Luckily, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) offers a variety of free resources aimed at helping students find success in their studies.

For some of the University of Manitoba’s notoriously challenging courses, peer leaders (students who have previously completed these courses) guide students through free weekly Supplemental Instruction (SI) sessions. Noor Imran, a Faculty of Science student, SI leader, and content tutor, shared that, “these sessions […] helped me stay on top of the course material and identify knowledge gaps so I could address them more effectively. It was also a great opportunity to connect with people and see the thought process of my peers.” Other past participants have shared similarly positive experiences from these sessions, including SI’s value for test preparation and improving problem-solving capacity.  As an SI leader, Noor further noted that these sessions can help students better understand how to approach their courses, and university studies more generally, and build valuable study habits and time-management skills.

Content and study skills tutors are available both in-person and online for free one-to-one appointments. These peer tutors can help students address a variety of concerns related to learning and studying. Noor shared that, “Some of the most common things that students talk about are time management, content help, exam preparation, note-taking strategies and additional resources for academic support.” She also explained that “there are students who are not sure why they are not succeeding in their courses. In those cases, our appointments are almost a diagnostic session where I help them discover shortcomings in their study style/strategies that they might need to improve or change completely. I find that those appointments are fulfilling for the students since they end up with a concrete plan on how to improve their strategies.”

The ALC also offers a variety of other resources and workshops designed to help you hone your skills and gain confidence in your learning.

There are many other supports available across campus, too. Noor explained that “The Science Students’ Association (SSA) has a tutoring program… Student clubs like Undergraduate Microbiology Students’ Club (MiSC) and Chem Club provide academic services for students like exam banks and study nights. For help with mathematics-based courses, the Math Help Centre and the Stats Help Centre are also very useful resources.” Try reaching out to your department, faculty, instructors or student group(s) to see what other resources might be available to you.

There are also many strategies you can explore on your own. Noor recommended making a study schedule, finding a study group and trying out some different study strategies. “I recommend the ‘study guide method’ to students, which is something that works for me. The method allows me to re-explain the concepts to myself through re-writing my notes and customize my study guides in a way that will help me remember and connect concepts (e.g. drawing diagrams, making tables for compare and contrast purposes, making flowcharts for mechanism, etc.). I find this method to be more effective and explanatory than making flashcards or passively copying down the slide’s text,” Noor explained.  As you continue on your learning journey, just know that one size does not fit all; it can be challenging, but taking the time to find the strategies that work for you is very worthwhile!

Make sure to take some time to care for yourself while you attend to your studies. Along with the resources for learning and studying, UM offers resources and services aimed at promoting and fostering student well-being. You can find more information at the Student Wellness website.

Although tutors often intuitively use effective strategies during their appointments, Tutor Training can significantly improve the way a tutor thinks and interacts with students.

Tutor Training facilitator and Academic Learning Centre instructor, Tim Podolsky, says, “Getting training is the best way for tutors to improve their knowledge and understanding of best practices when it comes to tutoring.”

Participants benefit by improving critical thinking and communication skills. In addition, says Podolsky, “Participants develop an awareness of the role of a tutor, the phases of a tutoring session, using scaffolding strategies and promoting independence, increasing meta-cognition, working with students from different cultural backgrounds, and promoting academic integrity.”

Tutors who attend training and complete the assigned activities also earn recognition on their Experience Record.

The Academic Learning Centre’s Tutor Training is designed to improve the overall quality of tutoring on campus and has been provided since 2004 to a wide variety of tutoring programs at the University of Manitoba, including tutors from Disability Services, ACCESS programs, Aboriginal Focus Programs, the ALC Writing Tutor Program, ALC Content Tutors, Bison Sport Plus, Campus Life, UMES, UM Peers, and the U1 Mentorship Program have taken part in previous training sessions.

The Academic Learning Centre offers students a variety of academic support services.
Find other tutor training sessions, Academic Success Workshops and Academic Learning Centre resources online.

The Academic Learning Centre will be providing Tutor Training on-campus this year before classes start on August 24^th from 1:00-4:30 p.m. Tutor Training is free and open to all UM students. Registration is available at Tutor Training Registration (August 24th).

The Academic Learning Centre’s Tutor Training is designed to improve the overall quality of tutoring on campus and has been provided since 2004 to a wide variety of tutoring programs at the University of Manitoba. Participants benefit by learning about the role of a tutor and the tutoring cycle and by improving critical thinking and communication skills. Tutors who attend training and complete the assigned activities also earn recognition on their Experience Record.  

Although tutors often intuitively use effective strategies during their appointments, tutor training can significantly improve the way a tutor thinks and interacts with students. Investing time in tutor training will improve the overall quality of tutoring on campus. The ALC has been providing tutor training on the UM campus since spring 2004. Tutors from Disability Services, ACCESS programs, Aboriginal Focus Programs, the ALC Writing Tutor Program, ALC Content Tutors, Bison Sport Plus, Campus Life, UMES, UM Peers, and the U1 Mentorship Program have taken part in previous training sessions.

The Academic Learning Centre offers students a variety of academic support services.

Find other tutor training sessions and Academic Learning Centre resources.

“I am delighted to welcome Dr. Annemieke Farenhorst to my team. She is an accomplished scientist, leader, teacher and community partner, who will enhance the research enterprise at the UM.” said Dr. Digvir Jayas, Vice-President (Research and International) and Distinguished Professor.

Jayas added, “At this time, I’d like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Gary Glavin, the outgoing Associate Vice-President (Research), for his more than 12 years of leadership and administrative service to the research community.”

Farenhorst currently serves as Associate Dean (Research) and professor of soil science in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and is a Registered Professional Agrologist. She joined UM in 1997 and holds a doctoral degree in Geography from the University of Toronto and a doctorandus degree in physical geography and soil science from the University of Amsterdam.

“I am so excited about this new opportunity to further contribute to growing the research community at the University of Manitoba,” said Farenhorst. “Being able to help support the diverse and rich forms of research, scholarly, and creative works at the University of Manitoba, is really a dream come true.

She noted that, “A priority for me in this new role, will be strengthening partnerships with Indigenous communities, which I believe to be at the core of the future of our institution, including successes in student enrollment and growing our research enterprise through two-eyed seeing.”

An active researcher, she holds active grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and has supervised more than 100 students and postdoctoral fellows in natural and social science research projects.

In her capacity as the NSERC Chair for Women in Science and Engineering Prairie Region from 2011 to 2020, Farenhorst helped shape Canada’s Dimension Charter for post-secondary institutions. She is the elected Secretary of Division VI (Chemistry and the Environment) of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and the co-lead of the United Nations Academic Impact Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 Hub – Clean Water and Sanitation. She led a research training program for First Nations water and sanitation security (2013-2019), as well as a program to advance food security for small-scale farmers in Central America (2005-2014).

As Associate Vice-President (Research) her portfolio will include supporting institutional applications/nominations to programs such as CFI, CRC, NCE, Genome Canada, and the monitoring and guiding of UM’s policies and procedures with respect to research ethics and compliance, specifically, the use of controlled goods, bio-hazardous materials, animals and humans in research and teaching. Farenhorst will also provide leadership towards the integration of equity, diversity and inclusion programming across all disciplines and practices as it applies to research carried out by UM.

Farenhorst has been recognized for her professional contributions through a range of awards including WXN’s Canada’s Most Powerful Women Top 100 Award (2016), the Ms. and Mrs. Ralph Campbell Award for Meritorious Service in University Outreach (2015) and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012) for leadership in pesticide research and community involvement.

She joins Jayas’ team with Dr. John (Jay) Doering, who was recently reappointed as Associate Vice-President (Partnerships) through June 30, 2024.

With the end of Dr. Ristock’s term approaching, the University is moving forward with the process of finding her successor.  

President and Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Michael Benarroch, is pleased to announce the membership of the advisory committee he has struck to advise on candidates for the role and on the position more generally.  

Joining him on the committee are:

From the Board of Governors:

• Jeff Lieberman, Chair

From Administration:

• Catherine Cook, Vice-President (Indigenous)
• Laurie Schnarr, Vice-Provost (Students)

From Senate:

• Tina Chen, Distinguished Professor, Department of History, Faculty of Arts
• Derek Oliver, Professor and Associate Head, Department of Electrical Engineering, Price Faculty of Engineering and Director, Manitoba Institute for Materials
• Lalitha Raman-Wilms, Dean, College of Pharmacy
• Martin Scanlon, Dean, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences

From the University of Manitoba Faculty Association:

• Michael Shaw, President of UMFA and Senior Instructor, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science

From Faculties:

• Marcia Anderson, Executive Director, Indigenous Academic Affairs, Ongomiizwin Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing; Vice-Dean, Indigenous Health, and Associate Professor, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences
• Robert C. Mizzi, Canada Research Chair in Queer, Community, and Diversity Education; Associate Professor, Faculty of Education

From the Colleges:

• Christopher Adams, Rector, St. Paul’s College

From the University of Manitoba Graduate Students’ Association:

• Silvia Sekander, President

The University has retained Laverne Smith and Associates to assist the committee in conducting the search, led by Laverne Smith, President.  As part of its work, in the coming weeks the committee will be reaching out to the community to solicit input on the ideal profile and candidate for a Provost and Vice-President (Academic), along with the opportunities, issues and challenges awaiting them.

These are just a few of the many collaborative successes that have been achieved as Dr. David Barnard completes his term as the 11th President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manitoba (UM) and are outlined in the final report on the Taking Our Place: University of Manitoba Strategic Plan 2015 – 2020.

The report is now online and includes highlights from the five priority areas and progress made in achieving the goals and priorities set out in the plan. Other accomplishments highlighted within the report include:

• Increases in student enrolment, with a fall 2019 record high of 29,561
• Improved learning environments with upgrades to more than 165 classrooms, labs and seminar rooms
• Increases in experiential learning, including a 35% increase in co-ops since 2015. We now have 40 co-op options available for students across a range of programs
• An increase in undergraduate research awards to 170 awards valued at $1.18 million
• Sixteen new research chairs and five professorships reflecting UM’s research expertise
• Introduction of an Indigenous Initiatives Fund that supported 61 projects including a new Indigenous Languages Elders-in-Residence Program
• Creation of an Indigenous Advisory Committee to guide the Indigenous Planning and Design Principles for UM, now incorporated into ongoing work across campuses

“Since 2015, this strategic plan has guided our efforts as a university,” said David T. Barnard, President and Vice-Chancellor at UM. “As my time here draws to a close, I am humbled by the many ways in which UM as a whole has worked together to advance our collective priorities and grateful for the collegiality of our community.”

Within each of the strategic priorities, several key goals have been achieved and we have demonstrated noteworthy progress in other areas.

“We wish to take this opportunity to reflect on what has been accomplished and to celebrate the progress we have made together. While there is always more to be done, the coming year will bring an opportunity to review our progress, to build on our accomplishments as well as to adjust our priorities for the future,” said Dr. Janice Ristock, Provost and Vice-President (Academic).

The final report, mid-term report and strategic plan can be found on the strategic plan webpage.

Given the impact of COVID-19 on our teaching community, the deadline has been extended to April 24, 2020.

The Program offers four funding categories:

• Teaching and Learning Seed Project: This program provides seed funding for projects that influence student learning, explore new pedagogical approach and the impact of learning, and advance the scholarship of teaching and learning.
• Teaching and Learning Major Project: This program supports initiatives that influence student learning, are multidisciplinary and may span across faculties, colleges or schools.
• Teaching Scholar: This program will support three (3) tenure-track faculty members who will dedicate 40 per cent of their time over one term to develop and execute a personal teaching and learning project or participate in an existing Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning project.
• Teaching Fellow: This program will support one (1) tenured faculty member who will dedicate up to 50 per cent of their time for a two-year term to focus their time on achieving educational excellence, especially in post-secondary education.

For guidelines and eligibility criteria, visit the Provost and Vice-President (Academic)’s Awards and Funding Opportunities page.

For more information about the program, contact Dr. Mark Torchia, Vice-Provost (Teaching and Learning), at mark.torchia@umanitoba.ca.

“Current systems are primarily paper-based or PDF processes that are quite inefficient,” said Digvir Jayas, vice-president (research and international). “Principal investigators (PIs) will be able to track their UM submissions from creation to completion in this single sign-on system.”

The Research Administration System (RAS) project will integrate more than 100 forms—including the Funding Application Approval Form (FAAF)—animal and human ethics, contracts and internal grants (and all the associated attachments), with reviews and approvals happening within RAS.

The project began in 2018, with identification of the need to move to an improved business workflow for research administration, that will meet the needs of PIs as well as those reviewing and approving proposals.

Phase 1 includes Human Ethics (Fort Garry) with a targeted mid-2020 launch.

For updates on this project and further information, refer to the project website:
umanitoba.ca/research/ras

Unlike Fall and Winter Terms, Summer Term currently has a complex schedule which is comprised of a variety of class lengths that are not standardized across the University.

This variability can cause scheduling challenges for students who wish to take more than one course, and particularly for those who wish to take classes in more than one Faculty. The current schedule also requires some students to register for courses prior to the exam period for the previous term which can create difficulties in determining whether prerequisites have been met.

As part of its deliberation, the committee has considered scheduling practices at comparable Canadian universities, discussed issues related to learning conditions and student well-being that arise from our current practices, and reviewed recent schedule and enrolment data for the Summer Term.

The committee has learned that an increasing number of students are enrolling in multiple courses over the summer period, and it appears that a number of factors including highly-compressed course schedules, and partially overlapping courses with differing final exam periods create a highly challenging environment that may compromise the ability of students to master new material and to perform to their best ability.

A simplified model with two 6-week segments is now under consideration. The first would start in May each year and a second 6 week would start in July. Three credit-hour courses would be offered at an accelerated schedule within each segment, and six credit-hour courses would be scheduled across both (May to August ). Each segment would be followed by a 1 week during which course work could be completed and final exams scheduled. In addition, a week without evaluation or instruction would be inserted following each segment for course grading.

In addition to this standard structure, field trip and co-op courses could be scheduled separately as appropriate.

The committee now seeks input from the broader community on these potential changes to summer term scheduling and welcomes other feedback pertaining to scheduling of courses between May and August. The proposed schedule would be for Summer Term starting in 2021.

Please send your recommendations by Jan. 31, 2020 to Summer.Term.Feedback@umanitoba.ca 

Summer Term Academic Schedule Review Committee Members:

Todd Mondor – Deputy Provost, Committee Chair
Laura Bean – Undergraduate Program Manager, Asper School of Business
J.P. Burak – International Program Coordinator, Engineering
Michael Czubryt – Associate Dean, Graduate Studies; Professor, Health Sciences
Jelynn Dela Cruz – Vice President (Student Life), UMSU
Taylor Friesen – Academic Advisor, Agricultural and Food Sciences
Kristina Hunter – Senior Instructor, Environment, Earth, and Resources
Melissa Kowalchuk – Convocation Coordinator, Registrar’s Office
Steven Lecce – Associate Dean (Undergraduate), Arts
Ben Li – Associate Dean (Undergraduate), Science
Neil Marnoch – Registrar
Carl Neumann – President, Graduate Student’s Association
Tracey Peter – Associate Professor, Arts
Valerie Shantz – Director, Integrated Planning, Office of the Provost
David Stangeland – Associate Dean (Professional Programs), Asper School of Business
Jenna Tichon – Instructor, Science
Ali Wood-Warren – First Year Centre Coordinator, Student Engagement and Success

In June, O’Hara was appointed Vice-Provost (Libraries) and University Librarian. UM Today spoke with the self-described “metadata geek” about her vision for UM Libraries to “bring the world to the University and the University to the world” in a rapidly changing information environment, enjoying the rhythm of the academic year and accomplishing more by working together. And, of course, her favourite books.

What do libraries bring to their communities today?
We are experts at collecting, organizing and sharing information and resources – and we use these skills and our collections to support students and faculty in many ways. The new Learning at the Libraries webpage, for example, helps new students get started on papers and assignments. We also help faculty create research data management plans for research grants and to improve the research process. Libraries are where our community needs us, when they need us. We have 11 libraries across both campuses and three new book-holds lockers (in University Centre, Faculty of Education and Brody Centre) and our website provides access to millions of electronic articles and ebooks, as well as subject guides, video tutorials and much more.

What is your vision for UM Libraries and where they can go?
UM Libraries bring the world to the University and the University to the world. We make it easier for our community to get and use the information and resources they need for their research, teaching and learning – and then we make it easier for them to share their results. It’s a rapidly changing information environment; we are experts at navigating it and helping the community navigate it. So, where can Libraries go? We can go wherever that navigation need is, whether helping to create open educational resources to save students money, making datasets available to fulfill granting agency requirements, or getting unique materials from other institutions for a researcher’s needs.

What do you enjoy about the university environment?
I love the rhythm of the academic year and working in an environment that is so charged with new ideas. Almost every day I hear someone talking about something that they are passionate about and that makes my work fulfilling and makes this a great place to be.

With your depth of experience, what unique perspective do you bring to your new role?
I think my experience working in centralized services has led me to see things as part of a bigger picture; I am a firm believer that a rising tide lifts all boats and that we accomplish far more by working together. I think that this viewpoint has helped me work with colleagues to accomplish a lot throughout my career and I hope it will serve me well in this role.

Can you say a little about your academic background and interests.
I have an English degree from the University of Manitoba and a Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of Toronto. Recently I took part in an international research project on how libraries can better support Indigenous faculty and researchers, something I’d like to continue. And I’m still a metadata geek, and have been getting really interested in using wikidata to make our digital and archival collections more visible to the world.

What drew you to the profession?
I have always been a huge reader and have used libraries everywhere I’ve lived, so that drew me to librarianship. Once I was in the profession, I found that I was really interested in the technical side of librarianship and spent quite a bit of my career working with metadata and MARC and XML coding.

What pursuits do you enjoy beyond academia?
My family is most important to me, and I also have a large extended family and enjoy spending time with them. I am a runner, and, although I can’t say I always enjoy it, I usually run a half marathon or two each year with my running buddies. We aren’t fast but we are persistent!

Credo or guiding principle?
The best piece of advice I have ever gotten was “if you make a decision and it doesn’t work out, make another decision.” It has made it at a lot easier to make some decisions realizing that while I may not get the chance at that same decision again, there is almost always an opportunity to make another one.

It would be remiss of us not to ask for a favourite book.
That is probably the hardest question to answer! I honestly can’t say I have a favourite book, but I recently read White Fragility (Robin DiAngelo), and it gave me a lot to think about. I also read The Mars Room (Rachel Kushner) and couldn’t put it down. I love police procedurals and am looking forward to reading the next Harry Bosch novel. And I have my former colleague Jim Blanchard’s new book A Diminished Roar on my to-read list!