Welcome back after what I hope was a refreshing and restorative break. The start of a new term and a new year often brings feelings of excitement and opportunity — which is certainly the case for the teaching and learning community. 2023 promises to be a good year with a number of initiatives coming to fruition. The Future Learning Innovation Fellows is one of those and recipients will be announced shortly. Also, after more than a year of planning, design, and construction, the Future Learning Lab has now opened!
The Future Learning Lab is both a physical space and set of programs designed to foster innovation and incentivize student-centred ways of teaching. The lab will encourage student-instructor partnerships, undergraduate research opportunities, skills development and experiment with emerging technologies. It will also provide physical and virtual spaces for instructors to innovate with pedagogical design, as well as add 800 new study spaces for students. The Future Learning Lab (4th floor Library) is the result of a wonderful partnership between the MacOdrum Library, Teaching and Learning Services (TLS) and Facilities Management and Planning (FMP) and is funded through the generous support of the Ministry of Colleges and Universities and Carleton.
A formal launch and opening event will take place in the next few weeks, but the space is now open to the community — check it out!
The Future of Teaching and Learning Working Group is concluding its work and will release its report to the community soon. I am grateful to all the committee members and the project team for their efforts as we consider opportunities (and challenges) accelerated by the pandemic. The report lays out a set of priorities that will guide our collective efforts in fostering student success for the next few years.
And there is more…stay tuned as we finalize more exciting initiatives.
We continue to foster student success through our workshops and training, the Students as Partners Program (SaPP) and the Internship-Carleton University Research Experience for Undergraduate Students (I-CUREUS) program, alongside the Carleton University Experiential Learning Fund (CUELF), which is accepting applications until Jan. 20, 2023.
As ever, TLS is here to help. We offer a variety of services to support instructors and their courses. Whether you need help with something specific like Brightspace or just want to discuss a teaching idea, reach out to us!
On behalf of everyone here at Teaching and Learning Services, we wish you all the best for the new term.
David J Hornsby
Associate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning)