Teaching

Early Career Teaching Award

Hart House Farm

Black

Cheryl Regehr

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

From drawing on Indigenous ways of knowing to making space for diverse voices and perspectives, five �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ professors are being recognized for their efforts to inspire students and make learning more engaging and inclusive.

The recipients of this year’s �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Early Career Teaching Award – Funké Aladejebi, Keith Adamson, Angela Mashford-Pringle, Obidimma Ezezika and Sherry Fukuzawa – have worked to enhance the student experience through community-engaged, land-based and experiential learning opportunities.

The award is given to faculty in the early stages of their careers who exemplify teaching innovation, pedagogical engagement and an exceptional commitment to student learning.

“Embracing a diversity of perspectives and the innovations that flow from them is key to realizing �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s goal of achieving inclusive excellence – and that often begins in the classroom,” says Cheryl Regehr, �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s vice-president and provost.

“By demonstrating their unwavering commitment to enriching students’ academic experiences, each of this year’s Early Career Teaching Award winners is helping to ensure �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ is not only delivering an unmatched educational experience but is ultimately preparing graduates to make the sort of changes our world so desperately needs.”

Here’s how this year’s winners are innovating in the classroom and beyond:

Funké Aladejebi

Funké Aladejebi (photo by Cameron Fitch)

For Aladejebi, history is not just about the past – it’s about building a better future, too.

The assistant professor in the department of history in the Faculty of Arts & Science supported efforts to create a new certificate in Black Canadian Studies in the Canadian Studies program at University College shortly after she joined the university.

The first-of-its-kind certificate at �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ was launched last fall and fosters an interdisciplinary approach to understanding Black life in Canada. It focuses on systemic barriers through the lens of politics, judicial systems and the arts, as well as the historical and contemporary implications of anti-Black racism in Canada.

“The goal has been, and continues to be, to make interventions in the ways that we talk about Blackness in Canada and ask critical questions about how we represent the Black Canadian experience,” says Aladejebi, a historian of the 20^th century whose research focuses on oral histories, Canada’s education system and Black Canadian history.

“There is an incredible diversity and plethora of research, scholarship and expertise of people who are doing this work in Canada. I hope this leaves students motivated to pursue it.

In an effort to promote interdisciplinary research, students must also take courses in women and gender studies, the department of English, and Caribbean studies, to name a few.

Foundational to the program is “Black Canadian History,” a second-year course that Aladejebi created and teaches. It encapsulates 300 years of Black life, including early settlement, Black liberation, immigration and racism in Canada.

Aladejebi hopes both the certificate and course encourages representation in higher education as well as interdisciplinary collaborations – values that form the core of her teaching philosophy.

“At times, within the academy, we represent Black Canadian history as optional, but the program legitimizes how we can do this as a primary focus of research and that it’s worthy of critical scholarship and analysis,” Aladejebi says. “This is one kind of intervention where students, researchers and scholars are creating spaces where racialized students can see themselves as part of �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ.”

Keith Adamson

Keith Adamson (photo courtesy of

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work)

Adamson was asked in 2018 to create a course that emphasized how social workers can better support people with disabilities.

So, the assistant professor, teaching stream, in the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, turned to his clients at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, where he was senior director of collaborative practice.

“I wanted to create a course that honoured the voices of clients and families within the system and prepare future social workers to be sensitive to client and family needs and disability issues, and advocate for clients,” he explains.

The course, “Social Work and Disability Practice: A Client and Family Centered Approach” was co-created alongside community partners, PhD students, clients and their families to ensure that their lived experiences are reflected in the course content.

Recognized as the first of its kind in Canada by the Ontario Hospital Association, the course brings in six clients or families to actively participate in the teaching process for the entire semester. Adamson says that moving away from traditional lectures highlights the contradiction or relevance of theories when applied in real life and creates an avenue for students and client and family co-teachers to co-create new knowledge and questions about care.

In the course’s final class, students present a topic in disability studies that they are passionate about in a creative medium – such as poetry, music or comics. The project allows them to demonstrate their disability advocacy, which is a course objective.

“We established a community on the very first day,” Adamson says.

“The classroom has really become an arena for disability advocacy for the clients and families who come in to teach future social workers who will help people like them in the future.

“We didn’t wait until students reached the clinical realm to have these conversations with clients.”

Such conversations underscore Adamson's overarching philosophy: deconstruct hierarchies within health care and academic institutions through collaborations that value social justice, equality and empowerment.

“Relationships are essential to my teaching philosophy,” he says. “For me, the educational alliance is caring about your students and helping them be the best clinician possible.”

Angela Mashford-Pringle

Angela Mashford-Pringle (photo by Victoria

Pringle and styling by Frankie Pringle)

As the first Indigenous health lead at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Mashford-Pringle wasted no time making changes.

Her largest project has been at the Hart House Farm in Caledon, Ont., where a facelift of the Ignatieff House included an accessibility ramp and door, a main floor wheelchair-accessible bathroom, kitchen renovation and new floors. This year, new student cabins and outdoor furniture are being added.

The farm is the site for “Indigenous Health,” �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s first land-based learning course, a requirement for the masters in public health - Indigenous health (MPH-IH) program and the collaborative specialization in Indigenous health (CSIH) program.

The week-long intensive course is one of the first in Canada to focus on health and the land.

“I hope Indigenous and non-Indigenous faculty and students will want to visit to learn from the land – about Indigenous issues and health – by seeing what the territories were used for traditionally,” says Mashford-Pringle, the course’s instructor.

In addition to lectures, students spend time with Elders and knowledge keepers on nature walks and participate in fire ceremonies. They also learn about the role of the land in Indigenous culture and well-being, and how displacement affects the health of Indigenous communities.

“The Indigenous definition of health is that you have balance in your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual self in your family, community and nation,” says Mashford-Pringle, adding that the course’s powerful sense of community was preserved when it moved online two years ago due to the pandemic.

“Land-based learning is about getting out of the capitalism, consumerism and individualism that we’re used to. It’s the idea of reconnecting to the environment that we live in.”

In May, the MPH-IH program will return to the farm for two courses – “Indigenous Health” and “Indigenous Food Systems Environment and Health” – for two weeks. A new course developed by Mashford-Pringle called “Indigenous Social Determinants of Health” will also launch at �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Mississauga, where she plans to host land-based courses.

Reflecting on the award, Mashford-Pringle says she hopes others will feel encouraged to introduce different ways of knowing and teaching at �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ.

“It’s important to teach from our heart, which is how I’ve been taught by my elders,” Mashford-Pringle says. “I hope people who have ideas outside of the colonial teaching and learning process will think about trying their possibilities.”

Obidimma Ezezika

Obidimma Ezezika (photo courtesy of �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ
Scarborough)

An expert on implementation science and global health, Ezezika strives to ensure that the knowledge created in his classroom can be applied to the real world in a meaningful way.

Using his work as a previous Grand Challenges Fellow and working experience in several African countries, Ezezika developed “Innovations for Global Health” in 2018. The experiential learning course focuses on developing technological and social innovations in low and middle-income countries. Notably, it links students to Toronto-based global health organizations, including Grand Challenges Canada.

“The goal of the course is to bring students into that kind of global health practice,” says Ezezika, an assistant professor, teaching stream, in the department of health and society at �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Scarborough.

“I asked, ‘How can I simulate my experiences? How can I leverage some of my stakeholders over the last 10 years and bring them to the classroom?’”’

Throughout the course, guest speakers talk about business models, stakeholder engagement and ethics, and offer advice on how to tap into a target audience to frame a global health problem – ranging from maternal health to sanitation and hygiene.

Key to the course is a Dragons’ Den-style assignment that has students work in groups to develop and pitch a global health innovation to a panel of experts.

“Students engaged with course content with such passion in just the first few weeks,” Ezezika says. “It was very fulfilling for me.”

Ezezika’s teaching philosophy boils down to creating experiential learning opportunities that allow his students to thrive. That includes creating work-integrated learning courses where students have gone on to receive prizes, prestigious conference presentation invitations and awards. For example, Selina Quibrantar, through her work in two of these courses, received Ontario and Canada-wide awards in work-integrated and experiential learning.

He has also created an award-winning board game that helps students digest health determinant concepts, and launched the Global Health and Innovation Lab, which has trained dozens of undergraduate and graduate students and led to multiple co-authored journal articles by students.

“Teaching is not just about the techniques and expertise you bring to the classroom,” Ezezika says. “It’s about the compassion and value you have for students. You can’t have an impact unless you truly care about your students' goals.”

Sherry Fukuzawa

Sherry Fukuzawa (photo by Alison Dias)

Fukuzawa believes in a holistic approach to education.

“To me, that means that there is an inclusive pedagogy, where there is an acceptance of different knowledge systems within the university,” says Fukuzawa, an assistant professor, teaching stream, in the department of anthropology at �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Mississauga.

Fukuzawa is a founding member of the Indigenous Action Group (IAG), an alliance of faculty and staff from �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Mississauga and Indigenous scholars, knowledge keepers and elders from the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. The IAG’s mission is to honour the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation’s educational goals of truth through public knowledge, recognition of their history and reconciliation by adapting Indigenous knowledge systems to the university space.

“We want to fulfill the goals of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and change the post-secondary curriculum to include a respectful and equal acknowledgment of different knowledge systems and pluralistic ontologies,” Fukuzawa says.

IAG has co-created a community-engaged learning course “The Anthropology and Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island,” (ANT241H) a second-year, land-based experiential learning opportunity that invites Anishinaabe scholars and Elders to teach students about the history of the land through a series of workshops and field trips.

Throughout the term, students learn about cosmology and epistemology, medicine and local plants along the Credit River and participate in an art-installation initiative called The Moccasin Identifier project. Led by Elder Carolyn King, the project acknowledges the historic sites, ancestral presence and language of First Nations, Metis and other Indigenous communities by placing stenciled moccasins on significant cultural heritage sites across the country.

Following Indigenous pedagogy, the IAG-created course is based on a critical reflexive methodology. Fukuzawa says this leaves room for students to determine their learning journey.

“It’s important to remember that Western educational systems are colonial institutions based on a hierarchy,” Fukuzawa says. “We want to introduce different knowledge systems and legitimize Indigenous knowledge systems and epistemologies.”

Funded by a Connaught Community Partnerships Grant, established to create collaborative early-stage research partnerships between �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ and community partners, the last iteration of the course is set to run in September unless they can find additional funding to sustain it.

Staying true to her teaching philosophy, Fukuzawa says such courses are the beginning of a larger – and necessary – shift in education.

“Students can have greater power to determine how they want to learn and where their learning journey is important in their own life experience, not just in academic learning, but in personal growth and social activism,” she says.

�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ nursing prof draws on video games to design learning simulations

geoff.vendeville — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 17:38:15 +0000

�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ nursing prof draws on video games to design learning simulations

geoff.vendeville Fri, 01/28/2022 - 12:38

Cutline

(Illustration by Han-Han Li)

Rebecca Biason

Topic

Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing

Academics

Nursing

Arts & Science news staff

Simulation learning can be like a choose-your-own-adventure story: there are multiple decision points for a student to consider when they are in the simulation learning environment. This allows them to make clinical decisions while learning, providing them opportunities to see the outcomes of their actions, without fear of harming a real patient.

Erica Cambly

“Simulation allows students to make mistakes and get messy, try things as they learn, and make big decisions,” says Erica Cambly, an associate professor, teaching stream, at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing. “Many of my students will comment on how much better prepared they were for a situation in clinical practice because they had already been exposed to something similar in a simulation and received feedback.”

Cambly, who is also the lead of the simulation team in the bachelor of science in nursing program, has received a grant from the Colleges and Institutes of Canada (CICan) Virtu-WIL program funded by the Government of Canada, to create enhanced games for simulation learning for health sciences students, including nurses.

Virtual simulation, much like video games, requires users to be involved in optimal decision-making within a strategic setting. Cambly is using game theory in her development of three new “games” or virtual scenarios, as part of a Canada-wide simulation project involving a partnership between Simulation Canada and CICan.

She and her colleagues have developed their simulation games using best practices in pedagogy and simulation and have been proactive in ensuring these scenarios include marginalized populations, such as LGBTQ2S and racialized patients.

Designing the scenarios to be inclusive and diverse is a huge part of the project, Cambly says, as nurse educators have historically found it challenging to find resources that are representative of all people.

“We need to make sure we are providing students with the right tools to care for all patients,” Cambly says. “Simulation learning, whether it happens in-person in a lab or remotely, is an integral piece of nursing education. It gives students the opportunity to think critically and learn from the decisions they make. And it gives them an opportunity to practice or experience clinical situations that we cannot guarantee they will be exposed to while in their placements.”

One of the simulation scenarios that Cambly and colleagues are currently developing involves the care of a non-binary patient, who speaks a language other than English. The patient is dying, with their condition deteriorating over the course of a shift in hospice. Students work through the simulated scenario making a series of decisions about this patient’s care along the way.

“For the learner, this type of scenario involves making decisions around how to communicate with the patient, types of pain medications they will be providing and other nursing interventions like how and when to touch the patient to promote comfort,” Cambly says.

To develop just one scenario like this for simulation involves an array of components, starting with the development of learning outcomes. The work requires creating a storyline, writing questions and dialogue, designing decision points and working with artists to develop graphics.

“With these types of scenarios, our goal is to capture the learner’s interest so that they want to learn more and engage with the decision points,” Cambly says. “That is where the game theory, or narrative arc, becomes important in our development. We also need to embed a rationale behind each decision point so that the learner understands why something is happening to their patient based on their decision and the simulation path they chose to follow.”

In addition to providing complex patient scenarios for learners to practice their skills, Cambly’s work with CICan will aim to provide learning access to students across Canada, including those in remote communities. Each of the scenarios is designed to be used on a computer, tablet or phone, and doesn’t necessarily require an in-person lab component. The design allows students to go back and try again if they want to get better at dealing with a specific scenario, or if they needed to make better decisions for the patient.

This hands-on approach is one of the key reason’s Cambly became a simulation instructor, and it is one of the core principles of her teaching practice in nursing.

Next steps for Cambly and her team will be to see these simulation scenarios piloted to over 6,000 students in multiple health disciplines across Canada.

“Simulation learning is gaining popularity, and while it doesn’t replace in-person, on-the-job learning,” says Cambly, “it is a unique opportunity for health science students to build their confidence and learn to provide the best care for patients in need.”

�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ's Fiona Rawle shares kindness-based teaching philosophy in 12 steps: Times Higher Education

geoff.vendeville — Mon, 23 Aug 2021 17:30:03 +0000

�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ's Fiona Rawle shares kindness-based teaching philosophy in 12 steps: Times Higher Education

geoff.vendeville Mon, 08/23/2021 - 13:30

Cutline

(Photo by Lucas Rawle)

Topic

When it comes to teaching, kindness can’t be an afterthought – it should be built into course designs from the start.

That’s according to Fiona Rawle, associate dean, undergraduate at the �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Mississauga. Writing in Times Higher Education, Rawle outlined her “pedagogy of kindness” by breaking it down into 12 steps that ranged from forming deliberate connections with students to ensuring that teaching practices are “trauma-informed and empathetic.”

She stressed that a teaching philosophy emphasizing kindness, empathy and flexibility is compatible with holding students to rigorous academic standards.

“Studies have shown that increased feelings of connection and inclusion improve both student learning and student wellness,” said Rawle, a professor, teaching stream, in �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Mississauga’s department of biology.

Listen to Rawle on the New Normal podcast with Maydianne Andrade

�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ prof, students develop award-winning board game for studying public health

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 02 Jun 2021 13:31:04 +0000

�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ prof, students develop award-winning board game for studying public health

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 06/02/2021 - 09:31

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The BioRacer board game developed by �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Scarborough Assistant Professor Obidimma Ezezika and his students aims to simplify complex course concepts and boost exam confidence through teamwork (photo by Mona Jarrah)

Topic

A professor at the �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ and a small group of students have developed an award-winning board game that helps students study for exams.

“I teach this large public health biology course with about 170 students and was really looking for a way to make learning more enjoyable, fun and active,” says Obidimma Ezezika, assistant professor, teaching stream, in the department of health and society at �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Scarborough.

Obidimma Ezezika

Ezezika investigated using a board game to help his students study and found that they were being used as study tools in other branches of medical health studies – but none had been tailored for public health.

Enter the BioRacer board game, which Ezezika and his students developed in 2019 for his second-year course: Biological Determinants of Health. The goal of the Monopoly-style game is to simplify complex course concepts and boost exam confidence through teamwork.

As they navigate the board, students draw multiple choice cards that test their knowledge on four sections of the syllabus: genes; external agency; internal agency and foundational concepts in public health biology.

Ultimately, the student with the most correct answers wins. The collaborative aspect of the game comes into play if a student doesn’t understand a question. In that case, other players can jump in to help.

Ezezika recently received the D2L Innovation Award in Teaching and Learning for BioRacer and three other projects developed between 2018 and 2019. Awarded annually by the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education and Desire2Learn, the international prize recognizes post-secondary educators who create student-centred opportunities in the classroom.

“Students learn in different ways,” Ezezika says. “Utilizing a variety of study tools, from board games to lectures and tutorials, provides an avenue for students who might gravitate to one or the other.”

A two-year study involving 151 students tested BioRacer’s effectiveness. Members of the Global Health & Innovation Lab supported the testing and assessment, which was recently published in the Journal of Biological Education. The procurement of BioRacer was funded by �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Scarborough’s Centre for Teaching and Learning.

Students who participated in the study reported that the collaborative nature of the game enhanced a sense of teamwork, eased the stress of studying and made it easier to review content that might otherwise be overlooked.

Recent graduate Maria Fusaro was the student lead on the project and co-authored the article. She used her experience in the course to develop question cards.

“Being able to bounce ideas and simplify dense content to get an understanding helps students gain confidence in the information,” says Fusaro, who is now pursuing her master’s degree at the University of Guelph.

The report highlights that the game’s relaxed environment helped students feel more comfortable sharing their understanding of the course. BioRacer also served as a taste of what to expect on the exam.

“Multiple students reported they felt more comfortable and confident in responding to the questions on the midterm exam because of that practice – in addition to traditional learning,” Fusaro says.

Students reported that the collaborative nature of the game enhanced a sense of teamwork, eased the stress of studying and made it easier to review content that might otherwise be overlooked (photo by Mona Jarrah)

As an additional study tool, the board game helped students remember course material and apply it to real-life situations.

Mona Jarrah, who assisted in the project’s pilot test, explains that a student-lead approach to studying not only fosters a supportive environment, but also introduces a fundamental characteristic of the field.

“The public health program brings an interdisciplinary approach. You take different disciplines and integrate them collectively to solve a problem,” says Jarrah, now a master’s student in public health at Johns Hopkins University.

“The board game alluded to that because it allows people from different backgrounds and academic strong suits to come together.”

With the success of the analog version of BioRacer, Ezezika is currently seeking funding to develop a virtual version of the game.

“Any opportunity to provide additional resources for students’ learning helps break down barriers,” Ezezika says. “The board game was a way to acknowledge that and provide as many opportunities as possible.”

‘Passionate, principled and caring’: �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ remembers math professor Alfonso Gracia-Saz

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 12 May 2021 20:26:10 +0000

‘Passionate, principled and caring’: �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ remembers math professor Alfonso Gracia-Saz

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 05/12/2021 - 16:26

Topic

Mathematics

The �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ community is mourning the loss of Alfonso Gracia-Saz, an associate professor, teaching stream, in the department of mathematics in the Faculty of Arts & Science, who was renowned for his creativity, innovation and dedication to his students.

“Alfonso was a passionate, principled and caring mathematician and an educational leader,” said Professor Jeremy Quastel, chair of the department. “He taught large, challenging courses, reshaping and modernizing them with an intense focus on the learning experience of the students. His lectures inspired not only a love of mathematics, but also a rethinking of what was possible in the act of teaching itself.”

A memorial page has been created for Gracia-Saz, who died unexpectedly on May 6. Memories and tributes are being shared from across Canada and around the world.

Gracia-Saz’s research focused on Poisson geometry, Lie algebroids, active learning and inquiry-based learning. In recognition of his dynamic teaching style, attention to detail and his famous problem sets, the Canadian Mathematical Society had recently announced it was awarding Gracia-Saz with the 2021 Excellence in Teaching Award.

He was popular among students.

Bernardo Galvao-Sousa, an associate professor, teaching stream, said at the time that Gracia-Saz, “belongs to this rare breed of born teachers that possess not only the knowledge and creativity, but also the warm and dynamic personality that allows him to teach students in such a natural way that the barrier between teacher and student ceases to exist.”

Gracia-Saz maintained a YouTube channel for calculus, creating and posting 200 videos that have received more than 3 million views.

Peter Taylor, chair of the CMS Excellence in Teaching Award committee, called the videos “remarkable, both technically and conceptually ─ they give you an experience that is both challenging and joyful.”

A keen mentor and supporter of undergraduate research, Gracia-Saz also co-led recruiting and training for the �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Putnam Mathematical Competition team, which placed fourth in the 2017 competition.

“Alfonso believed in the power of education and his dedication to teaching mathematics extended beyond the university,” Quastel said. “He was active in mathematics outreach through competitions, math camps and science fairs – his impact was felt throughout the mathematics community.”

For more than 10 years, Gracia-Saz was an academic adviser and an instructor for the Canada/USA Mathcamp. He also volunteered as an instructor for the Prison University Project at San Quentin State Prison (now Mount Tamalpais College).

Born in Zaragoza, Spain in 1976, Gracia-Saz lived and worked in Spain, the United States, Japan and Canada. Interested in mathematics and physics as a teenager, he was a winner of the V Spanish Physics Olympiad and participated in the international competition in Beijing in 1994.

He obtained a Licenciatura (BSc) in both physics and mathematics from Universidad de Zaragoza in Spain in 2000-2001 and a PhD in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley in 2006, where he was supervised by Professor Alan Weinstein. He held post-doctoral positions at Keio University in Japan and �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ before taking a faculty position at the University of Victoria. He joined the faculty of �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ in 2013.

With his beloved partner of six years, Nick Remedios, Gracia-Saz enjoyed contra dancing, complex board games and cooking.

In Spain, Gracia-Saz is mourned by his mother, Carmen; his father, Antonio; his sister, Rebeca, and her children, Mario and Carla.

The math department has created a scholarship in honour of Gracia-Saz and a memorial will be held online on Friday, May 14 at 3 p.m. EST. Details and links will be posted on the department of mathematics’ website later in the week.

�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ researcher’s active-learning app bridges gap between students and instructors

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 16:28:30 +0000

�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ researcher’s active-learning app bridges gap between students and instructors

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 02/03/2020 - 11:28

Cutline

The app – called Team Up! – allows students to work together on problems in real time while providing immediate feedback to both instructors and students (photo by Diana Tyszko)

Chris Sasaki

Topic

Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Cell and Systems Biology

Human Biology

Faculty of Medicine

A class of 1,500 students in the �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s Convocation Hall presents a number of challenges for instructors.

How do you make lectures engaging and interactive? How do you know if students understand a concept and are ready to move on to the next? How do you get students to learn together?

To cope with these challenges, Melody Neumann, an associate professor, teaching stream in the department of cell and systems biology in the Faculty of Arts & Science, developed an active-learning tool called Team Up! that was made available to classes across the university earlier this year.

The secure browser-based app,which works on a phone, iPad or laptop, allows students to work together on problems in real time while providing immediate feedback to both instructors and students. The software, supported by �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s learning management system Quercus, also enables partial marks for approximate answers and is free to use, unlike classroom response tools such as Top Hat.

Team Up! is not just for Con Hall-sized classes, but for any class – including online – where the opportunity for interaction between instructors and students is limited.

Neumann’s research focuses on many aspects of undergraduate teaching, including the development of innovative and evidence-based practices.

“I love teaching,” Neumann says. “I love empowering students. I've always been interested in using technology to teach and technology has now advanced to the point where Team Up! is possible.

“Plus, it’s based on evidence that shows us the best way to teach.”

Megan Frederickson, an associate professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology, uses Team Up! in her adaptation and biodiversity (BIO120) course, which she teaches in Convocation Hall to more than 1,700 students.

“Team Up! helps make a big course like BIO120 more interactive,” says Frederickson, “especially because it allows students to answer questions about the lecture material in small groups, in real time. This is a great way to learn new concepts.”

Brian Wilson is a sessional lecturer in the department of physics who has used Team Up! in two different courses.

“With Team Up!, I take a standard physics problem and break it down into three to five steps,” says Wilson. “Each of these is its own question, which students keep working on until they get it correct. That means they learn what they need to before going on to the next step. They work in groups for 10 to 15 minutes while I walk around and help anyone who still needs help.”

Even in a class with hundreds of students, Team Up! lets instructors know how their students are doing.

“It helps me understand what aspects of the lecture material are clear and what aspects students are still confused about,” says Frederickson.

“In a large classroom, getting audience feedback about whether something we discussed makes sense is a challenge,” says Wilson. “Any audience response system helps with this, but Team Up! is better because students instantly find out if they’re wrong and have an opportunity for discussion with each other before trying a second time.”

“Also, the default is that they work in teams. And the team gets to give only one answer, so they should be trying to convince each other that they are correct. This helps foster active, peer-based learning.”

The app has also garnered praise from the wider academic community. In 2016, Team Up! won the annual IMS Global Learning Consortium’s Connected Learning Innovation App Challenge. More recently, it placed second in the e-Learning Excellence Awards at the 18th European Conference on e-Learning in Copenhagen.

Neumann developed Team Up! with the help of her faculty partners, Michelle French, an associate professor, teaching stream, in the Faculty of Medicine’s department of physiology, and Franco Taverna, an associate professor, teaching stream, in the human biology program.

The collaboration also included �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s Academic & Collaborative Technologies (ACT), Online Learning Strategies (OLS) and Information Technology Services (ITS).

Team Up! was used in 10 courses by some 6,000 students in 2018-2019 before being rolled out university-wide.

Now, Neumann is looking to enhance Team Up! by adding further functionality and encouraging more of her colleagues to adopt it.

“It's important that these homegrown tools continue to evolve and I’m looking forward to seeing people use it in ways that I never expected,” she says.

Wearing period costumes, �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ's Madeleine Mant brings history to life for undergraduate students

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 19:53:47 +0000

Wearing period costumes, �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ's Madeleine Mant brings history to life for undergraduate students

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 12/10/2019 - 14:53

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�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ anthropologist Madeleine Mant dresses as a plague doctor, complete with a bird-like leather mask, for her class on the 17th-century bubonic plague (photo by Drew Lesiuczok)

Topic

Undergraduate Students

�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Mississauga

Anthropologist Madeleine Mant takes the concept of school dress codes to an entirely new level. Over the past semester, the �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Mississauga lecturer has shown up at class wearing vintage woolen capes, Victorian dresses and even black, bird-like leather plague mask.

Mant, who previously taught at �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Mississauga in 2016, has returned to campus to teach three courses, including anthropology of infectious diseases, where she dons a new costume each week to spur discussion on health issues like the bubonic plague, tuberculosis, influenza, polio and HIV/AIDS.

“I want students to be interested in the topic, and the costumes make it easier to pull in a visual memory of what we talked about,” she says.

The courses are part of Anthropology of Health, a growing specialty within �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Mississauga’s anthropology department that investigates how human biology relates to cultural and physical environments. Launched in 2015, the program prepares undergraduate students for careers in health research and gives future health scientists a solid grounding in anthropological techniques.

A self-described “theatre kid” who has performed in numerous plays, Mant says “wearing a costume makes students more willing to talk in class because no one looks sillier than me” (photo by Drew Lesiuczok)

“Very few universities have specialist programs within anthropology dedicated to the study of human health,” says Tracey Galloway, an assistant professor of anthropology at �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Mississauga who studies health care and nutrition in the North.

“Anthropologists are uniquely trained to understand biology as the outcome of a wide range of influences – from epigenetics to environment to historical and socioeconomic factors – and to build that understanding through engagement with communities. We are quite excited to be able to offer these courses here, and we see them as the foundation for exciting opportunities for our students.”

A self-confessed “theatre kid,” Mant has always had a flair for the dramatic. During her graduate studies, she blew off steam with theatrical roles in Rent, Sweeney Todd and as Ms. Scarlet in Clue. Her resume also includes work as a historic interpreter at Fort Edmonton Park, a heritage park in Edmonton, Alta. where she has portrayed early settlers and a 1920s-era flapper.

“Every summer was spent playing dress-up and interpreting the lives of people who lived in the past,” Mant says. “The lesson I learned as an interpreter is that if you can engage with someone on a personal level, they will come away with a deeper understanding and context."

Now she uses that training in the classroom. For her lesson on the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, Mant dresses as a war nurse, wearing authentic nursing uniform pieces that include a First World War uniform belt and a woolen cape.

For her lesson on the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, Mant wears authentic nursing uniform pieces from the period, including a belt that formed part of a First World War uniform (photo by Drew Lesiuczok)

“Millions of people died in the outbreak. That’s too big a number to fathom … but when I tell the story of one particular person, such as a war nurse, who experienced this disease, it brings the lesson home in a tangible way,” she says. “The 1918 war nurse was really important. We have the names of these women and know how many of them went overseas, and how many died overseas. It's a chance to really focus on a single individual who was selflessly going to help this cause.”

Mant’s other classroom costumes are a combination of theatrical, vintage and new pieces. For her lesson on tuberculosis, she wears dresses from her role in Sweeney Todd, and adds a leather mask for the class on the 17th-century bubonic plague. Playing the part of a mother considering polio vaccinations for her child, Mant wears her grandmother’s 1950s wedding suit.

“It’s important for students to be able to look at some of these items and see that they hold a lot of history,” she says. “I find wearing a costume makes students more willing to talk in class because no one looks sillier than me.”

Trained as a bioarchaeologist and paleopathologist, Mant’s research seeks to understand health issues of marginalized people in the past, such as Victorian London’s working poor and 19th-century seafarers landing in Newfoundland ports.

“I look at human bones, with an eye on how disease is reflected in human remains,” she says. As a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow, Mant is currently delving into the historic health records of Her Majesty's Penitentiary, a Victorian-era prison still in operation in St. John’s, N.L. Her work will be on display at an upcoming exhibit about the prison hosted at The Rooms, Newfoundland and Labroador's cultural museum in St. John's.

Mant’s colleague Galloway lauds the lecturer for her theatrical approach in the classroom.

“You can’t help but be drawn into the story she is telling up there at the front of the room, through colour and sound and movement. Then, almost before you know it, you’ve learned some essential approach or idea that helps you understand the whole, and you’ve learned it in a way that you will remember all your life,” Galloway says.

“It’s not a stunt. It’s a purposeful strategy, carefully crafted and integrated into a comprehensive approach that supports student learning. Her performance creates a bridge between students and the knowledge that can change their lives.”

A 'teaching research lab': How �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ's Faculty of Information built a classroom for the digital age

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 22:03:04 +0000

A 'teaching research lab': How �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ's Faculty of Information built a classroom for the digital age

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 11/22/2019 - 17:03

Cutline

Room 224 of the Faculty of Information’s Bissell Building boasts bright colours, full wireless connectivity and endless teaching possibilities (photo courtesy of Faculty of Information)

Ann Brocklehurst

Topic

Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Student Experience

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Information

Wireless connectivity is increasingly a part of daily life, but completely wireless classrooms remain a rarity in academia. Many instructors still have to juggle special cables, assorted adaptors and various dongles to bring their lectures to life.

Not so in Room 224 of the Faculty of Information’s Bissell Building.

Olivier St-Cyr, the classroom’s designer, describes the space as “one of the most technologically sophisticated classrooms on campus.”

Equipped with eight giant, interactive touch screen TVs and a selection of whiteboards, Room 224 is what’s known as a technologically enhanced active learning (TEAL) classroom. The completely wireless environment accommodates 72 students with connections available for 250 students including remote participants.

St-Cyr, an assistant professor, teaching stream, in the Faculty of Information’s user experience (UX) design concentration with a cross appointment in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, wanted a studio-style classroom designed for UX coursework and active learning techniques. In the summer of 2018, he oversaw the construction of a UX design studio in the Bissell Building’s basement. It served as a prototype or “baby room,” as St-Cyr calls it, for Room 224.

From that experience, he and other professors learned a number of practical lessons. They needed bright lighting and easily accessible power outlets. Whiteboards were important, too – even in a digital age. Tables needed to be easily reconfigured to accommodate different class sizes. And there had to be enough space for the instructor to easily move between tables.

Olivier St-Cyr calls room 224 in the Faculty of Information’s Bissell Building “one of the most technologically sophisticated classrooms on campus” (photo courtesy of Faculty of Information)

Speaking at the launch of Room 224 last month, �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s Vice-President & Provost Cheryl Regehr said the faculty and its researchers have been “leaders in classroom design, teaching innovation and the creation of space.”

“At a time when we’re seeing the emergence of entirely new industries, our faculty are working hard to create interactive, hands-on innovative programs,” said Regehr. “Classrooms like this one and those in the Myhal Centre create new and exciting ways for students to collaborate with one another.”

The Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship, which opened in 2018, doesn’t have any traditional classrooms. Its learning spaces were conceived to use technology to re-imagine the relationship between speaker and audience. They were designed to make every class, guest lecture or special event a forum for two-way engagement and spontaneous interaction.

In Room 224 of the Bissell Building, meanwhile, the tables have adjustable heights and can be wheeled around into different configurations. The brightly coloured chairs aren’t just for looks either. Form follows function, explains St-Cyr, noting that an exercise might involve grouping students in green chairs together or asking occupants of the orange chairs to lead a discussion.

While there is a traditional podium for professors who want it, there isn’t really a “front” to the room. The teacher can stand in the middle of the class or walk around among the tables.

As for students, they will eventually be able to attend class remotely, although according to St-Cyr, the classroom is currently operating at about 10 per cent of its technological capacity as professors familiarize themselves with its capabilities.

As he swipes the TV screen for a demonstration at the launch, St-Cyr explains, “Whatever I can do with my mouse on my computer, I can do here with my fingers.” He then allows a colleague to share a second screen so they can compare their work – a common classroom activity. He explains that all students in the class use a special secure app designed by the supplier of the smart TVs that hang on the walls.

St-Cyr sees Room 224 as his “teaching research lab” for the next few years, adding that other faculty are welcome take the classroom for a test drive on Thursday afternoons.

“It's a huge exploratory sandbox where faculty members are invited to come and learn about new TEAL pedagogies,” he says.

For award-winning Andrew Petersen, teaching computer science is all about the 'human element'

noreen.rasbach — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 15:01:21 +0000

For award-winning Andrew Petersen, teaching computer science is all about the 'human element'

noreen.rasbach Wed, 11/20/2019 - 10:01

Cutline

“It’s easy to forget, when you’re dealing with machines, who is on the other side,” says �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Mississauga's Andrew Petersen. “Code has to rest with real people" (photo by Drew Lesiuczok)

Blake Eligh

Topic

Mathematical and Computational Sciences

Awards

Computer Science