Monday, August 21, 2023

CEL offers TA training for facilitating online courses

A message from the Centre for Extended Learning (CEL). 

The Centre for Extended Learning (CEL) is hosting an online certificate course entitled Getting Ready to Facilitate Online Courses: TA Training – Fall 2023, which will run from Monday, September 18 until Friday, October 20. (Note that there will no activities or assignments due during Fall Reading Week.)

This 4-week, online certificate course is suitable for any current or future UWaterloo teaching assistant (TA) wishing to build skills and knowledge of best practices in facilitating fully online courses, says the course description. You will discover how to successfully contribute to the facilitation of an online course, foster student engagement, support student outcomes, and build a sense of community using various forms of interaction. Participants will also learn how to use LEARN LMS tools to create presence and connection, assess student learning and work effectively in their TA/Preceptor role.

Note: The format of the course is asynchronous (no live virtual sessions), however, participants are required to engage with the course content, interact with other participants, and complete activities each week by the scheduled deadlines. Participants should expect to spend about 4 hours per week on the course.

Register on GoSignMeUp. Course registration closes on Monday, September 11. 

Are you breaking your body clock?

Researchers are using mathematical models to better understand the effects of disruptions like daylight savings time, working night shifts, jet lag or even late-night phone scrolling on the body’s circadian rhythms. 

The University of Waterloo and the University of Oxford researchers have developed a new model to help scientists better understand the resilience of the brain’s master clock: the cluster of neurons in the brain that coordinates the body’s other internal rhythms. They also hope to suggest ways to help improve this resilience in individuals with weak or impaired circadian rhythms. 

Sustained disruptions to circadian rhythm have been linked to diabetes, memory loss, and many other disorders. 

“Current society is experiencing a rapid increase in demand for work outside of traditional daylight hours,” said Stéphanie Abo, a PhD student in applied mathematics and the study’s lead author. “This greatly disrupts how we are exposed to light, as well as other habits such as eating and sleeping patterns.”  

Humans’ circadian rhythms, or internal clocks, are the roughly 24-hour cycles many body systems follow, usually alternating between wakefulness and rest. Scientists are still working to understand the cluster of neurons known as Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN) or master clock. 

Using mathematical modelling techniques and differential equations, the team of applied mathematics researchers modelled the SCN as a macroscopic, or big-picture, system comprised of a seemingly infinite number of neurons. They were especially interested in understanding the system’s couplings – the connections between neurons in the SCN that allow it to achieve a shared rhythm.  

Frequent and sustained disturbances to the body’s circadian rhythms eliminated the shared rhythm, implying a weakening of the signals transmitted between SCN neurons.  

Abo said they were surprised to find that “a small enough disruption can actually make the connections between neurons stronger.” 

“Mathematical models allow you to manipulate body systems with specificity that cannot be easily or ethically achieved in the body or a petri dish,” Abo said. “This allows us to do research and develop good hypotheses at a lower cost.” 

The study, “Can the Clocks Tick Together Despite the Noise? Stochastic Simulations and Analysis,” appears in the SIAM Journal on Applied Dynamical Systems.