Academic Forum 2019 | Academic Newsletter | Seneca Polytechnic

by Karen Spiers, the Teaching & Learning Centre

in the June 2019 issue

On April 29, 130 employees attended Academic Forum 2019 hosted by the Teaching & Learning Centre at Markham Campus.

The event opened with keynote speaker Professor Andrea Buchholz from the University of Guelph. This inspiring and humorous talk engaged the audience in activities created from improvisational theatre. These activities can be easily transferred into a classroom environment. Dr. Buchholz provided hands-on examples and a debrief for each activity. You can watch Dr. Buchholz’s keynote presentation, “Structured Spontaneity in the Higher Ed Classroom: How improvisational theatre can get you and your students out of the lecture rut,” on the Academic Forum website. Her handout, which describes five activities you can use in your classroom, is also available there.

Throughout the day, attendees participated in sessions on a variety of topics. The faculty-focused sessions included curriculum renewal, degree-level teaching, applied research opportunities, collaborative inquiry, open educational resources (OERs), hybrid/online course design, international opportunities, tools for Universal Design for Learning, and a Skoden session that discussed overcoming reconciliation resistance. The student-focused sessions included international students (their study requirements, the challenges they face, and how Seneca supports them), Adobe Spark projects, uncovering barriers for newcomer students, and experiential learning opportunities through Riipen. To view the resources shared by some of the session facilitators, visit the Academic Forum website.

A Cracker Barrel session after lunch provided an opportunity for attendees to hear students discuss their experiences from participating in experiential learning opportunities at Seneca. Eleven students spoke about participating in Applied Research, HELIX, Riipen, Seneca International, or Work-Integrated Learning and answered questions at their table. It is always enlightening to hear students tell their stories.

Feedback from Academic Forum attendees:

• “The Keynote presentation was very engaging, informative, and [provided] hands-on experience. [I learned about] good examples [of activities] to apply in my classes such as Last Word, First Word and Word Associations.”
• “Collaborative Projects work well for transforming both teaching and learning experiences.”

View the June 2019 issue of the Academic Newsletter.