Teaching, Learning & Technology
2022-2023 Annual Report
The Teaching, Learning and Technology (TLT) team, a partnership with the Academic Research and Collaborative (ARC) Technologies group, supports instructors in the use of pedagogy-driven educational technology through consultations, programming, and resource creation. Over this past year, the team has been integral to the development of CTSI’s latest self-paced programs, and in researching the potential impact of generative Artificial Intelligence on teaching at our institution, contributing to resources and programming.
2022-2023 Highlights
Improving the Academic Toolbox administrative processes: TLT team members spearheaded a comprehensive audit of Quercus administrative access and collaborated with the Senior Manager, Academic Applications & Analytics, ARC to enhance Quercus feature testing, as well as communication with the broader educational technology community.
Expansion of our Divisional Liaison Program: This program (that enables improved communication and support for educational technology colleagues) was expanded to more Divisions with a goal of including a new Division each quarter. With regular meetings and ongoing collaborations and fluid communications (headed by the Faculty Liaison Coordinator and three Faculty Liaisons, Teaching, Learning & Technology), the TLT team are better able to support the Divisions within their own unique contexts.
Captioning, transcripts, and accessible technology: Prioritizing accessibility and inclusion, the TLT team members led drop-in clinics and workshops on video captioning and transcripts and continue to support instructors creating accessible course content.
Support for all course modalities: Through consultations, tool guide updates, resource development for newly integrated tools, and workshops, the TLT team supports instructors and staff delivering courses online, in-person and in hybrid modalities. TLT team members have also enabled CTSI to provide hybrid meetings and workshops in-house.
Generative Artificial Intelligence resources: The TLT team have been leaders in researching and collecting resources on generative AI and its pedagogical implications, as well as sharing this information with our teaching and learning community.
New and improved Academic Toolbox support: Formerly a set of resources housed within Quercus, the new and improved Educational Technology resources are now indexed within the CTSI website, with Tool guides that are easily searchable and catalogued for easy referencing by faculty and divisional colleagues.
“I participated in the teaching observation service that is provided by the Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation (CTSI) and is intended to provide instructors with pedagogical strategies for strengthening their instructional practices. I teach several courses in the area of artificial intelligence which involve explaining complex abstract concepts to graduate students from different disciplinary backgrounds. I can teach these topics more effectively and improve student learning outcomes thanks to the formative pedagogical feedback that I received from Dr. Cora McCloy and Justin Fletcher from the CTSI.”
Samin Aref, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, FASE