Category: General

  • Teaching Excellence Video Series: Marilyn Funk discusses her community-based project on Newcastle Island

    Teaching Excellence Video Series: Marilyn Funk discusses her community-based project on Newcastle Island

    Marilyn Funk from the Department of Resource Management and Protection discusses her community-based project which students participate in on Newcastle Island.

  • VIU Faculty Fast Start Institute

    Initial “Launch” Workshop Dates: Tuesday August 25 and Wednesday, August 26, 2015 (2 days) Time Each Day:  8:30 AM – 3 PM each day (breakfast and lunch will be included) Description The goal of a faculty member is to thrive and excel, not merely survive. The Faculty Fast Start Institute is a Fall 2015 (one…

  • VIULearn Course Homepage Changes

    Over the last two years the CIEL has collected feedback on the homepage that we use for all of our courses in VIULearn. We have received a lot of great suggestions and have made some changes to the basic page template for this fall. We have tested this design with several departments on campus and…

  • Culture in the Classroom: Final Session Summary

    Culture in the Classroom: Final Session Summary

    Our final meeting for the Culture in the Classroom series took place on November 20th.  Although this was our last meeting, in some ways it felt like we were just getting started.  Clearly, eight hours spread across four sessions was only enough to scratch the surface.  Many participants indicated that they would have liked to…

  • Changes to the ‘My Home’ Page in VIULearn

    The Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning is making changes to the page that you land on when logging into VIULearn.  The new page configuration will give you access to information and events that will help you improve your learning and will also allow you to enrol in a limited (but growing) selection of…

  • New Course Homepages in VIULearn

    The Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning is currently reviewing Course Homepages in VIULearn. We have received feedback from various VIU stakeholders and are incorporating this feedback into a new course homepage design. We are hoping to update and refresh the course homepage look and feel for the Fall 2015 term. The course homepage…

  • Culture in the Classroom Session 3 Recap

    Culture in the Classroom Session 3 Recap

    Our third session of Culture in the Classroom focused on pedagogy and some practical tips and suggestions related to teaching and learning. We started the session by reviewing our homework— the resources listed in the previous blogpost. A number of interesting points were raised during this discussion including the following: It is important for higher…

  • Culture in the Classroom: Session 2 Recap and Resources

    Culture in the Classroom: Session 2 Recap and Resources

    Our second session of the learning series, Culture in the Classroom: Working with International Students, focused on intercultural competence models and cultural values frameworks. Mackenzie started us off with a mini-lecture outlining Darla Deardorff’s process model for intercultural competence, which looks like this (click on the image for a larger view): This model explains the…

  • Culture in the classroom: Session 1 Recap and Resources

    Culture in the classroom: Session 1 Recap and Resources

    On September 18th, 15 participants from the VIU community attended the first session of Culture in the classroom: Working with international students, a collaborative learning series offered through the Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning and International Education. After a brief introduction of our interdisciplinary group, Mackenzie Sillem facilitated a lively and  fast-paced ice-breaker.…

  • Culture in the classroom: Working with international students

    Culture in the classroom: Working with international students

    Are you interested in continuing to grow your knowledge and skills in working most effectively with international students?  If so, we’re hoping to help. This semester, Kathleen Bortolin (Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning) and Mackenzie Sillem (International Education) are co-facilitating a four-part series entitled Culture in the classroom: Working with international students. Currently there…

  • Innovative Learning Scapes 2014

    Innovative Learning Scapes 2014

    by Kathleen Bortolin, Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning, Vancouver Island University Reflections on the 2014 Higher Education Teaching and Learning (HETL) Conference, Anchorage, Alaska Flying into Anchorage, Alaska, hemmed in on either side by views of snow-capped mountains rising out of the ocean, I began wishing I had packed my hiking boots and…

  • Global Accessibility Awareness Day – May 15th

    Global Accessibility Awareness Day – May 15th

    May 15th was Global Accessibility Awareness Day. As someone who spends a lot of time in online courses personally and professionally, I decided to take advantage of a free webinar entitled “Web Accessibility Tools in Action: Awesome Tools to Build The Web For All” offered by Desire2Learn. Sean Yo (@seanyo or seanyo.ca for more information on…