It's time to register for Educational Technologies Week! March 2-6, 2020
EdTech Week is an opportunity for Waterloo instructors to focus more intensively on teaching development and technologies that promote deep learning.
We are pleased to let you know that registration is open for our 12th annual University of Waterloo Teaching and Learning Conference taking place on April 29, 2020. Last year saw over 400 faculty members, staff, and students gather to learn from and with one another around the theme of inclusivity and diversity in our learners and approaches to teaching. Our 2020 conference theme is Learning through Assessment. We are excited to welcome Kay Sambell, Professor of Higher Education Pedagogy at Edinburgh Napier University, and Sally Brown, Emerita Professor at Leeds Beckett University, as our keynote speakers, as well as Tamara Maciel (Program Director, School of Anatomy) and Dr. Geoff Hayes (Associate Professor, Department of History) from Waterloo, who will each recreate a successful instructional approach in our Igniting Our Practice plenary session, which showcases some of the excellent teaching being done on our campus. The registration deadline is Wednesday, April 8, 2020.
Submit a proposal for our 12th annual Teaching and Learning Conference: Learning Through Assessment!
Hot off the press! See what we've been up to, including an overview of our core activities. View an accessibile PDF.
We have two new Communities of Practice:
The Collaboration and Teamwork Community of Practice provides an opportunity to connect with peers to share examples, experiences, ideas, resources, and best practices around collaboration, teamwork, and group work in education. Organized by the Department of Knowledge Integration and the Centre for Teaching Excellence.
The first meeting will be held on Friday, November 1 from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m.
For more information and to register visit: https://bit.ly/2Vihz0E
The Educational Technologies Community of Practice aims to provide instructors with the opportunity to connect with peers to share examples, experiences, and best practices around all kinds of educational technologies. This community of practice will have a blended format combining both face-to-face and online opportunities to connect. Organized by the Centre for Teaching Excellence.
The first meeting will be held on Monday, November 25 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.
For more information and to register visit: https://bit.ly/2W9jEfu
Applications for the 2019 LITE Full Grants round are due October 1, 2019. Funding for the LITE Full Grants is upwards of $15,000 per year (for a maximum of two years and $30,000).
The Centre for Teaching Excellence is pleased to share with our university community that as of July 1, 2019, we have been approved to make a few changes to our organizational structure:
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, 84 LITE Seed Grants have been awarded to instructors and staff investigating innovative approaches to enhancing teaching and fostering deep student learning at Waterloo. We are excited to announce the funding of four new projects this year:
Improving student data literacy and engagement in research in the Faculty of Environment, Christopher Fletcher, Geography and Environmental Management; Scott Anderson, Centre for Teaching Excellence
Integrating 3D Digital Multimedia into Anatomical Education, Anton Trinh, Caryl Russell, and Robert Burns, Kinesiology
Needs Identification for Engineering Capstone Design Projects, Derek Wright, Electrical and Computer Engineering; Chris Rennick, Engineering Ideas Clinic; Ada Hurst, Management Sciences
Over 400 people attended the University of Waterloo’s 11th Annual Teaching and Learning Conference, for a full day of presentations, workshops, posters and panel discussions focused on the theme of “teaching and designing for diverse learners.” Conference co-chairs, Kyle Scholz and Kristin Brown, explain: “We use the term ‘diverse learners’ to represent the very real context of any teaching environment at the University of Waterloo: Learners come to our courses with varying backgrounds, experiences, and abilities, so we need to acknowledge that in the design and implementation of our teaching practices, activities, and assessments.”
The Certificate in University Teaching (CUT) program provides a comprehensive teacher development experience that is open to PhD students at the University of Waterloo. Completion of the program is recognized by a certificate issued by Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs and listed on the participant’s transcript.
Each year, the Centre for Teaching Excellence and Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs award one CUT program participant in recognition and celebration of effort and reflection that go above and beyond the course requirements.
We are excited to announce that the 2019 CUT Award has been awarded to Sarah McCrackin, a PhD student in the Department of Psychology. Sarah’s research in cognitive neuroscience focuses on understanding the significance of eye gaze in social interactions with respect to understanding what people are thinking and feeling.
The award recognizes Sarah’s self-reflection throughout the program—with respect to personal teaching goals, pedagogical choices, and strengths as well as areas that need improvement.
We spoke to Sarah about her experience with the CUT program and her thoughts about teaching in a post-secondary environment.