Motivated by the desire to offer reference material in French for her course Evolutionary ecophysiologygiven in 3e year of baccalaureate in biology, Professor Nadia Aubin-Horth embarked on the creation of a work. “I wanted to create an environment for my students to learn before and after the class session,” she says.
Based on an inclusive educational approach, she wanted to respond to different learning needs, integrating images and videos into this written content. The chapters even offer review activities. “I wanted to reach students who learn less well from reading alone.”
A co-creation exercise
Accessible free online, the book was designed with four students: Arianne Barrette, Alicia Pageau, Jeanne Picher-Labrie and Roxanne Turgeon. Three of them had also taken Professor Aubin-Horth’s course. “They were able to present their point of view on the material and how to bring it about. They contributed greatly to the ideation, creation and revision of the book’s open educational resources. It was a great exercise in co-creation.”
From the first meeting of the project, Nadia Aubin-Horth knew that she did not want an organization top-downwhere she tells the students what to do. “I imagined more of a circle of collaboration. When there are five people giving each other ideas, it’s certain that it will be better,” says the professor. The students had varied expertise, notably in computer graphics, pedagogy and publishing. According to her, this sharing of knowledge made it possible to create a high-quality book.
Professor Nadia Aubin-Horth and students Alicia Pageau, Roxanne Turgeon, Ariane Barrette and Jeanne Picher-Labrie.
Portraits in the spotlight
In addition to the course material, the book highlights three professors, who each introduce a unit from the book, and five doctoral students who present their project and their progress. “These people show students that you don’t magically get to a doctorate. Lots of things happen in our lives, we make choices.”
Professor Patricia Schulte who introduces unit 2 of the book is also a pioneer in the research field of evolutionary ecophysiology. “She explains her path to the baccalaureate, then to the master’s and doctoral degrees. “It’s really special for the students to know that someone who contributed so much to the field didn’t know what they wanted to do.”
According to Nadia Aubin-Horth, these different representations of what a scientist is can motivate women, people who are the first in their family to attend university or people underrepresented in the field to pursue research.
“In science, we want more diversity. The more people are different, the more points of view there are, the more we will find solutions to our questions.”
An essential reference
This work responds to a need, since more than 15,000 people around the world have consulted it since January. “I’m so happy because we worked hard!” Professor Aubin-Horth wishes to promote her book to colleagues at other universities who teach similar courses.
The first edition of the work is deposited at the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec. Nadia Aubin-Horth wants to continue to improve it to possibly put a second edition online. “I would like to add a few explanatory capsules, because, over the years, I notice that certain concepts are more difficult to understand.”
The creation of the work was made possible thanks to funding from FabriqueREL (open educational resource).
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