February 06, 2020. Following the recent launch of Talis in Canada, Okanagan College has adopted Talis Aspire, in order to improve the integration of learning materials into its courses. Their main aim is to improve the student and faculty experience by creating easier access to resources and to give the library a better insight into resource usage. Talis will work closely with Okanagan College to support their individual needs, as well as those of the wider Canadian Higher Education market, along with other Canadian institutions.

Talis Aspire is an online resource list solution that enables faculty to provide students with a dynamic list, giving them easy access to both online and physical resources. Supporting wider Teaching & Learning practices, faculty design and structure their resource lists in a way that suits them and their students, all directly through their Learning Management System. This includes a range of features such as assigning ‘importances' and study notes to further support the student experience. Talis Aspire bridges the gap between faculty and library, allowing workflows to be streamlined and by providing a clearer view of the resources that are required and how they are used to improve acquisitions decisions.

Ross Tyner, Director of Library Services at Okanagan College said: "Okanagan College Library provides access to a growing digital and physical collection that benefits students, faculty and staff. Faculty are looking to the Library for content to support their teaching goals and the learning needs of their students. The Library required a solution for students to facilitate easy access to resources of various types and origins, as well as a system that allowed faculty and instructors to control their course content and assigned readings. Talis Aspire allows faculty to discover library resources, easily insert them into their Moodle courses, create shareable reading lists, and easily organize and curate those resources, all from within a single interface. We looked at a number of digital reading list solutions and concluded that Aspire stood out amongst the others. The system was intuitive, modern, and flexible. Okanagan College is proud to be among the first Aspire customers in Canada and we look forward to working with the Talis team to enhance the learning experience of our faculty and students."

Talis works with institutions in 9 countries across the world, and has been implemented at over 100 universities. Talis Aspire is currently integrated with many combinations of Library and Learning Management Systems all over the globe. Okanagan will integrate Talis Aspire with their Library Management System, Ex Libris: Voyager, and with their Learning Management System, Moodle.

Okanagan College is already working closely with the Talis Services Team to kick off the implementation project and will continue to support them closely over the coming months and years, to ensure they are getting the most out of Talis Aspire. They plan to pilot Talis Aspire with a number of academics prior to launching.

David Errington, CEO at Talis said: "We are thrilled to work with Okanagan College as we launch Talis Aspire to our first universities in Canada, and are pleased to support them in achieving their goals around the provision of resources and the student experience. Our teams are already working closely with them as they prepare to pilot Talis Aspire and we look forward to building this relationship."

Okanagan College is a public, post-secondary institution with over 120 certificates, diplomas, degrees and programs including apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship trades programs. Its largest campus is located in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. Established in 1963, Okanagan College has since grown to be the largest college in British Columbia outside the Lower Mainland and Victoria with over 8,500 full-time students on four regional campuses and is the second-largest trade school in British Columbia. Approximately 1,000 international students from over 40 countries currently study at Okanagan College.