What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about peer reviews? Ponder for a moment and write down a few thoughts before you proceed. Did you think about peer reviews as a tool for students to assess the work of their peers, or a way to evaluate peer contributions towards…
The Teaching and Learning Commons offers a broad range of supports to our faculty and instructional staff, including workshops and learning opportunities, a suite of learning technologies, funding opportunities, and pedagogical consultations. Over the past 18 months we have experienced record-levels of engagement with our university community, as hundreds of instructors took advantage of our…
While higher education is defined by debate and discussion, it would not be difficult to find a consensus that collaboration is an essential component of any learning. Tremendous support for this position came from the switch to emergency remote delivery, when it became clear that time-proven methodologies of class delivery were not transferable to the digital realm. What once seemed so easy…
According to this report, students are confiding in Faculty about mental health struggles, particularly in the last year around COVID, and questions continue to arise around how to help students who have. In my discussions with Faculty around both UDL and accommodation planning, mental health disabilities come up frequently. Absences, episodic symptoms that see students…
In this blog post, we would like to showcase a resource framework developed to assist KPU faculty in building their Moodle course sites using evidence-based instructional design principles. This comprehensive resource is housed in a WordPress site that includes three primary, tabbed sections. Why Use Templates in Moodle for Course Design Moodle is KPU’s adopted Learning Management System (LMS) and is used to deliver online, blended, and tech-enhanced face-to-face courses. As KPU pivoted to teaching online during the pandemic, Moodle was vital in supporting faculty to design lessons, activities, and assessments in synchronous and asynchronous formats. Although Moodle provided a lifeline for current users,…
Introducing Cultural Humility When we set out on the journey of developing intercultural teaching practices, the diversity of frameworks and perspectives available can be overwhelming. Choosing a framework to guide our own complex process of intercultural development can feel confusing. Spitzberg and Changnon (2009) note that among the dozens of frameworks available, there is no…
In my interactions with faculty colleagues, an often-repeated theme is the need to support students in developing writing skills. Faculty value supporting student writing, recognizing that local employers desire graduates with strong literacy, writing, and communication skills (Conference Board of Canada, 2015). A challenging area for many faculty is determining the best ways to support…
Today’s blog post has kindly been provided by Teaching & Learning Commons’ Educational Consultants, Dr. Seanna Takacs & Dr. Gordon Cobb. It can be viewed here.
Now that you understand PI more clearly, you are probably thinking about how difficult it is to find tools that adhere to these guidelines. You are right! These are challenging waters to navigate but we are here to help. Ideally, you will seek consultation on all your technology needs and limit your technology use to those tools offered by Teaching and Learning and Information Technology. When you are…
You’ve designed a major assignment or project that challenges your students and allows them the opportunity to integrate their learning. You’ve been intentional about selecting relevant topics. You’re excited to see the results of your students’ work. And then it happens – the assignments come in, and you realize that many students have missed the…