Projects and Recent Initiatives

Since 2017, working with UCA’s School of Arts and Science as the Curriculum Consultant for the courses in their 4 Majors and their liberal arts  year.    While the UCA faculty are based in Naryn, Kyrgyzstan and Khorog, Tajikistan, their curriculum developement teams work at universities all over the world.  I also have the great honour of participating on their Admissions Committee and in the selection process for their new  cohorts of students.

Prior to leading the establishment of a Center for Teaching Learning and Technology, working with the International partners and UCA’s faculty I was the curriculum consultant for the design and debelopment of the courses for the Liberal Arts year and the four majors – Computer Sciences,  Communications and Media Studies, Earth and Environment Sciences, Economics.

I currently work closely with the Director of the CTLT as a Senior Advisor.

About the Task Force

Members bring different perspectives and lived experiences in a variety of ways: from groups within STLHE, student perspectives, BIPOC, geographic diversity, college and university representation and diverse social identities.

MANDATE

The mandate of the Task Force was to:

1. Review current practices in EDI, identifying gaps and opportunities for improvement.
2. Recommend a set of strategic directions and proactive measures for integrating EDI into the work and culture of the STLHE.
3. Submit a final report to the STLHE Membership.

The Report from the Task Force: Pathways to Justice: An EDI Journey for the STLHE/SAPES Equity, Diversity and Inclusion   was published on October 29th, 2021 and the work that informed the report will soon be published as a book chapter. 

To find out some more about this project, take a look at:

• A world class University Town
• A Classroom for the mountains
• The Future Leaders of Central Asia via @devex

In 2015/16 as the academic lead, at Seneca College, of  the curriculum design team for the University of Central Asia’s problem based, contextualized and integrated Preparatory year which focuses on English as an additional language, Math and Science, I also guided the teams who collaborated on the planning for the implementation of the curriculum, interviewing and hiring faculty to teach the courses,  curating the resources to support the courses and guiding and mentoring the faculty as the courses are taught.   This work was highlighted in a series of articles by Devex (a media platform for the global development community)  and the focus of a case study prepared by the Aga Khan Foundation Canada for Global Affairs Canada.   I also worked with the content experts for the University’s core curriculum to ensure that the curriculum followed a constructive alignment philosophy and that UCA’s core literacies were taught, practiced and assessed.

In 2017, while on sabbatical  after a 2 year secondment as the Director of Teaching and Learning at Seneca College, I led the team that collaborated on eCampusOntario’s Extend project.  Elements of the  Ontario Extend program have been adopted by several colleges and universities in Ontario.  The program was  also adapted by the Canadian eLearning Network for the K-12 system and by a team at Otago Polytechnic for implementation within the OERu Outreach Partners, currently 14 Higher Education institutions in the developing world. Take a look at their version of the Teacher for Learning and Experimenter Modules.

The project focused on designing a collaborative approach to knowledge building, skill development, and resource sharing to support the technology-enabled learning initiatives of the 10 (publicly funded) Northern colleges and universities. The instructional resources used by and designed for this project will be openly licensed and shared among all Ontario post-secondary institutions.

Working with the Morogoro Vocational Teachers Training College to create a Management and Leadership Development Model and to design and deliver a series of workshops and short courses focused on Leadership and Management. This project is part of the Improving Skills Training for Employment Program (ISTEP), an Education for Employment (EFE) program of the Colleges and Institutes Canada) working in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MOEVT).

The goal of the project is to build the capacity of Tanzanian technical and vocational training institutions to deliver effective skills training programs.

Role: Primary Researcher

The purpose of this Colleges and Instituties Canada study  was to identify and evaluate opportunities for collaboration in the collection, curation, sharing and creation of online resources that are used for teaching, practicing and accessing skills and activities for technical training that have traditionally been done in hands-on, physical spaces.

The study explored the feasibility of creating and supporting a  digital space that would be a sandbox for Canadian educators to explore, create, and collaborate with each other and with educators around the world to improve the curriculum for training technical skills.

One of the goals was to determine ways to enable and maintain access to online/digital resources for vulnerable learners, including Indigenous students, persons with disabilities and those who live in areas underserved by broadband.

The overarching research questions were:

• How can we work together to shape a technology enabled future for programs at colleges and institutes focused on the training of technical skills?
• How do we use the technologies and resources available to us to up-skill and re-skill workers in a post COVID-19 economy?

 The study was funded by the McConnell Foundation.

Co-chair of the eCampus Ontario – Faculty Supports Portal College/University Coordinating committee and College Steering commitee.

Colleges and universities in Ontario are working together to assist the Ontario Online Learning Consortium with the development of a faculty supports portal. The primary purpose of the eCampus Ontario Teaching Resources Project is to enhance online supports for faculty teaching online, hybrid and blended courses by organizing and curating resources that will be posted on the OOLC/COAEL portal.

The goal of this ongoing partnership is to enhance the capacity of Mozambican institutional leaders in managing administrative issues, managing financial and human resources and establishing and maintaining relationships with industry employers, including their capacity to achieve gender equality results.

Seneca’s Academic Plan 2012-2017 outlines 10 Core Literacies and commits that every Seneca graduate will demonstrate competency in the Seneca Core Literacies. These literacy areas build on and relate to the Essential Employability Skills identified by the Ontario Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development, and reflect some of the work undertaken by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU). Opportunities for teaching, practicing and assessing these literacies are embedded into the curriculum in every program.

Role:  – College Co-Chair for the joint College University Coordinating Committee and the College Steering Committee

Colleges and universities in Ontario collaborated  to assist the Ontario Online Learning Consortium with the development of a faculty supports portal. The primary purpose of the eCampus Ontario Teaching Resources Project is to enhance online supports for faculty teaching online, hybrid and blended courses by organizing and curating resources that will be posted on the OOLC/COAEL portal.

This project, led by Seneca College, was part of the program for Education for Employment (EPE) from the National Learning Service of Colombia (SENA) in collaboration with Colleges and Institutes of Canada (CICAN). The goal of the project was to recommend adjustments to Colombian existing occupational standards in the areas of water treatment and environment, based on the findings of the comparative study and to assist in the creating of new occupational standards. In addition, a workshop on creating occupational standards was developed and delivered to the team from SENA.

Member of the Advisory Board – Learning Outcomes and Assessment – for the College Student Achievement Project (CSAP) –

The Advisory Board was responsible for providing guidance to the CSAP Project Team on the overall strategic direction of  The Assessment Development (ADP) and Learning Outcomes Development (LODP) projects.

This project was funded by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities

An Inaugural International Collaborative Writing Group (ICWG) for the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSoTL). Affiliated with 2012 conference in Canada, this ICWG collaborated on a publication on the topic of the ‘Student Experience of their degree program level’.

Information to be added