I've always loved our amazing neighbors to the North. Beyond the adorable accents, the unflappable kindness and politeness, and being the birthplace (I think) of poutine, Canada always has been open in spirit and progressive in their institutions. They also are a leader in the Open Education movement.
This month's Fantastic and Free First Fridays is dedicated not just to a single resource but to an open content provider from the Great White North that has a treasure trove of ready-to-use curriculum resources geared toward adult learners: the Open Textbooks collection from BC Campus.
The BC Campus Open Textbook library includes full curricula covering the entire span of grade levels both for adult literacy and adult numeracy, organized across six levels. Mind you, they are aligned to Canada's levels (of which I'm not fully versed); but from my quick review, these levels can easily be matched to the NRS levels—both those currently being used as well as the now-enacted new NRS levels which will become enforced as folks begin transitioning to newly approved tests from TABE (approved in September 2017) and CASAS.
Each of these courses includes multiple file types, including the ability to launch the course in a book player, various eReader download options, PDF downloads, and even the ability to download the text as a Word file, allowing go-getter instructors to make modifications to the text as they see fit (truly open content). The courses also include teacher resources and ancillary materials, as well as extensive practice and assessment.
My only issue with BC Campus (and this completely could be user error on my part) is I haven't figured out a way to locate all of the courses within a series together (you have to search for each individual resource). So, I've taken the liberty of compiling the complete course sets from the adult literacy series and the adult numeracy series for you here.
Adult Literacy Fundamental English (along with the associated Readers)
Course Pack 1 | Reader 1Course Pack 2 | Reader 2
Course Pack 3 | Reader 3
Course Pack 4 | Reader 4
Course Pack 5 | Reader 5
Course Pack 6 | Reader 6
Adult Literacy Fundamentals Mathematics
Book 1Book 2
Book 3
Book 4
Book 5
Book 6
Oh, and just for some nice bonus material, BC Campus also has open textbooks for ESL and for Workplace Skills.
ESL Instruction
In the Community—An Intermediate Integrated Skills TextbookWorkplace Skills
In the Workplace: An Integrated Skills TextbookThere are also some industry-specific texts that are worth checking out.
These resources are so incredibly comprehensive, it's like taking fries, piling cheese curds on top of them, and then smothering all that with a bunch of gravy! Everything you could possibly need...all in one place!
At CrowdED Learning, we are looking for open curriculum like this so we can begin working with adult education practitioners to align curriculum and content to the NRS Levels that are now fully enacted by way of the release of the new TABE 11/12. Interested in helping out as we work to support instructors and learners as they transition to the new tests? Come join the crowd...eh?
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