Camosun Story #61: Kendal

Kendal teaches in the Diagnostic Medical Sonography program in the Allied Health area of Health and Human Services. Like the Sonography program, Kendal is pretty new to Canada (moving up here from the United States in 2021) and to Camosun (becoming a term faculty member in the brand new Sonography program in January 2022), but she has obviously made an impact on her students as she was one of 28 faculty members who received a Teacher Recognition Award, this year.

Kendal has been a cardiac sonographer since 2015. “I’ve worked with a very wide patient population from premature babies in incubators all the way up to 100-year-old folks. I’ve worked in trauma centers, hospitals, outpatient clinics, cardiologist’s offices, and I’ve also done traveling ultrasound.”  But in addition to being new to Canada and Camosun, Kendal was also new to formal teaching when she started working in the Sonography program.

When I asked how that initial experience was, Kendal told me that “it was a bit of trial by fire, and not just for me. As a new program, everyone was trying to figure things out.”  Sonography has only been a program at Camosun since May 2021, with accreditation being approved in January 2023 (the program received the highest possible accreditation result for a new program without graduates.)  It is a cohort-based program with 16 students per cohort and 7 faculty members, meaning that the Sonography group is like a family. “We get to be really close and build strong relationships with our students as a result of that.  We have a good teacher to student ratio.”  Students are full-time in the two-year program, taking roughly five courses per term.  There are currently no options for part-time, “because we ideally need even numbers as our students are practicing their scanning on one another. When someone is missing, labs can become challenging because if one of the rooms has three students, they have to split that same amount of scanning time between three people now instead of two.”  But the program group does recognize that they need to find ways to help students who struggle to finish within the two-year time frame. “I don’t know what the answer is, but we realize we need to decide what to do if not everybody finishes on time. So far we have not faced that as a newly established program.”

One of the things Kendal is most excited about is the Sonography program’s integrated school clinic where real patients come for scans run by students with preceptors who are Island Health employees.  “In my second term at Camosun I was a clinical liaison, meaning I would drive out to Victoria General Hospital and Royal Jubilee Hospital to check on the students there. Because the clinics were removed from the on-campus environment, you couldn’t see the direct communication between students understanding the conceptual knowledge between their didactic learning, their lab learning, and the clinical environment. Now, because the clinic is right downstairs, we have a closer relationship with those preceptors than the ones who were out in the hospitals. Unfortunately, our clinic didn’t open until the first cohort were out in practicum.”  Not every hospital experience is positive, but the on-campus clinic is different. “Anybody who’s applied to be a preceptor in the on-campus clinic loves teaching – they wouldn’t have applied for the job otherwise.  You have the people who are passionate about ultrasound, about health care, patient care, and also about teaching the next generation of sonographers.  This also makes the instructor’s life a lot easier with that synchronicity between what’s going on in the classroom, what’s going on in the lab, and what’s going on in the clinical environment.”

I asked Kendal about her experience coming into the program after courses have returned to an in-person model, after the first year being wrapped up in COVID restrictions.  “Because sonography is hands-on, my fellow faculty found the ultrasound lab hard to manage.  We have a large TV in a classroom hooked into the ultrasound machines in each of the individual rooms. Instructors can watch what the students are doing on the machine. But, because one of the restrictions during COVID was a two people only per room requirement – meaning the student and the patient – how do you as an instructor guide the students to rotate the probe, apply more pressure, etc.?  I cannot imagine how difficult that was for them. I came on board when restrictions were lifted on that.”  Today, while the labs are back in person, some of the courses remain blended or asynchronous.  Kendal, however, much prefers teaching in person.  “In an asynchronous classroom I feel like you lose the connection you can have with students face-to-face– they can’t ask questions immediately and directly. And in person is much more fun!”

I asked Kendal what she loves best about teaching.  “I love it when you see the students finally understand what you’re talking about, that little light bulb moment. In a hands-on field like ultrasound, you teach content in the classroom, then you’re go into the ultrasound lab where they apply that didactic learning. It’s even more exciting seeing those connections made when they apply their learning in the clinical world. I tell them that I celebrate all their wins where ever we find them, big or small.”

There have been some challenges along the way for Kendal and the program.  “We had to do a lot of content creation because there was nothing there for the majority of these courses.  Even after teaching a course once, there is a lot of retooling to be done for the next time around as we figure out what works and what doesn’t work.”  Kendal is also the only term employee in the program which, of course, “comes with its own set of challenges balancing workload: trying to be there for the students as much as they need, and at the same time not burning yourself out.  Being a new program and going through accreditation was also very tough, although our program leader did an excellent job preparing us for accreditation.”

One of the things students noted when they nominated Kendal for the Teacher Recognition Awards was her games.  “My specialty is cardiac ultrasound. We teach them the basic cardiac ultrasound views – what the expectations of hemodynamics/pressures are, what happens when things go wrong inside of the heart. Lots of content that is very complex and overwhelming! So, what I try to do is integrate some fun activities in the classroom. For example, I made a 12-pound batch of playdough in different colours and distributed it to the students during one of their first cardiac anatomy and physiology lectures. This allowed them to make their own model of the heart. As I presented new ultrasound views (in ultrasound, we’re looking at a 3D structure in a 2D plane and sometimes the anatomy doesn’t look exactly like what you’d expect it to look like) they used the playdough to give them a better perspective of how the valves open, the orientation of the heart, etc. in a 3D view.”  Kendal also leverages the technology available in the CHW building as much as possible.   “I use the four projectors in the classrooms to project ultrasound views on each screen.  Students break up into teams and draw out how blood moves through the heart. I keep integrating things like that to try and keep them interested because the courses can be very overwhelming. Everyone learns differently and I try to add techniques in for those who need a hands-on connection to knowledge in the classroom.”

Kendal told me that the moments from her teaching that stand out to her were “anytime they tell me, for example, that they scanned their first echocardiogram all by themselves – something that they couldn’t do before.  Or telling me about an interesting case that they got to see.  Moments where they feel proud of themselves for accomplishing something and want to share that with me. That makes me feel privileged and honoured, to be somebody on their list that they want to share that moment with.”

As our conversation drew to a close, I asked Kendal, based on her recent experience of being a brand-new faculty member at Camosun, what advice she would give new faculty members. As a new and term faculty, Kendal had to learn the admin side of Camosun on top of teaching for the first time, teaching in a new program where she was developing new content, learning to use D2L, etc. and she advises “be patient with yourself and don’t expect to get everything correct right out of the gate. Be willing to advocate for yourself because sometimes people assume that you know specific information or someone else has explained what you need to do your job. Be humble and understand that you’re learning. It can be frustrating, especially when you move from having a level of proficiency in your chosen field to something where you’re a novice again. Just give yourself grace so you can absorb all this knowledge that’s coming at you from so many different directions, in the same way your students are trying to absorb all that new information from you.”

Camosun Story #60: Emah

Emah teaches in, and is Chair of, the Massage Therapy program at Camosun College, and she was also one of 28 faculty members who received a Teacher Recognition Award this year.

Massage Therapy is a relatively new program, starting in 2019 – yes, just before the pandemic hit – and Emah was the first faculty member hired in the program.  Massage Therapy is a cohort-based, two-year program (six semesters with no breaks) with 24 students per cohort (which is the most they can accommodate in their spaces currently) and about 15 faculty (which surprised me – I had no idea it was so large!)

Like Sonography, Massage Therapy runs a clinic on campus to give students that work integrated learning experience. “It runs exactly like a regular massage therapy clinic, and students are directly supervised by Camosun faculty, which is a requirement of the program’s accreditation. This simulated clinic experience is most reflective of what it is like to be in a real practice” But in addition to the on-campus clinic, Massage Therapy students also engage in community outreach.  “Our students go to locations like New Roads Therapeutic Recovery Community, a part of Our Place, where they treat folks who have substance disorders, are struggling with homelessness, and often have chronic health conditions with orthopedic conditions layered on top. The students also work with the Victoria Foundation, which is a society for youth who are struggling with mental health and substance abuse, as well as with other organizations. When students work in community, they’re working with specialized patient populations who are less likely to come into a clinical setting which is both valuable for student learning and valuable to the members of the public.”  Emah told me that these outreach opportunities are not only close to her heart but are also wildly successful with the students.

I asked Emah what she enjoys most about teaching.  “The first time I was in the classroom, I had that flow state experience where I lost track of time – I always tell my students that they will have to stop me because I will not know when it’s break time. That dynamic of students having meaningful conversations and watching them create relationship and community in the classroom, well its exciting to know that you have a little piece in that. That moment where the content suddenly makes sense to a student – it’s that high we all seek. I also joke about the fact that I’m the youngest of five children, so it’s just nice to have people listen, although after teaching for 15 years, I am now at a point where I feel comfortable turning it over to the students to do the talking.”

I, of course, had to ask Emah about the impact of COVID on her program, especially given that the program had just started when the pandemic shut things down (see Diane C’s story as well).  “COVID had a massive impact because our program is, of course, literally face-to-face and hands-on. There were already enough challenges creating and running a brand-new program, with no faculty hired yet, and building everything from the ground up while a group of students was going through the program. COVID hitting made things extra hard. But, because we weren’t really stuck in our ways yet, it was also an opportunity to do something different, to engaging in lots of wild, creative problem-solving.”  In addition, Emah told me that their program was one of the only ones in BC that managed to continue even through the initial lock-down. “Because it was our very first group of students, we were able to quickly move courses so that those that were not hands-on (some of the heavy science courses) came first, and the more hands-on came later.  Was that great? No, it was terrible, but it kept us running (especially since this was a new program) and allowed the students to graduate on time where most other programs had to delay graduation.”

I wondered about the student experience from then until now.  Emah noted that especially during the midst of the pandemic how challenging it was for students.  “I don’t think we recognize the mental health impact that that experience had, particularly on younger people. And in my profession the vulnerability level is sky-high. If there is trauma, it will come up – I’ve been an educator for over 15 years and mental health crises are a part of this profession. But the two classes who went through COVID experienced escalated trauma and emotional dysregulation which really impacted the students academically. And now in year three with COVID moving past, this cohort is experiencing what I would call a sustainable level of mental health crisis, which is just part of the profession. But the temperature rose to a boiling point for two years which was a lot for our faculty to manage.”

Emah is very appreciative of the team she works with. “We have an incredible Department of faculty and not only do we enjoy working together, we also love to engage with each other outside of work. They’re just incredible human beings. Almost all of us have worked in private schools, and coming to Camosun feels amazing – we’re all so grateful to be here.”

When I asked Emah for a memory of teaching that stood out for her, she said “the biggest aha moment with this program is how we enter the classroom with a significant level of humility. We approach the classroom as an opportunity to engage with other adults to all learn. While I recognize that there is a power dynamic inherent in the post-secondary structure, I truly go into the classroom recognizing us as a group of human beings who want to work together. It goes well when you show up vulnerable and humble. Everybody just relaxes, including the faculty, and then we can get the job done. Students and faculty work together to figure it all out.”

I ended our conversation asking Emah, as a faculty member and Chair, what advice would she have for faculty starting at Camosun.  “Things often feel like such a big deal, but most things are not, so try to bring that intensity down, even when it feels like your stress is sky high. In addition, be your authentic self. When the going gets tough people will work with you if you’re you and they sense that you’re you, particularly students. And finally, be kind but fierce. There will always be conflict and struggle, so take your stance, but try to be kind in the process.”

Mary Burgess Open Education Recognition Award @ Camosun, 2023

About the Award

The Mary Burgess Open Education Recognition Award recognizes faculty members who have made profound contributions to Open Education at Camosun College and demonstrated an impact on student learning and student costs by utilizing, designing, or adapting open resources in their instruction. These contributions may also include providing leadership for, research on, and advocacy for Open Education and Open Educational Resources (OER) to peers, students, and the institution in general.

Open Educational Resources/Open Textbooks have positive benefits on the student experience by lowering access barriers and reducing student costs for learning materials. They also enable instructors to modify, edit, or adapt high-quality resources to fit their individual teaching goals in order to provide meaningful, contextualized materials for their students.

In naming this award, the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning looked at educators across BC who have advanced the work of OER in their own careers and have themselves been recognized by their peers. After reviewing a short list of outstanding individuals, it was determined that CETL’s inaugural award for Open Education is named after Mary Burgess.

Mary Burgess is recognized globally for their work in Open Education.  As the first Director of Open Education at BCcampus, Mary guided the work of the Open Textbook project, which  includes hundreds of open textbooks and other open educational resources (OER). Open textbooks from the collection have been adopted by thousands of educators in the province, and to date, the project has saved students in B.C. over $30 million in textbook costs. (https://bccampus.ca/2022/07/20/theres-something-about-mary/)

This Year’s Recipient

This year, we recognize Charlie Molnar, Biology, for his work revising, adapting, and creating Open Educational Resources since 2015.  Charlie began his Open Education journey by working with Dr. Jane Gair, another Camosun Biology instructor, to substantially revise the Open textbook, Concepts of Biology, creating the first Canadian edition which Charlie and several of his fellow biology instructors at Camosun have been using in their courses for the past eight years.

Every Scheduled Development period since 2015, Charlie has made revisions and enhancements to Concepts of Biology.  He has revised the textbook using student feedback, created and added video content (including captions to make them accessible) as well as graphics and images, integrated material related to Indigenous culture, especially of the Pacific Coast Aboriginal peoples, and their expertise in processing food and calories, etc., and added H5P interactive components (to both the textbook and the videos). Most recently, Charlie created an Open website to support students who are thinking of enrolling in or who are preparing to start Biology 103 at Camosun.  This website contains the first two chapters of the Open textbook, the first laboratory exercise and first assignment for Biology 103, and scientific-terminology activities; before coming to the first class, students can prepare for the first days and weeks of class.

While two of these projects received funding from BCcampus, (the initial textbook and the H5P activities), Charlie did most of the work during his Scheduled Development time or in addition to his regular work.  Charlie believes that engaging in Open Education is a wonderful thing to do, but not just for students, saying “it also helped me refresh my understanding of unfolding biological and genetic research so I could include up-to-date examples and convey them at an appropriate level both in my teaching and in the textbook.” (https://camosunelearning.opened.ca/2022/10/25/open-education-story-charlie-molnar/).

Award Criteria

Faculty will be considered for this award if they have met two or more of the following criteria:

  • Improved teaching efficiency and effectiveness through using, adapting, and creating Open Educational Resources (OER) course materials aligned to course learning outcomes.
  • Developed OER to share with colleagues, enhance student-learning opportunities, and reduce barriers to education.
  • Used Open Educational Practices (OEP) for learning, teaching, and assessment while challenging, supporting, and inspiring students to do their best work.
  • Demonstrated creativity and passion in delivering educational experiences that expand student reach and influence beyond the classroom by providing opportunities for students to collaborate and openly share their work with the wider community.
  • Demonstrated knowledge of and passion for open education and the benefits it brings to learning and teaching while contributing to the ongoing work to make the global open education movement inclusive and fair.
  • Worked collaboratively with colleagues and students on open education initiatives, aimed at integrating OEP into teaching and learning.
  • Acted as a valuable resource for students, colleagues, and Camosun by sharing open education knowledge and promoting and encouraging the development and use of OER and OEP.
  • Participated beyond Camosun in open education initiatives such as sharing OER, contributing to OE committees/communities of practice, and pursuing or providing PD opportunities in open.

2nd Annual Teacher Recognition Celebration Camosun College – April 27, 2023

Congratulations to 28 faculty from across Camosun College who are being recognized for their contribution to teaching and learning!

While nominations came from both Camosun employees and students, there was once again this year an overwhelming response from students. Their voices and stories highlighted some of the amazing work being done at Camosun to support student learning.

The following faculty are being honoured for Innovation in Student Success: “Recognizing faculty who have gone above and beyond what was expected of them in promoting student success, by using engaging and flexible approaches to better meet the needs of all learners.”

Andrea Durdle, Plumbing and Pipe Trades
Arloene Burak, Psychology
Brent McMillen, Medical Radiography
Brooke Cameron, Biology
Dan Reeve, Political Science
Darren Hall, Plumbing and Pipe Trades
David Armstrong, Hospitality Management
David Raju, Biology
Dianne Patterson, Health Care Assistant
Emah Christiansen, Massage Therapy
Gilles Cazelais, Math
James Smyth, Plumbing and Pipe Trades
Joanne Irvine, Management and HR Leadership
Joyce van de Vegte, Electronics and Computer Engineering Technology
Katie Waterhouse, Anthropology
Kendal Adam, Diagnostic
Medical Sonography
Lynnea Jackson, English
Language Development
Matt Agbay, Business Statistics
Meaghan Feduck, Education Assistant, Community Support
Michelle Lysak, Accounting and Finance
Nicole Kilburn, Anthropology
Noreen Ortilla, Massage Therapy
Pei Mei Chia, English Language Development
Phil Vreugdenhil, Electronics and Computer Engineering
Richard Burman, Mechanical Engineering Capstone
Robin Fast, Community, Family and Child Studies
Selena Hebig, Nursing
Tony Vernon, Health Care Assistant—ESL

Teacher Recognition is an annual initiative of Camosun’s Teaching and Learning Council – a collaborative, peer-based, interdisciplinary group of faculty from across the college with a passion for advancing quality teaching and learning at Camosun, including advocacy, supports and strategies.

Camosun Story #59: Brooke

Brooke is a biology instructor in the School of Arts and Sciences.  Last year, Brooke embarked on a journey she had been looking forward to taking for a long time.  “When I was interviewed for my position in 2018, one of my questions to the interviewers was: how does the Biology Department embrace Indigenization?  It’s a big part of Camosun College and what this college emphasizes in its identity. Biology has areas that can be easily Indigenized and areas that seem impossible, so when I began teaching, I was just flying by the seat of my pants. I was acknowledging territory, going with students on nature walks, and teaching and learning about SENĆOŦEN names and W̱SÁNEĆ uses, but it was small pieces here and there.” The real beginning of Brooke’s Indigenization journey began with the Indigenizing your Course workshop series she took in the summer of 2022.

“I can’t say enough wonderful things about that workshop.  There were ten of us and we all said ‘I want to do this, but I know I’m going to make mistakes.  I need to make sure that I’m okay with that and that I’ve been given permission to try.’” As Brooke told me, the program was not about checking the boxes, but about bringing together a community, all trying, failing, succeeding together, and supporting each other in a safe place.  “That workshop gave me the confidence, the motivation, and the accountability I needed to move forward.”

One thing that helped Brooke think about how to go about Indigenizing her course was developing a framework.  “Thinking about decolonizing your course can be overwhelming and intimidating. Instead, find one thing that resonates with you and start there. For me, my framework was that people are whole. So often we only engage with one part of that whole such as mind and body and I wanted to engage with others such as spirit and emotion.”  One thing the workshop facilitators, Natasha Parrish and Charlotte Sheldrake, had Brooke and her workshop colleagues do was write an Indigenization statement, outlining what Indigenization meant to each of them, “[…]because it’s allowed to be different. The statement created accountability and the facilitators made sure that by the end of our workshop, we had our purpose and our framework ready to follow.”

The course Brooke Indigenized was her biodiversity course. “It’s a non-major’s biology course for students who need a science, but who aren’t necessarily going into biology. I thought it was a great course to break down because there was no expectation at the end of the course to entirely focus on the Western science perspective way through and through, so it was a chance for me to open worldviews.”  The biodiversity course is a typical science class: lectures, tests, labs, assignments. The first thing Brooke did was remove tests she didn’t think were needed. “What that did was open two lab sessions for something different. I still had my Western science labs – those were still important – but I added a restoration project where we worked with the Saanich district and volunteers at Rithet’s Bog. We learned about the land, engaged in restoration, and connected with the material in a different way. We also took a field trip out to the Salish Sea Centre, where we saw living creatures rather than preserved specimens in jars. We observed how they interacted with one another in their mini ecosystems. I also invited Della Rice-Sylvester, a Cowichan elder and medicine woman, to give us a tour of campus with her eyes.” Brooke and her students were blown away, witnessing another perspective on biodiversity, those spiritual and emotional connections to the land, that had until then been completely absent. Brooke told me that she will be keeping all the changes she made to the labs saying, “I’m only going to be going forward from here.”  And when she asked for student feedback, she heard nothing but resounding gratitude for the inclusion of these experiences, saying things like “I needed this in my education, and I didn’t even know I needed it. How could I have gone through my academic career up until now and not have this be part of my learning?”  Brooke said, “it was such an easy thing to do and was something I could have done years ago if I had given myself the permission.”

Another aspect of the course Brooke pulled apart was the 20% of the grade from lab exams, putting that grade instead into a book meeting project.  “We read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Kimmerer and took five lecture periods, with two or three weeks in between, to meet and discuss the different parts of the book. I provided questions for students to consider, then they came to the book meetings and met in small groups to discuss the book and the questions.” This was Brooke’s chance to encourage her students to express their feelings and their emotions and their spirituality. “We have international students, and students from across Canada, coming in with different perspectives that they could share with the class. You don’t normally see that in a biology course – there isn’t often room for students to make cultural connections.”

In fact, this was the main reason Brooke wanted to Indigenize her course.  “Western science is very much focused on ‘what did you see? What is physically there? What did you physically observe?’ And that’s it. But Indigenous science goes beyond that, also looking at how things make you feel and exploring your connection to, and your relationship with, what you observe.  What I wanted to do in my course was to give my students an opportunity to discuss their feelings and their connections to what we were observing. And honestly, when it comes to conservation biology, climate change, and the biodiversity crisis, how can you not have feelings about them?”

But how do you assess feelings?  “When you’re dealing with emotion and spirit, I don’t think it’s reasonable to assign limits. Sometimes I would see that a student only wrote a sentence, and I would ask them to dig a little bit deeper next time, and the next week they would. They knew that if they read the book and engaged, it was a low-pressure experience for them.”  For each book meeting they also had an assignment giving them licence to be creative.  “Robin Kimmerer mentions how in Indigenous sciences you see the personhood of non-human life, something not addressed in Western science. One time I asked them to write a story from a non-human perspective: imagine you’re a flower being picked, or a spider trying not to get squashed, or an old growth tree watching as your friends and family get felled.  What emotions, what feelings, what knowledge do those organisms have? What is their personhood? But no pressure – I just wanted them to try.  And these creative expressions were a gift to read.”

Aimee Bernard Biol102 Artwork
For our class you chose Braiding Sweetgrass in place of our lab exams because of the ways in which it blends Indigenous ways of knowing with Western science and argues the value of both for navigating the future of Biology. We revisited this idea/thesis throughout the course. For our final book project I wanted to try and visually represent this idea with Western science on one side and Indigenous ways of knowing on the other being braided together as the sweetgrass is braided within the book. Aimee Bernard
Maddy Harvey Biol 102 artwork
Maddy Harvey Biology 102 Artwork

With all these changes, Brooke was not sure how students would react, but she said she had never seen such amazing buy-in.  “For the first time since I’ve taught this course, nobody dropped, and nobody failed. I felt so full knowing that my students committed to this journey.”  And Brooke clarified that she still lectures and, there were still traditional assessments, but she provided a gateway into Indigenous science.  “I was touched to hear my students say, “this education is essential for me; I should be respecting the land; I need to recognize the importance of reciprocity.” These were not concepts I lectured to them. The book taught them, our nature walks taught them, and I provided them space to learn it.”  Brooke is keeping the book discussions, but says she may provide more specificity, perhaps through rubrics, because students do like structure and clarity. “Overall, I think my students are at an advantage having these other perspectives and potentially being able to challenge Western perspectives as needed in whatever they study in the future.”

Brooke’s changes also created community, gratitude, and hope as students began to see themselves as part of the ecosystem. “We are such an invasive species and students had a very negative perspective of human impact on the world when they came into the course.  But leaving the course, they had hope that we can still recognize our roles and responsibilities and learn to respect our relationship to the land and the organisms on it.  They left feeling a bit more empowered knowing that, as humans, we can do better.”

The biodiversity course opened itself well to Indigenization, but Brooke admits that other biology courses are a bit more challenging.  “When you’re discussing enzyme pathways in a cell where there’s a molecular change, it’s not necessarily about bringing in Indigenous perspectives on that content, but more about trying to embrace a more holistic view of assessment and course delivery and Indigenous ways of learning.”

Brooke will be sharing her experiences with her colleagues and has already shown them some of her students’ creative projects, but she knows that there will be some questions around how they can Indigenize their courses. “I think that is where the Indigenizing your Course program is important, because the facilitators give you permission to try and to consider:  why is it so important that students open their minds to multiple perspectives? Why is that going to benefit our students in their academic career and in their lives?  Faculty know that they should, but don’t necessarily know the why or the how, and they don’t often have a community they can try and fail with.”

But Brooke does recognize that in the end, this is a personal journey.  “Sometimes being an instructor is exhausting. You have to carve out the space for this work, and that’s a lot to ask. But I don’t want people to be so fearful of getting it wrong that they don’t do anything.  It’s okay to get it wrong and to keep trying. Be vulnerable because you are trying something worthwhile.  Just commit to one change. And if you think it went well, and if you get good feedback, that might encourage you to do more. You’re not helping anyone when you don’t try.”

Moving forward, Brooke has plans to Indigenize some of her other courses as well as do some more Indigenization work with her biodiversity course.  “I’m going to continue to remove content that’s not serving my students and offer Indigenous perspectives. I also brought in three guest lecturers. A fantastic pair of teachers came to talk about climate anxiety and renewable resources speaking from a more social science perspective. An amazing enthusiast came in thrilled to talk about phylum Porifera (sea sponges) and it was great to experience someone’s joy and passion for something most folks overlook. It wasn’t just me as the sole holder of information – this was community-based learning and I’m absolutely going to keep bringing in other voices.”  As for her other courses, she is looking at Indigenizing a course that is based on molecular and cellular content, but also about family traits and epigenetics, topics which she thinks will lend themselves to a more holistic approach.

I wanted to close with these words from Brooke, summing up her first Indigenization experience.  “I used to think my students just needed to know and do the things I gave them in the syllabus. But now I want to expose them to a variety of perspectives and to engage with the four quadrants of themselves as human beings (physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental). I see them as whole people who deserve to be challenged physically and mentally and to have their emotions and their spirituality addressed – that is what Indigenization has brought to me and my students.”

Camosun Story #58: The Interdisciplinary Education Festival

Lynelle is a faculty member in the School Health and Human Services (HHS), in the Allied Health Technologies Department.  Since 2017, Lynelle has been a facilitator of the Interdisciplinary Education (IDE) Student Festival at Camosun College, and I wanted to talk to her about how the festival started, how it has evolved over the years, and where it is headed in the future. 

Lynelle started our conversation by sharing that the predecessor of the IDE festival originated out of a program review of the Medical Radiography program.  “One of the competencies being added by the Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists (CAMRT) was around inter-professional communication.  The hope behind this competency was that if students are taught how to communicate inter-professionally at school, that skill will carry forward into their careers and ultimately improve patient-client outcomes because when practitioners communicate better, they can provide better coordinated collaborative care.”  Thus, a project-based course in interprofessional communication was born. 

The newly created course was MRAD 264, and Lynelle spoke passionately about its interdisciplinary nature. “Interdisciplinary education is about learning with, from, and about others – it’s peer-to-peer learning, and students were tasked with teaching other students about their profession and providing an integrated learning experience.”  In other words, students were not only working together within the course itself, but also required to communicate with students outside of the course.   “Students came up with the idea to run a mini conference on campus. They split into groups, and we ran four learning activities, inviting fellow Camosun students to come in and learn about our professions and about some of the unique challenges that we face, creating a moment in time where they could inter-professionally communicate.”  Students did not just run the conference itself, however.  They had to plan and market the event, ran a post-event pizza party (meaning they needed to get food safe certificates and organize food services), solicited donations, booked space for the event, etc.  The collaboration students engaged in went well beyond the course outcomes. 

Lynelle emphasized that every element of that conference was student produced, while she supported them to bring their vision alive.  “It was hard for the students because they wanted to be told what to do, and how they were going to be graded.  We spent a lot of time talking about how to accomplish a shared goal, how to organize their labour, how to ensure everybody understands their individual roles, etc.” 

The Dean of HHS and other college leadership attended that first mini-conference, and excitement grew.  Lynelle and others applied for and were awarded one of the Camosun Innovation Awards which gave them some budget to work with for the next year so students would not have to look for donations.  “The second year, we had enough money to do better promotion and to support participation from more students. That year, we went with poster-style presentations which are very common in health care learning.”  Then the following year they applied for another grant from outside of Camosun, and with that funding were able to build out the event even further.  During this time as well, students from more HHS programs were beginning to participate in the event. 

In 2019, although they didn’t know it at the time, they held the last fully in-person event.  “We had almost all of the health programs participating by that time and had to book off two floors of the Ewing building. We had both poster presentations and interactive displays as well as health and wellness activities – all student-led activities for the benefit of other students. We added a passport that listed all of the activities and each time you participated in one of them, you got a stamp. Students were then able to take that passport back to their instructors for bonus points or as part of a required activity in their courses.”  

But then, in 2020, COVID threw a wrench in the works when the college shut down shortly before the festival was to take place.  Because they couldn’t hold an in-person event they “pivoted in a dramatic way to a WordPress site where we posted all the presentation materials for students to interact with online.”  Lynelle reflected that, despite the stress, “ultimately that activity was quite successful and recording all of the work that we had intended to do under the circumstances was brilliant.” 

According to Lynelle, the level of engagement in this pandemic IDE was superficial, through comments on the site. But the next year, they took the online format and built on it.  “The following year we added another group of students to the mix – students in the Interactive Media Development (IMD)program in Computer Science which had been created by an interdisciplinary team at the College.  The purpose of bringing in the inter-professional practices course arose from an industry criticism of graduates from these types of highly technical programs that graduates struggle to communicate with clients.  We asked ourselves, I wonder what would happen if we put these IMD students in a situation where they had to learn with, from, and about students in a very dissimilar discipline: health.”  This was tactical as well, Lynelle noted, because health students tend to have lower technical expertise, although they are asked to work with electronic health records, digital imaging, app tracking, online health appointments. “Health students in general need to understand how technology works and how to communicate with the people who are building, maintaining, supporting technology in our workplaces.” Hence the decision to bring these two groups together. 

Lynelle didn’t teach the first IMD course, but she did the following year.  But because of low enrolments in that second pandemic year, they took the two cohorts of students (one from health and one from IMD) and combined them together into one section, a rare event with two cohorts of students in two separate Schools taking the same course.  It was a tough year, Lynelle said.  “We were all having a hard time with the pandemic, so what we did that year was refine the virtual-only experience. The first cohort of IMD students had built a brand-new website from scratch, collaborating with the health students and instructors; this section of combined students didn’t have the same capacity and we had to discover together what was possible.” And her additional challenge was teaching to two completely different groups of students.  “When you teach this particular course to a specific discipline, you work within that discipline’s perspective. But teaching from two perspectives is an interesting challenge. It was difficult for the students to grasp initially, but we walked through the steps and processes, convincing them of their own capabilities, and at about week eight or nine they started to see what was possible, and by week 13, they were pretty darn proud of themselves for what they had accomplished.” 

During this iteration, the virtual festival integrated more interactive elements into the website. In addition to the projects, the students included more information about different programs, they interviewed Dean of HHS about interdisciplinary education at Camosun and included some keynote speakers. The focus of the IMD students was peer-to-peer technical support for instructors and for students submitting projects to the website as well as providing troubleshooting support and updating the website.” And along the way, learning skills their profession had been criticized for lacking.  Lynelle was proud to report that the whole cohort of IMD students was immediately employed after graduation, and most were hired where they wanted to be hired. 

And now we come to the current year (2023).  “This semester, I’m teaching the course to Sonography students for the first time. And this year, the students are using H5P to develop an interactive virtual simulation that teaches their profession to people in other health care professions. The theme of this year’s interdisciplinary student festival, which will be held in the spring, is What we wish our colleagues knew: Get the scoop on our scope.”  Basically, students are looking at improving communication between professions, for example between nurses, care aids and allied health professionals, to reduce medical mistakes or miscommunications.  “The students created a simulation exercise: you click through it, learning bits here and there, watch some patient interactions, so at the end their peer colleagues should have a fundamental understanding of what sonographers need in order to do their job. And that’s the point of this student interdisciplinary festival – improving interprofessional communication.” 

As Lynelle and the IDE festival group think about the future, they are reaching out to the interdisciplinary education community of practice at Camosun College to see if there are ways to bring more students in to this kind of student-led learning for and about each other. “We’ve proven that it works with a group of students in a computer science program that realistically have no reason to take a health program, but this course does speak to one of their program outcomes explicitly.” To start, a student in Mental Health and Addictions has been interviewed by Lynelle’s students as a first step in learning about that profession, in hopes that “they will then be interested in learning more about us. Then maybe in the next iteration, they’ll be more interested in learning with us.” 

But it’s not just service-education programs Lynelle sees fitting in with the current model. “I want to learn how someone in Economics might see their students participating. When I think about how important economics is to funding our healthcare system, if economics students gained a better understanding of where they might fit in the world through collaborative learning and understanding, how would that improve our society? Because if we understand each other better, if we recognize not only what makes us different but what makes us the same, and what we need in order to work in a more collaborative way, I don’t think discipline matters so much – it’s about beginning to have those conversations.” 

And why shouldn’t anyone at Camosun be allowed and encouraged, and even required, to take an interdisciplinary communication course? “I would love for any student to be able to take this course and be able to participate in these kinds of activities – even to go so far as to create open programming where students could choose to take the courses that they’re excited to take.” Lynelle’s point hit home with me.  This course addresses an essential skill that ALL students should be engaged in learning.  “These are the skills employers are looking for – working with teams, working with clients – capabilities aren’t necessarily included in discipline-specific programs. Everyone who learns to take an X-ray can functionally execute an X-ray, but who can do it with the best client-centred care perspective? Who can interact with other colleagues in the department or interact with the other departments that we have to work with.?  This is why the IDE festival was born.” 

Lynelle concluded our conversation by telling me “I don’t know where this is going to go, but almost every single allied health, nursing, and health-related credential now includes some sort of inter-professional or interdisciplinary competency, so I think it’s here to stay in all those programs. But what about other essential courses? I would love to see, for example, a course about Indigenous history in every single program.  If we’re talking about the skills and capabilities that are going to help graduates function better as employees and be more attractive to employers, we have to look ways to incorporate those important topics and skills into the core of all our programs, so they are not something that students or instructors have to do off the side of their desk.”  That should be the future of education – whole and inclusive. 

Open Education Week at Camosun

Open Education Week 2023 is March 6th to 10th!  Here is what’s happening at Camosun College and Beyond

Visit our Open Education tables at both Lansdowne (March 6th) and Interurban (March 7th) where we will share information about Open Education, have people available to answer your questions, and showcase some of the open education work already being done at the college.

  • Monday the 6th  you will find us in the foyer of the Fisher Building from 10am-2pm
  • Tuesday the 7th we will start in the main foyer of the CHW Building from 9-11am, and then head over to the Trades (CTEI) Building foyer from 11:30am-2pm.

At all three locations, you will find CETL folks, librarians, faculty, and even students ready to talk to you about Open Education, the importance of Open Educational Resources/Open Textbooks, and how you can get on board.

For the first two weeks of March, both campus libraries will be displaying Camosun-authored and used open textbooks so you can see what Camosun faculty members are using to support students in their classes. And speaking of the library, Gwenda Bryan and I have been working on a new and improved Open Education LibGuide (with thanks to Okanagan College whose CC-licenced LibGuide we are adapting). You will be able to see the new Guide at our Open Ed tables, and we will be sharing out the link in as many ways as possible during Open Ed Week and beyond.

Open Education will be taking over the regular Teaching and Learning Community of Practice with an Open Education Conversation Café on Thursday, March 9 at 2:30pm in Teams. This is a drop-in session so, no need to register.

Open Classroom Weeks (last two weeks of March):  Celebrate Open Education at Camosun by opening your classroom to colleagues or by visiting another instructor’s class! Contact Derek Murray for details. Info Session: March 10, 12-1pm in LLC 151 & MS Teams Register for Open Classroom Weeks Info Session.

There are also virtual events happening during Open Education Week around BC, Canada, and the world:

  • BCcampus is curating Open Education Week events from around the province, and you will find those being added to their Events Calendar over the next few weeks.
  • Visit OE Global’s Open Education Week site to check out what will be happening around the world, much of it virtual.

Finally, Open Education Week is not the only time to find out more about Open Education. Register for any of our Open Education-related workshops taking place in May and June.

Share the joy! Using or looking to adopt an Open Textbook?  Want to know more about Open Education?  Want to talk about a potential Open Education project? CETL is available to come talk to you and your department/program about Open Education or about your open textbook experiences – shoot me an email for more OE information.

Becoming Unravelled: a reflection from Robin Fast, Educational Developer, CETL

This winter, Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) Book Club participants read Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead).

I can’t emphasise this enough: Do not read this book! It will have you tugging at a thread that unravels an entire sock drawer full of sacred bits of teaching practice. It may lead you to re-examine what you value about the letter grade system, your choice of assignments, your assessment and feedback processes, your relationship with students, and maybe even your feelings about the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote!

The text describes ungrading as the practice of providing no letter grades or marks on student work, focusing instead on an iterative and formative process of feedback in an effort to improve student engagement and learning. And if you think this can’t be done in a letter-grade-centred postsecondary environment, they offer examples that undermine this assumption.

Susan D. Blum, the book’s editor, as well as the chapter authors, make a strong case that letter grades are an invention that needs to be chucked. According to the authors, letter grades don’t correlate to later competence in practice, are a shortcut that doesn’t acknowledge the complexity that is the learning process, discourage risk (a key learning ingredient) because students instead focus on meeting the extrinsic expectations of the evaluator, and put instructors and institutions in the business of ranking students rather than encouraging learning.

As I read, I certainly didn’t like the accusatory finger pointing my way. I had to admit, however, I have myself at times, both as an instructor and a student just tried to get through by taking the most expedient, expected route.

I remember when I first started teaching, picking up the threads left by previous course instructors and learning the ropes from my new colleagues,  I accepted that I had to grade, and I worked to find ways to make it meaningful, helpful, and accurate. I remember, less fondly, the first time I was asked that heartwarming question, “Why did you take these marks off?” Much of the feedback I provided students was motivated by justifying the grade I was assigning and trying to prevent that question from coming my way again.  I spent my weekends diligently providing that feedback only to realize how frequently, when accompanied by a grade, it wasn’t even read.

As a student, how often did I spend time trying to figure out the instructor’s system, often seemingly chosen at random, rather than based on what I wanted to get out of a course? How often did the stress of the needed grade override my original reasons for signing up for a class? How many times did I choose safe and within-the-lines over something inventive and more fulfilling because there may be a consequence I hadn’t anticipated? This book has reminded me that education needs to prepare learners for the autonomy of a less structured world, where creativity, self-direction, and a growth mindset will be key elements of success. Education also built on relationships – between students and between students and instructors – and this is hardly nurtured by the looming judgment in a grade.

I’ve been reminded that we need to encourage mistakes and I’ve been working in a structure where mistakes are punished.

Ungrading offers an alternative and since the examples in the book include continuing to assign a grade at the end of the semester, many of the suggestions are things I can implement within our existing structures, perhaps starting small with a few ungraded assignments to make the change manageable as I try to weave together something new, something more cooperative, more learning centred.

Focusing on Formative Feedback

In Ungrading, the authors suggested assignments that build on each other, and the use of clear, supportive feedback that students can use to improve their work. Students are offered the opportunity to resubmit assignments or use the feedback for their next assignment without the risk of losing a mark: no ‘one and done’ assignments. Students and instructors work together, encouraging risk and growth, to improve performance and deepen learning. The process rather than the product becomes the focus.

The authors also emphasized the value of peer, self, and instructor feedback, and creating a clear structure so that students are able to support each other and are guided to reflect effectively on their own progress. Evidence suggests that feedback alone is more effective in improving performance than feedback with a grade, or than grades alone. With only the feedback to consider, students may build on their skills with a greater intrinsic sense of motivation.

One suggestion I found particularly useful was to ask students to let the instructor know, when submitting an assignment, what they were trying to accomplish or improve, and then targeting feedback to address the student’s specific goals.

Portfolios

In addition to formative, collaborative, and targeted feedback, many authors encouraged students to create portfolios of their work, usually electronic, that they could add to over the course of the semester or longer. Portfolios become a metacognition space and a way to share their work with peers and instructors, building evidence of their learning, and forming the basis for discussions between students and with the instructor during and at the end of the term.

Assigning the Grade

In order to fulfill the grade requirement within which the authors worked, most met with students at the end of the semester to discuss the grade together, usually having the student suggest a grade and provide evidence to justify their choice. Along with the growth demonstrated through their response to feedback throughout the semester, instructors used a variety of assignments that the student could draw from as evidence, including weekly attendance, blog posts, peer-led course units, discussions, presentations, and essays, to name a few. Badging and creating checklists for students to monitor their own progress were also used. Some instructors also described a contract-grading process in which students completed a contracted number of assignments to a specific quality in order to receive a corresponding grade.

If you’re concerned a student will receive a grade they haven’t earned, as Marcus Schultz-Bergin, one of the contributing authors, suggested, then you are still attached to the idea that grades have meaning. Evidence demonstrates that they don’t, and this may be the most compelling reason to ensure students are a part of the process.

Getting Buy-In

Whenever I’ve tried something new in class, I’ve talked with students about the what, the why, and the how. I’ve found that when students understand what is in store, they can ready themselves, make decisions about how they want to participate, recognize themselves as part of the environment and process we are creating together, and engage more fully in the work. Since instructors expect to grade and students expect to be graded, messing with this equation means even more discussion than may be necessary with other, less disruptive changes.

In addition to describing to students the ungrading process, the reasons it is being used, and what students can expect along the way, some authors, where possible or working in environments where this was unfixed, built the syllabus with the class, creating learning outcomes and rubrics together. This approach seems to be a helpful way to demonstrate the ungrading philosophy, by collaborating on some of the foundational elements of the course from the beginning. Referencing the personal meaning that Dewey long ago insisted was essential to learning, some authors also encouraged students to add their own learning outcomes, relevant to them, and to include completing these outcomes as part of their work and portfolio plans.

Results

In the book-club discussions, many of the strategies for assessing learning were similar to those many of us are already including in our courses. The big difference was the lack of letter grades or marks. While some of the approaches described seemed overly elaborate, and assigning a grade at the end of the course appears to compromise the ungrading philosophy promoted in the book, we agreed that the values expressed aligned with our own commitment to an engaged, accessible, and socially just pedagogy. The authors consistently described the positive results, including more egalitarian, cooperative environments and relationships, as well as strong student learning outcomes. They described students who worked harder, had less stress, new learning habits, and more creativity. They described students who had loved learning but hated school, appreciating this one experience where they could love both.

In addition, the instructors were reenergized by their role in education, letting go of the sorting, ranking, and judging and focusing instead on coaching, encouraging, guiding and the socially-just act of teaching.

Ignoring My Advice

If you decide to ignore my advice and pick up this book to begin the unraveling, and continue, as one of the book’s author’s put it, that Wile E. Coyote-level, impossible yet noble pursuit – the perfect teaching and learning experience- please let me know what you decide to adopt and how it goes.

Additional resources can be found with any of us at CETL and:

Camosun’s Assessment LibGuide (Including the use of feedback).

The Reflective Learning Framework: A Guide for Students and Educators.

UNGRADING: Untangling Grades from Feedback

E-portfolio Resources

Camosun Story #57: Anthony

Anthony is a faculty member in the Centre for Sport and Exercise Education (CSEE).  In fact, he was a brand-new term faculty member in the Fall of 2022 when I first heard his name from my instructional designer colleague, Kristina, who was amazed with the work Anthony was doing in his classroom around assessments and engagement activities.  So, last December, I sat down in Teams to chat with Anthony and Kristina about his experiences.

Anthony came to Camosun in a very roundabout way.  He was born in the U.S., was drafted to Major League Baseball at 17, received a scholarship for a Bachelor of Psychology program which he completed in 2011, got married and moved to Canada in 2012, completed a Master’s of Science in Kinesiology (after starting a Master’s or Education) at UVic, became a master coach developer for baseball in B.C. and Canada, then started applying to teach at Camosun.  After about two years of applying, he finally got the call one week before the Fall 2022 term started!

Anthony was hired to teach SPMA460, which is the Media and Public Relations for the Sport Management program, and with only four days to prepare, he was feeling a bit overwhelmed.  But fortunately he was able to meet with Kristina who introduced him to D2L, and helped him navigate the course syllabus, the assessments, etc. “I had the opportunity to work with several new term faculty in CSEE that semester and the first time Anthony and I sat down, I was captivated by his passion to give the students an authentic learning experience.”  Kristina mused that in our work as instructional designers, much of our time is spent “trying to help new instructors understand various approaches to teaching and how to inspire engagement in students. But Anthony brought all of that from his professional life so those first meetings were more about helping him navigate D2L and the college system versus actually teaching.”  Kristina found this a new experience for her “because Anthony was bringing so much expertise to the table already. We spent more time discussing higher-level questions and had deeper conversations about teaching that we as instructional designers don’t normally have until an instructor has had two or three years of in-classroom teaching experience.”

While Anthony has been a guest speaker and presented to rooms full of hundreds and thousands of people, he had never taught a course over a long period of time.  “I really wanted to do a good job because the classroom is an integral part of these students’ lives and I’m a part of it. I wanted to give them the best opportunity to learn from me and my experiences and my network.” For Anthony, this meant a lot of late nights.  “For the most part, I was finishing the lecture at 1:00 am the night before I was supposed to deliver it, as well as reviewing some of the content the night before so I could better guide the students.”  Because Anthony had less experience with some of the course topics, he brought in guest speakers to enhance the content. “My background in media and public relations was only from an athlete’s point of view.  For example, I had been a participant in press conferences, but I never had to set one up.  But thankfully the head of communications for BC Transit came in and shared some experiences from running press conferences for BC Ferries, etc.”

But Anthony reflected that his background as a coach and as a facilitator for the Coaching Association of Canada helped a great deal. “The rule of thumb is you talk 25% of the time and let the coaches speak the other 75%, and your 25% comes in by asking them questions to help them come up with a better answer. In my class, there were times the students didn’t want to talk, and I had to ask them very specific questions to get them going.”

Anthony also used a model he appreciated from his grad school days.  “We would break up a four-hour classroom day by doing activities throughout the four hours, as well as small group presentations. So, most days, I would plan an activity that wasn’t for a grade, where the students had to put themselves in a role-play type of situation. What I found, oddly enough, was that in-class participation during the ungraded activities was superior to that of the graded assignments because students were not stressed about being graded.”  So, the puzzle now becomes how to reduce that stress when students are being assessed for marks.

Another one of my colleagues, Derek, from the Faculty Development area, also supported Anthony.  “I asked him to come and observe the class, and we’ve since had some very deep conversations about teaching.  My big takeaway was that I wish I could start day one again and add more things to my delivery.”  But as Kristina noted, “the first time around, you’re figuring out the grading, what your expectations are, etc. Next time around you can work on the assignment instructions, the guidance you give the students, because you will be able to anticipate things that come up.”

One other thing I wanted to note about Anthony’s approach was that he had no hard due dates on any assignment.  Everything was ultimately due on the last day of class.  “If a student wanted to turn in their assignment 100 times, I would grade it 100 times and give it back so they could improve and get steadily better marks until they were satisfied. Some students have taken advantage of that – they turned everything in during the first week of class and we’ve been back-and-forth four or five times with me asking questions. On the other hand, some of the class has just appreciated that they could wait until the last minute and then hand everything in on the last day.”  While some students have commented that Anthony is just too nice, he notes that it’s not about being nice, it’s about supporting student learning.  “I want them to understand what they’re turning in so that if I ask them these questions two years from now, they’re going to remember, as opposed to if they cram and give me an assignment last minute. It’s made for some tough grading days, but I think the students appreciated my efforts.”

While Anthony admitted to having some concerns about the sustainability of this model if he were to be teaching multiple courses at once, Kristina assured him that “while the workload increases with more students, you’re able to anticipate, plan, and incorporate for that because you now have a solid foundation (and feedback from students) to work with, and each time you teach, you’re going to add another layer to it. I think if you had tried to add all those pieces at the very beginning, things may have fallen apart along the way. But because you started simple, you were able to deliver that exceptionally and in a way that you can now add too.”

Anthony doesn’t just think of his students inside the classroom.  He also sees his role as linking them with the right people for the information they need, or to help them move forward in their career, or help them discover another path they might want to pursue. “Athletes often don’t have mentors. They typically don’t start school with a job in mind, but rather think that for the rest of their lives they are going to play a sport, become famous, and make money.  But this only happens for a small percentage of those athletes.  So, this class is not just about what students learn, but it’s also about making connections, utilizing networks, and figuring out how this can propel them further. This class may take them somewhere that has nothing to do with media and public relations, but because of the connections they’ve made, they can go anywhere.”  In fact, one of Anthony’s dreams would be to have an entire course of just guest speakers.  “Nobody in the class knew what an agent does except for one student who was a professional baseball player and had an agent, but even he didn’t understand the nuances. We could bring in CEOs or general managers of sports teams – if we had a class full of guest speakers, I think it could be a huge benefit for the students.

Kristina ended our conversation with something I had also been thinking. “When you (Anthony) talk about your teaching, if feel like there is no boundary between the classroom and the real-world. You’ve taken down those walls and you’ve immersed your course material and your students within the context of what they would encounter in real life and connect those authentically rather than teaching the concept and then applying it to an artificial example. I think that’s something very unique you’re giving your students. You have a gift, and sometimes we don’t take the time to recognize those gifts in other people.”  I couldn’t agree more.

You will be happy to know that Anthony is back with Camosun this term, teaching more classes.  I am excited for his students and look forward to finding out what amazing things he is doing!

Blended Learning Perspectives: Examples from Camosun Faculty

Today is the fourth, and final (for now), post in our series on Blended Learning Perspectives.  So far, I have shared with you a video with several Camosun faculty members explaining their views of what blended learning is, a series of videos where some of these same faculty members talk about blended learning and how it supports equity, diversity, and inclusion and a series of videos with faculty talking about the importance of student feedback.

This week, three instructors share some of their own blended learning lesson examples.

Tanis (Kinesiology) – where students reflect, discuss, review online and then build community when they are together in person.

Diane (Education and Career Preparation) – where students discuss and brainstorm synchronously, then watch and analyze related videos in their asynchronous classroom space, and reflect on them from a personal perspective.

Kari (English) – where students review and reflect and comment on peers’ work online, then come together in person and have a group conversation about the work they have read and reviewed.