June 11, 2013
On June 4, at the annual conference of the Association québécoise de pédagogie collégiale (AQPC), the Collegial Centre for Educational Materials Development (CCDMD) celebrated its 20th anniversary with a special cocktail party to mark the occasion.
AQPC 5@7 photo album
CCDMD 20th anniversary video (French)
Short history of a big contribution
The CCDMD was first created in August 1993 when the Collège de Maisonneuve was entrusted with administering the Service de développement de matériel didactique. For two decades, the CCDMD has been making sure the teaching staff and students of all programs in the Québec CEGEP network have high-quality teaching materials at their disposal.
Fast-forward to 2013, and the organization now offers an extraordinary educational repertory to the entire network. Today, the CCDMD catalogue boasts over 250 products, including 125 textbooks, 90 websites and 50 software programs. It also offers access to thousands of diverse resources: interactive exercises, PDF documents, video sequences, animations and photographs. Since 2005, after the establishment of the Canada-Québec Agreement on Minority Language Education and Second-Language Instruction, part of this material has also been available in English.
From floppy disk to Internet by way of CD-ROM and DVD, the CCDMD has changed production methods several times over the years. The goal has always been to offer users products that make the best use of our constantly changing technologies.
Teamwork at its best
It is a real challenge to produce quality teaching materials in a situation that demands constant adaptation to best educational practices and to the dictates of technological advancement. But that is the exact task the members of the competent, dynamic and dedicated CCDMD team have been facing every day for 20 years. The many awards and honours garnered since 1993 attest to this quest for excellence: no fewer than 27 CCDMD products have receive either top prize or honourable mention at the Ministry awards, not to mention many other products celebrated in a variety of categories in the Octas and Mérites du français awards.
The CCDMD would be remiss if we failed to mention the immeasurable contributions of the authors behind all these educational resources: over the years, hundreds of professors from the CEGEP network have contributed to the CCDMD’s productions. Through their desire to see their students succeed, the projects they have submitted to the CCDMD selection committee and their input as specialists in their field, these people have taken part in the production of the outstanding collection the CCDMD offers today.
And finally, the CCDMD salutes the valuable contributions of our many partners in the CEGEP network, whose involvement and convictions have helped ensure that all CEGEPs have access to the CCDMD materials produced for and by the network.