#aboerjc: The Alberta
OER Journal Club
Continuing the provincial
conversation

Core Facilitators
Dr. Constance Blomgren - Athabasca University
connieb@athabascau.ca @DocBlom
Rosemarri Klamn - Athabasca University
rosemarriklamn@athabascau.ca @KlamnJam
Verena Roberts - University of Calgary
verenanz@gmail.com @verenanz
Erik Christiansen - Mount Royal University
echristiansen@mtroyal.ca @eriksation

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Please follow along
Search #aboerjc on Twitter to ask
questions or provide feedback to our
facilitators

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Today’s outline
● Review the development of this
project
● Discuss the journal club format
● Brief Twitter chat demo
● Wrap up
○ What we’ve learned
○ Project significance
● Question (via Twitter and at the
end)

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Background
● The Alberta OER members (albertaoer.com)
wanted to sustain momentum generated by
AB Gov. one-time funding
● Autumn 2018 - sub-group of ABOER
Community of Practice met via phone
● Started the journal club with no budget,
limited time, & limited resources
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The journal club format
● Long history in academia
(Banderob, 2018)
● Doctors met & discussed
published research
(Deenadayalan et al, 2008)
● MRU library journal club
(2018-19)
● Promotes deep thought and
consideration

CC0 image by Chris Benson on Unsplash

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Twitter chat journal club?
●
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●
●
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Marry a Twitter discussion with a journal
club
Common format among k-12 educators
(Tour, 2017)
One facilitator per month
Consistent day and time (weekly,
monthly, etc.)
Facilitator tweets questions for
participants to answer
Use #aboerjc and other hashtags (#oer
#oep #opened)

CC0 image by Robin Higgins on Pixabay

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Similar Twitter chats

● http://critlib.org/

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#aboerjc
● Launched Nov. 2018
● First Tuesday of every month @
7pm MST
● Guest facilitator chooses open
access article on open ed

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Setting this all up
● Invented a hashtag
#aboerjc
● Simple, free WordPress
blog with four sections
● 45 min in total

https://aboerjournalclub.home.blog/
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Demo

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Best practices… so far
●
●
●

●
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Discussions are 45 - 60 min
2-3 week lead time for advertising
Using key hashtags & accounts in tweet
(people and organizations)
○ Ex. Connie tagged @opencontent (David
Wiley) in December
Proper archiving of conversations (Wakelet
and PDF - ‘Archive’ page)
Best practices keep evolving - driven by each
facilitator’s unique approaches
CC0 image by rawpixel on Pixabay

Best practices… so far
We provide guest facilitators with
technical support and links to our
best practices
Don’t want unfamiliarity with the
platform’s nuances to be a barrier

CC0 image by annca on Pixabay

Labeling of questions and answers

Journal club hashtag on every post

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Organic
processes &
Critical digital
literacies

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Summary...
No budget

Small time
investment

Great discussion

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Engaging with students
June 4th Twitter Chat was
hosted by Cordelia
Snowdon, former Student
VP Academic @ MRU

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Small and
insignificant?

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Small and
insignificant?

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Thanks!

Any questions?
Please consider facilitating
an #aboerjc discussion
starting in Fall 2019!
●
●
●
●

@eriksation
@verenanz
@docblom
@KlamnJam

aboerjournalclub.home.blog
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References
Banderob, 2018. Journal club…with biscuits. [Blog post]. Retrieved from
http://education-forum.ca/2018/06/20/journal-clubswith-biscuits/.
Bishop, E. (2014). Critical Literacy: Bringing Theory to Praxis. Journal of
Curriculum Theorizing. 30 (1). 51-63. Retrieved from
http://journal.jctonline.org/index.php/jct/article/view/457
Deenadayalan, Y., Grimmer‐Somers, K., Prior, M., & Kumar, S. (2008). How to
run an effective journal club: a systematic review. Journal of evaluation in
clinical practice, 14(5), 898-911. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2753.2008.01050.x
Tour, E. (2017). Teachers’ personal learning networks (PLNs): exploring the
nature of self-initiated professional learning online. Literacy, 51(1), 11–18.
https://0-doi-org.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/10.1111/lit.12101

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Credits
Special thanks to all the people who made and
released these awesome resources for free:
●

Presentation template by SlidesCarnival

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Photographs by Unsplash

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Illustrations by Undraw.co

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Presentation design
This presentation uses the following typographies and colors:
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Titles: Poppins
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You can download the fonts on these pages:
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https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/muli
Dark gray #65617d | Medium gray #a7a4bc | Light gray #d8d5eb
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You don’t need to keep this slide in your presentation. It’s only here to
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download the fonts to edit the presentation in PowerPoint®

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Illustrations by undraw.co (completely free and without attribution)

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SlidesCarnival icons are editable shapes.
This means that you can:
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Isn’t that nice? :)
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For an editable version of this document, please contact Erik Christiansen using
the link below.
Website: https://erikchristiansen.net/contact/