News

Sequential art (e.g., comics and graphic novels) has been shown to be beneficial to learner understanding in diverse fields such as medicine, management, and biology. A large portion of the workshop will be dedicated to the "pencils-on" experience of creating a comic, either in a team or individually. Individuals from all faculties and disciplines are welcome. No artistic skills or experience required! Registration is required.

Date: Nov. 8, 9:30-10:45; Location: EV1 241

JOIN US! Tuesday, November 7

The Centre for Teaching Excellence is a decade old! Please join us to celebrate this milestone on Tuesday, November 7 from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm in the courtyard of EV1. Mario Coniglio, AVP-A, will share a few words of congratulation at 3:30 pm, followed by some brief reflections on the past ten years by CTE’s Director, Donna Ellis. You are welcome to drop in to the event at any time. Beverages and snacks will be available.

Please RSVP using this quick online form: https://uwaterloo.ca/cte/rsvp

Join the Engineering Integrative Learning Group for a presentation from Andrew Milne, Rania Al-Hammoud, Derek Wright, and Chris Rennick on “Engineering Design Days,” a class-integrated curricular hackathon deployed in four undergraduate programs and five courses at Waterloo. Students and course instructors from each implementation provided feedback through surveys, focus groups, and interviews. The results so far have been overwhelmingly positive from both students and instructors, with the adoption of this concept expanding across the Faculty of Engineering. Registration is required.

Date: November 14^th

Time: 12:00-1:00

Location:  E5 4106-4128

Lunch will be provided by the Dean’s office.

Join the Library to celebrate International Open Access Week on Wednesday, Oct. 25 and explore strategies to make "open" part of your teaching, learning, and research. The day includes:

Looking to hone your skills as a discussion facilitator or tutorial leader? Consider taking one of our two workshops on Thursday, Oct. 19 focusing on TA development. Teaching STEM Tutorials (CTE111), 9:30-11:30, will equip participants with practical strategies for planning, running, and assessing their tutorials, with special attention given to interactive teaching strategies that can be used in any classroom. Facilitating Effective Discussions in the Social Sciences and Humanities (CTE228), 1:30-3:00, allows participants to explore issues like how to start and guide a discussion, how to deal with problem situations and prevent the discussion from deteriorating, and how to encourage student participation. Registration is required.

Recipients of the 2017 Learning Innovation and Teaching Enhancement (LITE) Seed Grants have been announced. Seven projects were funded, involving 20 faculty and staff members. More information about the recipients and their projects is available on the CTE blog. 

LITE Full Grant applications are due October 1. For more information about the initiative, please visit the LITE grants program website, or contact Crystal Tse (ext. 31240) or Kristin Brown (ext. 32940) to discuss project ideas. 

We are pleased to announce that two former Graduate Instructional Developers are beginning faculty positions this term. Charis Enns is now a Lecturer in International Development in the Department of Geography at the University of Sheffield (UK). In addition to continuing with her research, she will be teaching courses in the department’s undergraduate and masters programs on geographies of international development and political geography. Alexander Howse is now a Mathematics Instructor at Red Deer College in Alberta where he will be teaching Elementary Calculus and Introduction to Applied Statistics. We send our congratulations to Charis and Alex.

CTE would like to welcome back Samar Mohamed to her role as Faculty Liaison for Engineering. For the past year, while her husband has been on sabbatical, Samar has been on leave with her family. She’s eager to start working again with her faculty members! During her absence, Tiuley Alguindigue ably filled in for Samar, and has returned to her position of Lab Instructor in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The University of Calgary's Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning has just published a new guide entitled "Ethics in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Key Principle and Strategies for Ethical Practice." CTE's Crystal Tse, Instructional Developer for Research and Consulting, is among the contributors to this guide. 

Happening September 6, this annual orientation event features a series of sessions designed to acclimatize new faculty to their roles at Waterloo and to help them become familiar with campus resources. Registration closes August 25. 

Visit the New Faculty Welcome event page to register.