Teaching Days

The New Normal: Reimagining Post-Pandemic Digital and Pedagogical Resources 

Soroush Sabbaghan

Now that campus-based university instructors have experienced the unplanned and forced version of Online Learning and Teaching, we ask ourselves, how can this experience help bridge the gap between online and in-person teaching in the following years? In this session, we will outline some of the lessons learned from emergency remote teaching and introduce digital resources that could be used to implement these learnings.  

By the end of the session, participants will be able to: 

• Identify technological innovations that arose from emergency remote teaching 
• Identify digital resources that could be used in response to possible post-pandemic challenges of in-person teaching 

Supporting Executive Function to Create a More Equitable Learning Experience 

Brenda McDermott and Lorelei Anselmo

Executive Functioning refers to a series of cognitive processes required for goal-directed learning. These processes are involved with attention, memory,​ and planning. Often classroom instruction assumes that all students are operating at peak executive function; however, the reality is that lived experiences of students, such as sleep and stress, often impact executive function. 

In this workshop, you will discover how executive function is critical to learning and explore how to incorporate strategies and tools to help support students' working memory and increase their ability to engage in deep learning. These strategies and tools can be applied to any teaching context to support learners from different knowledge traditions and neurodiverse students’ executive functioning abilities to better engage and understand your content. 

The Teaching Scholars’ Finest Strategies for Sustaining Positive Educational Change Across Campus

Andrew Mardjetko, Michele Jacobsen, Cari Din, Beth Archer-Kuhn, Darlene Donszelmann, Lorelli Nowell

The Teaching Scholars offer eleven (or more) research-informed strategies that emerged from our studies that can inform teaching and supervision practice. Educational leaders will share stories of their learning across their diverse environments including but not limited to labs, classrooms, on-line, and clinical settings.

Participants will be supported in reflecting on and translating some of the Teaching Scholars’ discoveries to their unique context.  

By the end of this session participants will be able to: 

• Engage with Teaching Scholars from across disciplines about their teaching and learning change projects   
• Explore research-informed strategies for your teaching and supervision practice  
• Strengthen your understanding of SOTL and the TS COP  
• Consider how a TS COP might support your teaching development

How to Facilitate Group Work in Large Classes

Mayi Arcellana-Panlilio and Annette Tézli 

Strong pedagogical reasons underlie incorporating group work in our classes, however, its implementation can be challenging, especially in large enrollment courses. In this session, we’ll talk about strategies for mitigating these challenges and enhancing student learning.   

By the end of the session, participants will have done the following: 

• Shared their own experiences of group work; 
• Heard about specific, do-able strategies for implementing group work; and 
• Reflected on how they might apply these strategies in their own contexts 

Networking

Join in a casual conversation via video or chat about one of today's sessions.

Designing Engaging Presentations and Lectures for Online Delivery

Mayi Arcellana-Panlilio and Alysia Wright

How do we integrate engagement strategies and tools into our lectures and presentations in online courses? In this workshop, we discuss three strategies and tools that educators can incorporate into their existing or future presentation design to increase student participation and engagement in different types of class settings.  

By the end of the session, participants will be able to: 

• Identify engagement strategies that are appropriate for use in their teaching context 
• Select appropriate tools or technologies to apply engagement strategies in their presentation and lecture design 
• Integrate engagement strategies and appropriate tools into their course design 

Scaffolding Student Learning and Wellbeing: Resources for Course Instructors to Share with Students

Mariann Howell and Roxanne Ross

This session will explore ways to embed activities within your course that facilitate the development of students' self-regulated learning strategies and techniques that help to support wellbeing. Presenters from the Student Success Centre will share current research and insights drawn from their work, as well as ready-made resources that course instructors can use for the coming term. 

By the end of this session, participants will have:  

• Greater awareness of the interrelationship between wellbeing and academic success for post-secondary students 
• Familiarity with and access to resources and tools to include within your course that support student learning and wellbeing

Supporting Student Wellbeing through Course Design

Melissa Boyce and Brittany Lindsay

This interactive session will discuss evidence-based strategies in course design of learning activities, assessments, and policies to support student wellbeing. Of particular focus will be strategies that can be successfully implemented that consider instructors’ workload.   

By the end of this session, you will: 

• Discuss factors that influence student and instructor wellbeing and workload in the teaching and learning context 
• Review implementation of course design strategies to support mental health and wellbeing in post-secondary education

Speed Networking

Attendees who choose to participate are matched in pairs at random and given five minutes to connect during a video meeting before moving on to their next match. A quick and fun way to connect with your colleauges!

Knowledge as a Commodity

Nancy Chibry and Ebba Kurz  

We have seen that the COVID pandemic has caused many companies and businesses to go under while some have barely survived, and others have flourished. Pay-to-pass websites are one of the companies that have proliferated from the pandemic but to the detriment of the educational system and students. Pay-to-pass websites entice students to share and access course material, assignments, tests, and notes for academic and personal gain. With the quick shift to online learning, the University of Calgary and post-secondary institutions across Canada and the world saw a rapid increase in the number of academic integrity violations due to the use of these websites.  

This workshop will explore the impact of pay-to-pass websites on teaching and learning in the post-secondary context. To address the challenges posed by these websites, we present a three-part approach that may be implemented in the efforts to uphold academic integrity in post-secondary education.

Networking

Join in a casual conversation via video or chat about one of today's sessions.

Anti-Racist Pedagogy: Becoming an Anti-Racist Educator

Fouzia Usman

Anti-Racism is about actively disrupting all patterns of white supremacy and racism. In this session, participants will identify ways in which racism perpetuates in post-secondary teaching and learning environment, and how they can effectively promote equity in their classroom contexts through anti-racist teaching.  

By the end of the session, participants will be able to: 

• Gain a broader understanding of how anti-racist teaching differs from inclusive teaching  
• Identify effective anti-racist strategies to apply in their own teaching 

Enhancing Teaching Assistant – Instructor Partnership 

Lorelei Anselmo and Kayla Dias

Teaching Assistants (TAs) are critical members of the teaching team. They bring to their position a wide variety of experience and backgrounds and contribute in meaningful ways. Creating a climate of mutual respect and reciprocity for TAs and working with them as partners can have positive impact on teaching and learning goals.   

In this session, we will: 

• Discuss strategies to develop a positive partnership with TAs 
• Explore effective ways of enhancing communication with TAs 
• Create a climate of feedback and reciprocity and supporting the mental wellbeing of TAs

Exploring Nine Principles of Blended and Online Learning to Improve Course Design

Alysia Wright

Intentional course design can improve the teaching and learning experience for students and educators in all contexts. In this workshop, we discuss guiding principles for blended and online learning and how they can be used to inform the development of learning activities, course content, and assessments in blended and online courses.  

By the end of the session, participants will be able to: 

• Identify principles of blended and online course design that you could incorporate into your teaching practice 
• Select learning activities, materials, and assessments that align with your pedagogical aims for an online course 
• Organize online learning modules that facilitates student achievement of learning outcomes

Teaching  in Today's Classrooms: Strategies for Engaging Students in a Variety of Spaces 

D'Arcy Norman, Lora Oehlberg, Nathaly Verwaal, Nadine Gilfillan

There is a variety of learning spaces across campus ranging from large lecture theatres, mid-sized flexible spaces, labs and smaller spaces with either fixed of moveable furniture. The recent pandemic has also opened many opportunities for blended learning and extending the classroom beyond the physical walls. During this session, panelists will share their experiences from within different classrooms and engage participants developing their own strategies. 

By the end of this session, participants will be able to: 

• Develop strategies for teaching in different spaces and engaging students within and beyond the classroom walls
• Identify which learning technologies and strategies work best for different scenarios

Networking

Join in a casual conversation via video or chat about one of today's sessions.