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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe interview <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I am delighted\nto feature Arley Cruthers to debut our new faculty profile series in our\nmonthly newsletter. I had the opportunity to chat with Arley earlier this month\nand eager to share with you what I learned about Arley and the interesting and\ninnovative strategies she employs as an educator. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Arley\u2019s role at KPU \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Arley is a\ncommunications faculty in the department of Applied Communications and Public\nRelations in the School of Business and teaches business communications courses,\nessentially, writing for the workplace. Arley has been teaching at KPU for a\nlittle more than four years now and is the recent recipient of the Award for Excellence in Open Education from BC\nCampus! <\/p>\n\n\n\n A little bit about Arley \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n After acquiring a physical disability Arley became a wheelchair athlete playing on Canada\u2019s national wheelchair basketball team from 2001 to 2007, winning two World Championships and a bronze medal at the 2004 Paralympics. She describes wheelchair basketball as bumper cars meets chess! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Arley received\na Master\u2019s of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Illinois and\nhas been published in literary journals at the\nUniversity of Toronto, and the University of Victoria. She is a\npublished author of two books, \u201cPost\u201d and \u201cThe Time We All Went Marching,\u201d and \u201cPost\u201d\nwas shortlisted for the 2008 Commonwealth Writers’\nPrize for Best First Book! She is currently at work on a non-fiction book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arley\nis Mom to the adorable Dorothy and co-owner of Queen of Tortitude, their family\ncat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What do you most enjoy about teaching? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe students! I\nam passionate about my job!\u201d She shared several stories with me of her\nstudents, some heartbreaking, and yet all served to remind me not only of the\nvulnerability of our students but also their resilience, resourcefulness, and\ndetermination. Arley\u2019s compassion for and commitment to her students is\nadmirable as is her willingness to creatively respond to challenges she\nencounters with her students and in her classroom. \u201cI have no control over most\nof the barriers my students encounter however those that I do have control over\nI need to take action on tin service of my students.\u201d She reminds us all \u2026\n\u201cbegin with your students\u2026 know your students \u2026 like your students. We have a\nlot of amazing students at KPU\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n You employ some interesting strategies\nas an educator \u2026 what do you do?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Arley has\nadopted several interesting strategies with her students to facilitate learning.\nShared across these strategies appears to be a vested interest in co-creating\nwith her students and creating opportunities for the students to exercise\nagency and produce meaningful work unique \u201cI want to let students decide how\nthey want to show me what they are learning\/have learned.\u201d Additionally, Arley strives to recognize and\nrespect that each student needs to determine their level of investment in her\ncourse according to their individual priorities, resources and capabilities. \u201dI\nwant to give students choice about how they want to make their time in my\ncourse meaningful, how they want to choose to \ninvest in the course and experience has taught me students appreciate and\nbenefit from the choice.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Arley\u2019s innovative\nand creative approach to assignment design inspired her to develop a unique\nseries of assignments for her class. Each semester she invites her class to\ndecide on a research question which is then researched and reported upon\nthrough a series of assignments which she has generously shared and are\navailable here<\/a>.\n\u201cI have tried to create a course that allows students to participate in a way\nthat meets them where they are and according to their needs.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n