Symposium 2017

The demand for innovation in the context of a globalized workforce has raised the importance of developing collaborative skills and increased the challenges of managing workplace diversity. Knowing how to collaborate effectively is an essential skill for business and other types of work environments (Conference Board of Canada, nd. Retrieved December 10, 2016,). Given this, many post-secondary programs have introduced courses in their curricular or co-curricular streams to address these needs. Developing such courses to teach students these skills can be challenging, exciting, and transformational – for both the student and the educator. 

In response to feedback from employers and surveys of both domestic and international students, our business school developed a course for new students in our undergraduate program to learn how to collaborate effectively in diverse teams. We crossed limitations that can often exist in higher education by teaching skills often not addressed until upper-level courses. In doing so we better prepare students for working with diverse groups to achieve a common goal – both within the university context and as they prepare and enter the workforce. 

In this session, participants will generate ideas, questions, and suggestions for developing a 100-200 level course to transform how students work with others and utilize diversity in teams. After this activity, participants will hear about the design challenges we have had to overcome and the areas where we continue to learn.

This session will appeal to educators (curricular and co-curricular) currently designing or delivering learning experiences to teach teamwork. 

University of the Fraser Valley recently implemented an ePortfolio program requirement into the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of General Studies degrees. This curriculum change is being implemented through courses designed to guide students through the process of portfolio development, reflection and assessment. To support this initiative UFV faculty required professional development around ePortfolio and how to successfully integrate this high impact practice into their teaching practice. This professional development included a Folio-Thinking Workshop which addressed concepts around artifacts, reflection, identity and audience. The Folio-Thinking Workshop has been adapted by the presenters to be delivered in the classroom as an engaging introduction to ePortfolio through a collaborative exercise that addresses the structure of ePortfolio and associated theory. This successful classroom activity can be used in any setting where ePortfolio is used as an assessment tool or modified to support the implementation of any high impact practice in the classroom. In the proposed workshop, participants will take part in a collaborative brainstorming activity that identifies ePortfolio artifacts, ways to reflect on those artifacts, and how personal identity can be incorporated into the final portfolio. The learning is captured in a collaborative folio-thinking artifact wall.

Recent reforms at many Canadian institutions have led some of us to challenge the dominance of Western epistemologies in higher education and consider the ways in which Indigenous ways of knowing can be integrated more meaningfully into our classrooms (Augustus, 2015). Vancouver Island University (VIU) has adopted an institution-wide framework to address the challenge of reconciliation, as required by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, between Canada’s Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous peoples. As part of this initiative, VIU’s Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning recently partnered with the Office of Aboriginal Education and Engagement to facilitate learning circles for faculty. These professional learning opportunities bring together Elders-In-Residence, Aboriginal students and VIU faculty to explore ‘indigenization’ in higher education and the impact it has on all of us. 

In this session, we will provide three perspectives on participating in the learning circles. A faculty member, Marilyn Funk, two students, Aaron Moore and Sheldon Scow and an educational developer, Kathleen Bortolin will all share how participating in this this full-year initiative impacted their practices and their perspective on indigenous teaching and learning in higher education. Their learning journeys share a common theme around experiencing the lingering impact of colonization in ourselves and in our classrooms, and the ways in which we are moving forward and learning together.

ePortfolios are increasingly used in medical education (Belcher et all. 2014) and in professional programs in general to connect learning with professional competencies and to promote reflection, inquiry and integration for students Baston (2015). In the Dental Hygiene Degree Program (Faculty of Dentistry) at UBC e-portfolios were integrated into the curriculum in 2012 and since that time all undergraduate students have been assessed on their completion of an ePortfolio using the UBC Blogs (WordPress Platform)

Many instructors miss the opportunity provided by the first class of a course to excite and engage students.  Some simply review course outlines and discuss expectations while others start with a lecture.  I have developed a practice of starting all my courses with fun exercises that challenge students and introduces them to many of the important concepts that will be covered during the term.    Student often have little exposure to the topics that will be covered in the subjects that I teach in supply chain management resulting in limited understanding of what to expect (Morris, 1997; Pal & Busing, 2008).  This creates an opportunity to creatively introduce the field.  While it is common in this field to include forms of active learning, such as simulations, games, and case studies, engaging students in such an activity on the first day is not common practice.A colleague and I have published one of these first-class exercises as a teaching brief (Snider & Southin, 2016); 92% of students surveyed enjoyed it. Students indicate that the exercise gives them insight into a topic with which they have little experience. Informal surveys in other courses appear to provide similar satisfaction ratings.While I use this practice in my field of supply chain management to try to get students engaged on the first day in a field to which they have limited exposure, I believe it could be used in many different disciplines to start the term off in a fun and engaging way.

Providing feedback on student writing is an essential but time-consuming aspect of grading papers. Using the metaphor of a traffic light, this session will offer participants suggestions and resources for green-lighting feedback by improving the effectiveness and efficiency of feedback comments. Specifically, we will explain how collaborations between a faculty member and the Writing Centre resulted in more informative feedback and a more effective use of the instructor’s time while grading. We will outline factors that affect students’ interpretations of feedback (Cameron, Nairn, & Higgins, 2009; Duff, 2010; Hyland, 2013; Séror, 2009) and share resources developed to assist faculty members with providing written feedback.

After taking part in this session, it expected that the audience will be better able to:
• appreciate the impact of feedback on student writing;
• reflect more fully on the challenges associated with red-light and yellow-light feedback;
• understand key considerations for providing green-light feedback.

Camosun College places high value on teaching excellence and puts the  student experience at the centre of all it pursues. In contrast to universities, as a community college, Camosun is steeped in a commitment to applied learning and a culture of scholarship and research and its associated structures is not as central to its practices. This session will explore how Camosun College promotes evidence based approaches to evolve and enhance teaching practices outside of the typical approaches employed by universities.  The session will provide an opportunity for other colleges  and institutes that face similar structural and cultural challenges to learn how Camosun is moving towards a more intentional approach to inquiry and scholarship.  The presenters will: share how Camosun showcases exemplary teaching practices; detail the role of Innovation funds, managed by the President’s office,  in stimulating teaching innovation; reflect on the connection between applied research and curriculum; and the explore the emerging  policy work that will encourage  the scholarship of teaching and learning while encompassing an indigenous perspective to research.  Participants will be invited to share their college based practices and consideration will be given to how the conversation can continue beyond the symposium. 

How do you get students who act as though they are "allergic" to reading to actually READ and UNDERSTAND the course material? How do you get students to lay aside their pre-existing biases and stereotypes and become more open to practicing principles of equality, diversity and social justice especially as they relate to Aboriginal history and issues? And how do you achieve all this in one 3-hour lesson? Learn how to adapt “team reading sprees" and student-created comics to subject matter where there is dense language and/or emotionally challenging content. Move hearts, open minds, meet learning outcomes—and have fun!

The reading sprees were successful because a single student might balk at the task of reading a 25-paged report, however, 25 students willingly read and offered a “teach back” on what they learned from a single page of that same report.

Truth and Reconciliation— overcoming resistance. Creating social justice graphic narratives and engaging in critical commentary helped students overcome normal, initial resistant to social justice theory, science and best practices. Our students were asked to illustrate concepts from the Truth and Reconciliation (T&R) report using stick figure drawings. The resulting student-created "comics" were assembled and the Truth and Reconciliation graphic narrative presented — students narrating their own images as they appeared. An examination of students “after” reflections revealed students had a deeper understanding of indigenous history and were more compassionate about challenges faced by Aboriginals than “before” the lesson began.

This presentation describes our implementations of arts-based research outputs in the research area of teacher mentorship. We will discuss how the medium of comics is utilized as a form of arts-based knowledge mobilization activity to engage with early career teachers and educational professionals across school communities in British Columbia, Canada. This presentation aims to provide scholarly and artful portrayals of teacher narratives in the context of mentorship, which can be key to creating and sustaining strong and professional teaching. Our use of an arts-based research methodology in teacher mentorship aims to offer an alternative way of mobilizing the research knowledge, as well as to provoke artful representations in articulating the complexity of teacher mentorship. 

Purpose: Building on the theme, Scholarly Teaching and Learning in Post-Secondary Education, this session provides reflections of team-based learning experiences and offers space to share ideas to maximize benefits and minimize barriers of team-based learning. This session will appeal to anyone seeking to improve their team-based processes and share their wisdom (from newbies to experts).
 
Outcomes: By the end of the session, participants will be:
• exposed to intentional team-based learning processes from Royal Roads     University (RRU);
• involved in idea generation in design, instruction or coaching; and
• inspired by team-based learning’s potential.
 
Presentation: RRU’s unique learning experience is backed by a well-developed, successful Learning and Teaching Model (RRU, 2013) and an innovative team coaching system. The Model embeds core components including outcomes-based, technology-enhanced, experiential and authentic, learning community, team-based, integrative, applied, engaged learning, action research, supportive and flexible. Focusing on teams, this presentation introduces the active inquiry into the successes and areas for improvement at RRU and shares insights from team coaching, intentional curriculum design and delivery of meaningful team processes. Data-gathering itself is team-based, participatory and engages knowledge-holders in active authentic processes.
 

What does it mean to indigenize teaching and learning in post-secondary? How do I know if I’m doing it well? Why is indigenization suddenly an imperative?

For several years I have worked as a consultant and an adjunct professor supporting post-secondary instructors as they explore these questions. I often find there is a lack of background needed for understanding why indigenization is a critical social and political necessity in education. There is also a need for sharing ideas and anxieties concerning the process of indigenizing teaching and learning in the post-secondary classroom. Resistance to indigenization, as well as generalizations, is also a reality that persists.

This workshop operates on two levels, giving participants an experience of indigenized learning while imparting information. Instructors often misunderstand the issue, trying to approach it from a perspective of multiculturalism. From this lens, the purpose and importance of indigenizing teaching and learning is missed. The goal is to shift our point of view to more deeply grasp that aboriginal issues are actually everyone’s issues. We are all treaty people and this reality transcends knowing about and respecting an ‘other’ culture.

I will role model how an instructor can share their expertise with students by revising the one-way format of a lecture into a responsive conversation circle, where all voices are heard and acknowledged. Thus, the protocol of the longhouse will be animated – respect, reverence, relationship, and reciprocity. This workshop is not only about indigenizing education but an experience of indigenized teaching and learning itself.