{"id":35839,"date":"2015-10-09T11:49:01","date_gmt":"2015-10-09T15:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=35839"},"modified":"2015-10-16T09:14:05","modified_gmt":"2015-10-16T13:14:05","slug":"brocks-online-courses-part-of-ecampus-ontario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2015\/10\/brocks-online-courses-part-of-ecampus-ontario\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock’s online courses part of eCampus Ontario"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christy Mitchell worked this summer, went on vacation and completed two Brock University courses.\u00a0The second-year Humanities student took advantage of Brock\u2019s online courses to pick up her science context credit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe online courses allowed me to have some freedom in my schedule and even go out of town for a bit,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was beneficial to me because\u00a0I could study the content at my own pace.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also found it helpful to be able to re-watch the lecture videos for her astronomy courses when there was something she didn\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n

That flexibility for students is one of the key reasons Brock has developed 72 online courses over the past five years, said Anna Lathrop, Vice Provost, Teaching and Learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been steadily building our online course offerings,\u201d she said. \u201cWe want as much choice for students as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the provincial government\u2019s launch this week of the eCampus Ontario portal<\/a> will help Brock reach as many students as possible with its online course list. The portal gives students access to 13,000 online courses offered at Ontario\u2019s universities and colleges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe portal allows university and college students access to a one-stop-shop,\u201d Lathrop said.<\/p>\n

The portal will also open up Brock to online learners who are not currently enrolled at the university. The courses are open to anyone in Ontario, as long as they meet the prerequisites.<\/p>\n

Matt Clare, manager of eLearning in Brock\u2019s Centre for Pedagogical Innovation, said one of the biggest benefits of online courses is their convenience.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrock University\u2019s online courses should be the popcorn that once tasted, it\u2019s hard to stop eating.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOnline courses provide flexible ways for students to learn about interesting and unique topics,\u201d he said. \u201cBrock students can take online courses that they have the requirements to enroll in and work towards complementing Brock University\u00a0degrees.\u201d<\/p>\n

And just as importantly, he said eCampus Ontario allows any Ontario higher education student from across the province to do the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new eCampus Ontario portal showcases the interesting courses\u00a0Brock University offers in formats that compliment the busy lives of students today,\u201d Clare said.<\/p>\n

It is hoped that Brock\u2019s unique online offerings will appeal to a variety of students and give them an appetite for more of the university\u2019s courses.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrock University\u2019s online courses should be the popcorn that once tasted, it\u2019s hard to stop eating,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dale Bradley, assistant professor in the Department of Communication, Pop Culture and Film, developed the online course New Media Literacy back in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cI designed it specifically as a context course that was open to anybody,\u201d he said, of COMM 2F00.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s happy the course availability will reach more people through the eCampus portal.<\/p>\n

Ontario Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities Reza Moridi said the province is investing $72 million over five years to support eCampus Ontario.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis portal will provide our students with access to the best learning opportunities available, while giving them greater flexibility than ever before to control how, when and where they learn. Our government knows how important it is to continue to innovate in technology-enabled education,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christy Mitchell worked this summer, went on vacation and completed two Brock University courses. The second-year Humanities student took advantage of Brock\u2019s online courses to pick up her science context credit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":35840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,4],"tags":[3461,714,3460,3462,3463],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35839"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35839"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35842,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35839\/revisions\/35842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}