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Why Mentoring for New and Pre-Tenure Faculty? Academic Success!
[social_share/] [social-bio] By Dr. Jim Thornhill, Special Assistant to the Vice-President Research Mentorship of pre-tenure faculty is a key component to academic success. Sutherland and Peterson (2009) advocate from a national study conducted throughout New Zealand that early academic success of new faculty is determined by 3 factors: Prior training and experience of the new candidate, Personal characteristics of the candidate (tenacity, resolve, work/life balance) and The institutional support provided (e.g. time, space, resources). At the University of Saskatchewan, The Provost’s Office via the Gwenna Moss Teaching & Learning Centre and the Vice President Research Office via the Research Mentorship Program have come together to highlight and support mentorship in…
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Complying with the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications
[social_share/] [social-bio] By Diane (DeDe) Dawson, Science Liaison Librarian, University Library The new Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications came into effect on May 1st 2015. This policy applies to all grants awarded from that day and onward (exception: CIHR has had this policy in place since Jan 1, 2008). This blog post is intended to be a handy, practical introduction to the policy and how to comply. The Policy Details: “Grant recipients are required to ensure that any peer-reviewed journal publications arising from Agency-supported research are freely accessible within 12 months of publication” (emphasis my own). There are two routes to achieve this: Online Repositories (a.k.a. the “Green” route)…
- Assessment and Evaluation, Curriculum Development, Educational Theory, Instructional / Course Design, Instructional Strategies, SoTL
What is the science behind your course design madness?
[social_share/] [social-bio] By Fred Phillips, Professor, Baxter Scholar, Edwards School of Business As we begin another year, students are encountering some of the course design decisions made by their instructors. Some will be introduced to “flipped classrooms”, where students prepare by reading/viewing/responding to a learning prompt before it is formally taken up in class. Others will encounter new learning tools, such as adaptive reading systems that embed interactive questions within reading materials with the goal of assessing each student’s comprehension so that new topics can be delivered the moment he or she is ready to comprehend them. Just as instructors have questions about these approaches and tools, students are likely…
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“If Not Us, Who? If Not Now, When?”
By Tereigh Ewert In Peter Stoicheff’s speech for the Presidential Announcement, he posed two questions that inspire the university’s efforts to decolonize and Indigenize our campus (July 9, 2015, http://www.usask.ca/presidentialtransition/). Emphasizing the urgency for action, he asked, “If not us, who?” and “If not now, when?” At the University of Saskatchewan, we have a growing number of Indigenous staff, students, and faculty. Yet the U of S is comprised of a predominantly white settler Canadian campus population, and is set within a traditional Western institution. As we build capacity and become strengthened by the work and contributions of Indigenous staff, students, and faculty, the non-Indigenous people on campus have a…
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Co-authoring Take 2: A co-authored post about co-authoring
[social_share/] [social-bio] Co-written y Carolyn Hoessler and Shannon Lucky, Library Systems & Information Technology Earlier this year I excitedly read Shannon Lucky’s post on Co-authoring from April 21, 2015 on Brain-Work, sparking a chance to respond, connect and collaborate. In our discussion about co-authoring we captured a wide range of questions to ask and strategies that seemed to fit with the framework of the 5 Basic Elements of Cooperative Learning that we adapted to co-write this blog post. To see Shannon’s description of our collaboration visit http://words.usask.ca/ceblipblog/2015/08/27/co-authoring2/ where the following information is cross-posted on C-EBLIP. – Carolyn Co-authoring and collaborative research can be personally rewarding and can strengthen a project…
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Evaluating Presentations With a Little Help From My (Citable) Friends …
[social_share/] [social-bio] By Carolyn Hoessler Individual and group presentations provide great opportunity for students to share what they have learned with peers and an efficient and feasible way of marking for instructors. That being said, how do you grade them? I, and I’m pretty sure you too, have experienced the full range of presentations from the stunningly excellent to the staggeringly confusing, from the inspirational to the sleep-inducing. The challenge is describing these qualities so they can be identified and assessed. One option would be to create my own rubric based on these experiences. The easier option is to use or adapt existing materials from others I respect. The…
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Undergraduate Research: Co-Publishing With Students
[social_share/] [social-bio] By Jason Perepelkin, Assistant Professor, College of Pharmacy and Nutrition Passive listening and dumping information on exams doesn’t give students the depth of learning and experience that lasts beyond the scope of a course. Having students engage with practitioners and specialists and in a real world environment helps students learn more deeply; chasing grades doesn’t do this but chasing experience does. The elective fourth year course Marketing for Pharmacists is designed for up to 20 students. The course is a project based course where students, working in groups of two to three, work directly with a practicing pharmacist. By working directly with practitioners, on an issue identified by…
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Developing ePublications
[social_share/] [social-bio] By Adrienne Thomas and Wayne Giesbrecht (Media Production) With discussion surrounding open resources, this is a good time to talk about actually developing epublications and ebooks. For the past 3 years, Media Production (formerly eMAP) has been working with faculty and content creators to realize epub resources. With each new project, we have learned more about what to do and how to do it – an ongoing lesson as the software, media files and platforms continue to evolve. Within the university environment, we are all concerned with the development of unique and immersive material to be used for information, education, research or knowledge mobilization purposes. If you want…
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Mental Illness, Disability, and the Inclusive Classroom
[social_share/] [social-bio] By Adam Pottle, Graduate Fellow In its Campus Climate survey report, which was released in November 2014, the University of Saskatchewan identified a number of areas it needs to improve in terms of making students feel safe and comfortable. The survey summary, which can be found at http://www.usask.ca/ipa/documents/Assessment/Surveys/2014_campusclimatesurvey_summaryreport.pdf, reports that [s]ome students in minority groups had less positive experiences when compared to their counterparts, especially some Aboriginal students, other visible minority students, sexual minority students, and some students with a disability. On average, those indicating a mental health condition generally had fewer positive experiences than all other students. (4) The survey goes on to state that “57% of…
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What A Good Leader Does to Enable Good Teaching
[social_share/] [social-bio] By Jay Wilson, Department Head and Associate Professor, Curriculum Studies & Fellow at the GMCTE As a result of a number of encounters this week my thoughts turned towards the important role of leadership in educational institutions. Here I will share the reasons why I think leadership is valuable. The thoughts are not groundbreaking or especially new but it is important to remind ourselves why strong leadership makes our organizations successful. The characteristics that true leaders possess are instrumental in the success of our institutions. The list of traits includes many descriptors such as mentor, advocate, and champion. To put things in context, people need to know that…