The Festival of Learning 2016 has ended, it took place June 6–9, 2016. This post-secondary education event hosted more than 400 delegates, offering a variety of session formats, learning experiences, unique spaces, as well as social and networking events. Don’t miss the next Festival of Learning 2018 happening May 28-30, 2018.
In autumn of 2015, 16 senior administrators from China with responsibility for vocational education visited BCIT to learn more about the teaching of applied skills in Canada. Three BCIT Instructional Development Consultants (Loretta Teng, Youdan Zhang and Mary Wilson) designed and co-facilitated a four-day Applied Teaching Workshop for them. As experienced Instructional Skills Workshop facilitators, we designed a single-mini-lesson version of the ISW, with an expanded focus on the principles of learner-centred instruction and educational philosophy.
We think this Applied Teaching Workshop format could be effective for administrators (deans, directors, etc.) in post-secondary education and for Human Resources personnel who provide feedback to staff or trainees. We would like to engage those attending our session in a round-table discussion exploring ideas for adapting the ISW for educational administrators (from Canada or elsewhere) and for other educational/learning situations.
Mary-Anne Neal is working closely with the Sahtu Dene communities of Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake to reimagine the education system in an effort to improve learning outcomes, raise academic standards, build leadership capacity and promote lifelong learning.
Her recent visit to the Northwest Territories marks the first step in a long-term initiative that will engage learners of all ages in personal and community improvement projects.
Barriers to success faced by Canada’s aboriginal population are already well documented. In this presentation, Mary-Anne will share the ways by which incorporating the principles of 21st Century Learning will support achievement of the goals set by the Dene people.
Established in 2014 at Vancouver Island University, the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region Research Institute (MABRRI) is the engine behind the (Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Reserve) MABR’s research and educational programs. MABRRI’s mission is to advance a program of inquiry that involves regional stakeholders in meaningful explorations of issues of local relevance.
By harnessing the knowledge of the MABR community and the interdisciplinary strengths of students and faculty at Vancouver Island University, MABRRI is a centre for collaborative research, innovation, and knowledge sharing that elevates the relationship between people and nature in the biosphere region. The focus is on practical, applied research that benefits local communities and provides students with an opportunity to gain hands-on experience in research and dissemination.
MABRRI's research coordinator, VIU students, and faculty associates work with community partners to create and conduct research projects that advance our understanding of people and nature--and the interaction between these--within the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region.
This session will highlight our current research program and activities, including our first-ever BioBlitz, Digital Storytelling Project, Interpretive Signage and Sense of Place Directed Study, Community Build-outs, the installation of a weather station and snow pillow on Mount Arrowsmith, and our lake and eelgrass monitoring program. The session will also invite participants to identify opportunities at their own institutions, encouraging sharing on best practices and lessons learned.
Sarah Lumley, BA Research Coordinator at the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region Research Institute (MABRRI) and soon to be attending graduate school at Queens University.
Whether it is through policy and new curriculum in K-12 (BC Plan), or by revisiting the role and purpose of higher education at the post-secondary level (NMC Horizon Report, 2015), the current K-20 education environment in British Columbia is moving towards personalization, flexibility and mobility at a rapid rate.
The need for access to courses and programs that reflect the competencies valued the digital age and model inquiry based, experiential and authentic learning is central to the Royal Roads University Learning and Teaching model (Royal Roads University, 2013).
As with other programs at Royal Roads University, in each of the courses in the MA Learning and Technology program, students are working in teams on a variety of authentic activities. Program assessment tasks are focused on process rather than content and active student engagement in these teams is essential to the learning process.
Taking a mixed-method approach, we explored the experiences of Masters-level students in a community building/onboarding module. Using the student experience as a foundation for the discussion, this interactive presentation will highlight preliminary findings of the role of online collaborative tools in fostering engagement in team activities and showcase the analysis of collaborative tools used in this research.
After taking part in this session, it expected that the audience will be better able to: understand the experiences of students who have taken part in online teamwork; appreciate how to select appropriate tools for students working in virtual teams; reflect more fully on the impact of online tools in team-based environments.
Presenters
Jo Axe, Director, School of Education & Technology, Royal Roads University
Elizabeth Childs, Associate Professor and Program Head, MALAT, School of Education and Technology, Royal Roads University
Darrell Pettyjohn, Manager, Learning Technologies, Centre for teaching and Educational Technologies, Royal Roads University
The presenter is currently working with a research team with Amy Zidulka and BJ Eib to explore such courses at Royal Roads University.
Research shows that active, social, engaging and student-owned learning experiences promote higher level critical thinking skills and leads to meaningful learning. This is challenging in large classes of fifty or more students. They are used to a system where they have little input in experientially building their critical scholarship skills. They expect to be assessed through lengthy hourly exams consisting of multiple choice questions, fill-in the blanks and short paragraph essays.
In a move to integrate assessment practices with students’ engagement in critical thinking and course content, the instructor, together with an educational consultant from SFU’s Teaching Learning Centre planned an assignment that was team-based with interactive verbal analytical skills and ‘thinking on the spot’.
The research questions are:
• What are the ways students can be individually assessed in a team-based activity, taking into account the expectations of an especially diverse student population?
• How do we ensure that these assessments are multidimensional, capturing inventive thinking while minimizing students’ self conscious efforts?
Our presentation approach is exploratory. Participants are invited to partake in a sample exercise.
Presenters
Nur Intan Murtadza, Sessional Instructor and Research Assistant for the Teaching and Learning Centre, Simon Fraser University
Sarah Louise Turner, Educational Consultant, Learning and Teaching Centre, Simon Fraser University
