E-learning hub finds home at Brandon University

Brandon University has absorbed all the public resources created by a defunct online education hub that promoted free textbooks and coordinated remote learning courses.

After 35 years of facilitating collaboration between local post-secondary institutions, Campus Manitoba was shut down at the end of June.

“Brandon University now serves as the records custodian, but all of the open educational resources are still available (to the public),” Advanced Education Minister Renée Cable said.

Campus Manitoba, a consortium of post-secondary institutes, supported the creation of more than 20 digital resources as part of the Open Education Manitoba PressbooksEDU Network. It is estimated to have saved students upwards of $6 million.

In addition to creating, curating and housing free course materials, it was a one-stop shop for distance learning, inter-institutional credit transfers and career planning.

The provincial government axed funding for the organization — about $100,000 annually — in the 2026 budget. Critics have decried the decision, citing Campus Manitoba’s goal of making post-secondary education more accessible.

“I wish that something were already in place to fill the hole left by Campus Manitoba, but I will be patient as we see what the government’s vision reveals,” said Curt Shoultz, director of the BU Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology.

Shoultz said in an email that Campus Manitoba, established in 1990, brought together colleges and universities to facilitate inter-institutional cooperation.

It laid the groundwork for the Manitoba Academic Integrity Network, Flexible Learning Advisory Group and a series of recent provincial meetings about artificial intelligence, he said.

The director noted the organization played a key role in helping smaller post-secondary institutions navigate emergency remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BU is hosting the Pressbooks platform and continuing to work with other post-secondary institutions to create new open educational resources, university spokesman Grant Hamilton said.

Red River College Polytechnic is committed to adopting, adapting and creating these kinds of materials “to improve access to education and reduce costs for students,” public relations manager Lauren Parsons said.

The University of Manitoba’s communications office indicated its leaders were “pleased” to learn about a five-year provincial commitment to support the Pressbooks network.

Cable said there was no longer a need for a formal consortium because all post-secondary schools employ their own “wayfinders” and collaborate regularly outside the collective.

For instance, U of M and RRC Polytech recently joined forces to help graduates of the latter’s engineering technology program transition into U of M’s engineering faculty, Cable said.

Cable said it made the most sense for BU, which is receiving funding to pay for licensing, to house its resources because Campus Manitoba operated on the campus in western Manitoba.

“That was the most seamless transition and we had a very willing partner,” she said, adding her office ensured the change “wouldn’t be a hardship for BU.”

The minister indicated the province is currently working on “a better way” to track student progress in Manitoba that takes into account transfers and partial program completion rates.

She said a central system that manages student data will make it easier to transfer credits and assess the true impact of post-secondary education across the province.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca