Wednesday, May 22, 2013

EDC Blog: Creativity in the Classroom

Fresh off receiving the 2013 Desire2Learn Innovation Award for Teaching and Learning, Carleton history professor Shawn Graham tells us how he manages to keep his teaching creative. By: Shawn Graham I've had some spectacular fails in my teaching practice. When I first started out, I would look around at what other folks were doing... More

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Best history class ever? Award-winning prof hates essays, loves video games

By: Daniel Reid Shawn Graham isn’t your ordinary history professor. Not by a long shot. Essays? He hates them. Video games? Part of his curriculum. “I often joke with my students that I don’t want to read any more essays,” says Graham, who specializes in game-based learning approaches. “I want them making different things.”... More

Monday, May 6, 2013

EDC Blog: Innovation is not about reinventing the wheel…or using new technology

By: Samah Sabra Often, when I speak with contract instructors, instructors and faculty, they express surprise when I tell them they are innovative. With last week’s annual Canadian Network for Innovation in Education conference being hosted at Carleton, I had a lot of time to think about how we define innovation in education. CNIE... More

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Congratulations to this year’s Achievement Award Winners

The EDC would like to congratulate the 2012-13 Achievement Awards winners. Each recipient has made a great contribution to the Carleton community. Read all about the award winners and their projects here. There will be a celebration to honour the recipients on Tuesday, May 7 from 3-5 p.m. in Bakers Lounge with President and... More

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

EDC Blog: Change Can be Hard, but Energizing

By: Samah Sabra Before Fall 2012, I knew there were plans to retire WebCT this April. These plans left me with two options for the next two terms: (1) keep going with WebCT until it was no longer an option or (2) start using cuLearn now that it was available to me. The first... More

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Professor Shawn Graham wins Desire2Learn Innovation Award for Teaching and Learning

The Office of the Associate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning) would like to congratulate history professor Shawn Graham for being named one of five winners of the 2013 Desire2Learn Innovation Award for Teaching and Learning on April 23. The award, sponsored by the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) and Desire2Learn,... More

Friday, April 19, 2013

Carleton Recognizes Top Teaching Assistants for 2012-2013

On April 19, 2013, Carleton’s Educational Development Centre recognized the work and accomplishments of teaching assistants with the End of Year Excellence Reception. More than 100 graduate students, staff and faculty members gathered to celebrate the achievements of Carleton’s diverse graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants. The... More

Monday, April 15, 2013

EDC Blog: Next Steps for the LMS

By: Patrick Lyons For the last year, the Educational Development Centre (EDC) and Computing and Communication Services (CCS) have been collaborating to transition the university from WebCT (actually Blackboard Campus Edition 8) to cuLearn (actually Moodle). We are now in the final couple of months of our transition and Carleton’s long history... More

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Six Carleton educators named finalists for Capital Educators’ Awards

Congratulations to the six Carleton educators who have been named finalists for the 2013 Capital Educators’ Awards. Troy Anderson (Sprott School of Business), Craig Bennell (Department of Psychology), Steven Cooke (Department of Biology), Carter Elwood (Department of History), Mariana Esponda (Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism) and... More

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

WebCT Retirement: What you need to know

The EDC and CCS are pleased to report that on May 10, Carleton will retire WebCT and embrace cuLearn as our sole Learning Management System. While WebCT has served Carleton well in the past, the product is at the end of its life cycle and will no longer be updated. After an extensive review... More

Friday, April 5, 2013

WebCT Retirement Date Approaching

The EDC and CCS are pleased to report that on May 10th, Carleton will retire WebCT and embrace cuLearn as our sole Learning Management System. While WebCT has served Carleton well in the past, the product is at the end of its life cycle and will no longer be updated. After an extensive review... More

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Important Co-Curricular Record Update for Faculty and Staff

The Co-Curricular Record (CCR) is a tool used at Carleton to both encourage and recognize students’ extra-curricular involvement. The CCR has recently been subject to updates, and this has slightly altered the way students, staff and faculty can access the system. Please note that moving forward, all faculty and staff are required to access... More

Monday, April 1, 2013

EDC Blog: Unlocking Assessment Value with Mozilla Open Badges

By: Andrew Barrett Assessment of learning is important but it can be hard work for all involved. This post explores the question of how educators and learners can potentially get more bang for the effort they put into assessment through the use of the newly released Mozilla Open Badges infrastructure that is receiving considerable... More

Thursday, March 28, 2013

A Teacher’s Perspective: Using Technology to Offer Online Labs

By: Marc St-Hilaire The School of Information Technology is offering a Bachelor degree in Networking Technology (NET). The NET program focuses on the design, installation, operation and management of future complex information networks. One of the main advantages of this program is that it offers a strong mix of theoretical concepts and practical... More

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Celebrate Carleton’s outstanding TAs

The EDC has received a record number of nominations for this year’s Outstanding TA Awards, which celebrate the amazing accomplishments of Carleton University’s teaching assistants and their dedication to undergraduate learning. This year, the list of nominees is nearly 1/3 larger than ever before – proof that there are more celebrated... More

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Blog Post: Celebrating Carleton’s Outstanding TAs

The nomination deadline for the Educational Development Centre's (EDC) Outstanding Teaching Assistant awards and many Departmental TA Awards was last Friday, March 8. The awards celebrate the amazing accomplishments of Carleton University's teaching assistants and their dedication to undergraduate learning. Teaching assistants occupy a challenging... More

Monday, March 11, 2013

Nominate an outstanding educator for a Carleton teaching award

Do you know an outstanding educator at Carleton? Nominate them for a Carleton teaching award! There are three Carleton awards currently accepting nominations. Provost’s Fellowship in Teaching Award This award recognizes faculty and contract instructors dedicated to sustained excellence in teaching, scholarship of teaching and the continual... More

Monday, March 11, 2013

EDC Blog: Student Self-Assessment and Learning

By: Samah Sabra A couple of years ago, a friend challenged me to get students involved in their own assessment. While I like to think of myself as someone who is willing to take risks in teaching, has a great attitude toward students and believes that anyone, if given enough support and time, can... More

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Blog Post: Engaging Students With Informal Student-Teacher Interactions

By Sanoji Wijenayake, Department of Biology Student-teacher interactions are crucial in developing a student's academic self, motivation and achievement at all stages of their academic career (Komarraju et al. 2010), starting from kindergarten and continuing on to graduate studies. It is important to understand that student-teacher relationship... More

Monday, March 4, 2013

LMS migration team named 2012 Service Excellence Award winners

Congratulations to staff from the EDC, CCS and library, who were named the team winners of the 2012 Service Excellence Awards on Thursday, February 28. The Learning Management System is Carleton’s most used web application. Every day, nearly every student logs into the system and 50 per cent of all faculty members and contract... More

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Blog Post: Why You Should Have A Peer Observe Your Teaching

Danica Meredith, Department of English We have all been taught by excellent teachers, as well as some who are...less excellent. Do you ever wonder how they get that way? As a teacher you are in a position to facilitate learning.  There are several ways in which to share knowledge in instructor-led classroom settings.  At... More

Monday, February 25, 2013

EDC Blog: March is Assessment month at the EDC

By: Joe Lipsett In recent months, the EDC has been offering “themed” programming months (January was Teaching with Technology, February was Learning Outcomes). March will be themed Assessment and for a number of reasons, we expect that there will be a great deal of interest from faculty and contract instructors in exploring this topic.... More

Thursday, February 14, 2013

EDC Blog: Learning Outcomes, Course Design and Online Teaching

By: Samah Sabra When I started this position in May 2012, I had a conversation with a friend who was about to embark on her first online teaching experience. Over coffee, she told me that she was a little nervous about what a change in medium of course delivery would mean for her. Would... More

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Blog Post: Engaging Students through Effective Feedback

By Abby Resiner, Department of Music For most teaching assistants, marking student assignments is an important duty. Through my experience as teaching assistant, I have observed several students do not engage with feedback provided on assignments. An important part of learning is to review feedback on assignments and learn from mistakes for future... More

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Blog Post: Student Feedback – Does Feedback Matter?

by Sandra Lalli  “Action without feedback is completely unproductive for the learner” (Handley, Millar & Price, 2011, p. 879) Discourse on feedback consistently suggests that students are disengaged from course material as a result of weak and insufficient feedback mechanisms. When feedback is provided to students by teaching assistants... More

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Blog Post: Engaging Shy Students In Tutorials

by Madelaine Morrison, Department of History For many students, shyness presents a formidable obstacle to tutorial participation.  Sitting like ducks in a hot, stuffy classroom, they must converse with peers they barely know under the watchful gaze of the beady-eyed tutorial leader who, pen in hand, scratches symbols across an inscrutable... More

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Blog Post: Begin with the end in mind: Backward Design – A Tool for Effective Teaching

by Dahlya Smolash, Department of English Backward Design is an approach to curriculum planning that starts with final learning outcomes, and works backwards to determine activities and assessment tools. A Backward Design approach has the benefit of methodologically ensuring that the objectives and the assignments/activities are in synch. This... More

Monday, January 21, 2013

EDC Blog: My first steps into the digital world

By: Anthony Marini For the past four years, I have been facilitating Carleton University’s teaching certificate program here at the Educational Development Centre.  In each cohort, the topic of integrating technology into the teaching/learning process has been addressed by having the unit’s director come into a session and discuss the... More

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Blog Post: “Engaging” The Next Generation

Written by Ryan Griffin, Department of Electronics Engaging students and promoting learning can be a very difficult task and there are countless theories and methods on how best encourage students to learn and be involved. [1 - 3] In my own experience utilizing varied teaching approaches, being approachable and making students work for the... More

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Blog Post: TAs are human, too…Creating student interest and engagement in 1 simple step

Written by: Deanne van Rooyen, Department of Earth Sciences One of the most frequently asked questions I’ve encountered in many years of being a TA is “What do you do?” It may even beat “what’s on the test?” but this is anecdotal evidence only. Maybe I just remember the first question better because it... More

Monday, December 10, 2012

EDC Blog: Winding Down and Bringing It Together

By: Samah Sabra One of my biggest challenges as an instructor has been learning that the end of the semester never comes with as much “extra” time as I hope it will. While I always want it to be a time to wind down from constant prep and emails – perhaps a bit of... More

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Migrate your content from WebCT to cuLearn

The EDC is here to help faculty and instructors move course content from WebCT to cuLearn. All WebCT courses have been backed up and converted into a format compatible with cuLearn, however, due to the sheer volume of courses taught over the last five years, they are being moved to cuLearn on a by-request... More

Monday, November 26, 2012

EDC Blog: Of Dinosaur and Teaching and Learning

By: Patrick Lyons As some of the EDC blog readers know, on occasion I have the opportunity to teach ERTH 2401, more commonly known at Carleton as the dinosaur course. This second year Earth Sciences course is designed to introduce non-science students to key geological concepts and situate dinosaurs within the dynamic environment of... More

Friday, November 16, 2012

Congratulations to the EDC’s graduates

Congratulations to the 45 faculty members and contract instructors who graduated from the EDC’s Certificate in University Teaching and Certificate in Fundamentals of University Teaching programs on Thursday, Nov. 15. The graduation ceremony was held in conjunction with a reception welcoming Carleton’s new Associate Vice-President (Teaching and... More

Monday, November 12, 2012

EDC Blog: He Said/She Said – Lessons Learned: Reflecting on Teaching

He Said (Joe Lipsett) Recently, I’ve led some Teaching Talks with teaching assistants on the value of reflecting about teaching. It’s a topic that’s close to my heart because it requires me to re-evaluate my approach to teaching, including the way I interact with and engage students, and how my teaching philosophy has changed... More

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