Please enable JavaScript to use file uploader.
View all the Teaching & Learning Centre Spark Plugs!
As we gear up for the summer term, we're excited to offer a range of professional development opportunities to help you enhance your teaching skills and create more inclusive and effective learning environments for your students. We're offering five asynchronous and synchronous courses, along with opportunities for you to attend in-person orientation sessions for the new Virtual Reality Lab, and we have a collection of webinars, drop-ins, and resources focusing on Learn@Seneca Blackboard Ultra. Read on for more details on the courses, dates, and how to register.
Contents of this Spark Plug article:
All courses are now open for registration in MyPD.
Effective Online Teaching*
🗓️ Start date: May 23, 2023
⏰ Course duration: four weeks
💻 Course modality: online asynchronous
🏅 This course is part of Seneca's Micro-credentials for Faculty PD program, which means you can earn a micro-credential when you complete the course.
Join us for a deep dive into effective online teaching strategies that support high quality online course design. Whether you are new to online teaching or a seasoned online instructor, this course is for you.
Effective Online Teaching (EOT) explores three guiding principles that are at the heart of all our online courses: Learner Centered Design, Equity, and Quality. The topics and activities throughout this course provide faculty with the knowledge and skills required to develop strategies that enable them to create an online course that aligns with Seneca's Quality Framework, Standards of Practice, and lays the foundation to deliver high-quality engaging online learning experiences.
In the first half of the course, Faculty will learn about some best practices in online course design and how these practices align with Seneca's Quality Framework. They will also explore and learn how to apply principles of UDL and EDI, and how to design an online assessment strategy that measures student achievement and promotes academic integrity.
The second half of the course shows Faculty how to implement techniques to meet AODA, copyright, and privacy requirements, and use a community of inquiry framework to build and support a learning community within a virtual classroom.
And finally, the course wraps up with a spotlight on quality in online course design and how to use Seneca’s Quality Framework to evaluate and improve the quality of an online course.
Teaching Unique Diverse Learners (UDL)*
Have you ever had that conversation with a fellow faculty member that goes something like, “I just don’t get it! I made it so clear how to add a discussion posting, submit an assignment, etc. and I still get last minute emails stating they are stuck”! Or “How come no matter how hard I try, I just don’t seem to be able to engage students in the material”?
Perhaps another one of the Teaching & Learning Centre’s courses, Teaching Unique, Diverse Learners (UDL), can shed some light! Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is established in brain neuroscience. It acknowledges that unless the three different networks in our brain – recognition, strategic, and affective – are involved, learning can't take place.
The principles of UDL and the goals of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion go hand in hand to eliminate systemic barriers in education. Teaching Unique, Diverse Learners (UDL) will have you explore the history of UDL while reflecting on your own past educational experiences. After exploring in-depth the three principles of UDL and how they might be incorporated in a course, you’ll have an opportunity to put learning into action as you examine and consider some tweaks on current course content delivery and current methods of assessment.
Fundamentals of Flexible Course Design and Delivery
🗓️ Start date: June 5, 2023
⏰ Course duration: three weeks
Flexible (sometimes referred to as HyFlex or hybrid flexible) is a course design mode that gives students the opportunity to attend in class, online synchronously, or online asynchronously. Students can change their mode of attendance and participation for each class session.
Participants will learn the fundamentals of Flexible course design and delivery. Through an exploration of Flexible concepts, participants learn how to rethink traditional online and classroom-based learning into a Flexible mode that considers how students will engage with them, the course content, and each other. Practical exercises will enable participant to gain the knowledge and skills required to design and deliver Flexible courses that are engaging and meet Seneca’s Quality Framework for Designing & Delivering Online, Hybrid, and Flexible Courses.
Learn from your colleages who are already teaching in flexible mode: Five Things I’ve Learned about Flexible Teaching from Conversations with Seneca Faculty Spark Plug article
Developing Online Materials for Your Course*
🗓️ Start date: June 7, 2023
💻 Course modality: online synchronous
Developing Online Materials for Your Course (DOMYC) focuses on supporting faculty teaching online and hybrid or flexible (HyFlex) courses to learn new tools and create new and varied materials for their courses.
Producing more digital materials for a course can be quite involved; fortunately in this 4-week course, we cover a variety of tools that are both easy to learn and can quickly produce new dynamic course materials for you.
DOMYC covers a broad variety of software tools – from web module design to producing narrated recorded videos. We also take a look at some more in-depth tools such as building and dynamic interactive video with H5P.
By using these tools and creating more dynamic and varied materials for our online courses, we can help increase student engagement and retention. Many of the tools covered in the course also make fantastic tools for multi-modal student assignments, letting them collaborate and get creative to showcase their understanding.
This course gives faculty a chance to work hands-on with new digital tools, as well as providing guided support and further resources to help you in creating your course content even after the course has ended.
Foundations of Accessible Content*
🗓️ Start date: June 12, 2023
⏰ Course duration: two weeks
Creating and providing accessible materials is about inclusion, equity, and social responsibility. With Ontario’s commitment to be a fully accessible province by 2025 through the implementation of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), knowing how to create accessible learning materials and documents is crucial!
Join us for our 2-week interactive asynchronous online micro-credential Foundations of Creating Accessible Content. In this foundational course, we will review and apply the accessibility guidelines and requirements applicable to creating digital content and consider their practical application in creating your content. This course gives you an opportunity to consider accessibility in a hands-on way, evaluate digital content, and learn how to fix it.
After successful completion of this course, you will walk away with strategies and resources to help with making your digital content accessible.
All of the course listed above are open to anyone who is interested in participating. But the ones that have an asterisk* next to their names as part of Seneca's Professional Development Plan for Non Full-time Faculty Members.
Anyone who completes a course in the PD Plan can earn a micro-credential.
Any non full-time faculty member who completes a course in the PD Plan can receive remuneration (at the meeting rate for a predetermined number of hours per course). If you are a non full-time faculty member interested in one of these courses, please discuss this with your Chair before you register for one of these courses.
Learn more about Virtual Reality (VR) at Seneca by attending one of our "Virtual Reality Lab Orientation for Faculty" sessions.
Come and explore the new VR Lab facility at Newnham Campus! Learn how to get started incorporating virtual reality experiences into your curriculum. In this hands-on orientation session, we will outline the process for booking and using the VR Lab. You will also have the opportunity to try the VR headsets.
Space is limited. Register now in MyPD.
Join us in the Virtual Lab at Newnham Campus on the following dates and times:
Blackboard Ultra is almost here! In the Teaching & Learning Centre, we have so many resources on the use of Blackboard Ultra that we are so excited to share with you.
Our website is where you can find how-to articles, best practices, resources, and videos to support you as you teach in Blackboard Ultra.
We recommend beginning with our Blackboard Ultra Crash Course. It walks you through the main features of Blackboard Ultra. We have a quick tour of Blackboard Ultra and a longer tour of what a course could look like in Blackboard Ultra. The Crash Course also four instructional videos that cover the vast majority of topics you need to know to successfully teach in Blackboard Ultra:
If you would like to attend a live webinar, our Blackboard Ultra Webinars and Drop-ins will be continuing in May/June 2023.
Our series of Nutshells have returned, this time with a focus on Blackboard Ultra. The Learn@Seneca Nutshells are a series of quick, self-paced, online learning modules that each will take less than 30 minutes to complete. With a different look and feel, this series of Nutshells provide you with an overview of Learn@Seneca Blackboard Ultra in addition to tips, best practices, and resources.
If you have a specific question about teaching with Blackboard Ultra and you cannot find it on the Blackboard Ultra website, you can ask the Teaching & Learning Centre via our Blackboard Ultra Request for Support.
Photo by Link Hoang on Unsplash
Teaching & Learning Day Spring 2023 is happening on Tuesday, May 2 at Newnham Campus. The theme of our event is “Pathway to Curriculum Integration.” Join us for a day of reflection and discussion about integrating Truth & Reconciliation (TRC), Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI), and Sustainability into your curriculum. Our keynote speaker in the morning is Kevin Lamoureux (University of Winnipeg). Afterwards, engage with expert panelists who will speak about their knowledge and experience in the areas of Truth & Reconciliation (TRC), Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI), and Sustainability.
Learn more in Pathway to Curriculum Integration at Teaching & Learning Day – Learn, Engage, Participate!.
Register now in MyPD.
Your session has expired. You are being logged out.