Longstanding e-learning hub to close after provincial funding dries up

The Kinew government is closing an e-learning hub that creates, curates and promotes free textbooks while helping students with career planning.

Campus Manitoba, a publicly funded consortium of local universities and colleges, will cease to exist at the end of June.

“(Post-secondary) institutions are struggling. They are all trying to do more with less. We were there to help them,” executive director Carley McDougall said.

“We really thought of ourselves as a supportive, arm’s-length entity that did great work for student access and mobility.”

McDougall learned last month she and five colleagues, all of whom have full-time positions, would soon be out of work.

Premier Wab Kinew’s third budget cut all funding to Campus Manitoba, resulting in nearly $1 million in annual savings.

The future of its database of open educational resources, a career-planning platform and one-stop-shop for distance learning courses offered across Manitoba — known as OpenEd, Set Your Course and eCourses, respectively — is unclear.

What is for certain is the sector is losing “coordinating infrastructure,” as well as a resource that helps students navigate cross-institutional online learning, McDougall said.

She is currently drafting a plan to wind down the multi-faceted operation “the right way” to preserve three decades worth of work.

Campus Manitoba was founded in 1990 to help coordinate colleges and universities to make post-secondary courses more accessible. Its mandate has expanded dramatically since then.

Students and faculty members were caught off guard when the organization announced its imminent shutdown on its website last week.

“It’s been running for 35 years and over those 35 years, students were able to access digital courses and open education resources and save lots of money,” said Prabhnoor Singh, outgoing president of the University of Manitoba Students’ Union.

Singh, who is entering his final year of undergraduate studies, counts himself as one of the beneficiaries.

Campus Manitoba estimates its open education initiative, established in 2014, has saved local students more than $6 million.

“We’ve supported the creation of more than 20 made-in-Manitoba open educational resources, contributing to a growing movement that believes education should be open, accessible, and built for everyone. The movement doesn’t end with us,” the organization said in its announcement.

“The work our community has done — the resources created, the connections made, the doors opened — will continue to matter long after June 26.”

The resources will be archived, but critics are concerned they will become outdated and smaller schools will suffer because they have fewer librarians and other resources to manage collections.

“I don’t like seeing resources being taken away from students without a plan,” said Gautam Srivasta, president of the Brandon University Faculty Association.

The hub has long been housed out of the BU campus.

University spokesperson Grant Hamilton said it was a point of pride for BU and administration is now focused on supporting affected staff members.

Hamilton said Campus Manitoba’s course transfer database was an important resource for BU students who transferred to other institutions to complete their studies.

The province’s decision to cease funding isn’t a reflection on the staff or their employer’s contributions over the last 35 years, he said in a statement.

Advanced Education Minister Renée Cable defended that decision, although she hinted OpenEd will be preserved in one form or another.

“In many, many ways, the system outgrew Campus Manitoba,” Cable said in an interview.

She cited concerns the consortium’s work was being duplicated by schools and the reality that all institutions have scaled their virtual course options in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cross-sectoral collaboration can and will continue without it, the minister added.

For Patrick Noël, president of the Manitoba Organization of Faculty Associations, the decision is unfortunate because Campus Manitoba “was a wonderful resource to compensate for shortcomings in provincial funding to universities.”

The closure doesn’t bode well for accessibility or affordability, Noël said.

Singh echoed those comments on behalf of UMSU’s 26,000 members.

“I see nothing affordable in this budget for students,” he said.

”Campus Manitoba is being shut down. There’s no health-care coverage for international students. Tuition is going up.”

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca