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SDG 1 No Poverty – Embedding the Sustainable Development Goals in Learning
This blog post is part of a series around the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Each post will dive into one of the goals and how we as educators can strive to embed these into our own courses. It is in the author’s opinion that any course or class can connect with one of the 17 goals or 169 sub-targets. By providing this blog post series, we hope to elicit some ideas of how you might also integrate a global goal into your teaching. Please refer to the USask SDG Teaching & Learning Workbook, review the USask Sustainability in the Curricula website, or scroll down for more information about the…
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In Testimonial: Collaborative Online International Learning
Lecturer in the Department of Political Studies, Dr. Martin Gaal, shares about his COIL experience in a recently produced testimonial video. COIL is a framework of teaching and learning that promotes intercultural opportunities through a short-term virtual exchange program. It involves an instructor from the university partnering with an instructor from a partnering institution abroad to develop a course-based project or experience. His COIL journey began last Spring after he initiated planning arrangements with a partner instructor at the Florida International University. Together they developed a discussion topic that brought together their respective course subject matter and students of different backgrounds. USask students who participated in the course were also…
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Initiating Peer Conversations
It’s been a while since I wrote a conversational blog post – in a pre-pandemic world, more of our content on this site was first-person and took the tone of a friendly colleague. In the pandemic context, our blog quickly became a knowledge base to help you get the help you needed, when you needed it. The dropping temperatures in Saskatchewan are reminding me of last winter, when work felt like a much different place. While most of us aren’t currently walking, biking, skiing to campus, the days are still just as beautiful with the crystalline quality of light and crisp skies. I hope that this post is a moment…
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Just the Right Amount of Workload
In the story of Goldilocks, the main character tries bowls of porridge that are too hot and too cold. Finally, Goldilocks settles on a porridge that is just the right temperature. Figuring out the right, or adequate, amount of work for students is a Goldilocks opportunity – tweaking and adjusting to find the right mix, amount, consistency, and taste. The video below summarizes how we can reflect and plan for an appropriate amount of student workload. We were inspired by conversations in the College of Agriculture and Bioresources. How much work are we asking students to do in the remote context? More/less than in face-to-face, more/less engagement, more/less synchronous, asynchronous,…
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Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL)
Summary: Explore how Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) connects students globally, fostering intercultural skills and collaboration through innovative virtual partnerships. Date of publishing: October 5, 2020 Like with other methods of internationalization, Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) projects help to prepare students to work in today’s global knowledge economy and enriches teaching and learning experience for faculty and students. One of the main benefits of COIL is that it provides students with a global learning experience without the need to leave Canada. Hear what students have to say about participating in online experiential learning from home. To participate in a Collaborative Online International Learning experience, a USask instructor works with…
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Orange Shirt Day
Orange Shirt Day began as a result of a residential school commemoration event held in Williams Lake, BC in the spring of 2013. It grew out of Phyllis Webstad’s story of having her shiny new orange shirt being taken away from her on her first day of school at the St Joseph Mission residential school, and it has become an opportunity to keep the discussion on all aspects of residential schools happening annually. Sept 30th was the date chosen for Orange Shirt Day, as it was the time of year when approximately 150,000 children were removed from their families and communities and taken to one of the 139 residential schools…
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The “What if…?”s of Live Zoom Sessions
Interested in using Zoom for online, synchronous learning? Here are some basic ‘what-ifs’ to consider before you start using Zoom. What if a student refuses to mute themselves? To start, tell students that you will have specific times during your live session where they will be able to speak and that they should wait to be prompted, or wait for other cues, to unmute themselves. Set the tone from the beginning of the session that there are appropriate times to share and other times to not. If this is repeatedly a concern, you can use the Host Tools (Shield Icon) in the meeting controls to secure the meeting and minimize…
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Considerations for Hosting Guest Lecturers Remotely
You may have had guest speakers or guest lecturers into your class before. Typically, they brought their own material, spoke live to your class, and answered any questions before they left. You, as the instructor, were not responsible for recording the talk, storing the files of the talk, sharing the talk for students outside of the classroom, or saving the presentation materials for others. In remote teaching, you will need to consider many of these factors. Will the presenter be live during a Zoom call? What happens if the bandwidth is insufficient for good dialogue with students? If you record the presentation, where will you store the files of the…
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Office Hours, Remotely
When we move to remote teaching, we need to consider how we will continue to provide students with student-instructor interaction. One way of offering this is through office hours. While we used to offer office hours outside of lecture or class time, now we might be able to leverage our scheduled class time to engage with students to discuss problems, specific questions, or examples. Transmission of content (powerpoints, videos, readings, etc.) can then be reallocated to asynchronous hours. Determine if it best suits your course to offer: group discussions, individual consultations drop-in sessions Be consistent with whichever options you choose. Remind students often via email and course notifications. Use the…
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Online Sharing Circle
Technology is excellent at allowing us to work remotely, but it can be more challenging for building community or keeping a community strong. Technology’s strength is for communication and is not as robust for building connection, especially with larger groups. Purpose The goal is to create the ‘lunchroom’ experience where people share and ground themselves within their respective working group/community. We believe that this type of opportunity will contribute to the art of kiyokiwin, coping with the social isolation, allowing people to raise topics outside of work priorities, better understanding of each other, and so much more. Online sharing circles could be used by instructors to facilitate “courageous curiosity” with…
