Waterloo Assessment Institute & PebblePad Showcase Event

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

April and May were busy months! 

April and May were exciting and busy months for CTE. After several years of pandemic-related disruptions, we were finally able to again offer four of our Signature Annual Events in person! 

Teaching Excellence Academy  
Eighteen participants from across campus spent four days re-evaluating and redesigning courses in this year’s Teaching Excellence Academy (TEA). Workshop facilitators included staff from CTE, CEL, and two faculty members. One participant commented, “I feel reinvigorated about my course and my skills as an educator!” If you’re interested in next year’s TEA (again in April), please contact Mary Power or Donna Ellis.  


Waterloo Assessment Institute  
Over a two-day intensive retreat, the Waterloo Assessment Institute (WAI) helped individuals and program teams redesign key assignments in their courses through peer feedback, expert consultation, and guided work time. Of 12 survey respondents, 11 rated the retreat as "excellent" and one as "good". Michelle Ogrodnik, a participant from Kinesiology and Health Sciences, cited the following as essential elements of the WAI: 

  • Having dedicated, protected time to work on the assessment.  
  • Having peers to brainstorm with, who offer different ideas and perspectives.  
  • Having folks from CTE available for consultations, to focus ideas into specific approaches. 

In this playlist of five very brief videos, CTE’s Associate Director, Trevor Holmes, provides an overview of why the WAI might be for you! Contact Trevor to learn more about the next offering of the WAI. 


PebblePad Showcase
Our PebblePad Showcase featured two UW instructors (Debbie Wang, Social Development Studies, and Jennifer Yessis, Health Sciences), as well as a first-year co-op student (Brent McCready-Branch) discussing how PebblePad has been used to support teaching and learning. In addition, Shane Sutherland, CEO and Founder of PebblePad, shared how that platform can support learning from the moment students join us at Waterloo through to graduation and beyond.  Recordings of all the presentations are available on this YouTube playlist.  
UWTL Conference

Kelly Laurila (School of Social Work), Leslie Wexler (CTE), and Barbara Moktthewenkwe Wall (Trent University) engage in a "kitchen table" session in the UWTL conference.
The 14th Annual University of Waterloo Teaching and Learning conference was held on May 3 and 4, our first return to in-person sessions since the 2019 conference. This year’s theme was “Teaching and Learning with Kindness and Care.” Over the course of the two days, nearly 500 registrants benefited from 74 presentations, panels, workshops, posters, and showcases. A more detailed retrospective of the conference is on the CTE News Reel. 

Waterloo Assessment Institute & PebblePad Showcase Event

April was an exciting and busy month for CTE.  We were able to offer some of our Signature Annual Events in person after so long!

Waterloo Assessment Institute – April 12- 13, 2023.  Over a two-day intensive retreat, the Waterloo Assessment Institute (WAI) helps individuals or program teams redesign key assignments in their courses through peer feedback, expert consultation, and guided work time.  WAI provides space, time, expertise, and peer feedback. Michele Ogrodnik (Kinesiology and Health Sciences) participated in the WAI this year and shared her three favorite elements of the WAI.

  • Having dedicated, protected time to work on the assessment.
  • Having peers to brainstorm with, who offered different ideas and perspectives.
  • Having folks from CTE available for consultations, to focus my ideas into specific approaches.

We hope you’ll consider joining us next year!

Our PebblePad Showcase Event was held on April 26th, 2023 and featured UW instructors and a first year co-op student discussing how PebblePad has been used to support teaching and learning.  In addition, Shane Sutherland, CEO and Founder of PebblePad shared how PebblePad can support learning from the moment they join us at UW through to graduation and throughout their careers after they graduate.  Here are the recordings from the presentations.