The inaugural year of the Teaching Fellow award recognized 10 faculty members for their contributions to the teaching and learning community at UBCO. These individuals engaged with the CTL on a wide variety of projects including leading and contributing to the newly formed Communities of Practice, participating on the CTL Advisory Group, leading workshops on AI, assessment, and badging, and collaborating on the development for new certificate programs including the Learning Design Certificate and the Teaching in Higher Education Certificate. The diversity of recipients included representation from every Faculty and instructors at various positions and career stage progression.
The Teaching Fellow award program has been extremely successful, and submission of applications for this year is open until May 1, 2024. Recipients of the Teaching Fellow award join the CTL Advisory Group and contribute to teaching and learning on campus. The award has a value of $1000 and a term for a year starting July 1st. It is possible to be a Teaching Fellow in multiple years.
Celebrate Learning Week is fast approaching and taking place May 6 to 10. This week is the best opportunity to engage in professional development and advancement for teaching and learning. The submission deadline for proposals was March 28th but contact the CTL if you want to do a session and missed the deadline. As part of this event, we are re-introducing the UBCO Conference on Teaching and Learning that was popular before COVID. In partnership with TRU, the Thompson-Okanagan Teaching and Learning Conference will be held on May 9 – 10. This conference will provide practitioners and researchers with opportunities to share their work in a variety of formats and learn from others. Consider submitting a proposal or attending to engage with your fellow instructors in the community.
Support for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) activities through the SoTL seed grant is continuing in partnership with the Institute of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISoTL) at UBC Vancouver. The SoTL Seed Grant program provides access to SoTL specialists to help researchers with various SoTL activities including data collection, analysis, survey construction, and ethics applications, and $500 for other expenses. ISoTL has a long history of supporting SoTL research with these grants. The call for proposals will be released in May. A SoTL specialist has been working at UBCO supporting our SoTL researchers. UBCO researchers may also officially apply to be a member of ISoTL that will connect researchers on both campuses.
May will be a busy time for teaching and learning at UBCO with Celebrate Learning Week, the Thompson-Okanagan Teaching and Learning Conference, and the announcement of teaching awards. I encourage you to participate before you go enjoy the beautiful Okanagan summer.
Ramon Lawrence
CTL Academic Director
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