After a successful launch of the Virtual Maple League Teaching and Learning Centre on June 1, and a full month of programming, we are pleased to announce the July schedule, shaped by faculty feedback and requests:
1. Maple League Hosts & Special Interest Sessions (Wednesdays 11am EDT/12 noon ADT)
2. Better Together: Maple League Teaching Support (Tuesdays & Thursdays 11am EDT, 12 noon ADT)
3. Access “On Demand” Digital Resources (Asynchronous content) from June sessions and workshops
4. Developing Our Courses Together Online Remotely (DOCTOR) (Times and Dates below)
5. V_MLTLC Resource Guide (a document with tips, tricks, and design principles to help prepare for Fall 2020: check it out here)
For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact Heather Carroll, Director of the V_MLTLC, at hcarroll@luc.edu, or Jessica Riddell, Maple League Executive Director, at director@mapleleague.ca.
Better Together: Maple League Teaching Support
Continuing on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the month of July, the ‘Better Together: Maple League Teaching Support’ series brings together faculty, staff and students from across the Maple League; these sessions provide teaching support, foster communities of practice, and a create spaces to collaborate and work through challenges related to teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. All sessions are an hour in length and begin at 11:00 am Eastern / 12:00 noon Atlantic. They can be accessed by clicking: https://bluejeans.com/8198229605
• Thursday, July 2: Integrating Experiential Learning into Your Course hosted by Jennifer Lussier (RIIPEN), Charlene Marion (Bishop’s), and Tiffany MacLennan (St. FX)
• Tuesday, July 7: Course Planning I: The Story of Your Course hosted by Jarislowsky Visiting Scholar Heather Smith (UNBC)
• Thursday, July 9: Course Planning II: Constructive Alignment hosted by Jarislowsky Visiting Scholar Heather Smith (UNBC)
• Tuesday, July 14: Knowledge Mobilization hosted by Heather Lawford (Bishop’s)
• Thursday, July 16: Ask Us Anything about Anti-Black Racism in Education: Creating a Safe Place to Have Questions Answered hosted by Wendy Mackey, Ornella Nzindukiyimana, and Ronald Charles (St. FX)
• Tuesday, July 21: Supporting First-Generation Students hosted by Tiffany MacLennan (St. FX), Tanisha Campbell (Bishop’s), and Clancy McDaniel (Students NS)
• Thursday, July 23: Best Practices for Accessibility and Accommodation in the time of COVID hosted by Theresa Gagnon (Bishop’s), Amanda Manning (Bishop’s), Anne Comfort (Mount Allison), and Marissa McIsaac (Acadia)
• Tuesday, July 28: All About Assessment hosted by Jeff Banks (Acadia) and Estelle Chamoux (Bishop’s)
• Thursday, July 30: Even More Moodle hosted by Scott Stoddard (Bishop’s) and Keagan Hawthorne (Mount Allison)
Maple League Hosts & Special Interest Sessions
On Wednesdays beginning at 11:00 am Eastern / 12:00 noon Atlantic, join us for a variety of programming – panels, conversations, and calls to action – of interest to our community. All sessions are an hour in length and can be accessed here: https://bluejeans.com/8198229605
July 8: Special Interest Session: Maple League Student Success Panel on High-Impact Practices (HIPs). Join panelists Tiffany MacLennan (Wallace Fellow), Jessica Riddell (Executive Director, Maple League), Heather Carroll (Director, V_MLTLC), and Krista Steeves (Director of Experiential Learning, Mount Allison) as they discuss High Impact Practices (HIPs), and positive impact on deeper learning (cf. Kuh 2008) in the context of COVID.
July 15: “Maple League Hosts”: A Panel of the Four University Presidents and the Role of Collaboration in PSE. Join the four university presidents for a discussion of higher education in the context of COVID and beyond.
July 22: Special Interest Session: Decolonizing the Consortium: Issuing a Call to Action with Lara Hartman, Indigenous Student Fellow to the Maple League of Universities.
July 29: Special Interest Session: ‘Ask Me Anything’ with the Director of the V_MLTLC: Join Heather Carroll for questions related to course design, or to inquire about our August programming.
Access “On Demand” Digital Resources from June Sessions
In case you were unable to attend some of our Better Together series, we have compiled asynchronous content of some of the key takeaways from the following sessions:
Tuesday, June 9: Student Feedback for your Course Design
Georges-Philippe Gadoury-Sansfaçon (Bishop’s) and Janine Annett (Acadia) shared insights from students on their own campuses and responded to an audience Q&A about course planning. Click here to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdbJFs2q_M4
Tuesday, June 16: Exploring Campus Engagement in a Virtual Classroom
Mary Sweatman (Acadia) and Janine Annett (Acadia) facilitated conversations about how to redefine community-based learning in a virtual learning environment. Click here to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzYX-hcD2Rw
Tuesday, June 23: Active Learning
Angie Kolen (St. FX) and Josh Read shared active learning strategies and did a ‘how do’ video of one of the attendees’ favorites, a ‘Living Likert Scale’. Click here to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL81QeZR22I&t=3s
Wednesday, June 24: Keep Teaching Webinar
Maple League Executive Director Jessica Riddell co-hosted a ‘Keep Teaching’ Webinar, organized by the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. A synopsis of the webinar, titled ‘Naming, Claiming, and Aiming our Teaching Discomforts’ can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUFqA4gOuQg&feature=youtu.be Developing Our Courses Together Online Remotely (DOCTOR) The onset of the pandemic has led to significant changes in how we work. Some of us will be transitioning our courses online for the first time, while others will be doing a combination of online and face-to-face teaching. Through the Virtual Maple League Teaching and Learning Centre (V_MLTLC), we have created a shared quiet space to work on designing, developing, and preparing your courses for the upcoming academic year. We will meet twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, in July. For the first week of the DOCTOR program, we will attend the Maple League Better Together sessions hosted by Heather Smith. For the rest of the month, we will meet in a shared MS Teams space from 8:30-10:30 (Eastern)/9:30-11:30 (Atlantic). At the start of each, we will share what we plan to work on that day. We will then turn our mic’s off and work (the chat function will still be available if questions come up). In the last 30 minutes of the time that we have booked, we will turn our microphones back on and debrief about what went well and what we found challenging in our course development. Schedule: • Tuesday, July 7: Course Planning I: The story of your course with Heather Smith. 11:00-12:00 (Eastern)/12:00-1:00 (Atlantic), https://bluejeans.com/8198229605 • Thursday, July 9: Course Planning II: Constructive Alignment with Heather Smith 11:00-12:00 (Eastern)/12:00-1:00 (Atlantic), https://bluejeans.com/8198229605 • Tuesday, July 14: DOCTOR Session #1. 8:30-10:30am (Eastern)/9:30-11:30am (Atlantic), Microsoft Teams • Thursday, July 16: DOCTOR Session #2. 8:30-10:30am (Eastern)/9:30-11:30am (Atlantic), Microsoft Teams • Tuesday, July 21: DOCTOR Session #3. 8:30-10:30am (Eastern)/9:30-11:30am (Atlantic). Microsoft Teams • Thursday, July 23: DOCTOR Session #4. 8:30-10:30am (Eastern)/9:30-11:30am (Atlantic), Microsoft Teams • Tuesday, July 28: DOCTOR Session #5. 8:30-10:30am (Eastern)/9:30-11:30am (Atlantic), Microsoft Teams • Thursday, July 30: DOCTOR Session #6. 8:30-10:30am (Eastern)/9:30-11:30am (Atlantic), Microsoft Teams To register for the DOCTOR program, please email Erin Austen, eausten@stfx.ca, before July 7th. V_MLTLC Resource Guide Join the V_MLTLC in contributing to a grassroots, open-access Resource Guide about Teaching and Learning. Due to community readership and participation, this guide continues to grow and serve as a resource for teaching and learning across our four campuses. All are welcome to contribute resources that they have found helpful to their teaching and student learning using the forms embedded in the guide. Check it out here.