My name is Gurbir Brar, I was born and lived in Kent WA until my family settled down in the Fraser Valley (Abbotsford). Iā€™ll be entering my fourth year at UVIC in the HINF program and should graduate next year barring any setbacks. Once I graduate Iā€™m planning on applying for a work position at a former co-op post I held last semester for Island Health.

My free time is taken up by playing basketball, hanging out with friends, and justifying the next addition to my home gym. During the pandemic Iā€™ve also enjoyed exploring the outdoors and have had the time to go on a few camping trips with my bubble friends around the lower mainland (Nearby Cultus Lake).

My current understanding of the terms ā€œdistributed learningā€ and ā€œopen learningā€ is that they are different methodologies in the approach of disseminating educational materials. A distributed learning platform would be similar to how Courses are delivered through BrightSpaces, essentially remote learning facilitated by the use of technology. I would then take open learning to mean the open access to educational materials by anyone, an example would be educational resources such as Khan Academy were the learning is more self-directed by the user. To summarize Distributed Learning is a more rigid methodology within the confines of an organization whereas Open Learning is a more flexible methodology.

Looking forward to learning more on this subject with the rest of you!