Elizabeth Cormier

Teacher Librarian (B.A/B.Ed/MLIS) and alumna of University of Lethbridge and Western University. Cormier taught in both Northern and Southern Alberta before following an interest in libraries. After 11 years with Los Angeles Public Library she returned to Southern Alberta and welcomed an opportunity to join the Faculty of Education. Having grown up along Drywood Creek in the Pincher Creek foothills, she is grateful to once again make Treaty 7 territory her home.

Teaching Interests

The Curriculum Lab supports program delivery through connecting pre-service teachers with teaching and learning resources. Cormier collaborates with instructors to embed timely, customized experiences with resources into a range of courses. She supports planning and instruction through selecting print and digital materials that reflect current curriculum needs and best practice. Extensive libguides and asynchronous tutorials accessible through Moodle and the Curriculum Lab Website provide further opportunities for students to find authoritative materials for use in the classroom. Delivering instructional sessions and providing individualized assistance in the Curriculum Lab offers a unique opportunity to meet every student in the program. This indirect instruction is complemented by assigned teaching, and Cormier has taught several sections of the Ed. 2500 course (Introduction to Teaching).

Research Interests

Open Educational Resources (OER) in K-12: Of particular interest is how an understanding of Creative Commons licenses might allow educators and Divisions to become leaders in specific areas of practice. A collaborative, innovative approach to developing in-house resources already exists in many school Divisions, and wider sharing of these resources supports equity, efficiency, and quality teaching across the province. A central barrier to sharing, however, is copyright literacy. Without confidence around if or how outside material can be incorporated into a resource, Divisions and educators typically resort to closed, password protected platforms for anything they decide to share. Cormier’s work is focused on engaging pre-service and in-service teachers, curriculum coordinators, learning leaders, and ARPDC consultants in working with Creative Commons licenses. Building an understanding of how to enact David Wiley’s 5Rs of OER Practice (Reuse, Retain, Revise, Remix, Redistribute) is a crucial part of flexible and sustainable resource development and distribution. Cormier regularly collaborates with Dr. Constance Blomgren (Athabasca University), Katherine Schock (Edmonton Public School Division), and Kathy Wise (Cochrane Public Library).