Celebrating Una Daly as she looks towards her “rewirement”

After 12 years of dedication to OE Global and specifically as the Director of CCCOER, Una Daly is embarking on a personal and well-earned “re-wiring” (Una’s term for it).

Una Daly has directed the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER), since 2011. CCCOER is a regional Open Education Global (OEGlobal) hub that promotes open educational policies, practices, and resources.

Una played a pivotal role in developing and supporting the 101 member community colleges that hail from 35 states in the USA and two provinces in Canada. Una has driven the CCCOER vision to raise awareness and encourage the adoption of open educational initiatives throughout the region. Una’s stewardship of CCCOER has led to innovative support programs for faculty in their open education application through such initiatives as CCCOER’s monthly webinars and the former Regional Leaders of Open Education (RLOE) program.

Her dedication to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) within the community college system has seen the development of innovative programs such as the Open For AntiRacism (OFAR) and the Summer EDI Book Club, among others. She has been dedicated to walking the talk by implementing internal additions to CCCOER’s advisory structures and creating an EDI committee to guide EDI programs.

Collective action, partnerships, and collaboration to activate change towards open education change have been an effective part of Una’s strategy for CCCOER. This has resulted in the California Consortium for Equitable Change in Hispanic-Serving Institutions OER Project, the California Zero Textbook Cost Degree initiative, and the Achieving The Dream OER Degree program.

Listen to the history of CCCOER from Una’s perspective and the thoughts of incoming program director Heather Blicher in the OEG Voices podcast, Looking Back and into the Future of CCCOER with Una Daly and Heather Blicher.

Before joining OEGlobal, Una was director of College Open Textbooks and the ePortfolio Coordinator at the California Virtual Campus and Foothill College, where she taught in the Computer Technology Information Systems department. She holds a Masters in Teaching and Learning with Technology from Santa Clara University and an @One Online Teaching Certificate. Her initial career was in the computer industry, where she was a software engineer and manager at Apple, 3Com Corporation, and Motorola.

We will miss you Una! We know that the CCCOER community will do too!

The CCCOER Community’s wishes for Una

The staff at OEGlobal have set up a KudoBoard to share our experiences of Una and our wishes for her rewired future. Here are a few of the snippets from this board.

“Thanks for being a guiding light in the ever-changing world of OER. You were there facilitating every CCCOER webinar when I first started focusing on open and you grew and developed the community that I depended on to develop my work. Now I’m in the unique position to continue your work and I won’t let you down! Many hugs to you for the times you reached out and offered me the chance to be on a panel, a webinar, or write a blog post. It meant the world to me when you feel so isolated in certain positions. Enjoy your re-wirement and I hope to visit you on the West coast one day soon!”

Heather Blicher on Una’s Farewell KudoBoard

“Una, how will we feel your absence when your presence is so intrinsic to the field of Open Education that you helped to create? The presence of care, consideration, and kindness. The presence of wit and wisdom and whimsy. The creativity that arises from studying math and computer science. The workshops that once attracted single attendees and are now standing room only. The giant leaps that come from dreaming big. The goodness and kindness, as well as the stubbornness and determination, that you embody are so firmly the foundations of the field, that your absence won’t cause a collapse. Your presence will live on in thousands of future students who find a place in education because the door is open more widely, who see themselves in their learning materials, who are welcomed and supported by teachers who co-create with them, and who are inspired to learn their whole lives long. You will be present with us and with future generations of learners, in our minds and in our hearts.”

James Glapa-Grossklag on Una’s Farewell KudoBoard

“You have such a gift of bringing people together to share their strengths – which you did so beautifully in bringing the professional learning network around OER that CCCOER is. The relationships that you fostered, the knowledge you shared and the projects you have led, have created the foundation of much of OER in the community colleges. I feel so fortunate to be able to have worked with you but even more importantly to be able to call you a friend.”

Lisa Young on Una’s Farewell KudoBoard

“It was wonderful to work with you at OE Global! Thank you for all of your support and guidance for the RLOE program, and everything you built for the CCCOER. You have truly set the stage for the CCCOER to move into a bright and creative future!”

Karen Cangialosi on Una’s Farewell KudoBoard

“You have made an indelible mark on CCCOER and the broader open education community. You have been a source of inspiration for so many. I am deeply grateful that I got a chance to work closely with you these last few years on the CCCOER Executive Council. I’m thrilled that we saw one another again in Edmonton. Wishing you all the happiness and fulfillment in the next chapter of your life. With deep gratitude,”

Shinta Hernandez on Una’s Farewell KudoBoard

Share your wishes for Una’s Re-wirement!

Please add your experiences and stories of Una on the Farewell KudoBoard.

OEG Voices – Latest Podcasts

OE Global Voices

Welcome to the home of podcasts produced by Open Education Global. These shows bring you insight and connection to the application of open education practices from around the world. Listen at podcast.oeglobal.org

OEG Voices 074: Tony Bates and A Personal History of Open Education

Join us for a wide ranging conversation with Tony Bates covering his long and on ongoing span of being active in open and distance education. We start from his being part of the very first days of the Open University through his years based in Canada but working globally being integral to the development of online learning through the web. He has long been publishing open textbooks and sharing his perspectives on his own website. We go right up to present day where Tony is active in exploring the role of artificial intelligence.

We were inspired to have these conversation having seen where Tony has been publishing on his blog his “personal history” now up to it’s 26th installment:

I am writing an autobiography, mainly for my family, but it does cover some key moments in the development of open and online learning. I thought I would share these as there seems to be a growing interest in the history of educational technology.

Note that these posts are NOT meant to be deeply researched historical accounts, but how I saw and encountered developments in my personal life.

Tony Bates blog

In the OEGlobal Voices studio with Tony Bates (left) and Alan Levine (right)

Listen in for Tony’s insightful energy, critical perspective, and humor as well as his lived stories of experience through a long era of online and open education. Plus, you will find a surprising bit of extra history on how he might have influenced some other students he knew in primary school who went on to be famous.

In This Episode

FYI: For the sake of experimentation and the spirit of transparency, this set of show notes alone was generated by AI Actions in the Descript editor we use to produce OEGlobal Voices.

Podcast Show Notes: OE Global Voices Episode 74: Tony Bates

In this enlightening episode of OE Global Voices, host Alan Levine is joined by the remarkable Dr. Tony Bates, an influential figure in the realm of open education.

Episode Highlights:

  • Introduction to Tony Bates: Discover the journey of a legend in open education, from his beginnings in England to key contributions at the Open University and beyond.
  • Open Education Insight: Tony discusses the limitations and potential of open education resources today, sharing insights rooted in his extensive experience.
  • Founding of the Open University: Gain behind-the-scenes knowledge of how the Open University was envisioned and established, expanding access to higher education with innovative methods such as integrating print, radio, and TV.
  • Role in Online Learning: Learn about Tony’s pioneering role in developing online learning approaches and his transition from traditional educational systems to digital landscapes.
  • Publishing and Open Resources: Tony candidly shares why he embraced open publishing, emphasizing accessibility and the benefits of keeping educational resources current.
  • Reflections on Artificial Intelligence: Tony offers a balanced view of AI’s potential and risks, particularly concerning big tech companies’ influence.

About Tony Bates:
Tony Bates has been a transformative presence in education, contributing through teaching, leadership, research, and writing. He’s known for his candid take on the state of education, often sharing personal anecdotes from his storied career.

Get Engaged:
Listen as Tony Bates reflects on a career filled with innovation, humor, and lasting impact. Follow up on our discussions about educational technology and AI.

This episode is accompanied by the musical track “Distance” by Anitek, fittingly chosen to reflect the expansive themes of Tony’s work. Visit OEGlobal Voices for more episodes and join our community discussions at OEG Connect.

Don’t miss this journey through impactful education landscapes with Tony Bates. Subscribe and engage with us for future insights and conversations.

(end of AI generated show notes)

Additional Links and Quotes for Episode 74

What happened was that I actually saw the internet for the first time in Vancouver when I was visiting a friend. I thought this is the best way to use computers in education, not this, programmed learning stuff, which I didn’t really like because it wasn’t in my view, achieving the higher level cognitive skills that you’d want from university students. It’s all about memorization and so on.

So I thought, yes, we can use computers for communication between students and between students and instructors, that’s great. And a colleague, Tony Kay and I we tried this out on a social science second level course called DT 200.

Tony Bates on early vision for online education

From very interesting things like audio, we found that generally, you know, this is a generalization, doesn’t apply to everybody. But most people that we researched found audio more personal, that they felt they got closer to the lecturer through listening to an audio, a radio broadcaster or an audio cassette. The other thing was that we found that cassettes, actually changed the design principles because students could stop and start. You could build that into the design of a cassette. And then the learning effectiveness went right up.

We had a perfect laboratory situation where we had exactly the same program in audio and radio and exactly the same as a recording. Then we could look at what students learn as a result. We could then change the design of the cassettes and see what happened then and look at the results. Because we had such large numbers of students, we got very statistically significant results.

Tony Bates on early research on use of audio for learning

My take on it, I’m fairly pessimistic. Mainly because my real concern these days is about the power of the big tech companies. I fear it will be taken over by the big tech companies. We’ll see their share prices and stocks go up and the money will go to the venture capitalists. And we’ll all be worse off as a result.

That’s the negative part about it. Now on the positive side, I think yes, in medical research, in legal affairs, it will be very good. I met a colleague, a good friend of mine actually, who’s trying to do research on whether AI can actually improve on the instructional design process.

Tony Bates on Artificial Intelligence

We are counting on more blog posts from you, Tony!


Our open licensed music for this episode is a track called Distance by Anitek licensed under a Creative CommonsAttribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Like most of our podcast music, it was found at the Free Music Archive (see our full FMA playlist).

This was another episode we are recording on the web in Squadcast. This is part of the Descript platform for AI enabled transcribing and editing audio in text– this has greatly enhanced our ability to produce our showsWe have been exploring some of the other AI features in Descriptbut our posts remain human authored unless indicated otherwise.