Events

This event is hosted by Together@dal

Faculty, Staff and Students are invited to join us December 3, from 1-2 pm in LeMarchant Place Atrium as we learn some strategies for coping with stress from Dr. David Pilon, and explore some calming activities together.

Current Dalhousie Faculty, Staff and Students are invited to join us December 3, at 1 pm in LeMarchant Place Atrium to explore wellbeing and de-stressing activities together in community. Join us from 1-2pm in the Atrium of LeMarchant Place as we learn some strategies for coping with stress from Dr. David Pilon, and explore some calming activities (art, puzzles, desk stretches, affirmation sharing, and wellbeing kit creation) together. We will finish with a short mindfulness exercise to take us into the final week of term. We look forward to seeing members from all facets of the Dal community at this event. All Dalhousie Safety protocols will apply at this event including masks and event check-in with Dalhousie ID. If you have any questions about the event please email kpryan@dal.ca

Monday, December 6, 2021
12-1 p.m. Atlantic
Online via Teams
REGISTER

Rebecca Affoo
Assistant Professor
School of Communication Sciences and Disorders
Faculty of Health

The benefits of active learning on student outcomes are well-documented, and there has been a recent push to design classroom spaces to facilitate active learning techniques. However, the degree to which specific aspects of active learning pedagogy and physical learning spaces contribute to skill development in health sciences students is unclear. Instructors often have limited control over selection of teaching spaces, but wider latitude over how they utilize that space. Dr. Affoo will present the results of study designed to assess the effects of an active learning pedagogy on student perceptions and achievement in two different classroom spaces within a health professional program.

Dr. Rebecca Affoo is a Speech-Language Pathologist and an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Dalhousie University. The overall goal of Dr. Affoo’s research program is to systematically identify and characterize factors underlying dysphagia and to translate the findings from this program into novel, evidence-based assessment practices, treatments, and education programs that aim to maximize the enjoyment of safe eating and maintain optimal nutrition, overall health, and wellness in persons with dysphagia. In pursuit of these goals, her research has been focused on the following two areas: (1) characterizing key elements of oropharyngeal swallowing, oral health, and salivary secretion in persons with and without dysphagia and (2) developing and implementing evidence-based education in health professional programs.

Wednesday, January 12, 2022
11 a.m.—12 p.m. Atlantic
Online via Microsoft Teams
REGISTER

Elizabeth Gillis, PhD (she/her)
Educational Developer (Curriculum)
Centre for Learning and Teaching

Student motivation is an important element of learning. Learning is inherently hard work and what students will do to learn is generated and sustained by their motivation. Highly motivated students learn readily and make any class fun to teach whereas unmotivated students may learn very little and lead to a less enjoyable teaching and learning experience for instructors and students. Fortunately, research shows that there is a lot an instructor can do to motivate their students to learn. In this session, we will explore the different elements of motivation, look at how motivation affects behaviour, and introduce strategies that can be applied in your teaching to improve student learning.

Tuesday, January 25, 2022
1:30—3 p.m. Atlantic
Online via Microsoft Teams Meetings
REGISTER

Dr. Eric Poitras
Faculty of Computer Science
Dalhousie University

Once you have your SoTL question, the next steps in the SoTL process are thinking about what evidence will best help you in answering that question, and then how you can design a study to gather and analyze that evidence. 

Join us for this introductory and interactive workshop where we will:

• Work through the different stages in the SoTL Lifecycle,
• Engage in hands-on work designing your SoTL project, and
• Plan the next steps for your SoTL question.

Participants are encouraged to come to this session with a SoTL question in mind, as much of the time will be spend on working towards planning a SoTL study.

Wednesday, February 2, 2022
2-3 p.m. Atlantic
Online via Microsoft Teams
REGISTER

Elizabeth Gillis, PhD Educational Developer (Curriculum)

Bruno Roy Technical Administrator, Student Learning Experience Questionnaire

Jill Marie McSweeney-Flaherty, PhD Educational Developer (Scholarship of Teaching & Learning | Classroom Spaces)

Student feedback is a critical component to the development of our teaching practice and provides important insights into how students experience learning within our courses. Opening ourselves to feedback on our teaching can be daunting, as students can often be disengaged in the process, resulting in varying levels of quantity and quality in our feedback. Join us to talk about how you can engage students in the process of providing teaching feedback. We will discuss strategies to engage students in both formative (i.e., solicited informal feedback) and summative (i.e., Student Learning Experience Questionnaire (SLEQ), how to encourage constructive and learning-focused feedback from students, and how shifting the culture of feedback in your course and department can benefit both instructors and learners.  

Tuesday, February 22, 2022
12-1 p.m. Atlantic
Online via Microsoft Teams Meetings
REGISTER

Dr. Jennifer L. MacDonald, University Teaching Fellow, Department of Chemistry

Izzy Curtis, Graduate Student/Instructor, Department of Chemistry

Nick Roberts, Undergraduate Student/Senior, Teaching Assistant, Department of Chemistry

Students are an integral pillar of SoTL, and partnering with students (both undergraduate and graduate) as collaborators can provide a richness to our projects and offer student insight and experience into our disciplinary teaching and research processes. Join us for a discussion with Dr. Jennifer MacDonald and students (Izzy Curtis and Nick Roberts), where they will share their experiences of partnering in teaching, SoTL, the benefits that this partnership has provided, and tips for creating successful partnerships. 

Presenter Biographies

Dr. Jennifer L. MacDonald is a University Teaching Fellow in the Department of Chemistry. Her teaching, course development, and scholarship of teaching and learning interests are grounded by universal design for learning and students-as-partners models. 

Izzy Curtis is a recent M.Sc. graduate in the Department of Chemistry. She has worked as a TA since the 2nd year of her undergraduate program and more recently joined the instructor team for introductory chemistry at Dalhousie. Izzy is a strong believer in the benefits of students-as-partners models for both teachers and students.   

Nick Roberts is a 4th year honours student in the Department of Chemistry. Nick's experience in teaching has been a mixture of in person/online course delivery and design for the introductory chemistry course (Chem 1011/1012) at Dalhousie. His teaching philosophy is grounded in a "more is more" approach.

Monday, March 14, 2022
1–2:30 p.m. Atlantic
Online via Microsoft Teams
REGISTER

Jill Marie McSweeney-Flaherty, PhD
Educational Developer
(Scholarship of Teaching & Learning | Classroom Spaces)

Questions are often sparked in teaching that guide us to new approaches in our work, identify gaps in our practice, or challenge us to reconceptualize learning in the classroom. But how do you take these sparks and ideas and turn them into SoTL? 

Join us for this introductory workshop where we will cover:

• The taxonomy of SoTL questions,
• How to refine our ideas into SoTL questions, and
• Considerations when developing our question and aligning our SoTL designs.

Tuesday, May 3, 2022
1—3 p.m. Atlantic
Online via Microsoft Teams
REGISTER

Jill Marie McSweeney-Flaherty, PhD
Educational Developer
(Scholarship of Teaching & Learning | Classroom Spaces)

Many find applying for Research Ethics approval daunting when it comes to their SoTL practice, as conducting research in our classroom comes with a range of new and unique ethical considerations. However, applying an ethical lens to SoTL not only protects the learner, but also works to enhance the quality of your SoTL project.

Join us for this workshop where we will cover:

• The Research Ethics Board (REB) process at Dalhousie University,
• Important ethical considerations during the SoTL Lifecycle, and
• Tips to help you with conducting ethical SoTL.

Blended Teaching for Engaged Learning 

May 4 & 5, 2022 | Virtual Event

The pandemic has encouraged new pedagogical perspectives and possibilities for many educators, including the various ways we can blend in-person and online, synchronous and asynchronous, learning modalities. In the past two years, instructors have adapted their teaching and tried new approaches, often with little time to reflect and prepare. Now with the benefits of a little more time, a few more resources, and far more experience, faculty can create well-design blended courses or programs that centre on students and provide engaged, active, and interactive learning experiences, in both physical and virtual environments. This blended approach can also provide flexible, equitable and more individualized learning opportunities for students.  The emerging pedagogies and concepts being developed and explored in blended teaching and learning are leading to innovations that will be vital as we transition to an educational world that combines the aspects of space and time in new and meaningful ways.

Keynote Address

Reflecting on Inclusive Teaching in a Post-Pandemic Landscape - Embedding UDL in the Design of Innovative Blended Learning for the 21st Century

Wednesday, May 4, 2022
12:30 p.m. Atlantic
Online via Microsoft Live Events

Frédéric Fovet, PhD, Associate Professor, School of Education and Technology, Royal Roads University