Executive Blog

If you’re new to Athabasca University or perhaps you’ve just been super busy with your studies, chances are you may be missing out on some really great services or networking opportunities.  No worries, I got you.

Tap Into Student Life

If you’re wondering where your fellow students reside and how you can connect with them, there really is an app for that: Athabasca University Students, available on iTunes as well as the Google Play Store. So many resources in one place.  The newsfeed alone will keep you current on everything thing from contests and award deadlines, fellow student successes/pain points and even perhaps connecting with others that are taking the same courses or in your field of study.

Other App options:

Ask a Question                       Study Tips

Buy & Sell                               Photos

Study Buddy                           Groups

This is a GREAT place to start.

Online Exams – Anywhere

Depending on your life circumstances (physical location, scheduling demands, transportation options) it can be a bit of a juggle to get to an exam center.  Well, things are looking up for us AU students.  Would you believe me if I told you, you could take your next online exam from your kitchen or living room?  I tried ProctorU for the first time to write a test last week while visiting my boyfriend in San Jose, California, 1600 miles from home.  He was away at work so I set up at his kitchen island and it was so easy!Continue Reading

If you had the opportunity to improve AU, how would you do it?  

Well now is your chance, find out how you can help re-imagine online learning at AU!

For months you have heard us talk about the university’s IMAGINE plan and how over the next few years AU is going to be making some big changes.  This is great news for students and now with a 4.9-million-dollar grant from the government momentum is gaining.  So, what does this mean for you as a student?

It means that you have an opportunity to help write AU history.  How often does a university decide that they are going to make sweeping changes and then turn to students for input.  That is the opportunity we have before us.  We can participate in the re-imagining of both AU as an institution and learning itself.  Thanks to our out of the box thinking administration at AU we are looking past AU as it currently exists and focusing on what would be the most optimal university. Once we have this picture we can then begin to build AU’s future.

The first step in the redesign process is developing a learning framework.  So, what does that entail? In the simplest form the framework is going to lay out what learning looks like fifty years from now.  It is a very broad topic that is being addressed by numerous AU committees.  AUSU has a seat on the steering committee and from hearing from the other committees, they also need student feedback.

The university wants to be able to understand questions like: What student’s expectations of learning are? What skills do we expect to gain from our education? What needs to be considered regarding learning to ensure student success.

With how important this process is AUSU has been working on developing ways to get your input.  We want to know what you would like to see happen at AU.  So, to do this, we will be launching an engagement campaign very shortly.  There will be many ways to get involved including online and in person town halls, meet & greets, online discussions in the AUSU app and forums, or you can always reach out to me.  Make sure to keep an eye on our social media platforms and website for more details.

This is an exciting time, and I can’t wait to see our members contribute their input to help us Imagine a better AU experience.

All the best,

Brandon Simmons

AUSU President

Email : president @ausu.org

Cell: 780-668-2952

AUSU Position Policies – What they are and how you can help!

I can’t believe it’s already June! I’ve been in my role as vice president finance and administration here at AUSU now for just over six weeks – and time has flown by! I’ve learned a lot about student governance and university operations in this time, and I’ve been well-trained to pursue the responsibilities this role brings.

What responsibilities, you say? Well, you’re likely aware that I’m assigned the task of overseeing the financial status of our organization and chairing the finance committee, but my other major responsibility falls in the realm of policy – and this is where I wanted to focus the executive blog this month.

Please don’t start snoozing! Policy is actually pretty cool when you break it down. It’s a great way to lay out the operations of an organization concisely. If Continue Reading

Four Kids, Work, AU… Repeat!

Attending an open, online University may be one of the most life changing decisions you have ever made.  Well done (virtual high five)!

In so many ways, attending AU is not like attending traditional brick and mortar style Universities and that’s a great thing!  I can think back to my first year of college when I was 19, getting up super early to catch the bus and LRT to my 8 AM Anthropology class.  Commuting a total of 3 hours a day between school and my two part-time jobs.  I fondly recall the distinct scent of my collegiate fellow whom reliably missed their morning hygiene routines.  I remember hauling around what felt to be a 50 lb stack of textbooks, the rigid structure of my day dictated by class schedules and even waking up sick but still having to attend class, feeling crummy and contagious.  The workload was so demanding there was little time for anything else; school was an all or nothing proposition.

Fast forward a few years…Continue Reading

A new council term has officially begun, and new committee appointments have been made both within AUSU and within the university. In total your AUSU executives sit on 17 standing committees within the university including the Board of Governors and the General Faculties Council. On top of these committee meetings, AUSU executives participate in multiple ad hoc committee meetings, CASA committees, and we regularly meet with many other stakeholders such as AUFA, AU Deans, and AU executives. The reason that we spend so much of our time in meetings is to ensure that we are are to advocate on behalf of AUSU members. The whole reason that the university is here is to help us to achieve our educational pursuits, so it only makes sense to have students in the room when decisions are being made.

So, the question you might be asking now is what does AUSU advocate for? The short answer is we advocate for the needs of our members. The long answer is that what we advocate for is always changing based on the feedback that we hear from you. I consistently monitor multiple AU Facebook pages, the AUSU app, and emails to see what concerns students are facing. When I see consistent problems, I make sure that I bring them up to AU.

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Hey Everyone,

It is a very exciting time for AUSU right now.  We have just finished another successful election and for the first time, we now  have elected 13 councilors.  It is inspiring to see the quality of candidates that ran in this election and we are grateful to all who participated.  If you looked at the biographies, posters, forums, YouTube videos, The Voice article, or any of the three debates, you could tell that the candidates had really done their homework.  Not only is the new council well informed, but it is a great mix of students both geographically as well as by faculty.  It has been fairly common in the past for council to be dominated by business students, but this is not the case this year.  It will be a well-rounded group that will bring experience from a range of faculties and programs.

It was also inspiring to see the engagement from our members during this election.  I saw many questions being asked via social media and in our mobile app.  There was a real excitement about getting involved and I know that I spoke to many members who were not able to run for council but really expressed interest in getting involved.

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Election Time!

Have you ever wondered as a student how to make a difference for other students? Well, for some, that means running in the ongoing council elections, and for others, voting for those that will best represent your interests. It is important that all of us cast our vote for the next council. These will be the students that will be in charge of deciding how to best spend our student fees that go to the students’ union.

I urge everyone to go and read up on the candidates, listen to their answers in the debates, read the interview questions in The Voice, and read the election forums. This will give you an idea of where the candidates stand, and their plans for what they want to accomplish if elected to council.

Your vote matters! There will be thirteen new councillors chosen in this election and they will be your councillors for the next two years. They will represent all of the undergraduate students that attend AU and will be doing important work that will affect all students, such as deciding what services and awards to offer, deciding what advocacy topics to prioritize, and representing AU students at the institutional, provincial, and federal levels.

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Paying for School

Financing your post-secondary education will be one of the largest expenses in your lifetime, and, according to Maclean’s magazine, could result in an average cost of nearly $20,000/year (Brown, 2017).  That’s why I am keenly aware of my responsibility to voice your need to keep the costs of tuition and fees low, and the opportunities for student aid and financial benefits high.  The topic of paying for school is a multi-faceted one, and I’d like to share what we’ve done on your behalf recently to try to keep school affordable.

In November, the Alberta Government announced that tuition and mandatory instructional fees would remain frozen at 2015 levels for the 2018/2019 school year (Graney, 2017).  I was honestly surprised by this announcement, and I immediately feared for the approximately 65% of AUSU members who reside outside of Alberta.  As we have seen over the last several years, when AU isn’t able to increase revenue through Alberta students, it is the out of province students who carry the even heavier load.

Further, the Alberta government has been working on numerous lengthy reviews that were anticipated to provide a sustainable structure for predictable tuition and fees.

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I just wanted to update you all on some things that have been going on at AUSU that are related to my position of VP External and Student Affairs. We have had some new initiatives come out and are being worked on within the last few months that are exciting.

Many of them involve student engagement. I think that is definitely an important part for everyone, because we don’t get to interact with each other the same way that you would attending a brick-and-mortar university.

The first new way that AUSU is trying to build engagement is with Facebook Live sessions. Since we work online, we wanted to interact with everyone in a different way, but online. What we are doing is starting each session with a topic, and discussing it throughout the session. The topics have been planned with interaction in mind, so we are including questions and topics that students can comment on during the live video and we’ll respond to those. We are also giving out a free swag pack to one member at random who interacted with our session!Continue Reading

Something exciting is on its way to your inbox, if you haven’t received it already.

AU has officially begun the launch of @athabasca.edu email addresses for all AU students!

One day soon, you will receive an email, asking you to activate your Athabasca University student Office 365 account.  And, after following a few very simple steps, you’ll be all set up.  This is a very exciting new service for students that AU is providing, and one that holds many benefits beyond simple email.  Your new Office 365 license includes popular software applications such as Word, Excel and Powerpoint; as well as some fun, new communication and productivity tools like Yammer and Sway.

I was very lucky to receive my student email account early on, and I’m happy to share my experience and a few pointers with my fellow students to help make the transition as seamless as possible!Continue Reading