The concept of the Teaching Innovation Incubator (TII) has been a part of campus planning conversations since 2017 and was refined through the campus-wide consultative planning process that led to the University’s 2020-2025 strategic plan: Connecting Imagination with Impact. The incubator specifically fits with the following two objectives connected to the first goal of the Developing Talent theme:
- Promote quality and innovation in teaching and learning and support infrastructure, policy, and practice that remove systemic barriers.
- Find new ways to work together and remove barriers to collaboration, interdisciplinarity, and the integration of knowledge.
After approval of the strategic plan, the university set up three action teams to lead its implementation. The incubator was selected by the Developing Talent Action team as a priority project that directly addressed several goals and that would indirectly help achieve several others. The idea was discussed in various forums (Undergraduate Operations, Senate Undergraduate Committee, Executive Committee) in Fall 2021. Late in 2021, the incubator idea was discussed and received the go-ahead from Deans’ Council. In January 2022, the idea was presented to and endorsed by the President and Vice-Presidents group and was presented to and discussed at Senate. In March 2022, the terms of reference for a two-pronged approach to developing and launching the incubator was approved by the Provost. As a first prong, the TII Planning Project was launched in earnest.
In 2022, various consultations occurred to inform the development of the incubator:
- Environmental scan – An environmental scan was conducted using web searches and email listserv requests to find other teaching-focused incubators or labs.
- Campus consultations – Project team members took turns facilitating 25 consultations with groups of senior leaders in each Faculty (associate deans, chairs, and teaching fellows), in centres and institutes, and from ASUs as well as groups of undergraduate and graduate students.
- Campus survey – Concurrent with the consultations, an open-ended campus-wide survey was available for two weeks in November. More than 200 faculty, staff, and students provided responses via the survey.
The consultation input and survey results have since been summarized and a report has been written to generate initial recommendations and possible implementation considerations.
Learn more about the origins of the TII.