• Digital Literacy: Tools and Resources for VIU

    Digital Literacy: Tools and Resources for VIU

    “Digital literacy is a person’s knowledge, skills, and abilities for using digital tools ethically, effectively, and within a variety of contexts in order to access, interpret, and evaluate information, as well as to create, construct new knowledge, and communicate with others.” (Cited in The B.C. Post-Secondary Digital Literacy Framework).  In April 2023, the B.C.’s Post-Secondary…

  • Spoiler Alert: AI Detectors Don’t Work

    Spoiler Alert: AI Detectors Don’t Work

    Generative AI presents opportunities for learning but also challenges academic integrity. Some educators have turned to AI detectors, but these tools are unreliable and inaccurate, raising ethical concerns.

  • Early Feedback Service

    Early Feedback Service

    The Early Feedback Service is a mechanism for gathering feedback from your students around midterm—before it is too late to make changes that might improve your students’ learning experience this semester.

  • The AI Assessment Scale

    The AI Assessment Scale

    The AI Assessment Scale provides a structured approach to the integration of Gen AI in teaching and learning. Instructors can use the scale to clearly outline GenAI expectations, including permissible use, reasoning, and citation requirements for assignments.

  • Applying for teaching awards: perspectives from past winners

    Applying for teaching awards: perspectives from past winners

    Great teaching is at the core of what VIU is all about. Teaching awards are one of the ways that we celebrate great teaching. Whether it’s VIU’s own Provost Awards for Excellence in Teaching Design and Practice, or the provincial West Coast Teaching Excellence Award, or the Canada-wide 3M National Teaching Fellowship, teaching awards are…

  • Starting off the Semester with a Trauma-informed Syllabus

    Starting off the Semester with a Trauma-informed Syllabus

    As you prepare for the new semester, one thing you can do to welcome your students is refresh your syllabus in a trauma-informed way. Trauma-informed practice Trauma-informed practice has its origins in a number of disciplines and social movements including psychology, social work, counselling, child welfare, feminist theory and public health. As Maria Yellow Horse…

  • Student Orientation to VIULearn & Other Learning Tools – Spring 2025

    Student Orientation to VIULearn & Other Learning Tools – Spring 2025

    We offer live webinars to introduce students to the learning technologies available at VIU, especially our online course platform VIULearn. Go to our Events Calendar to view the schedule and register for a live orientation webinar! Otherwise, We recorded the orientation so you can watch it whenever is convenient & as many times as you’d…

  • GenAI Challenge Part 2: Showcasing Teaching and Learning Artifacts

    GenAI Challenge Part 2: Showcasing Teaching and Learning Artifacts

    The CIEL initiated a two-part Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) challenge this Fall. The first part, The Not-So-Scary Gen AI Image Competition, wrapped up last month. Now, for Part 2 of the GenAI Challenge, we invite you to share how you’ve integrated Generative AI into your teaching. Submit a teaching artifact that demonstrates your innovative use of…

  • Designing Video Assignments

    Designing Video Assignments

    Video assignments are a great way to engage students and to leverage the learning technologies available to you at VIU. If you are thinking about creating video assignments for your course, consider the following:   Your students level of access and comfort with recording technology will impact how the assignment should be designed. Do your students…

  • Prompting Learning Outcomes

    Prompting Learning Outcomes

    In the previous CIEL Generative AI blog, we shared an AI literacy framework based on Bloom’s Taxonomy: (1) Understand AI, (2) Use & Apply AI, (3) Analyze & Evaluate, and (4) Create AI (Ng et al., 2021). As we collectively continue our journey to build AI literacy, this blog explores Level 2: Use & Apply…

  • And the Winner Is…

    And the Winner Is…

    The votes are in, and we’re thrilled to announce the top three winners of the GenAI Image Competition! First place: Mary Anne Oxendale ‘Bunny Skeletons’ Second place: Bronwen Russell ‘Resistance is Future’ Third place: Jessica Craig ‘Haunted Mansion’ Prizes for the top three in this Part 1 Image Competition await. The winners will be contacted…

  • Vote for your Favorites! – The Not-So-Scary Gen AI Image Competition

    Vote for your Favorites! – The Not-So-Scary Gen AI Image Competition

    The submission are in – now it’s your time to vote! For the next week, VIU employees will have the opportunity to vote on their favorite Halloween themed Gen AI images. Fill out this Microsoft Form and rank the submissions on a scale of 1-5. The top 3 submissions with the most cumulative votes will…