Author: Sarah Bowers

Join us for a TCDC Webinar on Universal Design for Learning with Dr. Tom Tobin

Sarah Bowers

We are very excited to announce and invite faculty to join our webinar with Dr. Thomas J. Tobin on February 5.  

Some of you may recognize Dr. Tobin as the author of our fall 2020 book club pick, Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education, which led to the formation of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) committee at the College. 

In our hour-long online session, Dr. Tobin will introduce UDL and share his thoughts on how to implement UDL methods into your course designs. 

Sign up now!

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Perspectives VII: My Experience Teaching Genetics in Fall 2020

Sarah Bowers 2 Comments
By Mário Moniz de Sá, Instructor, Biology Department
Image by Jagrit Parajuli from Pixabay
Early in 2020, students all over the world experienced a sudden, dramatic, and unprecedented shift in their academic world. A whole two and a half semesters later, we find ourselves preparing for more semesters teaching and learning in the virtual environment. Some instructors at Langara took the opportunity to share their perspectives on the impact of moving to online teaching and learning.

Our seventh contribution comes from Mário Moniz de Sá, an instructor in the Department of Biology. Below, we share his experience teaching in the fall of 2020. Mário gives us an enthusiastic and thoughtful tour of his genetics course with many practical examples of what can be done online.

We look forward to bringing you more Perspectives. If you would like to make a contribution, please contact Jessica Kalra at jkalra@langara.ca.

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Perspectives VI: Creating Social Presence in Online Classroom through Brightspace Discussions

Sarah Bowers 1 Comment
By Branca Mirnic, Instructor, LEAP Program
Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Early in 2020, students all over the world experienced a sudden, dramatic, and unprecedented shift in their academic world. A whole semester and half later, we have found ourselves preparing for more semesters teaching and learning in the virtual environment. Some instructors at Langara took the opportunity to write about their perspectives on the impact of moving to remote teaching and learning.

Our sixth contribution comes from Branca Mirnic, an instructor in the LEAP Program. Below, we share Branca’s article, “Creating Social Presence in Online Classroom through Brightspace Discussions,” a thoughtful exploration on how to encourage social presence alongside tips and examples for designing and implementing online discussions.

We look forward to bringing you more Perspectives. If you would like to make a contribution, please contact Jessica Kalra at jkalra@langara.ca.

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Why I Love Virtual Office Hours

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By Frances Wintjes Clarke, MA, LSSC Instructor
Image by freepik from freepik

As the instructor for the asynchronous Langara Student Success Course (LSSC), I have grappled a lot with how to best connect to and engage with the approximately 3000 first year students who are automatically enrolled into the course each semester. Pre-Covid, I began to host regular office hours to connect with my online students. I did it as much for myself as for them. I became a teacher because I love engaging with people in a learning environment, and I wanted to have that with the LSSC students. I had very little traffic, and I was lucky if one student showed up in my office every couple of weeks looking for help with the course or wanting to find out about available student services.  

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Perspectives V: Maintaining Academic Integrity Online through Fostering a Culture of Academic and Educational Integrity

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By Jessica Kalra, Instructor, Health Sciences and Biology 
Image by kiquebg from Pixabay
Early in 2020, students all over the world experienced a sudden, dramatic, and unprecedented shift in their academic world. A whole semester and half later, we have found ourselves preparing for more semesters teaching and learning in the virtual environment. Some instructors at Langara took the opportunity to write about their perspectives on the impact of moving to remote teaching and learning.
Our fifth contribution comes from Jessica Kalra, an instructor in the departments of Health Sciences and Biology. Jessica shares her experiment with “Maintaining Academic Integrity Online through fostering a culture of academic and educational integrity” as well as some tools such as the academic integrity toolkit and the Brightspace Instructor Template.
We look forward to bringing you more Perspectives. If you would like to make a contribution, please contact Jessica Kalra at jkalra@langara.ca.

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Free Online PD for Langara Faculty & Staff with Go2Knowledge

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With Langara’s membership with Go2Knowledge, you have incredible access to online professional development at your fingertips.

Pensive man concentrating on work in front of laptop

What is Go2Knowledge?

The Go2Knowledge website offers online professional development to staff and faculty in post-secondary institutions. They offer both live webinars and an on-demand digital library of over 300 webinars, categorized into six topics of relevance across the Langara community. (And it’s not only for instructors!)

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Developing an Anti-Racist Organization:  A Model

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      JOIN US IN WELCOMING DR. TRAORE BACK TO LANGARA! 

                            This session, Dr. Traore will discuss:  Developing an                             Anti-Racist Organization:  A Model 

Developing an anti-racist organization requires a system’s change and organizational
development approach combined with anti-racism theory and practice. In this talk, Dr. Traoré discusses a theoretical model of change that targets the organization, more so than individuals, as the key client of an anti-racist intervention. The model presented uses a developmental approach.

Attendees will thus learn about the different stages on the continuum of a segregated
organization to an anti-racist multicultural organization.

This talk is best suited for persons who have awareness of systemic racism, and would like some insights on what an anti-racist multicultural organization looks like.

When: Monday, October 26 2020
Time: 12:30-2:30
Register: https://iweb.langara.ca/tcdc/sign-up/?sheet_id=501&instance_id=878

 

Perspectives IV: How Online Classes Made Me a Better Teacher

Sarah Bowers 2 Comments
By Lucinda Atwood, Instructor, Langara School of Management
Early in 2020, students all over the world experienced a sudden, dramatic, and unprecedented shift in their academic world. A whole semester later, we have found ourselves preparing for at least two more semesters teaching and learning in the virtual environment. Some astute instructors at Langara took the opportunity to write about their perspectives on the impact of moving to remote  teaching and learning.
Our fourth contribution comes from Lucinda Atwood, Instructor in the Langara School of Management. Below, we share Lucinda’s article, “How Online Classes Made Me a Better Teacher,” an exploration of the impact of online learning on students and teachers, chock full of tips for designing and implementing your next online course.
We look forward to bringing you more perspectives. If you would like to make a contribution, please contact Jessica Kalra at jkalra@langara.ca.

 

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Perspectives III: I don’t know how to teach online… yet.

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Early in 2020, students all over the world experienced a sudden, dramatic, and unprecedented shift in their academic world. Four months on, we have found ourselves finishing one semester remotely, delivering another fully online, and preparing for at least two more semesters teaching and learning in the virtual environment. In this series, Langara faculty share their experiences.

Our third contribution comes from Alena Buis, Department Chair in Art History and Religious Studies. Below, we share Dr. Buis’s article, “I don’t know how to teach online…yet”, a clever examination of the process of learning how to teach online effectively.

TCDC is providing a platform for instructors and instructional staff to share their reflections, opinions, and findings. If you want to contribute a piece to the perspectives series, please contact Jessica Kalra at jkalra@langara.ca.

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Small Teaching Online

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Written by Mirabelle Tinio, Department Chair, French Instructor, Modern Languages & Curriculum Consultant at TCDC

In the spring, the sudden shift to remote online learning forced most people to venture out into the unknown alone, but a rambunctious, fun, and supportive group of Langarans stayed connected every Wednesday, April – June, cozying up with tea/coffee/cocktail before their computer screens and sharing thoughts related to Small Teaching Online, by Flower Darby and James Lang (2019).

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