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The Share Drive Episode 14: Mackenzie Sillem and her commitment to Intercultural Studies at VIU
Many listeners will know Mackenzie from her long-term and broad-reaching efforts to support Intercultural learning across VIU, most recently with the development and teaching of Intercultural Studies 100: Exploring and Developing Intercultural Competence. In this podcast, we sit down with Mackenzie to discuss intercultural learning from a variety of perspectives, as well as the value…
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LearnSupport Phone Line is Back in Service!
The Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning is happy to announce that the LearnSupport phone line is back in service! Faculty and students can now either reach out for support by sending us an email to learnsupport@viu.ca or by phoning our support line at 250.740.6179. Our phone line and email is monitored Monday-Friday 9:00am-4:00pm…
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UnMarking Institute 2021 at VIU
Liberate Learning: How to Untangle the Web of Feedback and Grading May 12 and 13, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM This two-day workshop includes a series of Zoom interactions, independent faculty work on their chosen course, and consultations with facilitators. Participants will also be invited to participate in follow-up conversations before and during course implementation…
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Creating Purpose by Letting Students Frame the Questions
For our final blog post on Purposeful Assignments, we spoke with Sandra Johnstone from VIU’s Earth Science Department. Sandra Johnstone’s fourth year Earth Science class was about climate change, and the first thing she did was to have the whole class brainstorm an inquiry question to focus learning for the duration of the semester. After…
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The Share Drive Episode 13: Shannon Bence: The Ultimate Online Learning Survival Guide
After witnessing the fear many of her students were experiencing in the transition to online learning, Shannon asked herself the question, “How can I help?” And the answer that came to her was, “I know! I’ll get up before my toddlers and make some videos about how to be a successful online learner!” In this…
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Enduring and Public: Blogs as Purposeful Assignments
In today’s post, we’re going to look at two instructors who have used VIUBlogs to facilitate purposeful assignments that both give students meaningful choices and have lasting, public relevance beyond the length of the course.
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New Way to Set Up Quiz Accommodations in VIULearn
There is a new way to set up quiz accommodations in VIULearn. Previously, student accommodations had to be set for each quiz individually using the Special Access feature. While Special Access isn’t going anywhere, a new Accommodations option allows you to set quiz timing and right-click behaviour for a student at the course level eliminating…
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Set Up VIULearn to Facilitate Student Choice
Giving students meaningful choices about how they demonstrate their learning can help students become self-directed learners who can apply the skills they learn with us in their future endeavours. However, for instructors in an online learning environment, giving meaningful choices can quickly become a logistical nightmare. Thankfully, there are things you can do to facilitate…
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The Pandemic Broke Our Teaching: Now what?
A Zoomside Chat, hosted by CIEL on Thursday, February 25 @ 3pm A lot has changed in the world of teaching and learning over the past few months. Some of us have been energized by this new reality. Others can’t wait to get back to how things were before. One critical question is, “CAN we…
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Purposeful Assignments: Encouraging Choice, Relevance and Creativity through Portfolios
In our first blog post on Purposeful Assignments, we laid out some ways you could know if you had created a purposeful assignment for your students. In this post, we are going to look at two variations on a portfolio assignment. We spoke to two instructors (Sylvie Lafrenière and Beth Mclin) and they shared the…
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Design Purposeful Assignments
As we all navigate new ways of teaching and learning, we at the CIEL are hearing a lot of stress from both students and faculty around major assignments. This isn’t all because of hybrid and online learning. Assignments that carry a large percentage of a grade have always been a source of stress for both…
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The Share Drive Episode 12: Aggie Weighill: Innovative Ways to Mobilize Knowledge
After learning the correct pronunciation of Aggie’s last name, we decide Aggie is so well-known and influential, that no last name is even necessary and “Aggie” can stand alone (think Beyonce or Madonna). When we get down to business, we discuss the ways in which Aggie shifted her energy and her teaching for the online…