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Conference report ICL 2017 This interdisciplinary conference focuses on the exchange of relevant trends and research results as well as the presentation of practical experiences in Interactive Collaborative Learning and Engineering Pedagogy. The theme ...
'Record of Completion' Certificate
In effort to recognize commitment to teaching and learning by Graduate Students, the 'Record of Completion' Certificate Program has been established. This certificate is to honour outstanding Graduate Students for their ongoing dedication to the enhanc ...
"To PowerPoint or Not to PowerPoint, That is the Question"
Lisa Violo Do you find yourself often using PowerPoint slides for your lectures and wondering is there a better way? In this session we will discuss when to use PowerPoint and when not to use PowerPoint, some tips for using PowerPoint effectively and s ...
2. Intake
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.2013 Teaching in Focus Keynotes
Opening session keynote 1– former president Lorna Marsden Lorna Marsden Lorna Marsden served as President and Vice-Chancellor of York University from 1997-2007 and remains as professor and President emerita. After completing her PhD at Princeton Univer ...
2018 TiF Conference
Rescheduled for December 5 Teaching in Focus (TiF) Conference is the pan-university conference on Teaching and Learning at York University. This peer reviewed conference is for all who teach or support student learning at York to celebrate teaching, sh ...
3 practical tools for blended courses : Adobe Connect, TED-Ed Lessons & PollEv
Swann Paradis This presentation aims to illustrates with practical examples 3 different tools used successfully over the 2016-2017 academic year in a “traditional” 4th year French literature course transformed into a “blended” format, thanks to an AIF ...
3. Course Development
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.4 Steps for York's eLearning strategy
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.4. Launch and Maintenance
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.A provincial nursing collaborative to enhance student transition to practice using shared clinical simulation scenarios
Brenda Orazietti A 6 million dollar grant was obtained that led to faculty being sent to study in California (Brenda being one of them). This group then formed the Ontario Simulation Alliance, and now is expanding nationally. The purpose was to creat ...
Academic Dishonesty in Laboratory Environments
Academic dishonesty is a serious problem in undergraduate labs. This is partly because the culture of lab courses sometimes fosters plagiarism. Lab exercises may remain unchanged for years, making it relatively easy to obtain lab reports from previous ...
Academic Integrity
Maintaining academic integrity is a key role for instructors. However, this is only one of the multiple functions we perform for our students including teaching, directing assignments and grading. In all of these roles, specific strategies can help gui ...
Accommodations and Inclusive Teaching
The majority of resources listed below include information about academic accommodations, inclusive teaching and incorporating universal instructional design to meet the needs of all students. This also includes links to accessibility and disability. ...
Active Learning and Active Learning Strategies
To help all your students gain the most from your classes, you should aim to provide opportunities for them to grapple with the ideas and material in the course in a variety of ways. Your classes should not only present information and ideas, but also ...
Activity
Agenda
Teaching in Focus (TiF) Inaugural Conference Date: May 23rd 2013 Location: Level 0 in TEL building, Keele Campus 8:30 - 9:15 Registration 9:15 - 10:00 Opening session keynote 1 Former President Lorna Marsden Lorna Marsden served as President and ...
Alternatives to the Essay
We have compiled a list of examples of various types of assignments that you can use as alternatives to a standard essay that help students develop their critical reading and writing skills. You may find that some of these assignments are better used ...
Alternatives to the Essay
Do essays help your students achieve the learning objectives of your course? Essay writing is a staple of humanities and social sciences teaching. Essays help students to develop skills in writing, research, logic, and reasoning. Our courses, however, ...
An Example of the Application/Revision Process
The following examples, submitted in 2015/16 are to provide you with an overview of what the process may resemble when applying for ethical approval for your SoTL project. This SoTL project was approved by the York University Office of Research Ethics ...
Application of Simulated Person Methodology an Interactive Pedagogy to Engage Post-Secondary Students
Eva Peisachovich, LJ Nelles, Samantha Johnson, Laura Nicholson, Barbara Kerr, Loriann Hynes The literature identifies simulation as the teaching learning approach that supports the synthesis of knowledge and the development of insight and professional ...
Approach to Planning Content
Covering content or uncovering understanding? Wiggins and McTighe (2005) propose that covering content is not the same as teaching for understanding, but in practice determining how much content is necessary to build a deep understanding of course mate ...
April 2017
It is Possible and It is Important By Justeena Zaki-Azat The “regular” school-year is nearing end… and although grad student life goes on all year round – summer is usually the more relaxing season. As I am sure many fellow grad students are, I am tryi ...
Assessment
Assessment refers to the variety of ways educators measure student learning. Its purpose is manifold, but it can generally be categorized as either formative (i.e., assessment for learning) or summative (i.e., assessment of learning). Read the followin ...
Assessment and implementation of effective learning techniques
Alice Kim For over 100 years, psychologists have been developing and evaluating learning techniques that are both easy to implement and could help students achieve their learning goals. However, many educators and students do not put these techniques i ...
Ateliers en français offerts à Glendon
Le Teaching Commons est heureux d'offrir des ateliers en français au Collège Glendon. Les même services peuvent être offerts en anglais, sur demande, en contactant de Dre Geneviève Maheux-Pelletier (gmp@yorku.ca). Please Note: The language of delivery ...
Awards, Grants and Fellowships
There are a variety of teaching awards, grants and fellowships both internal and external to York, awarded to Teaching Assistants every year. Internal Awards & Grants York University internal awards and grants for faculty and teaching assistants (i ...
Awards, Grants and Fellowships
Internal Awards & Grants This link includes York University internal awards and grants for faculty and includes awards by Faculty. External Awards & Fellowships This link includes external awards and fellowships for faculty, including disciplin ...
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Blog 1
Launching the teaching and learning blog Celia Popovic Monday September 14th 2015 The start of term evokes a mix of emotions for most of us usually accompanied by a rash of purchases and promises to ourselves and others. Whether new pencils, pristine j ...
Blog 10
Designing effective online discussions By Yelin Su, Educational Developer, Teaching Commons Asynchronous discussion is one of the most commonly used instructional strategies in online teaching. Successful asynchronous discussion plays an important role ...
Blog 100
Perspectives from Indigenizing an Indigenous course Sean Hillier, Faculty of Health Part 1: The Process of Indigenizing The university has set out in recent years to make Experiential Education (EE) a priority across all faculties and programs; certain ...
Blog 101
Part 2: Indigenizing an Indigenous course Sean Hillier, Faculty of Health The burden of decolonizing has generally fallen on the shoulders of Indigenous Peoples alone, which can no longer be the case. This has been a difficult journey for myself as an ...
Blog 102
Creating Effective Videos with a Smartphone Anna Augusto Rodrigues, Teaching Commons Integrating videos into lessons has shown to be an effective way to teach and connect with students (Berk, 2009; Sterns & Hussey, 2014). Although a myriad of educa ...
Blog 103
Digital Humanities and Social Sciences for Experiential Learning Samantha Cutrara, PhD – Curriculum Specialist, Office of the Vice Provost Academic It is one thing to know the value of experiential learning in your classroom, it is another to effective ...
Blog 104
An Unsuccessful Attempt to Increase Student Study Time and Performance Uros Petronijevic, LA&PS *Note: This blog post is adapted from the Vox column “The disappointing impact of encouraging students to study more,” which is available here: https:// ...
Blog 105
Podcasting for Teaching and Research Brittany Starkman, Graduate Student, Faculty of Education Producing a podcast can be a great way for you and your students to share concepts, ideas and research inside and outside of the classroom. Unlike a traditio ...
Blog 106
In 2019, What Would You Like to See Happening More Often? Geneviève Maheux-Pelletier, PhD, PMPInterim Director, Teaching Commons The arrival of 2019 is an opportunity to celebrate accomplishments and set new goals. Had it been just another year, I woul ...
Blog 107
January Journal Club Lisa Endersby, Educational Developer The Teaching Commons hosted the January 2019 meeting of the Journal Club this past Wednesday, January 9. Our discussion of Self-Disclosure Decisions of University Students with Learning Disabili ...
Blog 108
Multiform Grammar: From Illustrated Historiography to the Classroom Noa Yaari In my dissertation titled “Multiform Arguments in the Historiography of Individualism in Pre-Modern Europe,” I introduced a new conceptual framework to analyze arguments that ...
Blog 109
Creating a Video Introduction for your Online Course Anna Augusto Rodrigues If you’ll be teaching an online course next semester, you may want to think about creating a video introduction for it. Having a video presence at the beginning of an online co ...
Blog 11
What is the 'university experience'? By Maria-Palma Zito, 2nd year undergraduate student, LA&PS More often than not people associate the “university experience” with going away. Living on your own for the first time, being forced to do laundry and ...
Blog 12
Teaching wheels - my new training wheels Franz Newland, Lassonde I may have had quite a few years in industry, and may be able to delude myself that I know lots about my technical discipline, but I am undeniably new to teaching. I am inspired by this n ...
Blog 13
A quick #openscience #STEM diversity idea for assigning readings in courses Christopher Lortie, Faculty of Science I am about to dig in and begin teaching ecology (large, lower-level course) and experimental design (smaller, upper-year offering). The p ...
Blog 14
The Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) Justin Podur, Faculty of Environmental Studies I was perusing the Teaching Commons website early in the Fall 2013 term when I came across the Instructional Skills Workshop. Even though I have mixed feelings about ...
Blog 15
Turning the lure of the laptop into a positive classroom experience There are ways to have technology serve the teacher’s goals. Paul Axelrod, Faculty of Education Please note this article was originally published on December 9th 2015 in University Af ...
Blog 16
Beasts of York: A Cautionary Tale Quintin Peirce, English Department, LA&PS. Over the course of my post-secondary education, I’ve learned that my motivation is highest when I’m immersed in personally meaningful subject matter — that’s when the work ...
Blog 17
WHAT’S YOUR NEW YEAR’S “TEACHING” RESOLUTION? Andrea C. Valente, Teaching Commons Tutor At the very start of a fresh year we face the same old question, ‘What’s your New Year’s Resolution?’ Whether it is a rhetorical question or not, it is here to rem ...
Blog 18
SPARK your teaching in 2016! Ron Sheese and Sophie Bury, Learning Commons --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPARK is a digital resource designed by York librarians, study-skills specialists, and writing ...
Blog 19
For the love of teaching: One TA’s collaborative guide to success! Vivian Stamatopoulos, LA&PS When I was asked to write a short article about my experiences as the 2015 recipient of the Presidents University Wide Teaching Award, I was thrilled to ...
Blog 2
Seeing Behaviour Mary Waller Schulich School of Business About 200 years ago when I was completely frazzled and just about to defend my dissertation, I accompanied my older sister to a charity bazaar. We ran into some of her more affluent friends, to w ...
Blog 20
The day vicarious readers met a vivacious teacher, or the pedagogy behind making them read Genevieve Maheux Pelletier, Teaching Commons So you have vicarious readers in your class… It may not be such a bad thing! I subscribe to the notion that active l ...
Blog 21
On Teaching Academic Writing Part 1: Metaphors of Writing Stephanie Bell, Associate Director of the Writing Centre and Assistant Professor in the Writing Department Teaching and learning would be easy tasks if they involved straightforward transfers of ...
Blog 22
Vulnerability and Compassion in the Classroom Mandy Frake-Mistak, Teaching Commons “So long as we seek knowledge in classrooms, we are necessarily dependent on the teachers and students who are there engaged in a constitutively ethical enterpris ...
Blog 23
Three ways to make teaching more enjoyable, for you and your students Celia Popovic, Teaching Commons As the Director of the Teaching Commons it is my role to help to promote effective teaching and learning at York University. But also as a faculty mem ...
Blog 24
Why do you teach the way you do? Barbara Kerr, Teaching Commons How do university students learn best? What exactly takes place in an effective learning situation? What do you want your students to learn and why? What does successful learning mean in y ...
Blog 25
Five Lessons in Online Teaching William Woolrich, LA&PS Fourteen years ago I was invited to develop a social work course on mental health. This was unusual for me in that it was to be my first foray into postsecondary teaching; but more importantly ...
Blog 26
Open Education in Higher Learning Jerusha Lederman, Teaching Commons “Open Education Week” (OEW) worldwide began on March 7 of this year. Although at York, OEW was a relatively quiet affair, Open Education fundamentally influences ways in which we te ...
Blog 27
Introducing (and Deconstructing) York’s ESL Open Learning Centre…. Geoff Lawrence, Coordinator, ESL Open Learning Centre; Assistant Professor, ESL & Applied Linguistics Tucked away on the third floor of the South Ross Building, lies a hidden teachi ...
Blog 28
The Teaching Commons authors a series of featurettes, known as "The sCoop," in order to address your concerns and provide helpful tips toward being an innovative and inspiring educator. This week's blog showcases one of our sCoop sheets on how to ...
Blog 28
This week's blog offering is a highlight of TC's new series, "The sCoop." The Teaching Commons offers a variety of "scoop" featurettes, designed to address your questions and concerns around teaching while highlighting best practices. Today's arti ...
Blog 29
On Teaching Academic Writing Part 2 Stephanie Bell, Associate Director of the Writing Centre and Assistant Professor in the Writing Department I am often told that there is no time to teach both course content and writing. Additional time would ...
Blog 3
Plan B for technology in the classroom Dr. Susan Murtha, Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning, Faculty of Health A couple of years ago my husband and I went on a road trip around parts of California. I wanted to rent a GPS, as our rented car ...
Blog 30
It's time for STAY! Natasha May, Teaching Commons This is my favourite time of year (for the past 4 years anyway). It is time for STAY! That is, the Supporting Teaching At York (STAY) Symposium. I can’t believe it was over 4 years ago when a group o ...
Blog 31
Why teachers are not a thing of the past in the digital classroom By Dimitra Giannouplaki - York undergraduate student 2016 - international exchange Apps, social media, e-platforms offer to the contemporary students opportunities that decades ago no on ...
Blog 31
Happy New Academic Year! Celia Popovic, Teaching Commons Tuesday September 6th 2016 For those of us who have spent a lifetime in education in the northern hemisphere, September is a time for new starts, for new ventures and for new faces. I can barely ...
Blog 33
The Life of a Contract Faculty Member Nearing the First Day of School Natasha May, Teaching Commons and Department of Mathematics and Statistics Monday September 19 2016 As I reflect back, the end of August is always a time of excitement and trepidatio ...
Blog 34
Dealing with the distraction of students' personal devices Susan Murtha, Associate Dean, Teaching and Learning, Faculty of Health Monday 26 September 2016 There have been a number of online news articles expressing the issues and concerns (from both th ...
Blog 35
In this 5 part series, Mandy Frake Mistak from the Teaching Commons provides an insight into her experience running and Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) at the University of Lincoln in the UK. Prologue In November 2015 I, along with my colleagues D ...
Blog 36
Dealing with the distraction of students' personal devices Susan Murtha, Associate Dean, Teaching and Learning, Faculty of Health Monday October 11 2016 There have been a number of online news articles expressing the issues and concerns (from both the ...
Blog 37
Complexity Thinking in Education: Leveraging Difference for Learning Gail Mitchell, Faculty of Health Ten years ago I realized that I could not teach one more course where students were disengaged and uninspired. The notion that there is a right and w ...
Blog 38
Thinking about feedback in translation terms Agnes Whitfield, Department of English, LA&PS This text follows up on some of the thoughtful suggestions made in the sCoop Blog 28 “Giving feedback that encourages a growth mindset.” My change in thinkin ...
Blog 39
Why I'm using Twitter as a teaching tool Dawn Bazely, Faculty of Science Dawn Bazely at York University Teaching in Focus conference May 21-22 2015 As a teen doing my homework with the tv on in the background, I would hear stuff like "you'll get squar ...
Blog 4
Teaching Indigenous Content Photo credit - Robert Snache - Spirithands Photography By Samantha Craig-Curnow, Chippewa of Rama First Nation, and Dr. Maggie Quirt, Department of Equity Studies Thanks go out to those who have helped in the writing of thi ...
Blog 40
In this 5 part series, Mandy Frake Mistak from the Teaching Commons provides an insight into her experience running and Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) at the University of Lincoln in the UK. ISW blog 2 – ISW Day 1 In my previous blog entry, I sha ...
Blog 41
#DeL 16: Anxiety and Security… By: Andrea C. Valente (Teaching Commons Tutor, PhD Candidate) DeL 16: Anxiety and Security. You’d probably be thinking that this post would be about American foreign affairs or the political race for the presidential elec ...
Blog 42
Reflecting on a Critical Pedagogy for Social Interaction between Autists and Educators By Raymond N. Peart, Autism Coordinator, Disability Services Strengthening Transitions for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder is a three-year pilot project repr ...
Blog 43
November Journal Club - Teaching Reflection in Higher Education Lisa Endersby, Educational Developer, Teaching Commons The Teaching Commons hosted the inaugural meeting of the Journal Club on Wednesday, November 16th. Our discussion of The pedagogical ...
Blog 44
In this 5 part series, Mandy Frake Mistak from the Teaching Commons provides an insight into her experience running and Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) at the University of Lincoln in the UK. ISW blog 3 – ISW Day 2 In my last blog entry I ...
Blog 45
Everyone should try science blogging Dawn Bazely This blog was originally published by Dawn here: http://dawnbazely.lab.yorku.ca/second-page/everyone-should-try-science-blogging/ I started blogging in 2006 when I became director of IRIS. Since returnin ...
Blog 46
In this 5 part series, Mandy Frake Mistak from the Teaching Commons provides an insight into her experience running and Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) at the University of Lincoln in the UK. ISW blog 3 – ISW Day 2 Having started our fourth day i ...
Blog 47
Figuring out the link between Social Media and What I do as a Biology Prof Dawn Bazely, Faculty of Science - originally published November 1st, 2013. It has, naturally, come to my attention that a lot of young people, including university stude ...
Blog 48
image - Adrian A Smith (adriansmith.ca) Social Inequality and Teaching in the Academy[1] Elaine Coburn, Glendon We live in an unequal world; these inequalities do not stop at the university classroom door. In this five-part series, I consider some ways ...
Blog 49
image – Adrian A Smith (adriansmith.ca) Social Inequality and Teaching in the Academy We live in an unequal world; these inequalities do not stop at the university classroom door. In this five-part series, I consider some ways unjust inequalities are ( ...
Blog 5
Reflecting on Experiential Education Geneviève Maheux-Pelletier At York, Experiential Education (EE) is defined as “[t]he application of theory to a concrete experience, either within the classroom or within the community, which advances the learning o ...
Blog 50
In this 5 part series, Mandy Frake Mistak from the Teaching Commons provides an insight into her experience running and Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) at the University of Lincoln in the UK. Epilogue We woke up on our last morning in Lincoln to t ...
Blog 51
image – Adrian A Smith (adriansmith.ca) Social Inequality and Teaching in the Academy We live in an unequal world; these inequalities do not stop at the university classroom door. In this five-part series, I consider some ways unjust inequalities are ( ...
Blog 52
Do you ever wonder what Active Learning could ‘taste’ like? Andrea Valente - Teaching Commons Tutor The Teaching Commons hosted its monthly meeting of the Journal Club on this past February 15th, 2017. Our discussion of the article “Is active learning ...
Blog 53
image – Adrian A Smith (adriansmith.ca) Social Inequality and Teaching in the Academy We live in an unequal world; these inequalities do not stop at the university classroom door. In this five-part series, I consider some ways unjust inequalities are ( ...
Blog 54
I'm aiming to break my class out of the cycle of "memorizing & forgetting" Dawn Bazely - Faculty of Science First published January 15, 2014 I haven't taught BIOL 4090.40, Plant Ecology for nearly 10 years. It's been shifted from Fall to Winter ter ...
Blog 55
image – Adrian A Smith (adriansmith.ca) Social Inequality and Teaching in the Academy We live in an unequal world; these inequalities do not stop at the university classroom door. In this five-part series, I consider some ways unjust inequalities are ( ...
Blog 56
March 2017 Teaching Commons Journal Club – Community Based Research and student learning Yelin Su, Educational Developer, Teaching Commons In our March 2017 Journal Club, we discussed the article Community-Based Research and Student Learning ( Hertner, ...
Blog 57
Evidence for Experience: Emerging Conversations in the Scholarship of Experiential Education Lisa Endersby, Educational Developer, Teaching Commons My recent weeks in the Teaching Commons have seen a renewed and not entirely surprising interest in expe ...
Blog 58
Teaching in Focus (TIF) annual teaching and learning conference at York Celia Popovic, Teaching Commons When I arrived at York back in November 2011, my first impression was one of a challenge as I had to negotiate a rather large building site in front ...
Blog 59
The Pedagogical Workout: Bootcamps as Innovative Teaching Practice Image source Lisa Endersby, Teaching Commons I was recently invited to attend a symposium on technology and pedagogy hosted by Contact North. The meeting, held in downtown Toronto, brou ...
Blog 6
Simulating City Council Alexandra Flynn, Osgoode Hall Law School City Council is comprised of elected officials with particular values, agendas and alliances. City Council simulations teach students that multiple parties play a role in municipal govern ...
Blog 60
What does it mean to be on the “frontlines of health”? Designing assignments to train students to discover “the story behind the story” in health policy. Claudia Chaufan, Associate Professor, School of Health Policy & Management Samantha Yoo Samant ...
Blog 61
Ontario eTeaching and eLearning Community of Practice, live debate Celia Popovic, Teaching Commons Have you ever wondered how to find people who might be interested in discussing issues around eLearning? Perhaps you are a faculty member interested in m ...
Blog 62
Journal Club Lisa Endersby, Teaching Commons The Teaching Commons hosted the inaugural meeting of the Journal Club this past April 26th. Our discussion of Putting Literacy in its Place centered on the author’s narrative account of three generations of ...
Blog 63
Teaching as Activism: A Platform for Social Change Andrea A. Davis, Associate Professor, Department of Humanities My teaching philosophy and practice are framed around a simple concept: teaching as activism. Each September as I stand before a new set ...
Blog 64
Teaching Commons Journal Club - Educational Development as Pink Collar Labor Celia Popovic and Lisa Endersby, Teaching Commons The Teaching Commons Journal Club met in May to discuss the paper by Lesley Bernhagen and Emily Gravett: Educational Developm ...
Blog 65
A Note about Autism Raymond Peart, PhD candidate, Faculty of Education I am submitting this piece as a PhD Candidate from the Faculty of Education. It has been derived from my comprehensive proposal. To this day, there are many more questions than ans ...
Blog 66
The Subway Emergency Exercise as Reflective Teaching and Learning Genevieve Maheux Pelletier, Teaching Commons For the longest time, the idea of the subway coming to York seemed like a diffuse dream, a target that kept moving further and further down t ...
Blog 67
Simulated Person Methodology Eva Peisachovich, Faculty of Health “We got to practice stuff that you might not experience in placement”. “I feel like it makes the transition from knowledge to application a lot easier”. “Just talking to them about a he ...
Blog 68
The Top Ten Lessons I Learned Teaching a Fully On-Line Course for the Very First Time Peter P. Constantinou, PhD School of Public Policy and Administration I was asked by my department to mount a fully on-line version of a course I have taught before. ...
Blog 69
It’s not about your teaching but about their learning: Increasing student engagement through the jigsaw classroom Prof. Claudia Chaufan, MD PhD School of Health Policy and Management/Global Health Program York University “Student engagement refers to ...
Blog 7
Deep Learning vs. Surface Learning: A False Dichotomy? Jon Sufrin, LA & PS It’s been more than thirty years since one of the dominant paradigms of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) emerged: the dichotomy between Deep Approaches to Lea ...
Blog 70
Teaching Wheels James Andrew Smith, Lassonde School of Engineering There are typically two ways to get feedback on teaching: through anonymous student feedback and through your colleagues on the tenure and promotion committee. But both of these mechan ...
Blog 71
Breaking Boundaries I: 10 Things Post-Secondary Educators Should Know When Working with Students with Autism Raymond Peart, ASD Coordinator (Raymond Peart): rpeart@yorku.ca Below are 10 things to consider when working with students with ASD: Every st ...
Blog 72
Musings on preparing for a new course: the use of Twitter as a course tool Alice Kim, PhD, Teaching Commons What I love most about teaching is the feeling I get when my students get excited about the course material and when I can see that the materi ...
Blog 73
Teaching Commons Journal Club - Launch of Year 2 Lisa Endersby, Teaching Commons The Teaching Commons hosted the launch of the second year of the Journal Club in mid-September. Our discussion of Making the Connection Between Research and Reality: Strat ...
Blog 74
It's not all about play! Reflections on a LEGO Workshop Lisa Endersby and Celia Popovic, Teaching Commons Concepts of creative play and hands-on learning have become staples of our teaching conversations. More broadly, our understanding of active, p ...
Blog 75
October 2017 Journal Club Blog Yelin Su, Teaching Commons In October, the Teaching Commons hosted the October meeting of the Journal Club discussing Turning Student Groups into Effective Teams. This article by Barbara Oakley et al. provides practical g ...
Blog 76
Debunking the Myth of Learning through Experience with the Subway Emergency Exercise By Geneviève Maheux-Pelletier & Lisa Endersby Geneviève & Lisa during the emergency exercise On October 25, York University participated in a massive mock emer ...
Blog 77
Problem Based Learning – The Maastricht MOOC Justin Podur, Faculty of Environmental Studies In Fall 2017, Maastricht University in the Netherlands offered the second round of its Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) in Problem Based Learning (PBL). As an ...
Blog 79
The Lego Workshop Lisa Endersby, Teaching Commons A new year is often a time to reflect, as the turning of the calendar pages prompts us to consider our past achievements and future goals. At the Teaching Commons, one area for reflection that motivates ...
Blog 8
Why should you co-teach at York University? A candid snap shot from the trenches. Marc Husband and Tina Rapke, Faculty of Education The simple answer is that academic researchers recommend it and have identified co-teaching in higher education ...
Blog 80
Is anyone else worried about the number of students purchasing essays through a third party? Susan Murtha, Faculty of Health I’m on sabbatical this year until July and I am really not supposed to be worried about academic honesty. But I am. Mainly beca ...
Blog 81
Teaching Commons Journal Club - November meeting Mandy Frake Mistak, Teaching Commons The Teaching Commons hosted a November meeting of the monthly Journal Club where we discussed an article entitled Shifting Identities and Blurring Boundaries: the Eme ...
Blog 82
January 2018 Journal Club Barbara Kerr, Teaching Commons The Teaching Commons hosted the January meeting of the Journal Club on January 16, 2018 to discuss a topic that is on the minds of many York instructors, and is in fact the theme of this year’s ...
Blog 83
Connecting Students who you Feel Might Benefit by Connecting with Student Accessibility Services Raymond Peart, ASD Coordinator (Raymond Peart): rpeart@yorku.ca As faculty at York University, you observe significant ...
Blog 84
What's in a Name? Course Design Bootcamps and the Need for a Non-Violent Language of Pedagogy Markus Reisenleitner, Department of Humanities Figure 1: U.S. Army recruits practice bayonet fighting skills at Fort Benning, Georgia in March 2004. Photo: U. ...
Blog 85
Information Literacy and Fake News The York University Libraries' Teaching, Learning, and Research Committee (TLRC) It is impossible to avoid the term fake news these days. Fast news cycles and even faster social media channels enable the spread of mis ...
Blog 86
What’s in a Name? – Teaching Commons Journal Club – February Meeting Natasha May, Teaching Commons Did you know that the Teaching Commons celebrated its 5th anniversary in 2017 and this May will be the 6th Teaching in Focus (TiF) Conference? Do you kn ...
Blog 87
The top 6 things we learned about Creative Commons (CC) Licensing Natasha May and Mandy Frake Mistak, Teaching Commons. Our educational developer community often works in collaboration – with other developers, faculty members, students, staff, and admi ...
Blog 88
Teaching with the Case Study Method Barbara Kerr, Teaching Commons Why would you want to teach using the case study method? In my opinion, there are many reasons. For example, in a 2016 document issued by the Government of Ontario that addresses defini ...
Blog 89
The Teaching Commons Journal Club Blog: March 2018 Alice Kim, Teaching Commons During our March Journal Club meeting, we discussed “The effects of attendance on academic performance: panel data evidence for introductory microeconomics” (http://teaching ...
Blog 9
The Future of Academia Natasha May, Teaching Commons Hello. My name is Natasha May and I am an Educational Developer in the Teaching Commons. I have been a member of the Teaching Commons since they opened their doors. I was a graduate student wh ...
Blog 90
Putting Student Voices to Use Raymond Peart, ASD Coordinator From Strengthening Transitions for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder to All First Year Students Registered with Student Accessibility Services Since 2014, Student Accessibility Services ...
Blog 91
The Teaching Commons Journal Club Blog: April 2018 Jerusha Lederman, Teaching Commons On April 24th, the Teaching Commons held the final Journal Club meeting of the 2017-2018 academic year. Dr. Jerusha Lederman facilitated a discussion about an artic ...
Blog 92
Welcome back! Celia Popovic, Teaching Commons September in the northern hemisphere is always a time for new beginnings, the onset of Fall and panic buying of stationery - well it is for me at least. I know that for some of us with summer classes, remed ...
Blog 93
After the first week Raymond Peart - Student Accessibility Services Over the last four years, Student Accessibility Services has asked registered students what their experiences were during their first week of school. The responses were helpful because ...
Blog 94
THE 5 MINUTE ACCESSIBILITY MAKE OVER Maureen Barnes, Director, Student Accessibility Services Things you can do immediately - The 5 Minute make over delivery always face the class and make eye contact when speaking use a microphone when necessary stru ...
Blog 94
Why do we still print the course syllabus? Sean Kheraj, LA&PS Every August, my department puts out a call for print orders for course syllabi. All course instructors are asked to submit digital files to be printed for thousands of undergraduate and ...
Blog 95
A Meaningful Learning Experience Jennifer Klein, BSc, BScN candidate For some undergraduate students the pursuit of higher education is a means to an end, for many it is an endeavour of knowledge and meaningful experiences. Many students find the post- ...
Blog 96
THE 5 MINUTE ACCESSIBILITY MAKE OVER Maureen Barnes - Student Accessibility Services Things you can do immediately - The 5 Minute make over delivery always face the class and make eye contact when speaking use a microphone when necessary structure cla ...
Blog 97
Meet the YU Experience Hub Kathleen Winningham Lisa Endersby Director, YU Experience Hub Educational Developer, Teaching Commons Supporting faculty in designing, facilitat ...
Blog 98
Teaching with a Colleague….Triumph or Terror? By Mariela Giuliano and Mandy Frake-Mistak Teaching does not need to take place in isolation. In recognizing the added value of teaching or facilitating with a colleague, we do a ...
Blog 99
"But what are you looking for?" The Conundrum of Evaluating Students Dr Steve Gennaro I distinctly remember as a younger teacher, standing in front of the lecture hall, at the podium after just explaining in great detail the final essay for a first ye ...
BOLD - Blended and Online Learning Development
[rev_slider alias="BOLD banner"] An Introduction to eLearning Interested in creating an online or blended course? Just want more detail? There are many resources that will help you learn more about what’s involved: St ...
BOLD v4 - Grid
You are interested in developing an online or blended course. The Blended and Online Development team, or BOLD, is a streamlined service designed to partner with you and work with you at ever stage of development, from conceptualization to teaching. Th ...
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Certificate in Teaching Practices
This certificate offers course directors and librarians a flexible framework for further developing your understanding of university teaching and integrating a range of teaching strategies focused on student learning. How does it help me? You will rece ...
Choosing modes of course instruction and learning activities
Modes of course instruction As mentioned above, there are 6 modes of course instruction. Except the "face-to-face" instruction, other five modes -- classroom aids, computer labs/laptop instruction, web-enhanced learning, blended learning, and fully on ...
Collaborative Learning and Academic Integrity
Research shows that group study can accelerate learning, but only if each student is a full and active participant in that learning process. Group collaboration often calls for more rather than less effort on the part of each member of the group. It ca ...
Comic Jams: Exploring experiential education and enhancing teaching and learning
Naomi Norquay and Tina Rapke The session directors (Naomi Norquay and Tina Rapke) have been using COMIC JAMS in their own classrooms to encourage students to communicate what they know about course content and build on their peers' ideas through simple ...
Communities of Practice for Faculty Teaching 1000 Level Courses
Are you a faculty member (including new and contract faculty) teaching a 1000 level course at York University this upcoming 2014-2015 academic year? Are you interested in meeting other faculty members teaching 1000 level course(s) on a regular basis t ...
Communities of Practice for New Faculty
Are you a new faculty member at York University for this upcoming 2014-2015 academic year? Are you interested in meeting other new faculty members on a regular basis to share your experiences and support each other? We are pleased to offer ‘community ...
Complexity Pedagogy and e-Learning with Daagu
This experiential workshop has two sessions separated by asynchronous e-learning activities. The first session explores basic ideas about complexity pedagogy and its potential to help you teach in a more student-centered and engaged way. Complexity lev ...
Conference Reflection - Waterloo Assessment Institute (April 2018) by Lisa Endersby
It can be both liberating and challenge to see our work as Educational Developers 'from the other side'. While I am typically involved in (and very much enjoy) facilitating workshops and other sessions, I was given the unique opportunity this month to ...
Conference Report: Canadian Society for Studies in Education (CSSE) Conference (May 2018) by Lisa Endersby
With a renewed emphasis on the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) both in the field and at the Teaching Commons, it was quite timely for me to attend this year's Canadian Society for Studies in Education (CSSE) Conference, held this year in Re ...
Conference Report: COIL Conference 2018 - Global Learning for All (March 2018) by Lisa Endersby
One of my favourite things about being an Educational Developer is the opportunity to regularly and consistently step outside my (academic and professional) comfort zone. I was fortunate enough to be invited to participate in an Academic Innovation Fun ...
Conference Report: Educational Developers Caucus (EDC) Conference (February 2018) by Mandy Frake-Mistak
Every February, Educational Developers from across Canada gather together for the Educational Developers Caucus (EDC). This most recent gathering took place at the University of Victoria from February 14-16. It is a short but very busy and very impactf ...
Conference Report: Educational Developers Caucus (EDC) Institute (October 2016) by Lisa Endersby
Oakville, ON, October 17 & 18, 2016 The theme of this year's EDC Institute was The Changing Face of Higher Education: Implications for our Work with Faculty and their Classrooms. Over two very full days of presentations and discussion, a group of E ...
Conference Report: Geological Society of America (GSA) Annual Meeting (October 2017) by Mary Helen Armour
This past October, I attended the GSA Annual meeting. This conference is one of the largest in North America on geological topics. Included as part of the conference are a large number of sessions on teaching in Earth’s Sciences. Jerusha Lederman and ...
Conference Report: International Leadership Association (ILA) Annual Conference (November 2016) by Lisa Endersby
Responding to an increased call for dialogue around the impact on and influence of technology in leadership education, I was fortunate to join a team of colleagues in delivering TEaCHing and Learning in the Digital Age at the Annual Global Conference o ...
Conference Report: Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Conference (October 2017) by Celia Popovic
POD Conference October 2017 This was my second POD (Professional and Organizational Development) Conference. The US version of Canada’s Educational Development Caucus is, as one might expect, significantly larger than our domestic conference, with appr ...
Conference Report: Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) (June 2017) by Lisa Endersby
My first experience attending the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) conference in June 2017 was at once overwhelming and inspiring. Being surrounded by colleagues from across the country and the world with a mutual commitmen ...
Conference Report: Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) (June 2017) by Mary Helen Armour
This past June, I attend the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education in Halifax N.S. This conference had many diverse sessions. Two things in particular stuck out. The first was the opening Keynote speaker, David Boud from Sydney, Austr ...
Conference Report: Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) (June 2018)
The Teaching Commons had a strong showing at this year's Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) conference in Sherbrooke, QC. Each of us has reflected on our experience and shared our insights and new ideas in the conference repo ...
Conference Report: Teaching and Learning Today (May 2018) by Celia Popovic
The conference themes of indigenizing and opening academia did not at first glance appear to sit well together. In the first instance, questions abound as to how we ensure the inclusion of indigenous voices, ways of being and knowledge into the Higher ...
Conference Reports
Staff in the Teaching Commons attend various conferences and other professional development events throughout the year. Linked below are reports from these conferences, outlining lessons learned and valuable insights that help to inform our work in sup ...
Conferences
This page is a list of conferences and symposia held at York and externally on various themes on teaching and learning in higher education. Some are general and some are discipline related. You may be interested in attending, submitting proposals, or ...
Context for the eLearning strategy
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.Course & Curriculum Design
Course design is a reasoned approach to developing a course that generally starts with defining tangible learning outcomes (LOs) for a given course. Once the LOs are identified, the next steps are to plan and closely align teaching and learning activit ...
Course & Curriculum Design Workshops
The Teaching Commons offers a series of workshops for course directors who would like to enhance an existing course, or create a new course design. The sessions provide you with thorough, creative and practical strategies for developing your course. T ...
Course Director / Student Relationship
As a Course Director at York University, you may be a full-time faculty member (Contractually Limited Appointment (CLA), tenure track etc.) or a contract faculty member. Regardless of your role, as defined in STATEMENT OF RESPONSIBILITIES, 1. Teaching ...
Course Director / Teaching Assistant Relationship
As a Course Director you may or may not have one or more Teaching Assistants (TAs) to assist with your course. In the event that you are fortunate to have at least one TA working with you, the following information and guidance will help make your tim ...
Course Director Handbook
Welcome to York University as a Course Director! No matter how much experience you have teaching at York or elsewhere, whether you are new to teaching or just new to teaching at York, even if you have been teaching for many years in any capacity, thi ...
Course Directors
What is a Course Director? At York this is the person who is responsible for preparing and delivering a graduate or undergraduate course (3, 6 or occasionally 9 credits). This includes tenured and tenured stream faculty, contract faculty, CLAs and TAs ...
Course Outline
Creating a course outline (or course syllabus) is more than just copying the course description from the calendar, including your information as the course director and identifying the grade breakdown for students. The website of the Academic Standards ...
Courses
The Teaching Commons offers a host of courses on a wide range of topics and content. Many of our courses are accredited by the Educational Developers Caucus (EDC), are offered through a variety of formats (face to face, blended), and are made available ...
Courses
The Teaching Commons offers a host of courses on a wide range of topics and content. Many of our courses are accredited by the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA), are offered through a variety of formats (face to face, blended), and a ...
CPR - Main Page
All undergraduate and graduate degree/diploma programs are required to be reviewed within 8 years of the previous cyclical review for quality improvement and assurance purposes following the protocols stipulated by the York University Quality Assurance ...
Creating the Conditions for Listening and Uncertainty
Lana Parker Working through uncertainty through exposure to varied voices and perspectives is both ethical (Levinas, 1989; 2011) and productive for learning (Parker, in press). In this interactive session, I will share some of my experiences teaching a ...
CUPE Conversion and Career Support
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.Dealing with Disruptions in the Classroom
Disruptive behaviour in the university classroom is a concern for Course Directors and students alike. Simply put, disruptive behaviour is any behaviour that hampers the ability of instructors to teach or students to learn. Many faculty members feel th ...
Designing Assignments that Foster Academic Integrity
Assignment design is key to encouraging integrity in students’ work. There are three general principles that should be followed when designing assignments: specificity, embeddedness, and process. Specificity The more specific the assignment the less li ...
Designing Courses that Foster Academic Integrity
Before you begin designing your course to foster academic integrity, it is helpful to understand why students commit breaches of academic honesty. This will enable you to determine some simple overarching principles and strategies to overcome these re ...
Desserts
3 Ways to Start and End Your Course - Alice Cassidy (In View Educational Development) 3x Summarization - Lisa Endersby (York University) Content Mastery Assessment and Feedback without Letter Grades - Dr. Brian Lamb (University of Central Oklahoma) Dra ...
Developing the Developer: A One Year Development Plan and Resource for New Educational Developers
This resource includes a one-year professional development plan and supporting materials for centres of teaching support to induct and develop new educational developers. While it may be of use for any new hire, the focus is on relatively new entrants ...
Development of online environment
Once you have thought through the outcomes and activities for your course, you will need to consider how you are going to build it. You may have come to a conclusion about whether your course will be web enhanced, blended or completely online. However, ...
DRAFT v2 BOLD Accordion
If you’re interested in developing an online or blended course, you’ve come to the right place. The Blended and Online Development team, or BOLD, is a streamlined service designed to partner with you at every stage of development, from conceptualizatio ...
DRAFT v3 - BOLD layout
If you’re interested in developing an online or blended course, you’ve come to the right place. The Blended and Online Development team, or BOLD, is a streamlined service designed to partner with you at every stage of development, from conceptualizatio ...
eBook study participation
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eBookstudy
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.EDC Conference 2017 report
The 2017 Educational Developers Caucus Annual Conference took place in Guelph, Ontario. This annual conference is a key event for educational developers across Canada, and beyond.This year was no exception. The two day conference is preceded by pre-con ...
EduCATE - Education, Curriculum, And Teaching Excellence
This is a one year program for faculty to explore any aspect of teaching and learning by engaging in action research and contributing to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). Faculty will meet once a month with core members of EduCATE or as ...
Educational Developer Services
Individual consultations To request services, please contact your liaison educational developer http://teachingcommons.yorku.ca/about-us/ Course design Assessments Teaching and learning activities to achieve course learning outcomes Providing feedback ...
Educational Developer Services
What support can I expect from a Teaching Commons Educational Developer? Teaching and Learning Workshops, Courses, and Events Explore a range of topics including Experiential Education, eLearning, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), cours ...
Educational Developers' Cookbook
This is a collection of practical ideas offered for use by the educational development community. Based on the notion of a cook book put together by a community we offer Starters (ice breakers), Main Courses (ideas for workshops and events) and Dessert ...
Educational Development
Have you ever wondered what Educational Development is, or what Educational Developers do? Maybe you are interested in becoming an Educational Developer and want to know where to begin. Perhaps you have been recently hired as an Educational Developer ...
EE Lead Coordinators
Each Faculty now has a local point of contact for Experiential Education: Faculty of Education Chloe Brushwood-Rose Associate Dean, Academic Programs brushwood-rose@edu.yorku.ca Faculty of Engineering Amy Gaukel Assistant Dean, Students amy.gaukel@lass ...
eLearning
eLearning is a broad concept. It ranges from minimal use of technology in an otherwise traditional classroom through to complete online deliver of a course or even an entire program. York University, through the AVP Teaching and Learning Office, has de ...
eLearning @ York Course
Introduction eLearning @ York is an experiential learning course in which participants will combine pedagogical theories with first-hand experience to the design of fully online and blended courses. This hands-on course will have participants design di ...
eLearning Workshops
Using Technology to Facilitate Student Engagement This one day intensive workshop is designed to help colleagues who are interested in eLearning but have limited experience to start integrating technologies in teaching. This workshop introduces technic ...
Engaging Students in Large Classes
Engaging students with their learning in large lectures Brenda Orazietti Nursing Educator, Faculty of Health Part 1 of 3 https://youtu.be/mda7MTlw0ss View Transcript for the Brenda Orazietti Video, Part 1 Part 2 of 3 https://youtu.be/ooG9lWbrrIY View T ...
Engaging Students with EE - How to Design Your Courses Using Experiential Education
Lisa Violo Do you like the idea of designing your lectures and assessments using experiential education but you don’t know how to get started? This interactive session will teach you how to transition any course to incorporate your desired level of EE ...
Ethics of SoTL Research
“Teachers who act also as scholars of teaching and learning in the practice of their discipline must consider the ethics of their dual roles in situations in which their students are also their subjects of research” (MacLean & Poole 2010: 1). SoTL ...
Evaluation of the course
Another integral part of curriculum design, face-to-face or online, would be plans for the course evaluation. How would you determine effectiveness of your course to inform the future improvement and development? One of the most commonly used evaluati ...
Evaluation of your Teaching and Feedback from your Students and Colleagues
The Secretariat Policy on Student Evaluation of Teaching encourages instructors to seek student feedback on teaching on at least one occasion during the course, and to continue to make more frequent requests for feedback and to seek it in a variety of ...
Events
In addition to our courses and workshops, the Teaching Commons hosts numerous events throughout the year. Check back frequently as this list is continuously being updated with new and exciting events that you don't want to miss. Formative Classroom Obs ...
Events
In addition to our courses and workshops, the Teaching Commons hosts numerous events throughout the year, including our annual TA and ITA Orientation in the first week in September and our annual Supporting Teaching At York (STAY) Symposium on the firs ...
Examinations
Since the process of cheating on an exam is quite different from plagiarizing an essay, different strategies must be used to address this problem. Again, it is much better to prevent cheating than merely detect it. The rules of behaviour in exams shoul ...
Experiential Education
Experiential Education is the application of theory to a concrete experience, either within the classroom, within the community or within the workplace, which advances the learning outcomes of a course or program. It requires students to reflect upon t ...
Experiential Education Tutorials
Introduction to Experiential Education https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Upne6npBPtc
Experiential Education Workshops
Experiential education can be defined as a pedagogical approach that affords students the opportunity to apply theory to a concrete experience in a manner that advances the learning objectives of a course or program* and includes opportunities to refle ...
External Awards & Fellowships
This page contains information and links to numerous teaching awards available across the larger university community: External Awards & Fellowships Discipline Specific Teaching Awards External Awards & Fellowships 3M Teaching Fellowship ...
External Teaching Conferences
This page is a list of external conferences on various themes on teaching and learning in higher education across North America and Internationally. Educational Developers attend various conferences both at home and abroad. Our conference reports offer ...
Facilitating Effective Group Work
The majority of resources listed below include information about facilitating, teaching, and assessing effective group work as part of in class assignments. This also includes links to discussions of teamwork and group dynamics. Turning Student Groups ...
Facilitator Development Workshop (FDW)
The Facilitator Development Workshop, or FDW, is a five-day training event to prepare experienced university teachers to lead the Instructional Skills Workshop. The activities of the ISW form the nucleus of the FDW. As in the ISW, participants will con ...
Faculty and Department Specific Events and Initiatives
The Teaching Commons offers assistance to units, departments and faculties wishing to organize their own teaching and learning events and initiatives. The teaching Commons is able to help with a wide range of needs from tailor-made professional develop ...
Faculty Contacts
AMPD – Natasha May (maynat@yorku.ca) Environmental Studies – Mandy Frake-Mistak (mfmistak@yorku.ca) Glendon – Geneviève Maheux-Pelletier (gmp@yorku.ca) Health - Mandy Frake-Mistak (mfmistak@yorku.ca) LA&PS, Humanities - Geneviève Maheux-Pelletier ( ...
Faculty Guidelines on Academic Accommodations
The following highlights the process and protocol for accommodating students, including both the student's and the course director's responsibilities. NOTE: Academic accommodations are meant to remove barriers faced by students with disabilities in ord ...
Faculty Information Gateway
This resource is maintained collaboratively by the Teaching Commons and York University Libraries. https://youtu.be/98PWjMb9CPg View Transcript for Faculty Information Gateway Video This page is intended for everybody who teaches @ York University! Tea ...
Faculty Lead Coordinators for eLearning
Division of Continuing Education Richard Louttet Director, Professional Education Programs Richard Louttet Contact Information Faculty of Education Chloe Brushwood Rose Associate Dean, Academic programs Chloe Brushwood Rose Contact Information Faculty ...
Faculty Voices for Accommodations and Inclusive Teaching
The Teaching Commons’ Teaching and Learning Blog incorporates faculty member’s voices on their experiences of different issues related to teaching and learning. The following are blogs written by faculty members and staff at York related to accommodat ...
Faculty Voices for Assessment
The Teaching Commons’ Teaching and Learning Blog incorporates faculty member’s voices on their experiences of different issues related to teaching and learning. The following are blogs written by faculty members and staff at York related to assessment ...
Faculty Voices for Course and Curriculum Design
The Teaching Commons’ Teaching and Learning Blog incorporates faculty member’s voices on their experiences of different issues related to teaching and learning. The following are blogs written by faculty members and staff at York related to course and ...
Faculty Voices for eLearning
The Teaching Commons’ Teaching and Learning Blog incorporates faculty member’s voices on their experiences of different issues related to teaching and learning. The following are blogs written by faculty members and staff at York related to eLearning. ...
Faculty Voices for Experiential Education
The Teaching Commons’ Teaching and Learning Blog incorporates faculty member’s voices on their experiences of different issues related to teaching and learning. The following are blogs written by faculty members and staff at York related to Experienti ...
Faculty Voices for Student Success
The Teaching Commons’ Teaching and Learning Blog incorporates faculty member's voices on their experiences of different issues related to teaching and learning. The following are blogs written by faculty members and staff at York related to supporting ...
Faculty Voices for Teaching Strategies
The Teaching Commons’ Teaching and Learning Blog incorporates faculty member’s voices on their experiences of different issues related to teaching and learning. The following are blogs written by faculty members and staff at York related to teaching s ...
First Year Experience
The first year of university is a time of social and academic transition for students, and their early experiences are critical to their success (Tinto 1994). Facing the unprecedented challenges in students experience, students success, and student ret ...
First Year Student Experience Workshops
The Teaching Commons offers support to Course Directors who teach students in their first year of their undergraduate studies. This time of transition for students may often be exciting but it is also a time of challenge and unrest for many. We offer w ...
For International Teaching Assistants (ITAs)
At York, we are fortunate to have students from around the world participating in our graduate programs and enriching the social and academic life of the university. In addition to the difficulties that can be part of the life of any TA, the particular ...
Formative Classroom Observation Program
The Teaching Commons is offering colleagues who teach at York (Course Directors) the opportunity to participate in a formative teaching observation. This process is not a formal evaluation or assessment, but rather a voluntary and collaborative activit ...
Free Resources
Although most of the content available on these websites can be used for free, it is recommended that you cite all materials that don't belong to you in your courses. It's also important to read any licensing information provided with the conten ...
From Clickers to Trolls: Rethinking Anonymity in Teaching
Maggie Quirt Contemporary pedagogical techniques often rely on – and indeed, ensure – the anonymous participation of students. Clickers and online polls, increasingly used in e-learning and distance education initiatives, can be conducted so that indiv ...
FYE Study Informed Consent Form
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Gallery testing
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getsocial
Join our dynamic community by logging in with your existing social media accounts or creating a free TC Talks! user profile to: Comment on site content Network with members in our teaching and learning community of practice send private messages to oth ...
Graduate Students
What is a Graduate Student? A graduate student is any part-time or full-time student registered in any graduate program at York University. A graduate student may or may not have a funding package which includes a GAship, RAship or TAship. Nonetheles ...
Group Work in Online Courses: On the Road to Success
Michael De Robertis Collaborative learning is an essential component of the student experience. It is, however, a challenge for the fully on-line environment. While Moodle facilitates communication among members in small groups, we have found it take ...
Groups
Guidelines for the Use of Text Matching Software Services
Turnitin is an Internet-based service created at the University of California, Berkeley. Essentially, Turnitin scans submitted works for similarity to material in public websites, academic journals, papers purchased from an essay mill, etc., and to ess ...
How?
How to Become an Educational Developer? How to Succeed as an Educational Developer? How to Become an Educational Developer? “What is the appropriate skill set for a developer? Clearly, knowledge of university teaching and learning pedagogy is required, ...
Identifying Learning Outcomes and selecting Assessment Tasks
Learning outcomes There are many benefits to communicating learning goals and outcomes. They help us keep in mind the learning that needs to be facilitated, and learners understand the learning they will need to be able to demonstrate. Learning goals a ...
Indigenous Teaching and Learning
Land Acknowledgement York University acknowledges its presence on the traditional territory of many Indigenous Nations. The area known as Tkaronto has been care taken by the Anishinabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Huron-Wendat, an ...
Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW)
The Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) is a Canadian, grassroots, certificate program. During this intensive three-day workshop (24 hours in total), participants will work collaboratively in a small group setting (e.g. 1 Facilitator: 5 Participants) t ...
Internal Awards & Grants
This page contains information about the following teaching awards: The President's University-Wide Teaching Awards (PUWTA) CUPE 3903 Unit 2 Teaching Development Grants York University Faculty Association Teaching-Learning Development Grants (YUFA) Yor ...
Intersubjectivity in the Holistic Teaching of the Sociology of Religion at Glendon College in Toronto
Véronique Tomaszewski How would you engage students so that they acquire critical thinking skills towards others’ systems of beliefs while examining their own? I did by progressively implementing a contemplative pedagogy to overcome students’ lack of s ...
Introduction to teaching with cases
Are you interested in incorporating the Teaching with Cases Method into your classes, but aren’t sure how to get started? In this workshop participants will gain a better understanding of the case method by experiencing the steps in the case teaching p ...
January Journal Club - Cutting the Distance in Distance Education
Lisa Endersby, Educational Developer, Teaching Commons The Teaching Commons hosted the first Journal Club meeting of 2017 on Wednesday, January 18th to discuss Cutting the distance of distance education: Perspectives on what promotes positive, online l ...
January-February 2017
Incorporating Online Environments into Tutorials By Melanie Wilmink Between your iPhone, e-reader, and smartwatch, technology clearly infiltrates every aspect of private life. Academia generally lags technologically, for many monetary and bureaucratic ...
Journal Club
The Teaching Commons hosts a monthly Journal Club meeting to facilitate and encourage informal discussions of the scholarship of teaching and learning. Join us in reading a new article each month to discuss ideas, reactions, and questions with fellow c ...
Journal Club Articles
The Teaching Commons hosts a monthly Journal Club meeting to facilitate and encourage informal discussions of the scholarship of teaching and learning. Join us in reading a new article each month to discuss ideas, reactions, and questions with fellow c ...
Learning Together about Teaching: Pursuing Critical Pedagogy as a Community of Practice
Pat Breton, Katherine Chung, Mariela Giuliano, Raha Sheivari Teaching critical learning often presents challenges for teachers and students. How can the efforts of critical educators be supported within a community of practice? Critical education seeks ...
Leave your Ego at the Door: Meeting the Challenge of Multi-Sectioned Courses
Paula Wilson, Jennifer Connolly, Stephen Watson, Gordana Colby Large programs and courses in high demand often result in large multi-sectioned courses in first and second year, which in turn create a challenge for maintaining consistency in content, ou ...
Lego as a Teaching Tool
Lego as a tool for teaching and learning can be implemented across disciplines, topics, and classrooms as a means to encourage creative and critical thinking. It can also help to create an environment where creativity and risk taking is encouraged, oft ...
Main Course
5 Days of Digital Literacy - Jason Williams (Angila Ruskin University) 12 Apps of Christmas - Chris Rowell (Regent's University London) Accessibility Awareness Workshop - Bob Parson Bonfire of the Adjectives: Exploring Standardisation - Duncan Cross (U ...
MakerSpace
The TIF MakerSpace is an opportunity to be exposed to various technologies that can support teaching and learning in your courses. This hands-on, interactive session will provide tools and resources for you to try your hand at creating a new "tech tool ...
Managing Conflict in the Classroom
Handling conflict and tension can be a challenge for even the most seasoned teaching assistant. Although you can do your best to establish and maintain a positive classroom space for all of your students, conflicts may arise. Here are some behaviours t ...
March 2017
Richard Jarrell Teaching Assistant Award By Uzma Nadeem It was one of the best moments of my life when I received an email from the Chair of my Department that I have been selected as a recipient of the 2017 Richard Jarrell Teaching Assistant Award in ...
Marking and Detecting Plagiarism
The smaller tutorial and lab settings can enable you to better able to connect with students on an individual level and set a positive climate for honest academic effort. Academic integrity can be promoted in a variety of ways: Reinforcing the students ...
Meet Our Team
[row][column size="1/4" center="no" class=""] [/column] [column size="1/4" center="no" class=""] Geneviève Maheux-Pelletier, PhD, PMP Interim Director Liaison for Glendon College 416.736.2100 ext. 55922 gmp@yorku.ca [lightbox type="inline" src="#Maheux ...
Members
New Faculty Orientation Events
2018 New Faculty Orientation Welcome to York University! We are delighted to have you join our community of teachers and scholars. We invite you to join us in the 2018 New Faculty Orientation events: The "Welcome to York Day" on August 28, 2018 (Day on ...
Newsletters en français!
Septembre-octobre 2015: Une rentrée d'idées ! Avril 2015: Ca sent le printemps ! Mars 2015: Les Teaching Commons se déplace à Glendon !
November-December 2016
Designing my First Lecture By Diane Sepa-Kishi I was fortunate this year to be given the opportunity to create and give my own lecture as part of my TA duties for an upper year course. Naturally I jumped at the chance! I’d guest-lectured a few times pr ...
Obtaining Feedback from Colleagues
You may consider requesting feedback from peers and/or mentors, including more experienced course directors. This is an excellent way for you to receive a variety of different points of view about your teaching and potentially obtain future references ...
Obtaining Feedback from Students
Receiving feedback from your students about your teaching helps you identify and meet the needs of your students. It also assists you in improving and further developing your teaching. Students can provide you feedback on your everyday teaching experie ...
October 2016
Dealing with Conflict By Jessica Whitehead During my first year as a Teaching Assistant, my worst nightmare happened—a student was unhappy with their grade— and was sending me increasingly threatening emails. In my personal life, I avoid conflict like ...
OER's @ York
Sorry we're open by kittyz202. CC Attribution License 2.0 Open Educational Resourcing (OER's) @ York Lisa O'Neill, Teaching Commons As we begin a new academic year, it's timely to reconsider how we develop engaging educational resources. If an image is ...
On Designing Universities That Work
"Evidence suggests that many of our common teaching and learning practices, across both Eastern and Western universities, are at best suboptimal, in many cases ineffective, and on occasion a complete waste of time." In this provocative TedX talk, Adair ...
Pedagogies of Production: Building a Modular Online Learning Environment to Support New (Media) Pedagogies
Kurt Thumlert, and Jen Jenson Recent educational literature suggests that traditional models of education - and online learning - designed to meet late 20th century aims and purposes are no longer adequate to the challenges and opportunities facing 21s ...
Planning and Prepping for your TAship
This is an overview of planning for the course in which you will be a TA, including how to prepare for your first class, ideas for ice breaker activities and supporting your students outside of class during office hours. Planning Your Course – An Overv ...
Presenter Materials
Welcome, here you can access materials presented at TIF 2016 and graciously made available by the author(s). To have your materials published on this page, or if you have any questions or concerns, please e-mail Jerusha Lederman TIF 2016 Materi ...
Put Student Smartphones to Use in the Classroom Using Kahoot!
Wendy McGuire In this interactive session, you will learn about the free online gaming program, Kahoot! Through this program, you can create games that students play, as individuals or in teams, using their smartphones or laptops during class. Kahoot q ...
Putting Together Your Teaching Dossier Workshop
The teaching dossier or teaching portfolio is a condensed reflection of your teaching philosophy and accomplishments. It serves as a tool that will provide evidence of your teaching quality and effectiveness. This interactive workshop will provide you ...
Quality Assurance
Introduction In compliance with the The Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) developed by the Council of Ontario Universities, York has developed and implemented the York University Quality Assurance Protocols and Procedures (YUQAP) as the core of its qua ...
Reading list
A reading list for anyone interested in teaching and learning in post secondary education Ambrose, S.A., Bridges,M.W., and DiPietro, M. (2010) How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching, 1st Edition, Jossey-Bass, ISBN-10: 0 ...
Reading List and Resources
Reading List Barnett, R. (2001). Managing universities in a supercomplex age. In M. Cutright (Ed.), Chaos theory and higher education: Leadership, planning and policy (13-32). New York: Peter Lang. Barnett argues that Universities are “supercomplex”—no ...
References
References
Angelo, T. A. & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers (2nd edition). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Barr, Robert B. & Tagg, John. (1995, November/December). From teaching to learning - A new paradigm ...
References
Belter, R., & du Pre, A. (2009). A strategy to reduce plagiarism in an undergraduate course. Teaching of Psychology, 36(4), 257-261. Carroll, J., & Appleton, J. (2001). Plagiarism: A good practice guide. Retrieved from https://www.webarchive.or ...
Resources
This page contains a list of resources arranged alphabetically by topic. Clicking on each link will take you to a separate page where you will find a host of information and resources to assist you in the design and delivery of your course, enhancement ...
Resources for TAs
The majority of resources listed below have been written and created by York Graduate TAs for Graduate TAs. These resources have been organized under the following headings: Examples of good practice at York TA Resources by Topic TA Handbooks Discipli ...
Responsibilities and Principles
Continuous program-level YUQAP responsibilities note: make info graphics and flow charts for these content Institutional and sectoral alignment Alignment with governing documents and institutional planning Alignment with innovations in non-York corolla ...
Sample blended eLearning courses at York University
Globally Networked Learning (GNL) Samples from LAPS and Health AIF projects The samples below cover good practices of adapting a face to face course to a blended/online course Four faculty members adapted their individual face to face courses to blende ...
Scholarship of Teaching & Learning
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is the systematic study of student learning in an attempt to find out what works best for their learning. Similarly to researchers in other academic disciplines, SoTL scholars adopt an empirical approach ...
Self-Evaluation and Reflection
Donald Schön’s (1983, 1987) “formative and influential notion of ‘reflective practice’” (Bleakley, 1999, p. 319) has been widely adopted in higher education. The Reflective Practitioner (1983) , challenged practitioners to reconsider the role of techni ...
Senate Policies on Teaching & Learning
This web page is designed to highlight and bring together in one place the policies and guidelines that will enable you to effectively carry out your responsibilities related to teaching. Whether you are new to York or an experienced professor, we hope ...
Senior Teaching Assistant (STA) Program: Exploring Educational Development
This EDC (Educational Developers Caucus) accredited course is for experienced TAs interested in developing teaching and learning with their peers. It consists of two 3.5-hour classes in the Fall semester and two full day sessions, one in March and the ...
September 2016
Teaching a New Course By Mariela Giuliano I can still remember the precise moment, when I received the e-mail from my department coordinator letting m ...
Simulation in Education: Targeting the Domains of Learning
Loriann Hynes and Laura Nicholson Simulation has been used in education in many ways, across multiple disciplines for several years. It is a very student-centred approach to learning, ranging from simple and inexpensive to very complex and utilizing st ...
SoTL
SoTL stands for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. At the Teaching Commons we offer a number of initiatives to help support and inform your SoTL research. If you have SoTL project in mind, would like assistance with your project, or are simply ...
Starters
3 Ways to Start and End Your Course - Alice Cassidy (In View Educational Development) Buttons - Mandy Frake-Mistak (York University) Cheese Straw Confessions - Sarra Saffron Powell (Freelance Academic Writing Specialist) Feedback Sizzle - Iddo Oberski ...
STAY Symposium
Join us on Friday May 3rd, 2019, Location TDB, for the Sixth Annual Supporting Teaching At York (STAY) Symposium, featuring sessions prepared by our current 2018-2019 Senior Teaching Assistants (STAs) at York. Sessions include a broad range of topics ...
STAY Symposium Agenda, May 2, 2014
9:00 – 9:45 Registration/Sign-In 10:00 – 10:30 Opening Plenary - Dr. Celia Popovic (TEL 0016) 10:30 – 10:45 Break 10:45 – 11:30 Concurrent Session 1: Session 1 – Rm 0009 Theresa Beesley “Oh I get It Now” Putting Popul ...
Student Consultants on Teaching at York (SCOTAY)
This academic year, the Teaching Commons has launched an exciting initiative: SCOTAY, or Student Consultants on Teaching at York. The SCOTAYs are undergraduate students from the Faculty of Education with a keen interest in teaching and lear ...
Student laptop use in the Higher Education classroom
Literature Review : Student Laptop Use in the Higher Education Classroom Dr. Jerusha Lederman Literature Review : Student Laptop Use in the Higher Education Classroom by Jerusha Lederman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4. ...
Student Voices
The Teaching Commons' Teaching and Learning Blog incorporates student voices on their experiences of different issues related to teaching and learning. The following are blogs written by students. What does it mean to be on the “frontlines of health”? ...
Studio Courses and Academic Honesty
Studio courses present different challenges in regard to plagiarism and academic honesty. Evaluation practices that include an ongoing process through active participation, in-class critiquing, and collaboration can help discourage plagiarism. Some spe ...
Supervising Graduate Students at York
Supervision and Mentorship in the Changing Landscape of Graduate Education The Teaching Commons and the Faculty of Graduate Studies are pleased to offer two half day workshops for Doctorate and Masters Supervisors at York University. The two workshops ...
Supervising Graduate Students@York
Supervising Graduate Students at York is a three day course delivered over three months. Participants will develop their skills as supervisors of Masters or Doctorate students within the context of York University. This course is suitable for experienc ...
Supplemental Instruction
Supplemental Instruction is a well- recognized approach to supporting student learning incorporating peer instruction. York is using this approach to support students in high risk courses. Canadian National Training Centre - University of Guelph - inf ...
Supporting Teaching At York (STAY) Symposium 2015
Join us on Friday May 1st, 2015 for the Third Annual Supporting Teaching At York (STAY) Symposium, featuring sessions prepared by our current 2014-2015 Senior Teaching Assistants (STAs) at York. Sessions include a broad range of topics central to the ...
Supporting Teaching At York (STAY) Symposium 2016
Join us on Friday May 6th, 2016 in the Life Sciences Building, LSB 103, for the Fourth Annual Supporting Teaching At York (STAY) Symposium, featuring sessions prepared by our current 2015-2016 Senior Teaching Assistants (STAs) at York. Sessions includ ...
Supporting Teaching At York (STAY) Symposium 2017
Join us on Friday May 5th, 2017 in Life Sciences Building, Room 103, for the Fifth Annual Supporting Teaching At York (STAY) Symposium, featuring sessions prepared by our current 2016-2017 Senior Teaching Assistants (STAs) at York. Sessions include a b ...
Supporting York University Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder
As more students are entering post-secondary in Ontario, there is a need across the province to address the unique needs of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Universities are finding themselves unprepared to support post-secondary students ...
Synchronous Blended Learning: Lessons Learned and Agenda for Action
Simone Bohn Although challenging at first, synchronous blended learning provides students and course directors with an excellent educational opportunity, given its high level of interactivity, dynamism, and opportunity for dialogue. This poster will ex ...
TA and ITA Orientation
All new graduate student are invited to attend a Teaching Assistant (TA) or International Teaching Assistant (ITA) Orientation session in the first week of September. During this 3 hour session you will be provided with resources and guidance to help ...
TA Certificate in Teaching (TACT)
This EDC (Educational Developers Caucus) accredited course is for Teaching Assistants to learn more about teaching in post-secondary education. It comprises 5 three hour face to face sessions plus an additional online component (4 online modules). Thro ...
TA Drop-in Hours at the TC Lounge
Teaching Commons Tutors (TCTs) will offer drop-in hours for ALL TAs (including future TAs) in our new TC lounge space (pictured below) located in DB 1050 (through the glass doors also pictured below). This will be a great opportunity to meet and netwo ...
TA Roles and Responsibilities
After you have identified the kind of teaching assistantship you have been assigned, it is important to consider to whom you are responsible. The following section outlines your role and responsibility to your students, to your course director, and to ...
TA Voices
The Teaching Commons’ Teaching and Learning Blog incorporates Teaching Assistant (TA) voices on their experiences of different issues related to teaching and learning. The following are blogs written by teaching assistants. For the love of teaching: O ...
Taking the SoTL Leap Together: One Research Question, Three Studies, a Wealth of Benefits (and a Few Hurdles)
Geneviève Maheux-Pelletier, Linda Carozza, Jon Sufrin At the beginning of the 2016-2017 academic year, we were poised to engage with SoTL but realized that the investment required for a systematic study surpassed our individual ability to deliver. Henc ...
TC Connect!
The Teaching Commons has a new mobile phone application to help you keep track of, register for, and manage your participation in our events. Download the free app now to access event calendars, browse Educational Development news and get schedule r ...
Teaching Academy
This two semester course will be offered in the form of a monthly face to face meeting plus online activity over a period of 6 months (October-December, January-March). We are seeking EDC (Educational Developers' Caucus) accreditation for the course to ...
Teaching Assistants: Creating an effective partnership
Nicole Nivillac, Uzma Nadeem and Alessandro Filazzola Teaching Assistants (TAs) are on the front lines of teaching York’s undergraduate students. Maintaining a good working relationship between TAs and course instructors is key to creating an effective ...
Teaching Commons Blog - teaching and learning at York
Each week from September to May we publish a blog written by and for the York teaching community. Contact Geneviève Maheux-Pelletier - gmp@yorku.ca if you would like to provide a blog posting. 2018- 2019 Creating a Video Introduction for your Online Co ...
Teaching Commons CV
2015 to 2018 1. Publications and Presentations Peer reviewed journal publications Popovic, C., Frake-Mistak, M. Jeppesen, A., Korpan, C., Sheffield, S., & Weyers, M. (2018). Shoes for the shoemaker's children: Providing an accreditation process for ...
Teaching Commons Newsletter for Graduate Students
January 2019: Welcoming a New Calendar Year and a Fresh Start November / December 2018: Workshops in November and December October 2018: Falling Into A Spooktacular Semester! September 2018: Establish or Renew Your Membership with the Teaching Commons ...
Teaching Commons Newsletters
January 2019: Happy New Year! November-December 2018: Winter Wrap Up! October 2018: October Edition September 2018: New Beginnings July/August 2018: Summer Edition May 2018: Welcome May April 2018: With spring comes renewal March 2018: Renewal and loo ...
Teaching Commons Tutor (TCT) Position
Teaching Commons Tutors (TCTs) are doctoral students, who help the Teaching Commons to provide support and advice to TAs across the University. To be eligible for a TCT position, you must be a full-time graduate student with proven interest in univers ...
Teaching Commons Webinar
The Teaching Commons facilitate and/or organize Webinars during the Fall and Winter semester. These webinars will introduce and discuss latest good practices regarding the important teaching and learning topics as suggested by the York teaching collea ...
Teaching Commons’ eLearning Guide
Introduction eLearning is a broad concept. Any learning that is ‘…facilitated and supported through the use of information and communications technology’ could be considered as eLearning (HEFC, 2004, p. 10). At York, the eLearning is defined as eLearni ...
Teaching Dossiers
The Teaching Commons provides teaching dossier support to university teachers through the facilitation of workshops and links to online supports and resources. These resources and collaborative workshops are designed to help you – the university teach ...
Teaching Generation Z
William Gleberzon and Jacqueline Petropoulos This panel discusses some of the challenges we have encountered teaching the “new millennial” generation of students and the teaching strategies we have used to meet these challenges. The first panelist dis ...
Teaching in Focus 2014 Conference: Educational Innovation & Transformation
Teaching in Focus (TIF) Conference is the pan-university conference in Teaching and Learning at York University. This peer reviewed conference is for all who teach or support student learning at York to celebrate teaching, share experience and innovati ...
Teaching in Focus 2015 Conference
Teaching in Focus (TIF) Conference is York University's annual celebration of teaching and learning. Due to the popularity of the event in the first two years, this year we have extended to a two-day TIF conference. This year TIF conference will take p ...
Teaching in Focus Conference 2017
Date: May 17 and May 18, 2017 TIF 2017 Conference details This year, we were delighted to welcome Nancy Chick from Calgary as our keynote speaker. TIF Conference, #yorku .Keynote speaker Dr. Nancy Chick Publishing SoTL " (author) embracing a sense of s ...
Teaching Indigenous Content Workshop
Teaching Commons has scheduled a two-hour “Teaching Indigenous content” workshop on how to teach Indigenous content ethically. Indigenous students have voiced concern about the detrimental effects of instructors teaching incorrect info about Indigenous ...
Teaching Strategies
This web page has been created to assist you build a repertoire of strategies and activities that you can use in your classroom to deliver important content and curriculum to your students in meaningful ways. There are endless opportunities in the clas ...
Teaching Wheels
At York the Teaching Commons (TC) Teaching Wheels program is a variation on the very successful Teaching Squares Program. It is designed to support classroom practice by building community through a non-evaluative process of classroom observation and s ...
Team-Based Learning in the Sciences
Lauren Grant Team-based learning is a pedagogical approach that uses permanent student teams to motivate and help students learn in both small and large (~200 students) classes. Learning is structured around three components: Individual pre-class prepa ...
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Thank a Prof Evaluation
Hello, on behalf of the Teaching Commons and the Department of Psychology, we greatly appreciate your participation in our Summer 2017 pilot Thank a Prof initiative. To assist us in better administering the program in future, please fill out the br ...
Thank-a-Prof
York University's "Red and White Day" is a bi-annual (October and March) celebration which affords students the opportunity to actively demonstrate their school spirit by among other things, wearing York's institutional colours of red and white. Th ...
Thank-a-Prof SU 2017
This summer, for the first time at York, Graduate Psychology students are given the opportunity to try a different technique of making their voices heard through the "Thank-a-Prof" program. York University grads have successfully pursued leading globa ...
The Egg Game
Contributor: Sally Brown (S.Brown@leedsbeckett.ac.uk) Ingredients: Supermarket carrier bag per group in which you place a pair of scissors and a small roll of sellotape plus a selection of about 4 items from the following: a newspaper, a plastic cup, p ...
The Game of Social Life: Poverty Simulation
Contributor: Kosha Bramesfeld, PhD (kbramesfeld@gmail.com) Ingredients: Instructions and materials for creating the Game of Social Life: Poverty Simulation are published: With the Teaching Resources and Innovations Library in Sociology (TRAILS): http:/ ...
The Ghost In The Machine
Contributor: David Baume, Higher Education Consultant, david@davidbaume.com Ingredients: Digital projector; computer; two slightly different sets of slides Setting Lecture, especially keynote, using slides Opportunity / Challenge / Rationale etc. It c ...
The Jigsaw Classroom from the perspective of learners
Claudia Chaufan and Rubina Kharel We share our experience with a cooperative, active-learning approach -- the jigsaw classroom, as applied in 2 courses (2000 and 4000 levels), with an enrollment of 50 students each. In the jigsaw classroom learners are ...
The Look and Feel of Pedagogy in Online Learning
Gail J. Mitchell and Carolyn Steele Pedagogy is a critical foundation for quality in online education. Creating educational activities and interactive designs that enable one’s pedagogy are crucial for success. This interactive session will provide opp ...
The Predictive Utility of Early Evaluative Feedback on Learning Achievement
Alice S.N. Kim, and Sharry Shakory The present study investigated whether early and intermediate evaluative feedback on in-class quizzes were predictive of students’ scores on a final cumulative exam in a third year Psychology course at a large North A ...
The Role of the Teacher-as-Ally in Indigenizing the Curriculum
Maggie Quirt In the wake of the release of the final report of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission, universities are being encouraged to “Indigenize the academy”. This initiative includes hiring more Indigenous faculty and staff, recruiting more ...
The sCoop
Looking for helpful, accurate and concise information on teaching? Let the Teaching Common's assist with "The sCoop" on relevant matters you may be facing as an educator. The sCoop on Teaching Commons Support for New Faculty The sCoop on Giving Feed ...
The Subway Emergency Exercise as Reflective Teaching and Learning
At your mark, get set, evacuate… and reflect! This is an invitation we extend to course directors to experience the emergency exercise for themselves and follow it up with a workshop in which an educational developer will debrief participants using an ...
Thinking about thinking: Helping students build metacognition
Paula Wilson Students spend a lot of time thinking, but how often do they think about their thinking? Research shows that students with strong metacognitive skills are better learners, so how can we encourage our students to build those skills? This in ...
Three approaches to creating a video for teaching purposes
Version 1 - using Video scribe, instructor working alone https://youtu.be/cMHQD2USX1I Version 2 - using Video scribe, after a consultation with LTS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz6IBDbJXMo Version 3 - Video produced by LTS Narrative I started by exp ...
TIF Poster Guidelines
Need help in formatting your poster for TIF? Here are a few tips on how to create your poster for the Teaching In Focus Conference, courtesy Dana Craig, YU Libraries. Creating Posters (24” x 36”) with PowerPoint Note: You may use any sof ...
TIF 2015
The 2015 TIF conference took place on May 21 and 22. Where available we have attached session presentations and handouts. See the conference program for abstracts and full program details. We also collected the Tweets made using the Conference Twitter ...
TIF 2016
York's two day Teaching in Focus conference 2016: May 19th and 20th in the Life Sciences Building Thank you to all attendees for making TIF 2016 such a success. Below you can browse some pictures and materials from the conference. TIF 2016 CO ...
TIF 2016 photos
TIF 2016 proved to be a success thanks to your participation and contributions. Peruse some pictures taken during the conference, below. If you have pictures you would like us to include, please email us and we will post them here. [huge_it_gallery ...
TIF 2018
Join us on December 5th from 9am to 4pm at our annual Teaching In Focus conference - TIF Theme: Student Engagement Venue: Life Science Building, Keele Campus 8:30 - 9:00 Registration 9.00 - 9.15 Introduction 9.15 - 10. Plenary EE / Student engagement ...
TiF 2018 Images
Video Tributes https://youtu.be/4iGUOZMcvAE https://youtu.be/le6rovQJQEE https://youtu.be/yaNFMRLRHSg https://youtu.be/zTbYCA8syzo
TIF schedule
Below is the schedule for day 2 (May 20, 2016) of the TIF conference. Please note that talks have been organized into general categories of interest so that you can choose to attend the talk most relevant to you. Topics are : General Pedagogy (GP) Expe ...
TIF-2017
2017 TIF Conference Date: May 17 and May 18, 2017 This year, we were delighted to welcome Nancy Chick from Calgary as our keynote speaker. Nancy Chick is University Chair in Teaching and Learning, Academic Director of the Taylor Institute for Teaching ...
Transcript for Administrative Tips as You Start Your Course Video
Hello, and welcome to York University! My name is Jon Sufrin. I’m a faculty member in the department of Writing here at York. The Teaching Commons has asked me to offer some additional helpful tips for course directors new to the University. This video ...
Transcript for Things to Know About York Before Classes Start Video
This is a video of Professor Jon Sufrin, talking about tips specifically for new faculty at York University before classes start. Hello, and welcome to York University! My name is Jon Sufrin. I’m a faculty member in the department of Writing, in the Fa ...
Transcript for Tips for Your First Class Video
Hello, and welcome to York University! My name is Jon Sufrin. I’m a faculty member of the department of Writing, in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies here at York. The Teaching Commons has asked me to offer some additional helpful ti ...
Types of TAships at York
Unit 1 members of CUPE 3903 include full-time graduate students who have a teaching contract. Please see below descriptions of the various types of Unit 1 TAships one can hold. Tutorials A tutorial is a one to two hour session meant to complement the l ...
Upcoming ISW Workshops
There are a limited number of spots available for each ISW scheduled below. Please note that if you click on your chosen registration page and you receive the following message "Sorry, but this form is no longer accepting any entries" this means that ...
Using Digital Media for Active Learning and Instant Feedback
Jon Sufrin This presentation models active two-way learning in lecture contexts using the digital media platforms of Twitter (instant feedback and response) and Socrative (Think-Pair-Share & Short Answer). In part one, the presenter will explain hi ...
Using Honour Codes in the Classroom
Students need to understand what honesty means and what kind of citation and other practices are necessary to preserve it. A class “honour code” can be used as a way of helping students both understand and make an initial commitment to the principles o ...
Using Lego in the Classroom - Reflections from Faculty
Sarah Flicker, an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, shares her experience of using Lego teach students about coding. I used Lego in my classroom to help students understand the concept of “coding” in qualitative resear ...
Using Online Tools to Prime Students (and Instructors) for Class
Tamara Kelly and Paula Wilson We have all experienced it: we carefully choose readings to help students prepare for class; the day arrives and within 10 minutes it dawns on you…no one has read any of it. This lack of preparation is more than just a blo ...
Using Teaching Tech to Enhance Active Learning in Classroom
Angie An and Stephanie Quail Join the presenters in this hands-on session to learn how to use FlipQuiz, Padlet and Poll Everywhere to enhance active learning in your classroom. FlipQuiz: Use FlipQuiz to easily turn your classroom into a game of jeopard ...
Virtual Classroom Environment: When the Classroom Goes to the…Students
Spiros Pagiatakis At the Lassonde School of Engineering we use high-end digital technology to create a virtual classroom environment (VCE) that simplifies communication and enhances the learning experience for both virtual and face-to-face participants ...
Welcome to the Teaching Commons!
The Teaching Commons brings together like-minded colleagues from across the university individuals who are interested in exploring and sharing teaching and learning innovation across York University. We are a network of colleagues, collaborations, and ...
What is the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning? (SoTL)
There is an emerging interest in Canadian universities to move towards evidenced-based teaching practices (MacLean & Poole, 2010), that is, consulting the literature on teaching and learning to make informed decisions about teaching and engaging in ...
What Makes a Good Lecture?
Giving Good Lectures Professor Rebecca Jubis Psychology, Faculty of Health Part 1 https://youtu.be/AzZzBE8eUTg View Transcript for Rebecca Jubis Video, Part 1 Part 2 https://youtu.be/0zts8CL0riM View Transcript for Rebecca Jubis Video, Part 2
What?
What is Educational Development? What is the Role of an Educational Developer? What is Educational Development? Educational Development (ED) is about facilitating positive change in teaching and learning in post-secondary institutions, usually on both ...
What’s in your hand
Contributor: Lindy-Ann Blaize Alfred, Robert Gordon University and l.blaize-alfred@rgu.ac.uk Ingredients: (Hi tech – craft supplies, drawing supplies; low tech – pen and paper) Method: The activity relates to professional identities. Start with picture ...
Who?
Who do Educational Developers Support? Who do Educational Developer Work With? Who Are You as an Educational Developer? What kind of Educational Developer were you hired to be? What kind of Educational Developer do you want to be? Who do Educational De ...
Why you shouldn’t cram: Applying the results of psychological research
Dr. Melody Wiseheart, Tina Weston, Audrey Wong-Kee-You, Vanessa Foot, Dr. Alice Kim Although cramming is a popular study strategy, past research has shown that it is not effective for long-term retention of information. In fact, it is directly at odds ...
Why?
Why be an Educational Developer? Contribute your own testimonial or leave a comment below. I wear many hats, but my favourite one is glittery While I was in graduate school, I was fortunate enough to have had a mentor who taught me how to teach. Every ...
Workshops
These workshops are organized by Teaching Commons to provide support and practical strategies and advice to all Graduate Students at York University. These sessions range in time from an hour to a full day curriculum and are facilitated by Teaching Co ...
Workshops
The Teaching Commons offers a variety of workshops to assist those who teach at York in their teaching design and practice. These sessions range in time from an hour and a half to a full day curriculum. Click on any of the links below for a full descri ...
Workshops on Dealing with Challenges
The Teaching Commons offers a series of workshops for graduate students to help navigate challenges. Teaching in a Multicultural Classroom: Interactional Strategies for International Teaching Assistants (ITAs) at York What is 'Conflict' and How Might i ...
Workshops on Graduate Student Personal and Professional Development
The Teaching Commons offers a series of workshops for graduate students to develop themselves personally and professionally. Teaching, Research, and a Life? Finding the Right Balance How do I know I'm on the Right Track? Strategies to evaluate my OWN T ...
Workshops on Planning and Design
The Teaching Commons offers a series of workshops for graduate students to help them in planning and designing their tutorials and courses. Designing your Tutorial Effective Strategies for Teaching in a Lab Marking and Grading Practices Teaching Studen ...
Workshops on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
While many professors explicitly examine their own practices as a way to inform their teaching, a smaller number of faculty engage in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and its systematic inquiry into how to maximize student learning throu ...
Workshops, Courses and Events
The Teaching Commons provides a range of teaching development opportunities for Graduate Students who would like to enhance their teaching and make connections with others who teach at York University. We offer a layered approach where our courses in ...
Workshops, Courses, and Events
The Teaching Commons provides a range of teaching development opportunities for ALL Course Directors who would like to enhance their teaching and make connections with others who teach at York University. Click on any of the links below to learn about ...
Wrapping Your Noodle Around Moodle
Lisa Violo This interactive session is intended to teach professors how to leverage the Moodle LMS for their courses. Key topics will include Moodle design, course settings, how to use selected activities and resources, and setting up groups. Participa ...
Writing Circle
The Writing Circle offers dedicated, on-going writing opportunities for the purpose of making progress on a writing project, preferably but not limited to being focused on teaching and learning in higher education. It is structured to enable writing an ...
Writing Circle
The Writing Circle offers dedicated, on-going writing opportunities for the purpose of making progress on a writing project that is, preferably, related teaching and learning in higher education. It takes place one Friday per month, alternating mornin ...
Writing in Context – Writing-as-Praxis
Kerry Doyle, John Spencer, Marlene Bernholtz, Ros Woodhouse We have all been tempted to despair when reading student writing, but we might also consider the frustration students experience as they strive to translate ideas and arguments into words. Wri ...
Year Five - Research and Complement Planning
Year Five - Research and Complement Planning
Year One
Introduction (Summary of Year One) Year 1 – Key emphasis: General reflection on previous CPR, delegation of responsibilities, and preliminary planning for upcoming cycle The program begins its 7-year CPR cycle by reflecting upon how the pr ...
Year Seven - Site Visit and Review
Year Seven - Site Visit and Review
Year Six - Summative and Prospective Retreat and Report
Year Six - Summative and Prospective Retreat and Report
Year Two to Four
Year 2 to 4 Summary for year 2 to 4 Curriculum mapping a brief explanation: steps Sample links to the tool a form to request access CMAP tutorial Year 2 – Key emphasis: Alignment Having delegated issues identified in the previous program review repor ...
York Teaching Conferences
This page contains information and links to pan-university teaching conferences and symposia. Teaching in Focus Conference (TiF) TIF 2019 Call for Proposals – “Intentionality in Your Teaching: From Practice to Praxis” The theme for our 7th annual Teach ...
