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A Case for Engaged Teaching
by Marilyn Assaf, Communications Officer, University Relations, VIU My son Robert reached an important milestone last year – high school graduation. I felt a huge sense of relief watching him walk across the stage to receive his dogwood certificate. But what does it really mean? Yes, he’s completed 12 years of public education, but is…
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What Kind of “12th man” Am I?
By Sharon Kelly, Teaching Faculty Member and Degree Advisor, Faculty of Management/Educational Counsellor, Student Affairs, VIU It’s Super Bowl Sunday, and the “de boys” in the house are watching the game. The Seahawks pull ahead and the fans at the hometown stadium wildly cheer their boys on. I am not at the stadium urging them…
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My First MOOC
by Melissa Robertson, Learning Technologies Support Specialist, Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning, VIU I am in the second week of my very first MOOC, History and Future of (Mostly) Higher Education. It certainly has been a learning experience for me. I have just finished Week 1 and am near the middle of week…
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Dear Graduate: Skills are Skills are Skills
By Carrie Johns, Secretary Registrar and Convocation, Registration Centre, VIU On January 30 and 31, 2014, VIU celebrated the graduation of nearly 500 degree, diploma, and certificate students. Two convocation ceremonies were held at the Port Theatre, with all the time-honored traditions and more recent additions, passion and enthusiasm that have become synonymous with VIU.…
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Walking a Mile in Their Shoes: Reflections on Learning
by Doris Carey, Faculty Member, Faculty of Academic and Career Preparation, VIU When designing a course, writing a syllabus, preparing assignments and deciding on assessment strategies, I try to remember how I felt about my instructors’ design decisions when I was a student. I can’t think of many times that I felt comfortable in a…
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The difficulty with Difficulty, or Why we should quit whining and embrace The Struggle
by Sandra Johnstone, Teaching Faculty, Faculty of Science and Technology, VIU “Appropriate difficulty” I participated in a CIEL discussion group recently where the topic was “Effective Teaching”. We had been provided with materials that detailed surveys of university instructors and university students to articulate their perceptions of effective teaching. The conversations that emerged during our…
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New Technologies in Class: An Added Value or Not?
by Olaf Ernst, Visiting Scholar, NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences (Visiting Department of Recreation and Tourism Management, VIU) I have to admit: I am not a man of his time. To say it in another way: I missed the ‘digital’ boat, only being a passive user of Facebook and Linkedin, not connected to Twitter,…
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Chilly Learning
by Greg Klimes, Teaching Faculty, RMOT, Faculty of Science and Technology, Vancouver Island University VIU’s “Enjoy the Journey” motto takes on a whole new meaning when I head out on a field trip with my students. Most times it’s just a long day, but twice each year it is an overnight adventure. Prior to each…
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Choosing What to Learn and Who to Listen To
by Darlene Goodrick, Supervisor – Printing & Duplicating, Vancouver Island University In my last writing I talked about how fortunate we are to be working at a University where there is so much opportunity to learn and teach. In this submission I want to talk about how tormenting it can be to have so much…
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No Learning Wasted
By Deirdre Godwin, Program Assistant, Professional Development and Training, Faculties of Health and Human Services & Trades and Applied Technology, VIU Getting on to 30 years ago, I took what was then the Long-term Care/Homemakers certificate at Malaspina College. I didn’t graduate. You could say that I withdrew, flunked out, explored other options, or chose…
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The shorter the better?
By Wendy Simms, Biology Department, Faculty of Science and Technology, Vancouver Island University Last Monday night, while we were waiting for our ecology class to assemble at Departure Bay beach for a lab, I overheard the students talking about vines. “I LOVE vines. They are SO addictive. I can procrastinate by watching (like) ONE HUNDRED…
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It’s only a figure of speech….
by Anna Atkinson, Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Vancouver Island University I’m going to tell a story on myself. It’s the story of perhaps the most profound educational experience of my life, and certainly one of the most important. I tell this one to students because stories are the way our minds…