[Institutional Update] Okanagan College

Contributed by Ross McKerlich, Education Technology Coordinator, Okanagan College
Education Technology consists of two people (1.5 FTE) and is located on the Kelowna campus of Okanagan College. We serve all faculty throughout the Okanagan region. Our campuses include Kelowna, Penticton, Vernon, and Salmon Arm with centers in Oliver, Kelowna Airport, and Vernon Airport.  The college has approximately 5,300 FTEs with an active continuing studies portfolio.
Faculty are not required to use Moodle, our learning management system.  Our current statistics indicate about 30% have at least one file in their online course, but this 30% includes all the continuing studies courses so the percentage of use is most likely higher. We use Blackboard Collaborate Ultra integrated with Moodle for our web conferencing tool.  Our small team offers online learning expertise (asynchronous, synchronous, and some design work), faculty development, instructional media services (video & audio), and classroom technology advice. We report to the Director of IT Services and are non-instructional faculty. Distance Education is part of Continuing Studies.
We are building an open broadcast studio on a cart so that it can be mobile. One of our IT Services administrators applied stream deck technology to the studio to make it easy to use. We are also involved in a connected classroom project so that students can attend a particular class in either person or synchronous environment on any campus. Finally, our institution is gathering multi stakeholder feedback on digitally enhanced learning and teaching. This is an independent effort led by two faculty members. We look forward to seeing the results.
We collaborate with BCcampus for FLO offerings and one of the Edtech coordinators has taught FLO courses before. Because we are a small team FLO offerings are a good solution for faculty development. We are open to possible partnerships to enhance synergies among our BC institutions.