Schedule + Recorded Presentations

(Q&A) Challenging Conversation Workshops: Using Zoom to Create Safe(r) Spaces

In a new third year pharmacy course, students were provided the opportunity to discuss scenarios and case studies on challenging topics related to death and dying, racism, and gender diversity, using Zoom breakout rooms. Based on the activity feedback, instructors have decided in the upcoming year to continue to use Zoom for these challenging topics, in order to allow the students to feel safe(r) than they might in a live classroom setting. Instructors will discuss how they effectively used the virtual environment for three different potentially challenging topics related to patient care.

(Q&A) Teaching with a Lightboard

First came the blackboard, then the whiteboard, and now the Light Board. We will show how a Light Board can add interest to your classes and discuss the basics of using one.

Keith Godfrey (Alberta School of Business), Stevan Dubljevic (Faculty of Engineering)

Keynote: The Post-COVID Teaching Environment

Capitalizing on Covid-19 Restrictions to Improve Linkages Between Students and The Real World of Animal Agriculture

In Animal Science 101 in the Winter Term of 2021, 48 farmers engaged with the class via Zoom to provide virtual tours of their livestock and poultry farms. Groups of students engaged with farmers in developing animal production units in an 8-week project. Student and farmer responses were very positive and this approach will likely be continued after a return to in-class instruction.

(Q&A) Flipgrid and Padlet: The Perks of Remote Teaching

In this presentation, I will explain how I used flipgrid and Padlet to facilitate discussion and collaboration between students.These tools empower teachers and learners to continue their learning, supplement existing teaching methods, and enable new ways of doing meaningful tasks using the target language. They include both synchronous and asynchronous opportunities online.By the end of this presentation, participants will learn how to motivate the learners and stimulate their active engagement with digestible and interesting content.

Curating Course Materials: Lessons Learned from Using Open Educational Resources for Remote Teaching

In this presentation, art historian Andrea Korda talks about the role of the instructor as a curator of resources, drawing on her experiences using and creating open educational resources (OERs) during a year of remote teaching. She introduces two OERs—the virtual exhibition Photographies and the Crafting Communities website—and takes a fresh look at the value of OERs for both remote and face-to-face teaching.

Fishbowls: Promoting Student Engagement & a Safe Atmosphere for Remote Teaching

In this presentation, I will describe and explain how I adapted a fishbowl conversation strategy for remote teaching this past year. I will discuss the outcomes of this strategy for my students and what I learned and will be taking back to my in-person classes, followed by a conversation about what strategies worked for us as teachers and what did not.

(Q&A) Pivoting in 3 dimensions: Combining an Open Educational Resource and a 3D-Printing Project for Visualizing the Earth's Interior

Our TLEF-supported project aimed to bring 3D-printed models to students using our Open Educational Resource text in Earth Science. The pandemic forced us to pivot to presenting the same models on-screen. In the process we discovered powerful new ways to deliver ideas and skills. We may not go back to pencils and tracing paper when the pandemic is over..

(Q&A) All Group Work is Multicultural Group Work: The Multicultural Learning Pods and Strategies for Intercultural Exchange

In a context of cultural diversity, how can you structure and support group work to encourage cross-cultural exchange and innovation? This session will briefly explore the Multicultural Learning Pods program out of the University of Alberta International and draw out lessons for instructors on how to model mutual cultural adaptation and support all students as they engage in intercultural collaboration.

(Q&A) How The Flipped Class Model Facilitated Transition to Online Learning

This course had previously adopted a "flipped class" model as a method more appropriate to students at a graduate level. This approach and the resources developed to support it facilitated the transition to virtual delivery. We continue to explore strategies to encourage student engagement during synchronous class components. The geographic flexibility conferred by virtual learning is particularly advantageous in a class with many Global Health students.

Putting Students At The Centre Of Their Learning Journey

Applying human-centered design requires us to change our mindset from “creating a class for the students” to “creating a class with the students”. This presentation discusses different approaches to enable partnership, dialogue, experimentation, and mutual learning in a large, virtual classroom.

(Q&A) Meaningful Professional Transformation in the Midst of a Pandemic: Teaching with Compassion, Embracing Essential Foundations in Education and Why There is No Going Back

My vision for the video presentation is to describe my own professional transformation as an instructor, with particular emphasis on my complete change in philosophy regarding assessment (which was the most difficult decision for me, but has turned out to be one of the best and most effective). I shifted from high-stakes mid-term and final exams to creative and practical assignments and open-book assessments based on integrated knowledge from various course topics and lectures. I am also re-introducing compassion in the classroom and share how I intend to carry these new traditions forward in my work.

A Double Transition: Reactivating The Occupational Medicine Residency Program In Pandemic Times

During this presentation, we will present the collaboration between the UofA and 2 other universities (UdeM and UofT), in delivering academic half day sessions. After a year with our program being inactive, we revisited our curriculum, moved our teaching sessions through Zoom, established new mock exams. This national virtual collaboration is instrumental in strengthening connections between Occupational Medicine trainees and specialists at a national level, which is critical in our small professional community.

(Q&A) Embodied, Engaged, and Experiential Learning in Online Physical Education

Teaching movement-based, curriculum and pedagogy courses is no easy task in an online format. To ensure that embodied and experiential learning were still a key focus in my courses, I developed a teaching strategy and assignment that centered on experiential learning and professional engagement. These experiential learning tasks encouraged students to learn course material while experiencing a variety of outcomes such as developing their own practical pedagogy skills, collaborating with classmates, reflecting in- and on-action, and learning critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Open-Book Higher-Level Thinking Multiple Choice Assessments

Unless instructors are primarily interested in assessing memory of knowledge and skills, closed book exams are often misaligned with higher-level and critical thinking objectives. Open-book and diagnostic-type (OBD) multiple choice questions with formative feedback can be created and objectively scored in eClass. OBD multiple choice items can be (a) aligned with higher-level thinking objectives, (b) rigorous in terms of item statistics, and (c) objectively scored with meaningful feedback for remediating misconceptions in students.

(Q&A) Using Student Feedback To Improve Communication Skills In Live Zoom Classes

This presentation will discuss how student feedback can be used to direct student learning for case simulations in a healthcare setting.

How Application of Self-Determination Theory Helped Solve Multiple Pandemic-Related Instruction and Assessment Problems in a Professional Program

Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is a theory of motivation that posits that supporting autonomy, competence, and relatedness will lead to more intrinsic motivation with benefits on learning and the emotional response to challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic had significant impacts on the opportunities for medical students to learn essential knowledge and skills as well as increased emotions around mandatory assessments. This session will explore an instructor’s journey through the application of SDT in several pandemic-related challenges with practical applications for all instructors.

Generating Effective Feedback from Online Assessments

Compared to paper-and-pencil assessments, online assessments can be more effective in generating and delivering timely feedback for students. ExamVis, a digital score reporting tool designed for eClass, allows instructors to create more effective assessments that can produce personalized feedback for students. In this study, we will demonstrate how to use the ExamVis tool and demonstrate empirical findings from several courses that have implemented ExamVis during Fall 2020 and Winter 2021.

Presentation slides (PDF)

(Q&A) Engaging International Students Online

This presentation will give you suggestions and resources on how to engage and support international students online. Some of the points covered will include building rapport, adapting activities to an online class, providing basic language support / resources, and using online tools to engage your students. Lo and Buchanan are experienced language educators at the English Language School, Faculty of Extension. Lo is the recipient of 2020 COVID-19 Remote Teaching Award and Buchanan is the recipient of 2020 Wellness Champions.

The Development of an Interactive Open Educational Resources Website for Engineering Courses

Here is the objective of the OER website as posted here: Engineering at Alberta is committed to providing engineering students with as many resources as possible to facilitate the students’ learning experience. With this in mind, this website was born to provide a platform for educators to publish their open educational resources to help our students and all engineering students around the world in their pursuit of knowledge. The website is arranged in books. Each book presents a set of open educational resources designed for a particular engineering course. The resources could include text, videos, interactive examples, or downloadable content such as code snippets. The material on this website is licensed under a creative commons license.

Relationality in the Classroom

This presentation discusses Indigenous Ways of Being and Knowing. Specifically, it hones in on the concept of relationality and how it can be incorporated into the classroom.