.

"The director and associate director of the master of arts in integrated studies program were the first academics to consider my work of 25 years and life experiences as part of my education, and I came to discover how their innovative approach created an educational experience that was greater than the sum of the parts. I worked with a rich diversity of classmates who were living around the world and whose unique personal and professional experiences enhanced the coursework to a degree I never imagined possible.

"I was surprised at how much I loved the online learning - the virtual classroom! I loved being able to read and reflect on the readings, then to discuss with my classmates at whatever time of day I could. Naturally everyone was doing the same thing, and I had visions of people in dozens of time zones sitting bleary-eyed at their computers in the wee hours of their mornings, posting assignments and talking about important and profound ideas.

"I loved the flexibility of the program, I loved all the courses and I loved (in retrospect) the rigour of it all. The interdisciplinary approach worked really well for me because I have so many interests, and the program allowed me to explore them and bring them all together. I have nothing but the highest praise for my professors - they were personable, intelligent, stimulating and very encouraging.

"Maybe the biggest surprise about the program was its impact on me. From the first day in the first course, I used the learning. It changed the way I thought about distance learning; it opened my eyes to other teaching methods; it broadened my perspective on education in general and gave me real insight on being a student so I could better understand my own students. As well, the critical thinking, the deep readings - synthesizing, analyzing and responding - enhanced my work as a news writer and producer at CBC Newsworld.

"I continue to teach full-time in the journalism faculty at Humber College and work on a relief basis at CBC Newsworld. I encourage my undergrad students to complete their degrees at AU."

No time for procrastination

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Entrepreneur finds convenience, affordability, and confidence at AU

Connie Cash (BMgmt, 2006) has her own business counselling farm families and small businesses in the area of succession planning to smoothly transition to future generations.

"I selected AU due to my inability to relocate to pursue a university education. I also selected it due to its focus on delivering distance education to students around the world. A personal goal of mine was to earn my degree in spite of life getting in the way and making it difficult from both a logistical and financial standpoint. I found AU very accommodating and financially affordable. Earning my degree gave me extra confidence and personal satisfaction.

"I absolutely loved the flexibility AU afforded me in pursuing my education when it was convenient for me. It allowed me to continue working and raising my family - all the while receiving my education. This would have been impossible in a traditional university setting. I also found the professors and tutors extremely helpful and willing to give input and advice when asked."

She says that while distance education is extremely beneficial, "it can also be difficult, and easy to procrastinate for some who are used to a more structured atmosphere. You still have to do the work and still have to get your assignments in when required."

A front row seat to the world

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Globe-trotting couple earn degrees while exploring Europe

Karlee Grant and Brent Cook didn't attend their graduation ceremony in 2009 to celebrate completing their individual BA degrees in history because they had been offered jobs teaching overseas.

"We learned about AU while attending Mount Royal University in Calgary. Many of our professors and classmates had nothing but good things to say, so we looked into it. Although we were accepted into the University of Alberta history program, the great instructors at MRU and AU were the real reason we chose to continue with AU.

"After our first time travelling together (one year in Ukraine), we knew we weren't done seeing the world. We attempted some distance education programs, which gave us the confidence we needed to attempt finishing our degrees overseas. We ordered a full-time course load, contacted some old friends and eventually ended up teaching English in Ukraine. AU was a perfect situation for us to get an education and experience the world.

"Our many travels took us to great sites and cities which ignited a passion for the past. (So did) the great history faculty at MRU, which taught us the historian's craft. They opened doors which allowed us to make sense of the things that we saw.

"We love AU! The flexibility and accommodation was amazing. We recommend this to any students who want to continue their education and see the world. It is hard, but very fulfilling.

"Our completed degrees make us more attractive to prospective employers. We believe that living overseas gives a person some of the best life experiences and understanding of the differences of the world's people and cultures. We hope our experiences abroad will help our future endeavours."

That future includes a new job offer in Bar, Montenegro. The Adriatic Sea (five minutes from their apartment) convinced them that Montenegro would be their next teaching experience for the year. They also hope to travel to Finland for a winter camp with Russian kids in January. After finishing their contract in May, they will be getting married in the Czech Republic in June and will then return to Finland to teach.

Open access to learning materials should be a right

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:45:20 MDT

WikiEducator helping to keep educational resources free and accessible

While the debate over more restrictive copyright laws in Canada continues, there is an international movement of educators who believe passionately that learning materials should be free, open and accessible to all.

Launched about three years ago, WikiEducator is a global community resource conceived and developed by the Commonwealth of Learning and the Open Education Resource Foundation. The goal is to provide ever wider access to quality material that is easily reproduced online. WikiEducator is working with schools and community colleges throughout the commonwealth to put their material on its site.

As a member of the Open Education Resource Foundation, Athabasca University was asked to host the WikiEducator servers. The partnership is a good fit because of AU's support of the open access movement, said Rory McGreal, associate vice-president research at AU and a member of the board of the Open Education Resource Foundation.

"The key is that WikiEducator is free and available," he said. "Faculty have course development responsibilities that can be alleviated using open education resources. There is a huge body of open educational resources freely available to use in development, design and integration of courses. Educators could assemble much of their courses from material that is already out there."

McGreal believes the major issue confronting course developers using proprietary content is the proposed new copyright laws. "The Canadian government is currently considering very stringent copyright laws based on a United States model. This could create significant difficulties, particularly for open and online institutions, in making use of proprietary content. We have to look for alternatives. One is open access where we share what we create with others and avoid copyright issues altogether."

Issues around copyright are very complex. One small example of the difficulties created by the proposed laws is that academic institutions would be required to destroy online proprietary material within one week of a final exam. For a university such as AU, where exams are taken year-round, it is an absurd law, McGreal said. The new laws are encouraging people to develop a parallel system of open software and open educational material that bypasses the proprietary system. "As the laws get more stringent and restrictive, people won't use proprietary material."

Skilled Competitor Makes Her Mark

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Hard work pays off for BPA student and "WorldSkills champion"

WorldSkills is a not-for-profit association that began in Spain in 1946 because of a need for skilled workers. The founders decided to motivate youth to get involved in the skilled trades by promoting a competition. In Canada, the member organization is Skills Canada. WorldSkills Calgary 2009 represented Canada's tenth participation in the international competition, which takes place every two years and brings together the world's brightest to compete in 40 skilled trades and technology categories. This year's competition saw more than 900 young people from 50 member country/regions competing. The event was Calgary's largest international competitive event since the 1988 Olympic Winter Games.

One of Team Canada's 38 competitors was Stacy Dubois. Her competition was in Microsoft Office and she placed ninth, earning a medallion of excellence for achieving a score of over 500 out of 600. She works part-time at the Skills Canada national secretariat and has been an AU student in the BPA (communication studies) program since 2008.

Dubois became involved with Skills Canada in 2007 when she was in her first year of the office administration program at Algonquin College in Ottawa. A teacher mentioned that there was an opportunity for a student to take part in a provincial competition for Microsoft Office. She thought she would give it a try. That event saw 30,000 spectators cheering on 1,500 competitors in all different skill categories.

"I'd never been in any sort of competition before, so you can imagine how intense this was. At the time, I didn't think I would stand a chance. Little did I know how far this all would take me!"

She won first place in her category and a few weeks later competed in the Canadian Skills Competition, where she took another first place. The next year she again won gold in provincials and nationals and earned her spot on Team Canada for WorldSkills Calgary 2009.

She says it was an amazing experience. "The four days of competition were intense, but well worth it. My goal going into this was to at least leave with a medallion, so I have to say that I am thrilled with my results.

"You are allowed to compete only once at a WorldSkills competition, and everyone who leaves is considered to be a ‘WorldSkills champion.' You can certainly expect to come out of this with a lot more confidence as you step into the workforce. Employers can look at us and know that we have been through extensive training to get where we are."

She got involved because "it sounded like an exciting opportunity. I have stayed involved because of the amazing experiences I have had, top-notch training I have received, amazing people I have met, and the chance to hopefully help to inspire other people and influence their lives in the same positive way that Skills Canada has changed my own."

She chose AU's BPA program because of an agreement that allowed her to transfer her credits toward a bachelor's degree. "Being able to complete a degree on my own schedule really appealed to me, and AU has a great reputation, so it was an easy choice to make."

As for her future, she has become interested in project management and communications. "I hope to work in a position that gives me the ability to really make the most of my technology skills and to continue to meet and work with lots of different people."

Open-AU online and Open Magazine Awards

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Open - Multiple Award Winner

Open magazine (2008/09) and Open-AU online have received high praise from the Association of Marketing & Communication Professionals (MarCom) by being awarded the Platinum Award in Design for Open-AU and the Gold Award in Design for Open magazine.

The MarCom awards is an international creative competition that recognizes outstanding achievement by marketing and communication professionals. Entries come from corporate marketing and communication departments, advertising agencies, PR firms, design shops, production companies and freelancers. The competition has grown to one of the largest of its kind in the world. Past winners range in size from individual communicators to media conglomerates and Fortune 500 companies.

Judges are industry professional that look for companies whose talents exceed a high standard of excellence and whose work serves as a benchmark for the industry. There were almost 5000 entries from throughout the United States, Canada and several foreign countries in the MarCom Awards 2009 competition.

The talented team that work on Open magazine and Open-AU are

Nancy Biamonte (creative director)
Jennifer Luckay (graphic design/print coordination)
Patricia Balderston, Diane Morrison, John O'Brien (writers)
Blaise MacMullin (photography)
Eva von Buchenroder (contract editor)
Cathy Nickel (contract writer)
Chris Hunt (contract illustrator)
Vern Hume, Elizabeth Gusnoski and Rodrigo Silva (web unit - Open-AU)

with contributions from Development and External Relations, and AU Press.

These awards are shared by the entire Open team.

Student Rewarded for Excellence

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:45:20 MDT

Community leader earns prestigious award

Heather Fraser has been an AU student since 2007, when she began working on a B.Sc. in computing and information systems. She later changed to the four-year BA program with a double major in information systems and psychology. She has been selected as a 2009 national in-course Excellence Award laureate by the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. Heather was one of the 100 recipients chosen from 1034 to receive a first-level award ($6,250 renewable for one additional installment, for a total award of $12,500).

Although solid academic performance is required to receive this award, the more important aspect of it is the high level of community service, innovation and leadership that a student must prove in order to be selected.

Heather is a committee member for numerous projects in her community and performs tasks including public relations, special events, planning, recruitment and photography. She is a midshipman with the Navy League Cadets of Canada, a timekeeper for a minor hockey association, and a team manager. She is also developing a referee mentorship program for younger referees. Her volunteer efforts aren't restricted to her local community: Heather is a councillor with the Athabasca University Students' Union.

In addition to her involvement with the many activities of her own two daughters, ages nine and 11, she was a respite foster parent. Along with all these volunteer commitments and her own university studies, Heather works full-time as a systems administrator for a child and family services organization.

"This award will allow me to continue to study while preventing me from coming out with massive debt by offsetting a chunk of my tuition. And since I am absolutely planning on doing a master's degree once I finish this degree, it actually makes my future a little brighter. Also, it is such a wonderful motivator for my studies," she says.

Journalism in Conflict Zones

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:45:20 MDT

AU co-pilots course with Department of National Defence, Wainwright, Alberta

Military personnel are highly trained to react in intense situations. What about journalists - specifically war correspondents - who are also right there in the thick of the action, but whose training in a controlled classroom environment is focused on "who, what, when, where and why"? Athabasca University is helping to expand that training.

In May 2009, AU, in conjunction with the Department of National Defence, premiered Communication Studies 451: Journalism in Conflict Zones. The six-month course features a practicum of on-site field experience held at the Canadian Manoeuvre Training Centre at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright.

Capt. Tom St.Denis, exercise media operations officer, says the CMTC has had a program for journalism students since it became operational in May 2006. Students were recruited from post-secondary institutions across Canada that offered journalism courses. At the time, the CMTC offered work experience as opposed to any formal arrangement such as a recognized practicum or internship. In an effort to economize the recruitment process, the CMTC approached Athabasca University.

St.Denis says that as an open university that spans the nation, "AU was seen as a single portal through which to recruit. AU students include many working journalists seeking to upgrade their professional knowledge, and it was these more mature and experienced individuals that CMTC wanted to attract to the program."

Dr. Evelyn Ellerman, coordinator of AU's communication studies program, was impressed by the intent and design of the CMTC program. "The longer we discussed (it), the more I became convinced that we could develop a project course for students that would incorporate the field experience at Wainwright and provide a much-needed set of skills and knowledge for those of our students who wanted to develop a specialization in war correspondence. This field experience was a natural fit for a set of project courses that already exist within the communication studies program."

"There are currently no other opportunities in Canada for journalists or journalism students to acquire first-hand knowledge of the military and of working conditions in conflict zones," she says.

After all the talking was done, agreements were signed, course outlines finalized, and the 10 students in this first cohort were on board, CMNS 451 began. It was in the nuts and bolts, involving three weeks of simulated war games in typical Afghan villages provided at CFB Wainwright, that the work for the students and their mentors got underway.

Overall, students and mentors were extremely positive about the first practicum, and Ellerman says many asked if they could return. Even before the first course began, students were clamouring for a second offering, which was added in August, and even more are interested in the third, which will take place in January 2010 at a California army base.

In addition to positive comments by the AU participants, military personnel commented they had noticed a "quantum" improvement in the quality of the interviews and broadcasts produced by the AU cohort.

Visit the photo gallery to see students and faculty in action.

Leading the Changing Focus of Education

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:45:20 MDT

Opportunities have opened up for me...

Jody Hertlein (MDE 2008) has capitalized on her degree in more ways than one.

My degree has had a huge impact on my life. I will remember my AU experience because of what it opened for me - the possibility that a graduate degree was not as far-reaching as I thought it could be, especially being a mom, wife and full-time teacher. I have moved from teaching junior high to becoming an assistant principal at an elementary school. In this position I foster the English learning of our English Language Learners (ELL) and get to work closely with students from all over the world, particularly from Korea, Mexico, Poland, Portugal and Eretria. My degree has allowed me to integrate and teach the use of computers to my ELL students to be an effective tool to learning English in a safe environment.

The number and diversity of opportunities that opened up for me as a result of my degree were somewhat shocking for me - from curriculum writing to teaching online. However, I did finally settle on taking the assistant principal role I'm in now, but I continue to explore every opportunity to learn and contribute when and where I can.

It has also impacted me as a mother. My children know and see the importance of the dedication, commitment, and work habits that it takes to learn (particularly with a son moving into high school and contemplating university). I also realize how important it is to keep learning and to keep expanding my knowledge. One day (when my youngest is nearer to completing her high schooling), I would like to go back and pursue a doctorate. But for the time being, I am happy learning via reading and the educational dialogue with my colleagues.

Aspiring and Achieving

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:45:20 MDT

...tools to enact a dream

Donna Clare not only completed her BN through AU, but she went on to earn her MN (2008) as well.

After graduation I joined the executive of the NPAA (Nurse Practitioner's Association of Alberta) and put on the annual conference and AGM. I also began working as a nurse practitioner in a long term care (LTC) facility - the only NP in LTC in Alberta at the time. My first year was a great success and the medical director is now working on hiring two more NPs!

Earning my degree not only opened doors in term of the variety and scope of opportunities open to me, but it also gave me the skills I need to take on anything I put my mind to. I have the confidence and knowledge to engage in provincial, regional and facility level projects while also focusing on caring for individuals and families. I am living my dream of "aspiring and achieving" more and more. My education gave me the tools to enact my dream.

I think that by becoming an NP, which is a new role for nurses, I have become a good self-promoter and a constant advocate for the role. You have to be when you are a pioneer and the jobs are few. I think the focus of the NP program on the national, provincial and local levels helped make me aware of the state of NP integration into health care and motivate me to become an activist. I also think that the program's inclusion of students from across Canada gave us all an insight into what was happening in different jurisdictions - this illuminated the need for being proactive and to become part of the process of development of the role and its scope. It has been exciting in every way!

AU taught me how to seek out knowledge and synthesize it at a high level. It allows me to be the professional I have always strived to be. I am reaching higher and higher and achieving more and more. I couldn't be happier!

AU is a place that really engages in the principles of adult learning. As an adult learner I needed that; to build on my already large knowledge base and to grow according to my goals and needs. For me, it was a perfect fit. My only question is, "When is the PhD going to be offered?"

A long way from Kenya

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:45:20 MDT

One of the most memorable experiences of my life...

Fermina Nurani has come a long way from her native Kenya to completing her degree with AU (BA 2008) and now pursuing law studies.

Since graduating I have been working in an oil and gas company as an office administrator/accountant while at the same time studying for law school.

My degree made me a more mature, responsible, focused, driven and goal oriented individual. It provided me with the golden ticket to achieve success and accomplish my dreams. It also made me realize my full potential and put my qualities and abilities to practice in a highly competitive and meritocratic environment. I am able to hold my head up high and tell myself that I have achieved something profound and that I have made a difference in the world.

I think AU is fabulous because of the degree of quality learning I received. My professors were friendly, organized and the education I received was phenomenal. AU is tailored to meet the needs of every student and enables them to excel in their fields of study. AU cares about its students and would go the extra mile to help them succeed as well as fulfill their dreams and expectations. At AU you feel at ease, comfortable and you know that you are part of one big, close knit family.

I would recommend AU to anyone who wants to pursue a degree. It provides various incentives and opportunities for students to grow, develop and excel in all aspects of life. It also provides students with a strong placement in today's society where they can accomplish their goals and raise the bar to a professional and individualistic level. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life that I will always cherish forever.

Confidence to Think Creatively

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:45:20 MDT

Never stop learning, and don't be afraid to be a role model.

Elizabeth Forrester (BA 2008) may have been out of school for a number of years, but that didn't prevent her from obtaining her degree.

I think that achieving a degree at my age is significant because learning is such hard, rewarding work. One thing I learned from the experience: stick to it. Athabasca University allows you to have a life outside of school, and complete your studies at a time that is convenient for you.

I am still the librarian at the Altona Branch of the South Central Regional Library in Southern Manitoba. I am enrolled in the Library and Information Technology diploma at Red River College (by distance). At my AU graduation I said I was hoping to read for fun, but I still don't have time for enough of that.

Earning my degree gave me the confidence to think creatively, and step outside of my comfort zone to explore new ways of taking the library into the community, i.e. writing, promotion, website development, etc.

Athabasca University understands the needs of non-traditional learners. They understand the needs of those who are unable to relocate or commute to a "bricks and mortar" university. Their flexibility allows learners to reach their goals without having to sacrifice their jobs, or time with family. Simply put - they get it!

Never stop learning, and don't be afraid to be a role model.

Changing Through Learning

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:45:20 MDT

Opportunities will find you.

Donald Ardiel (MDE 2008) is an architect, educator, project manager and generalist. He has 26 years of experience in architectural design practice, specializing in public sector projects for health care, education, community services and research laboratory facilities. For more than a decade he has been an instructor, curriculum developer and project team leader for multidisciplinary project management and health care educational programs.

One of his most recent achievements is completing his AU degree. "After several attempts at completing master's degree programs at other universities, both traditional and online, I found that Athabasca University's Master of Distance Education program provided a superior combination of structure, content, interaction and flexibility," he says.

"It is not so much that the map of my career has changed now that I have a master's degree. It is more a case that the landscape of possibilities has become larger, my master's degree helping to convey me to destinations in the distance. I have acquired a level of confidence in learning matters that I previously did not have. That new confidence is the most valuable aspect of obtaining the degree."

Since his graduation, Ardiel has continued to operate his architectural practice and provide instructional design/content management system operation for a not-for-profit organization. He has also undertaken a distance educational program development contract for the partnership formed between the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and Athabasca University for the new architectural sciences degree and professional diploma program.

He shares advice for students considering their options. "It does not help to apply too high an importance on employment advancement as a reward for obtaining a degree. The probability is that you will be disappointed. Instead, consider how you want to change through the course of learning. Opportunities will find you."

Giving Second Chances

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:45:20 MDT

... your time at AU will change your life.

Joely Christian, a former member of the women's national volleyball team, was working on her AU degree (BGS 2008) when she coached the 2005 Team Ontario women's volleyball team to a gold medal win at the Canada Summer Games, the province's first such honour since the Games began in 1967. She was selected as the 2005 Ontario female coach of the year and the team was selected the 2005 Team of the Year. She serves as head coach of the women's volleyball team at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.

There are very few full-time coaching jobs available at a university and I feel very fortunate that my degree allowed to follow my passion and have my dream job. It has also opened up doors for me in respect to what else is out there. Now my thoughts are always on what can I learn next and how can I keep moving forward.

I think AU is incredible because it eliminates many of the obstacles that many of us tend to set before ourselves. It opens so many more doors to a person's future and encourages success in its delivery. What impressed me initially, and continues to impress me, is how AU continues to think outside the box of post-secondary education. The non-residency requirement for the Bachelor of General Studies degree is ground breaking and incredibly forward thinking. It opens doors to single parents who have had to leave school early, new Canadian citizens and military families. You are an institution of second chances. All I can say is the diversity in the backgrounds of the women and men who walked down the aisle with me at graduation was incredible.

I would advise students to believe that everything is achievable and that the investment you've made in yourself through AU is incredibly worth it. Sometimes you'll be too tired to do your homework or too broke to take a class, but if you persevere and just find a way to take one small step at a time your time at AU will change your life. It will give you greater discipline, a better sense of self and, ultimately, your degree.

One Copy Is Enough

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:45:20 MDT

By Rory McGreal, PhD

The world is changing rapidly; let's wake up and smell the coffee!

Here's an idea for eliminating government waste and helping the environment at the same time. Let's stop paying over and over again for paper-based educational material, like textbooks.

In the olden days, when one student was using a text, other students could not use it, so we had to buy many copies or have the students take turns. This was, and continues to be, extremely expensive. It was once necessary, but it no longer makes any sense at all.

With the internet, a million students can all use the same resource at the same time. Right now, thousands of readers are accessing the same article at the same time in an online newspaper or in an e-magazine or on a website. Our students can do the same.

Electronic resources are infinitely reproducible at virtually no cost. So why pay for anything more than once? Why do our cash-strapped school boards and provincial government continue to pay over and over again for the same resources either for the physical copies or through licensing? This becomes a recurring cost, a cost we can no longer afford to pay. It is, indeed, a vast waste of taxpayer's money. One copy is enough.

The same is true for research. Right now, researchers give away their copyright when they send their articles to publishers, who then charge university libraries and other researchers a fee if they want to read it.

In effect, taxpayers pay for the research, pay again for the salary of the researcher and then pay again to use the research. Individual libraries then must each pay separately to access the research, and taxpayers with no university library card must pay again if they want to access it. We're paying multiple times for the same thing.

Taxpayers have already paid for the research, so why should they have to pay again? The results of all publicly funded research should be made available to taxpayers free of charge.

The reality now is that the economics of book and other content distribution has changed. There are no longer costs for copying, storing and distributing. The vendors know this and are raking in the greenbacks. Why don't the department of education and the school boards do their homework, look at the cost efficiencies and save themselves, and us, a bundle?

The answer is simple, rather than buying and/or renting content, we can either produce our own or buy the full copyright to materials ONCE. Or, even better, make effective use of public domain or free copyright materials. Today there are tens of thousands of high quality courses or course modules freely available produced by learning institutions across Canada, in the USA and around the world. Internet sites like WikiEducator, Connexions, Merlot and Curriki have growing collections of free educational content.

An added benefit to using open content is the ability to change it in timely fashion in response to new knowledge, new immersive technologies or new teaching approaches. If someone else owns it, we have to wait for them to make needed revisions. The world is changing rapidly; we cannot keep up using nineteenth century content models.

Across Canada, and internationally, public institutions can work together to share high quality multimedia educational content. After all, is there really a difference between B.C. physics and Alberta physics? Between Ontario Catholic school chemistry and Alberta public school chemistry? Don't the same laws apply throughout the universe?

Our education department and school boards should pay attention to open access. If taxpayers are paying for curriculum development, then the curriculum materials should be made freely available to all. They belong to us. Why should we keep paying and paying and paying? Let's wake up and smell the coffee!

WHL Scores with AU Agreement

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:45:20 MDT

WHL stars team up with AU to score educational goals

For many young major junior hockey league players the dream of getting a university education often has to take a back seat to their dream of one day playing in the NHL. Spending 10 days on the road at a time while trying to balance the demands of the ice with those of the classroom are barriers that many can't overcome. Until now, that is.

A new agreement between Athabasca University and the Western Hockey League is finally putting that dream of a post-secondary education within reach. The agreement makes AU courses and programs available to players in all 22 WHL teams, starting this season.

"The WHL and Member Clubs are fully committed to ensuring all of our players have access to post-secondary courses while playing in the WHL," said WHL Commissioner Ron Robison, "Our new agreement will provide WHL players with improved access to fully accredited university courses delivered online through Athabasca university. This new mobile education initiative will allow us to remove any obstacle for players who wish to take university courses while playing in the WHL. "The WHL has a long history of commitment to players' education.

Since 1993, the league has provided a full scholarship, including tuition, books and fees, for one full year for every year a player spends in the WHL. It's an expensive proposition, worth more than $9 million since its inception, but it's one that has been embraced by the players. Since 1993, more than 2300 of them have received scholarships from the league, making the WHL the leading provider of academic scholarships in western Canada.

For Athabasca University, the partnership with the WHL is a natural fit. The university prides itself in removing barriers to post-secondary education, barriers like those faced by players in the Western Hockey League. The university allows students to study at their own pace, from wherever they happen to find themselves. Ideal, really, for young hockey players who find themselves on the road as often as they are at home.

"Travel is probably the biggest barrier they face," says Lori Van Rooijen, vice president of Advancement at AU. "Traditional universities and colleges have fixed classrooms and fixed schedules. It's often extremely difficult for professors to adapt to a player's schedule. We don't have that problem here."

Van Rooijen says the deal with the WHL is a model for other long-term partnerships the university is pursuing in the community.

"It's an example of a perfect alignment, really," she says. "The WHL faced a number of barriers to its core goal of developing a post-secondary option for their players, and our core goal is to remove those barriers. We broke down the accessibility problem with our flexibility."

"AU has been a flexible, patient school and has the interests of our players in mind," says Steve Fera, education advisor for the Vancouver Giants. "We needed a school that understands athletes of this age and the pressures that they are under. Many of our players want to move on academically and up to now have not found a school to suit their needs - AU has stepped in and filled that void."

Roll With the Punches

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:45:20 MDT

"I love, love, love the flexibility. Did I say that I love the flexibility?"

Dawn Williams (MBA 2008) is owner and president of Sirius Personnel, a sales and marketing recruitment firm located in Montreal that specializes in business sales positions.

Even while she was in the midst of her studies, Dawn realized the importance of taking time for herself, something she could accomplish due to the key factor well known by fans of Athabasca University. "I love, love, love the flexibility. Did I say that I love the flexibility? It's important to have a well-rounded life or you won't enjoy this as much as you should." Although she does note that "I can't believe that I found 25 hours a week to work on the MBA." She scheduled Friday nights off and she continued to run and go to the gym. That dedication paid off as she is planning to run her first half-marathon this year.

She also didn't overlook the need for a more extended break, including booking a cruise which just happened to take place during an important part of her studies. "I probably should have waited, but I was due a major vacation. Internet access was spotty and very expensive. I lived with some anxiety but decided to have a cocktail instead of fretting. Everything turned out fine. Sometimes the best laid plans are sabotaged and you have to roll with the punches."

Dawn is using that same philosophy now. Although the downturn in the economy has provided challenges, she is working on diversifying the business to ensure profitability. "I am really trying to find business people who put people first as my clients and candidates," she says. "It's great to be able to effect positive changes in people's lives and help them with their career aspirations."

AU Played Huge Role

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:45:20 MDT

Cindy Amerongen (BGS 2000) liked AU so much that she continued her studies - Master of Arts - Integrated Studies (MAIS).

Although family commitments and full-time work meant it took her a number of years to finish her degree, Cindy Amerongen (BGS 2000) liked AU so much that she continued her studies. She is only a final project away from completing her Master of Arts - Integrated Studies (MAIS) degree. She would have already been done, but a little thing like accepting the position of Vice President, External Relations, for Keyano College took up the majority of her time last year. Still, she is determined to add another credential to her name.

Before becoming VP, Amerongen was no newcomer to Keyano College, located in Fort McMurray, Alta. In her 18 years with the institution, her various roles included bookstore manager, community education coordinator, executive director of Alberta-North (a partnership of post-secondary institutions, including AU, that bring courses and programs to students in northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories), director of development for the Keyano Foundation, and now VP, External Relations. This position has her involved in fundraising, government relations, lobbying for a new trades and technology centre, and spear heading numerous activities in support of Keyano's reputation for building relationships. "It's been a very intense ride," she says of her first year as VP.

However, it was her earlier position as bookstore manager where she saw the various AU course packages, "all the brown boxes lining up on my shelf," that piqued her interest in her own university studies. Although the road was long - it took her eight years - she persevered.

"Have patience with yourself and allow yourself to do your degree on your time," she said. "Forgive yourself when life intrudes." Amerongen notes that her AU degrees played a "huge role" in her getting the VP position.

Convocation 2009 - another milestone celebrated

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:45:20 MDT

AU celebrates 2009 graduates, AU Honorary Doctorate and Order of AU recipients

AU hosted 416 graduates and 2,230 of their relatives and friends for the university's thirty-second Convocation June 11 to 13. This year, for the first time, Convocation celebrations moved across the street to the Athabasca Regional Multiplex rather than being held in the familiar red and white tent on the university grounds.

A total of 1,491 degrees were conferred, and four outstanding Canadians were honoured at this year's event:

Dr. Jean Linse Pettifor - honorary Doctor of Laws - in recognition of her lifelong commitment to breaking down barriers to education, her scholarship and her compassionate leadership in professional ethics.

Chief Ovide William Mercredi - honorary Doctor of Letters - in recognition of his outstanding contributions to public service and his lifetime commitment to the peaceful preservation and celebration of the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Neil Reimer - honorary Doctor of Laws - in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the betterment of the lives of working people in Alberta.

Bernard Wiese - inducted into the Order of Athabasca University in recognition for his contribution of two major archival collections to AU.

Check out photos and stories from the Class of 2009

Making a Difference

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:45:20 MDT

Earning my degree has allowed me many freedoms

Angela Arsenault-Daigle (BN 2004, MN 2008) is a nurse practitioner and co-founder of Salvus Clinic located in Moncton, New Brunswick. Salvus is a Latin word meaning safe and well. The clinic was opened to provide primary health care to those residents of the area experiencing difficulty as a result of high-risk lifestyles.

Earning my degree has allowed me many freedoms I didn't have. My masters allows me to now practice independently and at an advanced level, in a manner consistent with my beliefs and work ethic rather then the frustration of working in a deeply flawed system. I can actually make a difference now.

I would not have been able to achieve what I have without the flexibility of AU's distance education. I was so busy trying to keep up with my kids and family, I would never have been able to make it to classes. Besides AU's flexibility, their desire to help us to achieve our goals has been second-to-none. I am still in contact with some of my professors who continue to guide me and help me develop my new role. People care and want to help and this is the same philosophy I use in my own practice. I can honestly say I do not have anything bad to say, nor have had any bad experiences, with AU. I recommend AU to everyone ... I’m a big fan!

Enhancing Business Thinking

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:45:20 MDT

AU - excellent in enhancing critical thinking, business point of view and flexibility

Adel Abdo (MBA 2008) works with Zain Telecommunication Company, which is headquartered in Kuwait but has operations in 27 countries spanning Asia, Africa and Europe. He manages strategic projects in the company and the IT and telecom field.

Applying some of the innovative ideas that were discussed in the courses within my work environment improved the efficiency of managing projects. The new strategic and business mindset I got after completing my MBA, and the tendency and confidence to start my own business, were the most notable changes after graduation. Moreover, I think my enthusiasm to complete the journey to the PhD level is increasing.

Earning my MBA degree enhanced my business thinking and the way I look at things from the executive's point of view. I believe that the MBA gave me a boost to go for higher degrees and apply what I have learned in every day life matters. In addition, and especially during the current financial turmoil, business executives should consider the big picture and calculate business risks very carefully and diligently, which is a skill that was skillfully taught and which I learned during my years in the AU program.

I believe AU is excellent in enhancing our critical thinking, business point of view and the flexibility in earning an MBA degree, without putting other social and professional lives on hold. AU gives a world-class MBA degree for moderate cost and a flexible program.

I encourage students to list AU as one of the top universities if they think about MBA and to continue their journey if they already have started the program. They will harvest the fruits at the end.

Depth of Experience

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:45:20 MDT

Thomas Grady (MDE 2008) works from home but reaches the world.

My world has changed a great deal since finishing my master’s degree, and I owe a lot of it to Athabasca University. When I started at AU I had over 20 years of successful work experience in a large corporation. During my studies I found the opportunity and the courage to seek out new professional relationships, new roles and new jobs. Since graduating I’ve moved to a new employer where I work with people in over 25 countries around the world, yet I’m mostly working from home. I’m developing my knowledge and skills daily and learning about international business and education. I even get to travel a bit – something I had very little opportunity to do in the past.

What I appreciate most about attending AU is the exposure I got to people, ideas, opportunities and ways of seeing the world that I hadn’t been able to see before. My course work at AU gave me insight into the varied business and social contexts that my field of distance education serves around the world. I also gained a better understanding of how I can help to improve the lives of others in some parts of the world through my work. I especially appreciate the flexibility and creativity required to bring quality education to international audiences. I think Athabasca University is a good example of this flexibility and creativity, and is especially good at making the experience relevant and enjoyable.

I chose Athabasca for the experience of its faculty and staff in the field of distance education. I leave knowing it was a good choice and that AU is on the forefront of open and distance learning. Anybody looking for a practical way to improve their knowledge and skills should look to AU for a flexible and enjoyable way to get ahead, no matter where you are located. And if you’ve just become an AU student, make the effort get to know the people you meet – faculty, staff and fellow students. It’s through them that opportunity and the courage to succeed will come your way.

From Student to Curriculum Developer

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:45:20 MDT

Stephanie Hunte (MDE 2006) made a career change as a result of her degree.

I selected Athabasca University because it offered the degree program I wanted to do and there was no residential component. I remember how eager I was at the start of the program, how I began to tire in the middle and the feeling of great satisfaction when I finished.

Earning the degree allowed me to go back into the field of education, something I had wanted to do for a long time. In doing so, I made a complete career change, moving from the business world to education.

Very soon after graduating from AU, I received a job as the assistant curriculum development specialist at the University of the West Indies Distance Education Centre (UWIDEC), now the University of the West Indies Open Campus (UWIOC). I am based at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus in Barbados.

My job entails training and supervising course developers for our degree programs. I have also worked on designing, developing and delivering an online certificate in substance abuse treatment and prevention for an international aid agency. In addition, I am working with another international aid agency which is piloting online training for its Caribbean developmental partners. My role is to provide the necessary support for all parties involved in this distance education enterprise.

I enjoyed my time with AU because the instructors were all very helpful and considerate. The program was flexible and accommodating so I was free to choose when I wanted to take a course and how many I wanted to take at any one time. I was even given a lot of latitude in making payments. The program therefore suited both my needs and my pocket.

My AU degree was comprehensive and exposed me to all aspects of distance education which I have needed to continually draw on in my job.

AU’s Open Letter on Copyright Consultation

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:45:20 MDT

“This is precisely what universities and colleges across the country should be doing,” - Michael Geist

AU President Dr. Frits Pannekoek believes the new copyright legislation that the federal government is currently preparing for a fall delivery will place Canada at a disadvantage internationally and will even more significantly marginalize e-learning and distance education.

In August, Dr. Pannekoek sent an open letter to 22,646 students, 11,969 alumni and to AU staff about the proposed copyright legislation. The letter expressed concern about a possible reintroduction of Bill C-61-like legislation and its impact on education. C-61 died on the order paper on September 7, 2008, when the federal election was called.

In the letter Dr. Pannekoek said “Universities have an interest in protecting copyright as producers of intellectual and creative content and also in fair dealing as researchers and teachers. So, we do support legislation that both protects copyright owners from infringement and protects the rights of educational users.

“However, any legislation similar to Bill C-61 will have profound negative effects on researchers and educators as well as the general public…We need to seek balance between the protection of rights, the rights of learners, and our international competitiveness in distance and e-learning.”

Dr. Pannekoek urged people to submit their comments to the current consultation process, which ends September 13, as well as to contact the Hon. Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, the Hon. James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage, and their respective MPs, to raise their concerns about this potential legislation.

The open letter to students has received a great deal of coverage in the media and on the Internet. “This is precisely what universities and colleges across the country should be doing,” wrote Michael Geist in the online edition of the Georgia Straight, “educating their communities about the consultation and the impact of copyright reform, and then urging them to speak out now.” Geist is a law professor and Canada Research Chair in Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa.

Rachel Conroy, AU’s copyright officer, believes that “using digital rights management to lock down content will further restrict the very limited fair dealing rights that Canadian educators and students rely on. ”Given AU’s growing online presence, Cindy Ives, Director of Educational Media Development at AU, hopes that the consultation process will elicit recommendations for legislation that will expand fair dealing rights for non-commercial educational use in Canada. “We would like to see exemptions for the use of transformative works, format shifting, time shifting, and parody, since these are the kinds of requests we are currently having to deny.”

Major Concerns With Government’s Anticipated Copyright Legislation

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:45:20 MDT

Digital locks, proposed penalties, restrictions, statutory damages…what is happening to open education?

“This legislation could well end our ability to contribute to building Canadian and overseas learning communities,” said AU President Dr. Frits Pannekoek, about the federal government’s upcoming new copyright legislation. “Countries with wiser copyright regimes that promote educational use will catapult ahead of Canada. No longer will we be internationally competitive because of the restrictions contained in the legislation.”

The government is currently holding consultations and is expected to present new legislation in the fall.

The issue of copyright is one of the reasons behind AU’s support of a new website, WikiEducator, which is making open access material and learning content freely available on the web, said Rory McGreal, associate vice-president research at AU. “The very stringent copyright laws the Canadian government is currently considering are based on a U.S. model. It would make it very difficult, particularly for open and online institutions, to make use of proprietary content. We have to look for alternatives.”

Currently over 50 per cent of royalties for all books, movies, music, and multi-media games go to the U.S., McGreal said, so the U.S. has a big stake in exerting proprietary ownership.

One small example of the difficulties created by the proposed laws is that academic institutions will be required to destroy online proprietary material within one week of the final exam. For a university such as AU, where exams are taken year round, it’s an absurd law, McGreal said. “The new laws are encouraging people to develop a parallel system of open software and open educational material that bypasses the proprietary system. As the laws get more stringent and restrictive, people just won’t use proprietary material.”

Among other issues, Dr. Pannekoek believes the following could have a profound negative effect on teaching, learning and research:

- Digital locks that prevent educators and researchers from exercising their fair dealing rights;

- Proposed penalties for breaking digital locks that will make it criminal for educators/researchers to exercise their fair dealing rights;

- Proposed penalties for format shifting so that users have to keep paying again and again and again if they want to use their purchased content on different devices;

- Proposed penalties for those who would keep digital course research documents on their computer longer than 3 days;

- Restrictions on digital course materials requiring their destruction after the final examination for each course;

- The growing body of orphan works (millions of books, articles, videos, audio tracks, etc.) that cannot be accessed because of copyright extensions;

- Digital library loans do not have the same legal support that we have traditionally allowed for physical interlibrary loans;

- Statutory damages are payable by educators and researchers even if they believed that their use was legal under fair dealing. There is no provision for warning before educators/researchers are liable.

Shaping Futures

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:45:20 MDT

After overcoming a family history of addiction and poverty, she faced a long road with many obstacle, but Shannon Houle persevered and finally earned her degree (BGS 2008). She continues to move ahead and is now helping others in her community.

I have landed a job in my home community. I work as a post-secondary student advisor with Saddle Lake Education Authority. I love my job, especially working for the community and assisting students in shaping their futures.

I reside in Kehewin Cree Nation with my spouse and travel 45 minutes to my First Nation Reservation, Saddle Lake Cree Nation. This has opened many doors for me in respect to holistic well-being, personal growth, and the ability to offer my services to assist in improving the lives of my family and fellow community members.

Originally, I planned to pursue studies in the area of environmental management and sustainability but I have been thinking of changing to AU’s Master in Counselling program. AU allowed me to complete my degree at my own pace, I had excellent support, and received a quality education. Receiving my degree also reaffirmed my belief that, "Life isn't about finding one’s self; it's about creating one’s self"!

I gained more self-confidence and determination. It also changed the way people respond to me - with more respect as a valuable community member, who has much to offer our people. It wasn't the degree, it was "the quest for my degree" that changed me and gave me a stronger outlook on life and that dreams aren't unreachable.

Unique Culture and Mission

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:45:20 MDT

Sandra Larwill is academic manager of distance education with Algonquin College School of Part-time Studies in Ottawa, Ontario. She is responsible for providing academic leadership in distance education program development initiatives that align to industry and learners’ needs and position the College as a provincial leader in distance education. She earned her MDE from AU in 2008.

The MDE program has equipped me with the competencies and skill sets to effectively contribute as an individual in society and as a competent distance education professional. The learning experience was invaluable and is attributed to quality program design and delivery, access to faculty, administration and student support services, and sharing of experiences with co-learners.

Professionally, the MDE program has equipped me with the competencies and skill sets to effectively practice as a distance education advocate and practitioner, fostering academic leadership, change agency and enrichment of learning through distance education. Personally, it provided me with a great sense of accomplishment and pride and instilled in me the desire to continue to grow as a lifelong learner.

During the course of her studies Sandra became a fan of AU. “For one, the flexibility to study completely at a distance. I doubt I would have completed graduate studies without such flexibility. Two, AU’s reputation as Canada’s Open University and the academic and student support excellence I received. Three, its unique institutional culture and mission that conveys a sense and respect for learning communities, innovation, flexible learning and learner diversity. I have not experienced such uniqueness at other educational institutions. Fourthly, for instilling a passion for the field of distance education and lifelong learning. I have found my niche as a result of my learning experience with AU.”

Her sound advice applies not just to students. “Stay focused on your goals and dreams and seek all avenues and resources available to you to help you succeed. Continuously ask yourself if it’s still what you want to do and if not, change it. Persevere, embrace change and, most importantly, enjoy and appreciate life and the opportunities that come your way.”

Living the Example

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:45:20 MDT

Sam Minde (Bachelor of Management, 2008) is helping the young people of his community achieve a brighter future.

Prior to graduating, Sam worked as a school counselor and then moved into an employment advisor position with Maskwacis Employment Centre. Both of these careers are in his home town of Hobbema, Alta. “I wanted to come back to bring back my learned expertise and be a role model to peers and youth. I try to present myself as someone who has been there, the same struggles, but I made a difference in my life and others around me with my education in hopes of making a bigger impact in our tribe.” He and his wife are looking into opening their own group home that will specialize in First Nations Youth.

Sam says his degree opened up a lot of employment opportunities in this tight labour market and it also contributed to him being elected Vice-Chair for the Ermineksin Education Trust Fund, which assists band members in the educational endeavors as students ranging from kindergarten to doctors. He continues to learn and build experience and he is excited to enroll in AU’s MBA program in January 2010. Later, he hopes to be chief of his reserve where his goal will be to make education a number one priority.

“I feel that education is one of the most vital choices a person can make to improve their situation. If you want to help your friends or family, you can make more of an impact if you walk the talk and live the example.”

Competitive in the Professional Market

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:45:20 MDT

Michael Yuen (BGS 2002) is an avid AU supporter:

I selected AU because it had a good reputation as a distance university. The AU degree is accepted at a majority of other universities, which was important as I planned to study further after my AU degree. Also, AU graduates are competitive on the job market compared to other university graduates.

Earning my bachelor’s degree gave me a better opportunity to secure a job over other applicants who did not have an educational background. I had a feeling of accomplishment given the vast hours of study in a variety of social and natural science disciplines and the numerous dollars spent on tuition fees, courses and textbooks. Also, my father was happy for me because I had a brighter future with a higher earning potential.

Since graduation, I have further completed credits for my Master of Arts Integrated Studies (MAIS) degree, and have obtained my ESL, English as a Second Language, certificate to teach English. I have traveled to China to enquire about teaching opportunities. I have lived and worked in Langenburg, Sask. for more than three years while being employed in the family retail business, which I intend to take over. This has given me greater prospects of financial stability in raising a family.

I think AU is a fabulous university. I would recommend it to any undergraduate, graduate, or mature student. Having the same accreditation as other universities, an AU student is competitive on the vocational and professional market. However, studying at an online post-secondary institution is difficult and demanding. A student has to possess greater motivation and enthusiasm to read, study, and write research papers independently without any assistance from other classmates.

Ready to Lend a Hand

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:45:20 MDT

Melissa Chow looked forward to attending Convocation 2008 in Athabasca to celebrate earning her BAdmin. This year, there is a celebration of another sort in the works - she is getting married.

"Completing my degree is a great accomplishment and I love talking about it. I have many people inquiring about it as they see it on my wall and it is definitely a conversation starter. I recommend AU to many colleagues and people who ask me about how I got my degree. I know my parents are super happy about it as well. They tell their friends about me and they are very proud so it makes me happy to see that."

She turned to Athabasca University because "it suited my academic behaviour as I preferred to study on my own and if I needed help I could ask for it." She says working full time (at Servus Credit Union Ltd. as a member services officer) and doing school work was definitely a challenge but she overcame that by having a strict schedule that also allowed her to have some free time. Along the way, she became a fan of AU "because everyone is so helpful and always there to lend a hand. "

"The best thing about having a degree is knowing that I have accomplished something for myself and for my family."

AU Press – Open Book

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:45:20 MDT

AU Press is the first scholarly press to be established by a Canadian university in the twenty-first century. It is dedicated to disseminating knowledge through open access digital books and journals.

AU Press is pleased to announce its new books. These titles and more are available in Canada through UBC Press at info@ubcpress.ca, in the US through the University of Washington Press at www.washington.edu/uwpress, and in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Africa through Eurospan eurospan@turpin-distribution.com.

Bomb Canada and Other Unkind Remarks in the American Media

Chantal Allan
978-1-897425-49-7 - $24.95 PB

Anti-American sentiment in Canada is well documented, but what have Americans had to say about their northern neighbour? Allan examines how the American media has portrayed Canada by examining events that have tested bilateral relations.

More Moments in Time: Images of Exemplary Nursing

Beth Perry RN, PhD

978-1-897425-51-0 - $29.95 PB

Perry weaves the stories of extraordinary nurses with her own ward memories and poetry to create moving and inspiring images of nursing and its rewards.

The Beaver Hills Country: A History of Land and Life

Graham A. MacDonald
978-1-897425-37-4 - $29.95 PB

Weather, water, and wildlife have shaped this unusual region of Alberta between the North Saskatchewan and Battle Rivers, creating possibilities and challenges for the people who have called it their home.

Mobile Learning: Transforming the Delivery of Education and Training

Edited by Mohamed Ally

978-1-897425-43-5 - $39.95 PB

This collection is for anyone interested in the use of mobile technology for various distance-learning applications. Readers will discover how to design learning materials for delivery on mobile technology - an educational way of the future

Giving a Different Perspective

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:45:20 MDT

Lynn Digney-Davis (MN 2008) is chief nursing officer for the Ministry of Health in Saskatchewan.

Since graduating, the major happening is more contact with nursing education. Earning a masters degree places one in the sights of nursing educators who are looking to hire faculty. The MN-ANP (http://www.athabascau.ca/cnhs/grad_mn.php) degree is well recognized and sought after by both educators and nurse practitioner employers. Saskatchewan is in the midst of a change in the delivery of nursing education in the province. The current nursing education program of Saskatchewan will take in its last students in 2011. After that, nursing education will be offered through a program supported by the University of Regina and the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Technology (SIAST) and a second program will be provided through the University of Saskatchewan College of Nursing. Both programs are now designing curriculum and seeking faculty. This presents a unique opportunity for nurses with advanced education to provide expertise.

My AU degree has opened up so many more opportunities. The College of Nursing, University of Saskatchewan has approved me as a professional affiliate. I plan on teaching for the U of S within the next year or so. I have taught a portion of one class for the primary care nurse practitioner program through SIAST.

The MN has given me a different perspective in my position. The enhanced ability to understand and participate in research, the use of evidence all has major effects in my work in policy. I am able to advocate, design and implement better policy for advanced nursing practice because of the MN education. Although I am still a "novice" nurse practitioner, I believe that this education has made my transition easier.

My advice for alumni is that if you are presented with the opportunity to mentor an AU student, give it consideration. These students are our upcoming leaders, we need them and they need support to get through their programs. Our society is seeing a pace of change unlike any before. We need leaders who can embrace change and work with it. AU prepares people to do this.

Making a Dream Career a Reality

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:45:20 MDT

Matthew Prefontaine (BPA 2008) is the first person in his family to complete a university degree.

I have continued working as a freelance reporter/producer at Shaw TV in Saskatoon, a position I held throughout my time studies at Athabasca University.

Following graduation, I was very driven to assume a communications position in the corporate community. Initially, my lack of progress in this area was disheartening, but I have learned to be eternally optimistic ..."be careful what you wish for"... because I do currently have a fantastic job in most respects. I remain confident things happen for a reason and I approach my job with a renewed vigor. Sometimes I guess you just feel like you are stuck in a “velvet lined rut", so to speak, and it is difficult to want to move on and challenge yourself again.

I previously attended both college and university and the campus experience is a positive for everyone, but as life becomes more hectic distance education offers a flexibility and convenience that is greatly appreciated. The freedom AU provides is a huge luxury.

Like many other people, I had to work full-time during the completion my degree. I carried a full course load throughout this period to ensure that my focus remained sharp. While motivation was never an issue, paying tuition costs proved difficult at times.

The real work begins after Convocation, when it's time to make that dream career - the one you envisioned prior to going back to school - a reality.

AU alumna receives national award

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:45:20 MDT

"Susan is known as an exceptional nurse and a person of great drive and integrity." - National Award for Excellence in Nursing citation.

Of the 258,000 registered nurses in Canada, approximately 1,200 are working in First Nations and Inuit communities. One of them is AU alumna Susan Stoneson (Master of Nursing 2007).

Susan was one of three nurses who each received the National Award of Excellence in Nursing for First Nations and Inuit Communities as part of National Nursing Week (May 11-15, 2009).

Since her graduation Susan has been working for Health Canada as a community health nurse and nurse in charge on the British Columbia Resource Team. She divides her time as an advanced practice nurse between her home base of Chilliwack and seven First Nations communities.

“In 2001 when I started the master’s program with AU my goal was to become a nurse practitioner. The role wasn’t established in B.C. at that time so establishing my clinical experience was a bit of a challenge and eventually I had to give up my goal and switch over to the MN generalist program. I was very disappointed at this time but now in hindsight see this as a blessing. I attended my graduation with my colleague that had started the master’s journey with me and I was inspired by staff and fellow graduates to continue with my dream. So, last year I applied for the post-graduate Advanced Nursing degree program.

“I am absolutely thrilled to start my clinical courses this fall in a First Nations community and I am especially thankful that I will be preceptored by a nurse practitioner. I feel so much more ready for this new challenge compared to my first attempt at establishing my clinical experience and see it as a continuation of my current nursing practice.

“I love that Athabasca is always staying on the cutting edge of learning. I feel respected and listened to and treated like an adult learner. Some of my colleagues come and ask me what I think of different graduate programs and my recommendation to them is to really look at the philosophy behind the university. It is important to find a university that shares your life perspective. For me, AU shares mine.”

Giving New Meaning to Life-Long Learning

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:45:20 MDT

The year is 1917.

Canada celebrates its 50th birthday. George V is King of England. Woodrow Wilson heads the U.S. government.

The Great War, the War to End All Wars, has dragged on for three long years. Canadian troops win the Battle of Vimy Ridge. The first income tax - a ‘temporary' measure - is introduced. The Battle of Passchendaele becomes a key event in Canadian history.

The National Hockey League forms.

And Lester Semon is born.

It is difficult to fathom the changes that Lester Semon has witnessed in his nearly 92 years (he celebrates his birthday in August). Perhaps it is that atmosphere of change that allowed him to embrace the concept of life-long learning and enroll in a course with AU. Or, perhaps it was his career as an educator – he taught high school calculus and then went on to become a principal – that was the incentive.

"I do enjoy studying languages," he said in an interview from his Nova Scotia home. French, Latin and Greek are already in his linguistic arsenal and now through his AU studies he is adding Spanish. He scored an 85% on his first test. He says he had heard of AU many times, and when he was looking for a course that didn’t involved writing or online work (he doesn’t own a computer), he decided upon AU because the Spanish course’s audio and video tapes are just up his alley. As is the ability to conduct oral tests by telephone.

Sitting around and doing nothing isn’t Lester’s style. After retiring from his education career at the age of 58 in 1975, he went on to retail sales and enjoyed travelling, including taking trips to New Zealand, Jamaica and Barbados. He was active in community and church life and his hobby of playing the pipe organ also kept him busy.

He has slowed down in recent years, but his mental faculties are just fine, thank you very much.

"My mind is as clear as when I was 16," he says, "although my memory is not so good."

Perhaps because there has been so much for him to remember over the years.

Green Car – Green Philosophy – Green University!

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:45:20 MDT

“Given that we are distance, I believe we are the greenest university in this country.”
- AU President, Frits Pannekoek

The car is green, and so is the philosophy behind it. Athabasca University has taken delivery of the first hybrid vehicle for the university’s fleet: a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid.

“The new hybrid vehicle is an important part of our commitment under the University and College Presidents’ Climate Change Action Statement,” said Dr. Frits Pannekoek, president of AU. “Athabasca University has a long tradition of responsible environmental stewardship, and this purchase demonstrates our continued resolve to be a good global citizen.”

The Climate Change Statement of Action, which AU signed in January 2009, is all about AU’s commitment to responsible solutions to the climate change challenge.

The new Ford Fusion Hybrid boasts a fuel efficiency of 4.6 litres/100 kilometres in the city and 5.2 litres/ 100 kilometres on the highway. That’s about double the fuel efficiency of the non-hybrid version of the car, and easily makes it the most environmentally friendly vehicle in the university’s fleet.

The new vehicle serves a dual purpose for the university, said Dr. Pannekoek. It helps AU reduce its carbon footprint, but a less obvious benefit is in its reduced operating costs, something AU, like most other universities in the country, is paying close attention to in these difficult economic times.

“We made a conscious decision to replace fewer of our vehicles in order to keep our costs as low as we possibly can,” said Dr. Pannekoek. “And as part of that review, we also decided to purchase replacement vehicles that were both less costly to operate, and less harmful to the environment. With the current available technology, that meant we were looking at a hybrid.”

Pannekoek said Athabasca University has long been a leader amongst Canadian Universities in making environmentally responsible decisions. “Given that we are distance, I believe we are the greenest university in this country.”

Rising Star Aims for the Top

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:45:20 MDT

2008 Rising Star Award recipient, Gustavo Zentner (AU MBA, 2005) – energy, acumen and confidence at work in the global marketplace.

With its annual Rising Star Award, Athabasca University acknowledges an alumnus who has demonstrated leadership and made significant contributions to his area of expertise early in his career or who has recently made significant career advancements.

That certainly applies to Gustavo Zentner, the president of InterPOC Inc., a leading Canadian-based consulting firm focused on international trade and strategic business development. Zentner is responsible for all strategic business plans and corporate objectives designed for the company’s clients and associates and represents Mexican companies in Canada.

Zentner, who earned his MBA from Athabasca University in 2005 is the former director of Manitoba’s NASCO Secretariat, where he assisted with industry and governments in consultations with Mexico, United States and Canada.

A nominator from Zentner’s tenure with the Province of Manitoba shares his perspective. “I have seen Mr. Zentner at work and have witnessed his energy, acumen and confidence in the global marketplace. His formal education, his awards based on sound academic and professional experience and his keen and ongoing interest in bringing Canadian capabilities to the world is to be commended and encouraged.”

Another of Zentner’s nominators expands on his accolades. “Gustavo Zentner is a young, ambitious professional who is an excellent example of what MBAs can achieve. He has recently been awarded the First Certified International Trade Professional designation under FITT’s Executive Path. He was the first candidate to receive this distinction from the Forum of International Trade Training, and the only business developer to do so in the Canadian Prairies.”

Zentner has fond memories of his AU experience. “Athabasca University has had a profound impact on my personal and professional life, which has in turn secured a promising future for my career, my family and my business. The MBA program added to the formation and execution of my business plan as an international boutique consulting firm with offices in Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. I constantly contribute to my community and Canada by raising awareness on the importance of international trade, relations, and access to international markets by deploying the executive level of training offered at AU.”

AU Honours Distinguished Alumna

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:45:20 MDT

2008 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient Melissa Blake (AU BAdmin, 1994), mayor, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo – a valuable advocate of change and progress throughout the region.

Melissa Blake has a lot of accomplishments on her resume, everything from mother to business manager to mayor. Now she can add another one, Athabasca University’s Distinguished Alumni Award winner.
The annual award recognizes the accomplishments of an AU graduate who has brought honour and prestige to the University.

Blake is serving her second term as mayor of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, which encompasses Fort McMurray, Alberta. She and her family moved to the area more than 25 years ago and she felt an immediate connection.

“She is proudly passionate about the region and gains much of her inspiration from her family and the people of Wood Buffalo,” says one of her nominators for the Distinguished Alumni Award.

After earning her BAdmin in 1994, Blake went to work with Syncrude Canada.
In 1998, she turned her attention to politics, with a successful run at a council seat. Her goals were modest at the time, focusing on street naming and implementing a recycling program.

After two terms as councilor Blake decided she was “all in or completely out” and decided to run for mayor. “It gets in your blood. I never aspired for a political career,” Blake said in an interview from her office overlooking downtown Fort McMurray

A nominator comments on Blake’s impact: “Mayor Blake has proven to be a valuable advocate of change and progress throughout the region. Her strong, confident voice has been heard in many venues engaging support and resources to improve the quality of life of her fellow community members … has earned the respect of political, social and industrial establishments through her firm grasp of the region’s strengths, concerns and challenges.”

Blake’s successes have not gone unnoticed. She has been recognized by Alberta Venture Magazine, which twice named her to the “Top 50 Most Influential People” list; she was named “Woman of Vision” in 2006 by Global Television; and she was recently honoured at a “Igniting the Power of Woman” luncheon hosted by the Canadian Hadassah WIZO, Canada’s leading Jewish women’s philanthropic organization.

Some practical advice for surgery patients

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 15:45:20 MDT

"We're always, as medical professionals, telling them what to do. But we're not as good at really finding out their concerns as they think about options for treatment."

If there's one thing Dr. Virginia Vandall-Walker believes in, it's listening to her patients. And what she discovered from all the listening is that men who are contemplating surgery for a potentially deadly condition have a lot of concerns, but not a lot of readily-available information. The result is Before and After Radical Prostate Surgery: Information and Resource Guide.

The assistant professor in the Centre for Nursing and health Studies began working on the book while she was finishing her PhD.

"I did it because I think there is a real need to listen to the patient," she says. "We're always, as medical professionals, telling them what to do. But we're not as good at really finding out their concerns as they think about options for treatment. So we decided to hold focus groups with the men and their partners."

Dr. Vandall-Walker says the books tries to lay out all of the options available to patients, something they should be cautious about when doing research on the web. Particularly, she says, when patients go to websites that are based in the U.S.

"A lot of websites tend to push a particular kind of treatment, like robotic surgery," she says. "What I want men to understand is that that while robotic surgery, or treatments like that, might not be available where they live, there are other treatments that are just as effective. The book gives them the information they need to make an informed decision."

Her book has been endorsed by the Canadian Urological Association and is being translated, with the help of a prominent Quebec specialist, into French.

Before and After Radical Prostate Surgery: Information and Resource Guide is published by Athabasca University Press. It can be found on-line at http://aupress.ca/index.php/books/120147 .

A gold medal student

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:45:20 MDT

World Junior Hockey champion and AU business student Thomas Hickey finds the balance between homework and hockey.

AU student Thomas Hickey wasn't doing much coursework in early January. Helping his country take the gold medal at the World Junior Hockey Championship didn't leave him a lot of time for the books.

Hickey captained Canada's world junior hockey team to a 5-1 victory over Sweden on January 5 in front of over 20,000 fans in Ottawa. It was his second straight gold medal and the fifth straight win for Team Canada.

"Winning a gold medal is the best feeling there is," the 19-year-old Calgarian told the Calgary Herald. "Winning in Canada was pretty neat. It gave it a little edge. But it's a great feeling to do it twice and I feel so fortunate."

Hickey, chosen fourth overall by the Los Angeles Kings in the 2007 draft, plays for the Western Hockey League's Seattle Thunderbirds.

"It can be hard to balance school and hockey, but I have been doing it for a long time," he says. "I try to focus on only hockey when that's what is required of me. But when it's time to do schoolwork, I put distractions such as hockey out of my mind."

Hickey, a student in AU's School of Business, recently finished Administration 233: Writing in Organizations, and he will be starting another class in February.

It is the flexibility and innovation offered by AU and the support received from faculty and staff that enables Hickey to pursue his passion for hockey and his interest in post-secondary education at the same time. Whichever way his career goes, he will be prepared to take advantage of all the opportunities that present themselves.

Flexibility is key to business and education success

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:45:20 MDT

“To partner your education with working, which for some First Nations people is an absolute necessity, you have to have flexibility.” says Derek Prue

There are busy people, and there are busy people. Then there's Derek Prue.
The 36-year-old owner and president of SkyRider Developments has two major housing projects on the go on the Enoch Reserve just outside Edmonton, a condo complex in Comox, B.C., a country lot subdivision in Parkland County and he's just starting on what will become a 650-unit housing development in Stony Plain.

Now he wants to be a doctor.

Prue, who already holds two degrees from Athabasca University, a BA in English and an MBA, was one of the first applicants in line for the university's new Doctor of Business Administration degree that will begin accepting students in April. He sees it as a good business decision.

"There are several advantages to that," says Prue. "First of all, obviously, it's always good to have the credentials. Another thing I liked about the Athabasca MBA is that you're in with a lot of other high-level business people, so really you're learning a lot from your colleagues at the same time as you're learning from the core material."

Prue, who's a member of the Metis Nation of Alberta, sees his work with the province's First Nations as a bit of a niche in a tight market. While other developers are being forced to scale back, Prue says flexibility has been the key to his company's growth.

"We do everything from development to project management," he says. "Working in the First Nations market, we often have to give up some of the profit margin, but it pays off in the long run."

And in the short run, too, it seems. SkyRider Developments, named after his children Skyler and Ryder, had sales of $465,000 in fiscal 2006-2007. The next year, that had skyrocketed to nearly $5.2 million, a success by any measure. And Prue is careful to spread the credit for that success around, to his family, to his 15 employees, and to the university that he says was flexible enough to let him keep working while getting the education he wanted so badly.

"For me, starting a family at a young age, it was key to have that flexibility. If you want to partner your education with working, which from some First Nations people is an absolute necessity, you have to have that flexibility."

Retaining the Past, Looking to the Future

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:45:20 MDT

Dr. Evelyn Ellerman’s current research looks to the past and to the future with two very different projects.

Dr. Evelyn Ellerman's current research looks to the past and to the future with two very different projects.

Working with Dr. Karen Wall, Ellerman, associate professor of Communications and co-chair of the Centre for State and Legal Studies, is working on a project called "Creating multi-media scenarios as learning objects in a virtual media lab as a means of improving student engagement and retention". Funded by Inukshuk Wireless, the creation of this virtual media lab is partly intended to provide opportunities for increased student engagement with concepts and applications relevant to the field of Communication Studies.

Inukshuk Wireless is a joint partnership between Bell Canada and Rogers Communications created to build and manage a Canada-wide wireless broadband network licensed by Industry Canada.

In a different direction, Ellerman's other research grant is from the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation and focuses on the Alberta Women's Institutes (AWI). This project will mark 100 years of the AWI's achievements with the publication of the first book-length analysis of the Institute's role in rural women's civic leadership.

Organized in 1909, the Alberta Women's Institutes served as a social and educational network for isolated rural women. An unintended consequence of the Institutes was the politicization of women. Prominent Institute members such as Emily Murphy, one of the Famous Five, managed to connect women's institutes and clubs across Canada into a national federation and to lobby for women's enfranchisement.

Problems of a Heavy Heart

Dr. Beth Perry's research, funded by the Canadian Association of Nurses in Oncology (CANO), focuses on increasing understanding of compassion fatigue in clinical oncology nurses, specifically registered nurses. Compassion fatigue is defined as "a heavy heart, a debilitating weariness brought about by repetitive, empathic responses to the pain and suffering of others" (La Rowe 2005, p. 21).

Entitled An Exploration of Factors that may Trigger or Exacerbate the Experience of Compassion Fatigue in Clinical Oncology Nurses, this award carries significant recognition in the oncology nursing world. Perry also received financial support from AU's Academic Research Fund enabling her to double the study's sample size.

Findings may generate new knowledge to treat and prevent compassion fatigue and to increase nurse well-being and the quality of patient care.

Distance Education Publications

Dr. Terry Anderson, Canada Research Chair in Distance Education and professor in the Centre for Distance Education, received a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) as part of the Aid to Scholarly Journals 2008 competition, in support of his journal, the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL).

To win this award, the IRRODL editorial board documented the influence and reputation of the journal, recorded recent download statistics and outlined details of the peer review process. This review process led to an expansion of the editorial committee to include a larger group of national and international scholars.

IRRODL and Athabasca University's Journal of Distance Education were both chosen for inclusion in the European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH) initial list. ERIH is a fully peer-reviewed reference index of the top journals in 15 areas of the Humanities. The two AU publications are listed in the "Pedagogical and Educational Research" category. Of the five distance journals selected in this category, only the two AU publications are open-access.

These honours bear witness to the journal's quality and to the increasing importance of open access publication. A 2006 study by the editorial board showed that IRRODL articles were cited in Google Search more often than those published in any other peer-reviewed distance education journal.

Also as part of the Aid to Scholarly Journals 2008 competition, SSHRC awarded an $81,000 grant over three years in support of the Labour/ Le Travail Journal, also published by AU Press.

Digital Games and Learning

Athabasca University's School of Computing and Information Systems and the Research Centre organized Digitel 2008, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE) second International Conference on Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning in Banff. Eight sessions over three days covered topics such as games and learning, special needs and self-efficacy, second lives, novel technologies, educational gaming, learning through games, robots and pets, and games and curricula.

Passion and Dedication Recognized

AU's dean of graduate studies, Dr. Pamela Hawranik, was one of 100 Canadian nurses to receive the Canadian Nurses Association's Centennial Award at a ceremony in Ottawa on November 26. The event was part of the association's year-long program of activities to mark its 100th anniversary.

The Centennial Awards were created to honour exceptional registered nurses whose work has had a positive impact on nursing and on the lives and health of Canadians. Recipients were nominated by their peers for the one time award in recognition of their contributions to the nursing profession, the workplace and the Canadian health care system.

"I am humbled, thrilled and honoured to have received this award," Hawranik said. "There are so many nurses who deserve to be honoured in this way. I hope I will be able to continue to try to assist in improving the life of others directly and indirectly through the various boards and groups I am involved in, by my research and by mentoring students."

The award winners included nurses from all regions of the country and from all areas of nursing, including educators, administrators, practitioners, researchers and policy leaders, CNA president Kaaren Neufeld said. "But although they may work in a variety of settings, one thing they have in common is that they have made a difference. Their passion and dedication is truly inspiring."

Hawranik was appointed AU's first dean of graduate studies in June 2008. Previously, she served as associate dean in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the University of Manitoba. Her primary research area is gerontology, with a particular emphasis on the effectiveness of community services in meeting the needs of older adults and their unpaid caregivers.

What's New for CIM in 2009?

An evolving business school ...

CIM's first online Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) students begin their studies in April of 2009. Between the undergraduate School of Business and the Centre for Innovative Management, Athabasca University now offers the full spectrum of management education, from first year undergrad courses to doctoral studies.

In 2009, CIM will be aligning more closely with our undergraduate centre as Athabasca University moves into position as Canada's premier comprehensive online business school.

Visit AU's Centre for Innovative Management online newsletter for more information at http://aumba.squarespace.com/cim-this-month/.

Exciting new titles from AU Press at Athabasca University

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:45:20 MDT

Open Book - AU Press: Poems for a Small Park, E. D. Blodgett and Hot Thespian Action! Ten Premiere Plays from Walterdale Playhouse, Robin C. Whittaker

Anne Stevens
AU Press
Marketing Coordinator

Poems for a Small Park
E. D. Blodgett - 978-1-897425-33-6 - $19.95 paperback - 56 pages

This looks like a modest little book until you open the pages and are drawn into the powerful imagery and gorgeous photographs. Its short poems, written in English, some in French, and then translated into Cree, Michif, Chinese or Ukrainian, express the wonder of Canadian seasons and the diverse culture of our cities.

E. D. Blodgett is winner of two Governor General Literary Awards and author of 18 books of poetry. He is Poet Laureate of Edmonton.

Hot Thespian Action! Ten Premiere Plays from Walterdale Playhouse
Edited and Introduced by Robin C. Whittaker - 978-1-897425-26-8 - $39.95 paperback - 584 pages

Whittaker demonstrates his enthusiasm for amateur theatre in Canada with this encapsulation of the challenges and satisfaction of providing innovative, exciting plays by some of our best playwrights. He comments on and presents scripts by Brad Fraser, Mary Glenfield, Jonathan Seinen, and Wilfred Watson, to name a few. Eighty years have passed since the publication of a collection of original Canadian plays from a nonprofessional theatre company, making Whittaker's collection as welcome as it is informative.

Robin Whittaker has taught theatre history, criticism, and play analysis at Ryerson University, University of Ottawa, and University of Alberta. As a playwright and director, Robin has contributed to Edmonton's Walterdale Theatre as well as its Fringe Festival, and has mentored young playwrights at Ottawa's Youth Infringement Festival.

AU Professor Walks While He Works

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:45:20 MDT

AU Asst. Prof., Jeff Vallance exclaims, "Staying physically active is hard. We need to think outside the box and explore ideas like..."

Can you believe that more than half of all AU staff and faculty now work from a home office? There are lots of advantages to telecommuting. Physical activity, though, isn't one of them. All those telecommuters may find that they are not as active as they would be if they held a traditional, commuting job.

"Aside from with the obvious environmental, social, and financial perks to working at home, telecommuting may not be the best for our physical health if we aren't making the necessary efforts to get out and be active," says Dr. Jeff Vallance, an assistant professor (and telecommuter) in the Centre for Nursing and Health Studies.

Given that Vallance's research program involves exploring the health effects of physical activity in older women and breast cancer survivors, it is no surprise that he makes his daily early morning trip to the local YMCA to run on a treadmill and lift some weights. But being sedentary at his desk throughout most of the day, Vallance still found himself feeling sluggish and fatigued at times.

That was until Vallance heard about the TreadDesk, a new and innovative workstation that allows a person to literally ‘walk while they work'. The TreadDesk is actually a low profile treadmill that is designed to fit under an adjustable-height desk so that you can take a leisurely stroll while replying to all those emails. If you give Vallance a ring at work, don't expect him to be working up a sweat though.

"On the TreadDesk you really only walk 1 to 1.5 miles per hour. At that pace, I can still comfortably type, e-mail, talk on the phone, and read. I can even still drink my coffee. And at the same time, my body is still expending more energy than if I was sitting."

Scientific evidence from institutes like the Mayo Clinic, published in prestigious journals like Science, has demonstrated that this type of energy expenditure can help improve your health. The actual term for this type of activity is ‘non-exercise activity thermogenesis', or NEAT for short. NEAT is the energy expended for everything we do that is not sleeping, eating, or sports-like exercise. Vallance says that even the small and trivial activities we do during the day still result in increased energy expenditure that have a cumulative and substantial impact on our health.

But something like this must cost a fortune, right? Wrong.

"My TreadDesk actually cost me much less than my conventional desk and chair," he says.

Vallance picked up his TreadDesk from a distributor in Calgary (instrideoffice@gmail.com) while his desk portion is actually a low cost height adjustable computer station from IKEA.

"Physical activity is almost non-existent now in our daily living and our environment," says Vallanace. "The TreadDesk is one way to keep your body moving throughout the day. Staying physically active is hard, so we need to keep thinking outside of the box and exploring ideas like these."

Music makes the connection for AU, CKUA and Holger Petersen

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:45:20 MDT

The AU/CKUA connection; two independent Alberta-based pioneers cultivate alternatives to conventional modes of music and education.

Holger Petersen has a sign on the wall of his office at Stony Plain Records that reads, "The Blues equals rejection plus rejoicing, passion and compassion."

"I wrote that," he said. "I keep it there just to remind me that sometimes blues is the most joyous kind of music. It's about dancing and celebrating and feeling good. Blues is a big umbrella encompassing all kinds of emotions from hardship to joy and all things in between."

Blues and roots music have been a passion with Petersen since his late teens. As a broadcaster, producer, and enthusiast, he has spread the word about the blues far and wide and along the way garnered a number of awards for his work, among them an honorary degree from Athabasca University in 2001.

Over the years, there has been a musical theme running through the connection between Petersen, Athabasca University, and CKUA, Canada's first public broadcaster celebrating its 80th year in Alberta.

"Big" Miller was a well known blues and jazz singer/musician, based in Edmonton until his death in 1992. He played with the likes of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Tommy Banks and taught at MacEwan and the Banff Centre. In 1985, Miller also received an honorary degree from AU. In 1989, he was recorded live at the Nancy Appleby Theatre in Athabasca in a concert produced by Petersen and AU staff members David Gregory and Dan West. The concert was recorded for CKUA and the CD was later released by Stony Plain Records in 1990.

"It was called ‘Big Miller and the Blues Machine at Athabasca University'," Petersen recalls. "It was his first CD and he was very proud of it."

Petersen has had a weekly show on CKUA, "Natch'l Blues", for almost 40 years, making it the longest running show on Canadian radio. It has been a natural progression for his career, beginning in the days when he was a student at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) in the Radio and Television Arts program, and writing for the student newspaper, the NAIT Nugget. Here he reviewed, interviewed and recorded legends such as Little Richard, Roy Orbison, Spenser Davis, John Mayall, and Jefferson Airplane.

Around this time he also discovered CKUA. "I remember listening to Tony Dillon-Davis. I was glued to the radio. It was the kind of music that you just didn't hear anywhere else."

Recognizing his connection to the artists and his appreciation for CKUA, the radio station offered Petersen his own blues show - he was 19 years old. "The opportunity to work at CKUA opened many doors for me." And since he was recording artists to broadcast on his radio show, producing their recordings was a natural step. Petersen founded the independent label Stony Plain Records in 1976.

"It was an opportunity to record people such as Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Lenny Breau, Ry Cooder, Gordon Lightfoot, Ian and Sylvia, Dusty Springfield...my passion was to be in the recording studio and any opportunity to do that was a learning opportunity. I'm very proud to have worked with this caliber of artists over the years."

AU offers a number of courses on music history and appreciation, written and taught by Gregory. He has also created three radio series regularly broadcast on CKUA that support the courses. This ties in with Petersen's belief that the best music is timeless. "David's programs really set a standard. The music can be revisited time and time again."

"We now have about 90 years of recorded music to listen to. AU and CKUA provide that sense of history. You don't have to look to the next new recording coming out next week. You can look back. You unlock certain doors and want to keep going. There's no end to the inspiring and amazing music available...I'm still very proud to listen to those early recordings we did at Stony Plain. It's not trendy. This is the music of independent pioneers. It continues to be endless and amazing."

There is another connection between AU and CKUA. When the radio station went off the air in 1997 due to financial problems, AU set up a website called Save CKUA to connect listeners and rally support. "I think it was the first time a new medium, the Internet, saved an old medium, radio," Petersen said.

And so the connection continues.