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Teaching & Learning Centre Information for Chairs | The Teaching & Learning Centre | Seneca Polytechnic

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Version 144
Teaching & Learning Centre Information for Chairs

Teaching & Learning Centre Information for Chairs

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Updated: Jun. 12, 2025

Welcome to the Teaching & Learning Centre Information Hub for Chairs!

This page is curated with you in mind, serving as a central resource hub to assist you in planning and supporting your faculty members. Here, you will discover a spectrum of resources tailored to empower and enhance the teaching and learning experience for your faculty.

Navigate through the following key areas:

This hub is your ally in empowering your faculty and steering them towards success. For any questions or additional support, feel free to reach out to us at teaching@senecapolytechnic.ca.

 


Important Dates Regarding BigBlueButton

The BigBlueButton Integration in Learn@Seneca course was removed at 8:00 a.m. EST on Tuesday, April 29, 2025. Faculty will no longer be able to host any new sessions in BigBlueButton.

If faculty want to keep their recordings, they will need to download their BigBlueButton recordings. Please note that the links to the BigBlueButton recordings will only remain active until July 14, 2025.

Learn more: BigBlueButton FAQ.pdf.

 


A Focus on Assessment

Discover the assessment resources created by our Team: Assessment Resources (PDF).

This PDF highlights the webpages, nutshells, and videos we have that focus on assessment (in general), authentic assessment, academic integrity and artificial intelligence, and formative assessment.

Reminder: The Teaching & Learning Centre can offer a workshops for your School. We also offer one-on-one consultations for faculty and instructors. Email us at teaching@senecapolytechnic.ca.

 


Supports for Generative AI

The Teaching & Learning Centre recently offered a four-part webinar series focusing on using Generative AI in teaching:

  • AI Literacy and Generative AI for Educators
  • Effective Techniques for Generative AI Prompting
  • Assessing Learning in the AI Era
  • Exploring GenAI Use – from the Teaching side of things

Resources and recordings are available in our Generative AI Webinar Series Spark Plug article.

GenAI Resources

 


Support for Flexible Delivery

Upcoming sections of our Fundamentals of Flexible Course Design and Delivery course:

  • course dates TBD

We have a Flexible Course Design website!

We also recommend our Envisioning Your Course Through a Flexible Lens nutshell (a self-paced online module), our Five Things I've Learned about Flexible Teaching from Conversations with Seneca Faculty Spark Plug article, and our Seneca Flexible Classroom Instructional Video which shows how to set up and use the flexible classrooms on campus.

 


Seneca's Teaching and Learning Awards for Faculty

Seneca's Teaching and Learning Awards for Faculty recognize and celebrate faculty members who make a difference by engaging students, inspiring colleagues, and demonstrating innovative teaching practices. Nominations are now being accepted for the 2024-2025 academic year.

There are three awards:

  • Seneca Award for Teaching Excellence – peer-nominated
  • Seneca Award for Innovation in Teaching – peer-nominated
  • Seneca Transformative Educator – student-nominated

Nomination packages are due by Jul. 31, 2025.

Guidelines for nominations from students are available (PDF). Guidelines for nominations from employees are available on the Seneca's Teaching and Learning Awards for Faculty page.

 


Faculty Development Program Schedule and Deadlines

Faculty Development Program in Summer 2025

Important deadlines for your faculty for the summer 2025 term:

  • In summer 2025, the Tuesday section of the third bundle ends on Jun. 10, 2025 and the Thursday section of the third bundle ends on Jun. 12, 2025; all participants should complete the deliverables by this date.
  • If extra time is needed, the faculty member needs to let their facilitator know. The final deadline to complete the summer 2025 deliverables is Friday, Jun. 20, 2025 — any faculty members who have not completed the deliverables for their summer 2025 bundle by Jun. 20 will not be eligible to participate in their next bundle in fall 2025.

Faculty Development Program in Fall 2025

The Faculty Development Program schedule for Fall 2025:

  • The First Bundle will run on Tuesdays
  • The Second Bundle will run on Wednesdays
  • The Third Bundle will not run in fall 2025

Important deadline for you:

  • If any of your faculty members currently in the Faculty Development Program will not be able to participate in the Faculty Development Program in fall 2025, please let us know before Jun. 15, 2025. Our staffing and scheduling for the Faculty Development Program bundles will be set up by then, making changes difficult.

Standing Schedule of the Faculty Development Program

There is a standing schedule for the Faculty Development Program:

  • The first bundle runs on Tuesdays.
  • The second bundle runs on Wednesdays.
  • The third bundle runs on Thursdays.

The only variables in our schedule are whether a particular bundle is offered during a given term and the exact timing of each bundle. If we have two sections of the same bundle running, or if that bundle runs in May/June, we ask for the participants to be available all day to participate in the bundle that they need.

Please note that the first bundle does not run in the summer term and if the second and third bundles are offered, they will run in May/June. We do not have Faculty Development Program bundles running in July/August.

Professional Development Requirements for Newly-hired Full-time Faculty Members

As a reminder, The following are the professional development requirements through the Teaching & Learning Centre for newly-hired full-time faculty members:

  • Participate in Micro-teaching Sessions or the Teaching & Learning Summer Conference
  • Attend New Faculty Orientation
  • Complete the Faculty Development Program bundles of courses

The next Micro-teaching Sessions is on Aug. 21-22, 2025 and the next New Faculty Orientation is on Aug. 25, 2025.

 


The Professional Development Plan for Non Full-time Faculty Members

A professional development plan has been created for Seneca’s non full-time faculty members: PD Plan for Non Full-time Faculty. Every course in the PD Plan is micro-credentialled and the micro-credential can be used as proof of completion if needed.

These courses are open to all faculty members and instructors.

Upcoming courses:

 


Learn@Seneca Blackboard Ultra Support

Our Learn@Seneca website is where faculty can find all the resources they'll need to teach in Learn@Seneca. With how-to articles, best practices, resources, and videos, this space hosts all of the Teaching & Learning Centre's Learn@Seneca materials.

We recommend beginning with our Learn@Seneca Crash Course. It walks through the main features of Blackboard Ultra. We have the Quick Tour, a short introduction video about Learn@Seneca, and the Course Tour, showing what a course could look like in Learn@Seneca.

The Crash Course also include four instructional videos that cover the vast majority of topics faculty need to know to successfully teach in Learn@Seneca:

The First Look at Learn@Seneca – explore the menu and content areas of Learn@Seneca, then start creating content: documents, folders, and modules

Building Assessments – explore the details of assessments in Learn@Seneca

Using the Gradebook – explore the Gradebook in Learn@Seneca and see how all the same features are still available plus some quality-of-life improvements

Groups and Accommodations – explore how to create groups and add them to assignments, plus how to set up accommodations and exceptions

These are polished versions of our webinars that were recorded without audience questions.

Faculty may also be interested in our Learn@Seneca Nutshells! Nutshells are a series of quick, self-paced, online learning modules for faculty. Our Learn@Seneca series of Nutshells provide faculty with an overview of Learn@Seneca in addition to tips, best practices, and resources.

 


New Faculty Orientation for Non Full-time for Fall 2025

New Faculty Orientation is on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. It takes place at Newnham Campus, starting at 9 a.m..

Attending New Faculty Orientation is a professional development requirement for all newly-hired faculty members, both full-time and non full-time faculty members.

If a new non full-time faculty member has prior commitments on August 25 and are unable to attend New Faculty Orientation, they can attend New Faculty Orientation for Non Full-time Faculty:

We explain this and provide more details on our Welcome New Faculty Members: Understanding Your PD Requirements page.

 


 

Header photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash

 

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