Shantel Ivits wins Award of Excellence in Open Education
Vancouver Community College (VCC) is proud to announce that Basic Education department head Shantel Ivits has won a BCcampus Award for Excellence in Open Education.
Shantel has been a champion and supporter of open educational resources (OER) for many years, crafting resources that are inclusive, accessible, and diverse in theme and content.
This award recognizes specifically Shantel’s work on the BC Reads: Adult Literacy Fundamental English series of open textbooks, in which they incorporated thoughtful themes including Indigenous content, human rights, and LGBTQ2S identities.
"I'd never encountered a literacy text with any mention of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or Two Spirit (LGBTQ2S) communities until I authored a textbook series myself. I wanted my students, who also come from various marginalized identities, to see themselves reflected in these textbooks too,” said Shantel in a 2018 blog post.
“They are a leader in the creation of inclusive and diverse OER, and these resources are a phenomenal contribution to adult basic education in B.C.,” says the recent announcement from BCcampus.
Congratulations Shantel!
Learn more about how VCC and BCcampus are improving access to education.