This annual report highlights CTE’s work over the past year in supporting instructors, departments, and Waterloo as an institution. Our current strategic priorities—in concert with those of the university—will continue to guide our work over the coming year. Here’s a sampling of our plans.
IMAGE CREDIT: Nicole Avagliano on Unsplash
Continue supporting and engaging with institutional priority projects
Ongoing projects for this year include the following:
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Extensive collaboration with the Centre for Extended Learning and Instructional Technologies and Media Services to analyze and develop a seamless support model for educational technologies from the users’ perspective
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Co-leadership of a multi-phase project, run by the Teaching Innovation Incubator, aiming to support campus preparations for emerging policies, strategies, and tools related to accessibility in teaching and learning.
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Ongoing work to progress our President's Anti-racism Task Force projects for faculty members and graduate students who teach
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Co-leadership of a new standing committee focused on artificial intelligence and academic integrity
Enact faculty feedback from our needs survey
In April/May 2023, we surveyed faculty about their teaching challenges, practices, and development.
Input suggests that we should maintain both short and more intensive programming while providing a clearer pathway through our programming options. The following were key topics of interest:
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Assessing student learning
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New educational technologies
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Experiential learning in classes
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Student diversity, inclusion, and accessibility
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Indigenization, decolonization, and reconciliation
Faculty challenges included student engagement and factors impacting assessment such as generative AI.
Watch for upcoming programs and services this academic year to address these topics, including our inaugural Instructional Innovations Week in October!
Prepare for new pedagogical approaches
Pedagogies continue to shift with changes such as increased digital learning in courses and increased emphasis on developing more independent learners. In response, we are working with Instructional Technologies and Media Services to develop new programming for instructors teaching in our flexible and active learning classrooms. We also have staff engaged in LITE grant projects and a new Teaching Innovation Incubator project on student-led individually created courses.
Respond to emerging campus needs
Gaps and challenges continue to emerge that we can assist in addressing. For example, we are working on the following strategies and institutional discussions:
- Offering a New Instructor Foundations program for graduate student and postdoctoral fellow instructors
- Collaborating with various groups to determine supports for instructors experiencing harms connected to their course content and/or identities. We take seriously being part of a community that supports one another and will help as best we can.
Advocate for Indigenous Knowledges and Data Sovereignty
A number of projects involving our Indigenous Knowledges and Anti-Racist Pedagogies team have raised the important question of self-determination amongst the Indigenous staff who are creating Indigenous content for the UWaterloo community, resulting in conversations around policies involving Indigenous Knowledges and Data Sovereignty. We continue to work with University leadership, the Office of Research, the Office of Indigenous Relations, and the Indigenous Advisory Group to open conversations about structural policy changes that would support Indigenous Knowledges and Data Sovereignty and crafting better understanding of its use across faculties and schools.
Strengthen our team connections
Finally, with many new hires this past year, it’s time to re-group, review our identity statements such as vision and values, and revisit our areas of responsibility and approaches. New staff also bring new questions that can help open conversations and uncover underlying assumptions that need to be challenged or made more transparent. We anticipate that these fresh ideas will have a revitalizing effect on our work and look forward to seeing where they take us over the next year.