Teaching + Learning News 1.01

2014-03-11

The first in a series of occasional reports from the world of higher-education teaching and learning, as viewed from the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Arts: faculty development, student engagement, and a vague sense of things to come.

By Michael Ullyot, Associate Dean (Teaching + Learning): saving you from unnecessary e-mails since 2014.

Around Campus

• Desire2Learn: Learn about our new learning management system (as they call it) and bid a bittersweet farewell to Blackboard at a series of townhall presentations and training sessions in March, April, and May. All the Faculty-of-Arts-specific details you need are right here.
• National Survey of Student Engagement: From what I hear from university administration, our students’ feedback on the NSSE surveys (every three years) is really, really important. I’ll second that: they’re also very important to the Faculty of Arts. We’ll use them to plan all kinds of events and workshops next year, so please directly urge your students to complete them. Fun, prizes, and institutional impact, all rolled into a 15-minute survey.
• #LearningSpaces: What kinds of learning do the real and virtual spaces around the University of Calgary campus enable? The Provost’s Learning Technology Task Force wants to hear from you — as do I.
• Arts & Science National Co-op & Internship Week: Career Services and the Arts and Science faculties celebrate National Co-op & Internship Week, March 17 – 21, 2014. There will be an information booth and an Employer & Student Panel about co-op and internship at the University of Calgary.

Around the World

• The Library of the Future : “What are libraries doing to ensure they don’t become extinct?” And how is it linked to the future of the book?
• The History and Future of (Mostly) Higher Education : I’m just finishing this six-week online course, and wrote a blog post about it at the beginning and again a few weeks ago. Though I’m wary of technological ‘solutionism,’ the professor Cathy Davidson’s books have made me think differently about future students.

Thanks for reading. Feedback and items for future Teaching + Learning News are always welcome.