• Why Trades Education needs to open its doors to open education

    Why Trades Education needs to open its doors to open education

    Since the turn of the 21st century, Trades Education has been subjected to rapid changes due to advances in technology, changes in global markets, and other influences such as climate change. A prime example of this pace of change can be seen in the automotive trade. Volvo Cars have committed to putting one million electric…

  • Open Access Week 2019: Reflections on Open Access, OER, and Community of Practice

    Open Access Week 2019: Reflections on Open Access, OER, and Community of Practice

    The International Open Access Week theme for 2019, #OAWeek2019, is “Open for Whom? Equity in Open Knowledge”, a call to reflect and act so that the future we build is one where “strategies and structures for opening knowledge must be co-designed in and with the communities they serve—especially those that are often marginalized or excluded from these…

  • Are you ready to UN-Teach?

    (This project fulfills the course requirement—“Roles and Responsibilities” –- for the VIU Recognition of Achievement for Student Engagement.) Successful teachers are agents of deep change. They can be singlehandedly responsible for altering permanently the way students think, act, and view the world—no matter what their discipline, content, or area of expertise. And no matter their…

  • The Share Drive: A Teaching and Learning Podcast for Vancouver Island University

    The Share Drive: A Teaching and Learning Podcast for Vancouver Island University

    The Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning (CIEL) is collecting, recording and sharing stories of teaching and learning from across our campus. Acknowledging how fortunate we at the CIEL are to hear so many inspiring, interesting, and cool stories of teaching and learning, we decided to capture those stories and share them out, podcast…

  • August 2019 VIU New Faculty Orientation to Teaching

    August 2019 VIU New Faculty Orientation to Teaching

    On August 27th, the Centre for Innovation and Excellence offered its bi-annual New Faculty Orientation to Teaching (NFOT) to 30 new faculty at VIU.  This day-long session is offered to “new and kind of new” faculty within their first two years of teaching at VIU who are looking for fresh ideas on how to engage…

  • Starting the semester off right: Tips and strategies for a great first day

    Starting the semester off right: Tips and strategies for a great first day

    by Kathleen Bortolin In my earlier days of teaching, I dreaded the first class of the semester.  At the beginning of term there was so much nervous energy—mostly mine.  These nerves always threw me, so I did what made the most sense: hand out the syllabus, say a couple of things, and send them on…

  • Three Exciting New VIUTube and VIULearn Features!

    Three Exciting New VIUTube and VIULearn Features!

    There have been some exciting updates to our learning technologies this summer. Keep reading to learn about three new tools available right now.

  • Learning in the Open

    Learning in the Open

    I had the privilege of attending the Digital Pedagogy Lab in Toronto last month along with seven VIU faculty members and a couple of our colleagues from North Island College (check out their great posts about the experience here). Of the five options offered at the lab, I attended the Open Pedagogy stream, facilitated by…

  • New Capture Tool for VIUTube Coming June 30

    New Capture Tool for VIUTube Coming June 30

    There is a new capture tool coming this summer to VIUTube. This new tool will replace CaptureSpace which has been available to faculty, staff, and students since the summer of 2017. Why Is the Tool Changing? The new tool, Personal Capture, has been developed in house by Kaltura (the company that created VIUTube) to simplify…

  • Changes Coming to VIUBlogs – May 6!

    Changes Coming to VIUBlogs – May 6!

    On May 6, 2019 VIUBlogs will be updated to include a new block based content creation experience for all users. This new content builder makes it easier to create beautiful pages and posts incorporating media, widgets, and a variety of content styles across your VIUBlogs site.

  • Vancouver Island Team-Based Learning Institute (August 14-16, 2019)

    Vancouver Island Team-Based Learning Institute (August 14-16, 2019)

    **Information for Non-VIU Guest Registrants**  August 14-16, 2019 | Vancouver Island University | Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada    Tine Reimers and Bill Roberson of Vancouver Island University, and Jim Sibley of University of British Columbia will be your facilitators for the Institute. As users of Team-Based Learning (TBL) and authors of numerous TBL publications, they have coached hundreds of post-secondary instructors in the use of…

  • August 2019 VIU Team-Based Learning Course (Re)Design Program

    August 2019 VIU Team-Based Learning Course (Re)Design Program

    Deeper Engagement and More Fun with Team-Based Learning **August 2019 Course Re(Design) Program for Vancouver Island University Faculty Members** Workshop (Team-Based Learning Institute) August 14-16, 2019; followed by Implementation of newly designed course in Fall 2019 or Spring 2020. To participate in this program, please submit your request . Non-VIU faculty are welcome to participate, as seats are available. Please…