News

The Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education has just announced that Donna Ellis, Director of Waterloo’s Centre for Teaching Excellence, has been selected as POD’s next President Elect. Donna’s three-year term, which will begin in March 2019, is a capstone to her long history of involvement with POD: since 1996, she has participated in 21 POD Annual Conferences, twice served on its Board of Directors, co-chaired its Annual Conference, served as a facilitator for POD-sponsored workshops for new educational developers, chaired the Finance Committee, and led awards committees for many years. Regarding this new role, Donna comments that she is “extremely excited about having this opportunity to serve a professional association that has been so influential and important to me for more than two decades.” CTE staff members are extremely proud that their Director has achieved this important role.

The POD Network has been advancing the research and practice of educational development in higher education since 1976. It is the largest and oldest educational development organization in the world. Its nearly 1400 members come from the United States, Canada, and 23 other countries. Donna is the second Canadian to serve at this level with the POD Network.

According to the June 2018 Canadian University Survey Consortium survey of graduating students, 22% of graduating students in Canada self-identify as having a disability. It is interesting to note that, among those with a disability, 36% require accommodation.

The Centre for Teaching Excellence is pleased to share its new resource: Accessibility in Teaching. Aligning with the University of Waterloo’s commitment to barrier-free accessibility for persons with disabilities, this webpage provides practical resources for designing and implementing accessible instruction. Accessible instructional practices aim to address the diverse needs of learners.

The Centre for Teaching Excellence is seeking applicants for two exciting job opportunities: Graduate Instructional Developer and TA Workshop Facilitator. These positions are open to senior graduate students at the University of Waterloo. Each position offers different responsibilities and time commitments. The positions run from January 2019 through December 2019, and you must be a registered graduate student at Waterloo through December 2019 to be eligible. Please see the job advertisements linked above for position details and application instructions. Applications are due Friday, October 26.

CTE has partnered with the Student Success Office to deliver Supporting Student Mental Health, a new workshop for teaching assistants that will discuss ways in which TAs can support student mental health and well-being. The workshop was jointly developed by CTE and SSO and  will be offered every term.

Chris Zaza (CTE's Faculty Liaison for AHS) and Amanda McKenzie (Director, Quality Assurance) have recently published an article in The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning entitled ​"Turnitin Use at a Canadian University." 

Trevor Holmes (CTE's Senior Instructional Developer for Faculty Programs and Research) is co-author, along with several Waterloo faculty members, of "The flourishing of care in a multidisciplinary Faculty Learning Community," recently published in the International Journal for Academic Development. The lead author of the article is former CTE staff member Julie Timmermans (now at the University of Otago, New Zealand). 

Save the Date! We’re pleased to announce that the next University of Waterloo Teaching and Learning Conference will be held on Thursday, May 2, 2019. Information about the Conference theme, the proposal submission deadline, and registration will be posted later this fall on the Conference website.

If you have any questions about the Conference, please don’t hesitate to contact us at uwtl@uwaterloo.ca.

September 17 to 21 is National Postdoc Appreciation Week! In 2017, 115 institutions in the United States, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdon, and Asia & Oceania participated and organized 398 events to recognize postdoctoral researchers. The Centre for Teaching Excellence has a well-developed program for postdoctoral fellows at Waterloo. Additionally, these events will be taking place on campus throughout the week:

The Office of the Associate Vice President, Academic and the Centre for Teaching Excellence are pleased to announce the recipients of this term’s Learning Innovation and Teaching Enhancement (LITE) Seed Grants.

Since 2012, 80 LITE Seed Grants of up to $5,000 have been awarded to instructors and staff investigating innovative approaches to enhancing teaching and fostering deep student learning at Waterloo. Recipients across campus have explored topics ranging from transcultural learning to ePortfolios, Communities of Practice to undergraduate teamwork development workshops, and more. We are excited to announce the funding of five new projects this year:

CTE's offices have moved from EV1 to East Campus 3 (EC3), where we will be sharing the second floor with the Centre for Extended Learning (CEL). We look forward to continuing to serve our campus community by offering our regular programs and services from our temporary space in EC3 and workshop rooms (locations to be announced) over the next year. Visitors can access CTE’s offices on the second floor of EC3 through the south entrance (stairs only) or through the front entrance, where the elevators are located. CTE’s Faculty Liaisons will remain in their current locations. The search for a permanent home for our Centre is underway, and we expect to move to a permanent location in August 2019. Read more about CTE's temporary location.