at Laurier A NEWSLETTER FROM LAURIER’S TEACHING AND LEARNING COUNCIL
WELCOME to Kathryn Carter, Laurier’s newly appointed Associate Vice President of Teaching & Learning (Acting) Post-secondary education is in a moment of transformation. Pressures from many angles are forcing administrators, faculty, staff and parents to rethink, re-evaluate, and re-imagine the important work of teaching and learning at universities. The Strategic Academic Plan for 2015-2020 identifies one key priority that is directly linked to work of the Teaching and Learning portfolio. It states, “Our goal over the next five years is to focus more intentionally on integrating experiential learning by: (1) encouraging more programs to forge explicit connections between experiential learning and program learning outcomes; and (2) to emphasizing the importance of tying program learning outcomes to the skills required for students to engage the complexity of the 21st century and the many communities of interest to which they belong: geographic, virtual, cultural, social, professional, environmental, and economic.” The ways in which we will achieve this are as follows:
Create opportunities for every student to participate in experiential learning, which will include developing a framework to appropriately define and provide criteria for co-operative education, practica, internships, laboratory experience, entrepreneurship activities, community service learning, and curricular international experiences (including study abroad).
Enhance quality of experiential learning by emphasizing integration of learning through reflection.
Grow accredited co-operative education programs in Faculties outside the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics (LSBE).
Integrate opportunities for entrepreneurship and social innovation education into undergraduate and graduate programs.
By combining the strengths of the Centre for Teaching Innovation and Excellence, the Centre for Student Success, and Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation, the office of Teaching and Learning will be able to contribute a great deal to the goal named above.
FALL 2015
DEADLINES
Nominations for Faculty Awards January 15, 2016 more...
Nominations for Teaching and Instructional Assistants Awards March 1, 2016 more…
Nominations for STLHE Brightspace Innovation Award March 2, 2016 more...
Project Grant Applications March 15, 2016 more…
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Congratulations to 2015 OUSA Award for Teaching Excellence recipient! more... Rebecca Godderis Community Health & Society, Culture, and Environment
Congratulations to Laurier’s latest Residence Academic Partnership Award recipients! more...
Steve Sider Faculty of Education
Louise Dawe Faculty of Science
DID YOU KNOW? continued...
ANNOUNCEMENTS continued…
Introducing Laurier’s Newly Appointed Director of
Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship, Joanne Benham Rennick and
Mercedes Rowinsky-Geurts Languages and Literatures
Laurier’s Social Innovation and Venture Creation (SIVC)
Congratulations to the 2015 Nelson Educational Excellence Award recipient! more...
SIVC is
closely aligned with Laurier’s mission of ‘inspiring lives of leadership and purpose.’ All across our campuses, exciting and meaningful projects are occurring through the energy and vision
of inspired faculty, staff, students, and community partners. SIVC facilitates and supports ‘social ventures’ designed to address a
Congratulations to Laurier’s 2015 Alumni Faculty Mentoring Award recipient! more...
complex social issue with sustainable, collaborative and impactful Hind A. Al-Abadleh Chemistry and Biochemistry
strategies and approaches. This work may include the creation of a social enterprise (for-profit, non-profit, co-op or other business model), a social innovation (technology, process, service, or concept), intrapreneurship (working from within an established framework to reconceive of and improve the outcomes and social benefits), or other approaches to sustainably improve or transform our social sphere for the better (e.g., advocacy, activism, policy work, knowledge sharing, etc.) more...
Congratulations to Laurier’s 2014 Faculty of Arts Teaching Scholar Award recipient! more...
Social Entrepreneurship: Lives of Leadership and Purpose
Social Innovation & Venture Creation (SIVC)
is Laurier’s effort to unite people across Laurier through
David Smith History
collaboration on issues that make positive social impact. Working together with each other, community mentors and accelerator centres, students actually get a chance to first think about the change they want to see in the world and then work
Being an Effective Online Learner
to become it. “I think higher education is ripe for a more
Funded by the Council of Ontario Universities, Being an Effective Online Learner modules provide flexible, custom learning strategies and study skills development for students enrolled in online learning courses to support their success. The module is comprised of a series of interactive sub-modules which include videos, interactive activities, assessments, student guidebooks, and a faculty guidebook. more...
nuanced approach to learning and I believe social entrepreneurship holds a lot of potential to create the kinds of leaders the world needs while also injecting some level of sanity and sustainability into an unbalanced economic system. It also creates a context for empowering and employing young people through innovative new initiatives that they themselves create.” Joanne Benham Rennick, more... Stay tuned for more information coming soon on Laurier’s commitment to Entrepreneurship and Innovation!
WHAT’S NEW?
ANNOUNCEMENTS continued….
New Active Learning Classrooms Open at Brantford and Waterloo
WriteOnline: Free Online Writing Resource Writing experts from Wilfrid Laurier University, the University of Guelph and the University of Waterloo have released a free online writing resource designed to support students with their academic writing. WriteOnline enhances Laurier’s Writing Centre services. It will be accessible at all hours from anywhere in the world, meeting the needs of not only university students, but also anyone interested in accessing the learning module. more...
Active Learning Classroom, Brantford Grand Opening, October 15, 2015 Photo: Brantford Expositor
Whether it’s drawing on the interactive whiteboards or participating in lively debates, the new Active Learning Classrooms facilitates unique student-centred activities and collaboration. Faculty can guide their students through lessons with an unprecedented degree of interactivity and give students the hands-on experience that makes course concepts come alive. Students can draw, save, and share their work with the entire class and faculty can provide immediate feedback and early intervention strategies for students who are struggling. Active Learning Classrooms inspire collaborative thinkers who are able to reach outside the classroom walls and apply their learning to real-world situations and current events. These unique spaces help foster teamwork and leadership skills, build confidence in presentation delivery, and form learning communities that foster peer engagement both in and outside of the classroom. The Faculty of Science Active Learning Classroom opened in September 2015 and features flexible furniture configurations, collaborative writing surfaces, and display and charging ports for students to connect and share work with the entire class. It has housed courses ranging from Organic Chemistry and Plant Biology to Feminist Theory, and it will continue to change the way learning outcomes are achieved across Laurier’s programs. The grand opening of the Brantford Active Learning Classroom was held on October 15, 2015. more... Laurier opened its first Active Learning Classroom in 2012 and now has three at Waterloo and one at Brantford. The Science Active Learning Classroom will be hosting a faculty showcase in December for anyone interested in visiting the classroom. more...
Scaffold: Faculty Talking to Faculty In winter 2015, a group of faculty interested in the flipped approach to teaching and learning started coming together to exchange ideas and resources, discuss issues and challenges, share best practices, and learn from the experience of one another. The group, now called SCAFFOLD – Student-centred Active Flexible Face-to-Face and Online Learning Discussions – continues to meet monthly with a broader focus. SCAFFOLD is co-chaired by Dr. Steve MacNeil from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Dr. Kevin Spooner from North American Studies, with coordinating support from the Centre for Teaching Innovation and Excellence (CTIE). A MyLS course site in hosts discussion summaries, resources, sample teaching materials, and news updates. To be added to the MyLS site and the meeting email list, please contact Jeanette McDonald.
EVENTS
WHAT’S NEW ? continued…
New! Handbook on Undergraduate Course Management and Notification of Teaching Innovation Form The Senate Committee on University Teaching (SCUT) has two new developments created to assist faculty in their teaching. more...
Instructional Skills Workshop
Handbook on Undergraduate Course Management
Next Offering April 2016
Notification of Teaching Innovation Form
The Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) is an internationally recognized program that is hands-on, experiential, and developmental in focus. The ISW provides a forum to develop your instructional practice within a learning/er-centred framework and reflect upon your teaching and your students' learning in a non-evaluative setting. During the three-day workshop (24 hours), ISW participants work together in facilitated small groups (4-5 individuals/group) to design and deliver three 10-minute mini lessons. Upon conclusion of each lesson facilitated peer feedback (verbal and written) is provided (NB: focus on learning experience vs. lesson content). Participants also receive a video recording of their mini lessons for home review. Large group theme sessions on teaching and learning topics (e.g., teaching larger classes, classroom management) comprise an additional and important element of the program. Upon successful conclusion of the workshop, participants receive an internationally recognized ISW certificate of completion. There is no charge for the program, but we do ask that each participant commit to the full three days (24 hours). The ISW program model is built upon active participation and peer feedback.
Laurier working towards a “Changemaker Campus” Designation Members of Ashoka U, an initiative of Ashoka and the world’s largest network of social entrepreneurs, visited both Brantford and Waterloo campus’s on October 5 and 6, 2015. Ashoka recognises institutions with visions to become global drivers of social change by intentionally transforming educational experience into-world changing experience. Should Laurier qualify for Ashoka U’s “ Changemaker Campus’ designation, it would be the second Canadian institution to earn the distinction. more…
University Teaching Certificates
At the Centre for
Teaching Innovation and Excellence, we offer two certificate programs to support graduate students in their TA experience and gain transferrable skills in preparation for their career. Currently, there are over 70 graduate students enrolled in the certificate programs. The University Teaching Foundations (UTF) certificate is designed to provide a basic foundation for success in the classroom as a teaching assistant and gain transferrable skills applicable to future employment opportunities. This certificate consists of 5 workshops as well as two teaching practice sessions that can be completed in as little as one term. The University Teaching Certificate (UTC) follows completion of the UTF certificate and is designed for graduate students considering a career in academia. The certificate provides the opportunity to engage with faculty in their disciplines, practice teaching skills in a classroom setting, explore research in teaching and learning, and prepare for an academic career through the introduction of the teaching dossier and philosophy statement. more... Contact Kyra Jones.
For further information contact Jeanette McDonald.
SOMETHING TO SHARE? Do you have an idea, an upcoming event, workshop or a research project that you would like to share? Submit your ideas to Connie Davison by December 15, 2015.