Pedagogies of Care: Bringing it All Together – Sharing Our Stories

Date and time: Tuesday, April 1, 2:00 p.m. to 2:50 p.m.

Join us for a series of four monthly 50-minute sessions designed for graduate students, instructors, and professors committed to exploring pedagogies of care. These sessions offer strategies that foster care, inclusion, and broaden perspectives in higher education, including insights into how brain science can enhance teaching effectiveness. Each session will provide practical tools for creating inclusive, engaging, and empowering learning environments, drawing on research into neural connections, brain plasticity, and how these processes affect learning, memory retention, and student engagement. Whether you’re teaching in-person or in an online format, this series will equip you with neuroscience-based strategies and pedagogical approaches that cultivate caring and inclusive educational spaces.

During the Bringing it All Together – Sharing Our Stories Spaces session:

• Participants will collaboratively share their experiences and insights, synthesizing the pedagogical strategies learned throughout the series to create an integrated teaching approach.
• Participants will discuss their practices through storytelling, identifying ways to further develop their teaching practices.

Register for the Pedagogies of Care workshop

Decolonizing Classrooms: Start here

Date and time: Wednesday, April 2, 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

As part of the Decolonizing Classrooms Series, “Decolonizing Classrooms: Start Here” is designed for those beginning their journey in decolonizing and reconciliatory learning. This workshop offers foundational knowledge about Indigenous Peoples, their Knowledges, and the important relationships we all maintain with the Land in what is now commonly known as Canada. Participants will learn about colonization and processes of decolonization, and identify initial steps to engage in important decolonizing and reconciliatory processes. This workshop will equip you with the necessary information to meaningfully engage with Indigenous pedagogies and foster ongoing learning and action. Additionally, it provides the background necessary for full participation in other workshops in the Decolonizing Classrooms Series.

Register for the Decolonizing Classrooms workshop

From Theory to Practice: Using the UM Competencies Framework to Level Up Experiential Learning

Date and time: Friday, April 4, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Have you thought about the kind of people you want your students to become upon graduating? You might envision them as empathetic listeners, critical thinkers, effective collaborators, or team players. How can education use Experiential Learning (EL) to move beyond traditional content delivery, actively nurturing these skills? Join us as we dive into the dynamic combination of EL and the UM Competencies Framework, equipping educators to foster real-world skills, growth, and empowerment in students.

Register for From Theory to Practice: Using the UM Competencies Framework to Level Up Experiential Learning

Experiential Learning Community of Practice Brown Bag Lunch Conversations: Experiential or Active Learning What’s the Difference?

Date and time: Tuesday, April 15, 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Bring your lunch and connect with other members of our community of practice! There is no formal agenda for these casual meetings just good people and conversation! Everyone is welcome to share their thoughts and experiences as we explore different topics in experiential learning.

Topic: Experiential or Active Learning what’s the difference? Are they different approaches, or different names for the same approach? Come tell us what you think!

Register for Experiential or Active Learning What’s the Difference?

Universal Design for Learning in Practice: Represent a Diversity of Perspectives and Identities in Authentic Ways

Date and time: Thursday, April 24, 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Join us for the last Thursday of each month in an ongoing series, where participants will review discreet elements of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Participants will work together to develop pedagogical practices that align with the UDL principle being discussed that month.

Topic: The session will focus on CAST’s UDL principle of representing a diversity of perspectives and identities in authentic ways and how it can be directly applied to pedagogical practice. There will be a brief presentation of the core elements of this principle followed by a question-and-answer session where participants can collaborate with the facilitator to develop their practice. 

Register for Universal Design for Learning in Practice: Represent a Diversity of Perspectives and Identities in Authentic Ways

The certificate, offered through The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (The Centre), combines workshops, mentorships and classroom observations. Participants learn pedagogical principles and foundational knowledge that can be applied in the classroom.

Bridget Kozyra, Instructor in the Faculty of Social Work, was one of the 16 graduates and spoke at the event about her experience in the program.

“It was incredibly valuable and a great experience,” she says. “I learned so much from my mentor and being able to connect with the other participants.”

Kozyra found the skills and knowledge from the program also helped her beyond the classroom. “The timing worked out that we were going through curriculum revision as I was in the program,” she says. “The workshops and knowledge gave me an additional lens to use as we were reviewing our content – what we were teaching, how we were teaching it and best methods for assessing our students.”

Daniel Nagel, an assistant professor with the College of Nursing, took the program to expand his knowledge. One of the things he appreciated about the program was the ability to connect with instructors in other areas.

“The workshops really helped to break us out of our usual silos and connect with other instructors across the university,” he says. “Being able to see how other faculty members approach teaching and what they bring to the classroom, was inspiring. And the connections and friendships I have made throughout the journey, with both the mentors and other participants, is something I really appreciated about the program.”

Nagel notes that, while the program is targeted at faculty in the first few years of their teaching career, the workshops are also relevant for those who are farther along in their teaching career.

“There were workshops that had very specialized topics, like incorporating Indigenous Knowledge, mental health, and accessible teaching strategies that are hugely beneficial because of how our knowledge in those areas continues to expand and grow,” he says. “As a life-long learner, there’s always something new to learn that will help me be a better instructor and able to better support my students.”

Joanna Koulouriotis, Educational Developer with The Centre and TLC Program Coordinator, serves as one of the program mentors.

“It’s so wonderful to see the participants and mentors connect and build relationships,” she says. “Being a mentor is a way for me to support new faculty, but it’s also a chance for me to learn from them. It’s incredibly rewarding.”

Registration for the 2025 TLC program will open in April 2025.

Meet the 2024 TLC graduates

Learn more about the TLC program

Learn about becoming a mentor

Explore workshops offered by The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning

The series, designed by Dr. Brenda M. Stoesz, Research Lead – Science of Teaching and Learning, at The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, begins Tuesday, October 29, 2024, with the Effective communication: How to have better conversations with your students workshop.

The Centre’s Evaluation Developer, James Plohman, led the development of the first installment in the program and will be co-facilitating the workshop session component with Evaluation Developer Dr. Ibiyemi Arowolo. Following the workshop, participants of the program will take part in in three immersive VR sessions in private sessions facilitated by undergraduate student research assistants.

The program was developed to support faculty members and sessional instructors looking to improve their communication skills in a variety of situations that may be difficult or high stakes.

“We’ve heard from faculty that they were looking for more information on how to improve their skills to better communicate with students—especially in situations that may be more challenging—and create better outcomes,” says Plohman.

Through a workshop and immersive VR sessions, participants will explore effective communication techniques relevant to various educational contexts and will be able to practice their skills in a judgement-free environment that incorporates role play within virtual reality simulations.

“The use of virtual reality as part of the training provides an environment that allows participants to practice in a semi-realistic way,” says Plohman. “They can do the modules multiple times, trying different approaches to see how it changes the interaction. The overall goal is to help people become more comfortable, confident and effective verbal communicators.”

Anika Budhiraja is a research assistant at The Centre and was involved in the pilot project as a student. She will also be facilitating some of the VR sessions. She says the focus on active listening and clear verbal communication, combined with being able to practice in virtual reality, made it a valuable and engaging experience.

“Going through it myself as a participant, I remember thinking that these are the things you may not think about explicitly—things that you sort of forget,” she says. “The VR practice gives you a safe space to check what you’re doing and practice and get better. It can be hard to pinpoint what might be going wrong. With VR you get that immersive feeling that you’re in that space, you’re communicating, but you’re not being judged.”

Following the training, a reflection workshop will enable participant to share their experiences with others in the program and discuss ways that they will transfer their training to their classroom and meetings with their students.

 “We’re very excited to roll this out and hear back from faculty and use that feedback to develop further modules in the future,” says Plohman. Feedback will be used to improve this series and other teaching skills programs from The Centre.

Along with supporting instructors in improving their skills, the program also gives educational and research opportunities to three UM undergraduate students.

The program runs October 29 to December 10, 2024, with an approximate eight-hour time commitment from participants.

Register for the Teaching Skills Program: ‘Effective Communication: How to Have Better Conversations with Your Students’

UM instructors care about making education more affordable and relevant to their students, as evidenced by the eleven projects underway that have already received Advance Open Ed funding.

Funding and support

Advance Open Ed provides financial and practical support along with educational opportunities to help the UM community create, adapt, and adopt open educational resources (OER).

Grants up to $10,000 are available to help faculty, instructors, and librarians create, adapt, and/or adopt an open educational resource.

Financial support is also available for individuals to participate in the Creative Commons certificate program or attend the virtual Open Education Conference taking place October 8-10.

Applications for funding are still being accepted.

Additional supports are also available. Contact Glenn Bergen, OER coordinator, Libraries, for further information.

Apply for funding.

OER in action

Celine Latulipe, professor, Department of Computer Science, is using her funding to develop a Java Active Learning Workbook for use in COMP1020. The new resource is providing activities for students to work on during class and it allows students to write code online in the pages of the online book. Thus far, student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with 85% of survey respondents indicating that the activities helped them to test their understanding of the material.

Julianne Doner, linguistics resources designer, Department of Linguistics, is writing an open textbook for a second-year course in Introductory Morphology and Syntax. While UM combines both subjects into a single course, there is no combined textbook available, which would require students to buy two textbooks for the course.  Regarding the new open educational textbook, Doner says the students “definitely appreciate that it’s free. You can see it in their body language when I announce that it will be a Zero Textbook Cost course on the first day of class.”

You can help

To help us plan for the future, we would like to know about open educational resources that have been or are being developed at UM. Libraries has recently sent a short survey to all faculty and instructors asking about their experience with OER and how open resources are currently being used at the university. Feedback is being collected until the end of September. Please respond to our survey to contribute to the bigger picture of OER adoption at the University of Manitoba.

Explore Open@UM to learn more about open access and open scholarship at UM.

(Graphic: Cover image from The Linguistic Analysis of Word and Sentence Structures, by Julianne Doner, created by Ysabelle Tankeko.)

Panorama is an accessibility tool that has been available on UM Learn since 2022. Now it’s also being relaunched as a password-protected portal, which means you can also review documents for accessibility outside UM Learn. You just log in to Panorama using your UM password—which means that UM staff and students can now also use it for any materials they produce.  

It’s the law 

As of May 1, 2024, the University of Manitoba must abide by the Accessible Information and Communication Standard Regulation—part of the Accessibility for Manitobans Act. The regulation states that educational institutions and other bodies must, among other things, make educational materials accessible.  

How Panorama helps you 

Panorama checks how accessible your materials are and provides suggestions for improvement.  

Panorama scans your content and creates an accessibility report that flags any issues and provides suggestions for how to resolve each of them. This allows you to ensure the accessibility of your content before it is distributed or published. It can also create accessible alternative formats for your users who have disabilities and different abilities, including high contrast, text to speech, braille, and audio files.  

The Panorama platform also includes Panorama’s PDF Remediation engine, which uses AI to address issues such as contrast, font size, alternative text, missing headline structures, hyperlink context issues and more.  

You are the only person who can access your accessibility reports—no one else will see or evaluate you on them. The product has been vetted by UM’s Access and Privacy Office and Information Security and Compliance. 

To access Panorama, log in to the Panorama portal with your UMnetID and password. 

Learn more from The Centre 

The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning is your campus resource for accessibility. Visit Panorama on The Centre’s website for more information about this tool.

Training 

An online workshop, Panorama – Improving Digital Accessibility, is being offered Wednesday, September 25 from 12-1 pm. This workshop will be facilitated by YuJa staff and will cover how to use Panorama to scan courses and documents and automatically improve the accessibility of digital media and course content, identify and fix issues for a variety of file types.  

Training topics: 

• Accessibility Reports 

• • Finding Accessibility Reports for Documents 
  • Understanding Accessibility Reports
  • How to Improve Files 

• Alternative Formats 

• • Overview of Alternative Formats 
  • Understanding Different Types of Formats 

• Accessing the Panorama Reporting & Panorama Settings 

• • How to access Course Reports 
  • My Content Area 

You can also book an appointment with the media team at The Centre for help to make your course materials or other digital content more accessible. Please email us at TheCentre [at] umanitoba [dot] ca.  

Support 

Panorama is a YuJa Inc. product. If you have questions about Panorama, you can visit the Panorama Digital Accessibility Platform Overview on the YuJa Help Center website where you’ll find video tutorials, quick start guides and general documentation.  

You can also contact YuJa Inc. directly between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.: 

By phone: 1-888-257-2278 

By email: support [at] yuja [dot] com 

Through Twitter: @yujanow 

Starting May 27th, IST will replace the current Apple TV devices with the more versatile ShareLink Pro devices first on the Bannatyne campus, then on the Fort Garry campus in June-July.  

“ShareLink Pro offers faculty and staff a friendlier, more intuitive experience. It works with a wide range of devices and platforms, such as MacOS, Windows, iOS, and Android, and provides our users with the flexibility they need to share and present content seamlessly,” says the director of IST Technology Services, Richard Gloux.  

The project web page lists the rooms and buildings that will be affected. There are also frequently asked questions (FAQs) and support information to help you navigate this transition.  

In addition to detailed online instructions, the classrooms and meeting rooms will be equipped with end-user instructions to assist in making the most out of the new ShareLink Pro devices.  

This project is one of many that shows the university’s commitment to providing innovative technology for exceptional learning and working experiences. We appreciate your continued support as we move towards this change. 

For any questions or concerns about this project, please feel free to contact the project manager, Iain Cruickshank, at Iain.Cruickshank@umanitoba.ca.  

Through the Advance Open Ed 2023-24 project, UM Libraries provided financial and practical assistance for the creation of nine open educational resources (OER) publications. This will continue in the 2024-25 academic year, with educational opportunities about open scholarship for the UM community.

Funds are available to participate in the upcoming Creative Commons certificate programs and the virtual Open Education Conference in October 2024.

UM OER Grant

Full-time tenure track/tenured faculty, continuing/probationary instructors, and librarians are eligible to apply for a grant to create, adapt and/or adopt an OER. Applications are now being accepted.

Grant value: $10,000 maximum
Application deadline: September 27, 2024
Notification of successful applications: ongoing basis

See the Advance Open Ed web page and Grant Application Guideline for details.

Free workshop: Publishing as Knowledge Sharing in the Digital Age

UM Libraries will host a free in-person workshop on community-based Indigenous studies, digital publishing, and the RavenSpace publishing platform. 

Tuesday, May 14, 2024
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Archives Classroom
Room 339, 3rd Floor
Elizabeth Dafoe Library
University of Manitoba

The morning session (10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon) will include an interactive discussion contrasting conventional publishing with new possibilities for digital scholarship. The afternoon session (12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.) will provide a hands-on workshop for authors and groups exploring publication.

The workshop will be facilitated by Darcy Cullen, Assistant Director, Acquisitions, UBC Press.

A light lunch will be served. There is no cost to participate in the workshop. Please register before Thursday, May 9. Contact Glenn Bergen for further details.

Funds for educational opportunities

CC Certificate courses

Creative Commons (CC) licensing is an essential tool for open education to protect intellectual property while permitting access, sharing, and collaboration. To promote knowledge and awareness of CC, UM Libraries is offering a limited number of paid registrations to CC Certificate courses.

The 10-week asynchronous online courses (with an estimated 6-10 hours per week of coursework) are offered on June 10 – August 18, 2024, and September 23 – December 1, 2024. They lead to specialization in open licensing and training to help others understand and implement open licenses.

Applications are open to faculty, staff, and students. Preference will be given to those actively involved in open pedagogy and open publishing. Visit the Advance Open Ed web page for details.

Open Education Conference

The Open Education Conference will take place on October 8-10, 2024. Details will be provided as soon as registration is available.

About OER and Open at UM

OER are freely available and adaptable course materials. Typically shared under a Creative Commons license, they can be produced in many formats, including video or interactive modules, but most are produced as open textbooks or teaching materials.

According to an UMSU survey with over 1000 students in 2021, students identified the adoption of OER as their highest priority. UM is committed to facilitating student learning and enhancing the student experience by making education affordable and accessible with OER.

Explore Open@UM to learn more about open access and open scholarship at UM.

• Departmental Approval: Grades needing departmental approval must adhere to department-specific deadlines. Regardless of approval status, all grades will be rolled into academic history by Monday, May 6. 
• Courses Outside Normal Term Dates: Courses with different term dates may have alternate deadlines. Check with your faculty/school/college office for specifics. 
• Late Grade Submission: Grades submitted after the deadline must follow the Late Grade Submission process. 
• Grade Entry Options: When approving grades, use the ‘All Students’ option, not ‘Graduating Students’. 
• Academic Misconduct Investigations: Do not enter grades for students under investigation. Final grades can be submitted post-decision using the Change of Grade process. 

Important Reminders for Instructors: 

• Follow ‘Incomplete Final Grade’ and ‘Time Extension’ processes for students needing additional time. 
• Academic units may have specific rules for granting time extensions. 
• Instructions for incomplete grades are available in the ‘Entering Final Grades’ document on our website. 

End of Term Processing: 

• An ‘IP’ (In Progress) grade will be loaded for registrations lacking final grades. Submit missing grades promptly using the Late Grade Submission process. 
• Unsubmitted final grades will become ‘F NP’ (F – No Paper) four months post-deadline. 

Faculty & Staff Resources: 

• Report final grades electronically using Aurora. Find detailed instructions on the Registrar’s Office Grading page, covering entering grades, grading regulations, and deadlines. 
• Refer to the ‘Entering Final Grades’ document for step-by-step guidance on various grade submission scenarios, including disciplinary grades and grade changes. 

For further assistance, contact the Registrar’s Office staff at: UG.Records@umanitoba.ca

The goal of these consultations is to better understand the challenges, supports and motivations influencing the ability of faculty members, instructors, and staff to integrate experiential learning into academic courses and programs.

While experiential learning is often used as a synonym for work experience, the University of Manitoba recognizes 12 different types of experiential learning—from project-based and creative assignments, to applied research, laboratories and studios. We want to hear what experiential learning looks like in your unique context!

The recently created Office of Experiential Learning is inviting all faculty members, instructors, and staff involved or interested in the development and delivery of experiential learning in academic courses and programs to grab lunch and share their perspectives!

In-person consultations will take place from February 5 to 16 at The Centre for The Advancement of Teaching and Learning in the Fort Garry Campus (lunch will be provided). 

A limited number of online consultations are available for those who are not able to attend in-person.

Please register here by January 31 for an Experiential Learning consultation.

Find out about events, opportunities and stories related to experiential learning at UM—join the Experiential Learning Community of Practice!

UM OER grant recipients

The nine OER projects are supported by the UM Libraries Advance Open Ed 2023-24 fund through the UM OER grant. An OER Lab was established to provide editorial and project management assistance, as well as help with publication and distribution for the projects.

OERs are teaching materials that have an open license that allows them to be used, adapted, and shared by instructors and students at no cost. The successful OER grant proposals from UM faculty and instructors include:

Enhancing Learning through Educational Videos
Project lead: Jackie Elliott (Athletic Therapy)

Endoscopy Curriculum
Project lead: Eric Hyun (Surgery)

Curriculum for Teaching Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine
Katherine Kearns (Family Medicine), Meghan Azad (Pediatrics and Child Health), Joanne Hamilton (Family Medicine), and Christina Raimondi (Family Medicine)

EmFATically Inclusive: Identifying and Redressing Anti-Fat Stigma in Medical Education
Deborah McPhail (Community Health Sciences), Joanne Hamilton (Office of Innovation and Scholarship in Medical Education), Chelsea Jalloh (Office of Innovation and Scholarship in Medical Education), and Valerie Williams (Office of Equity, Access and Participation)

Teaching with Images: An AI Resource for Understanding Urban Animals
Project lead: Mark Meagher (Environmental Design)

Adapting an Open Textbook for First-Year Non-Major Microbiology Course
Project lead: Madison Wright (Microbiology)

Telling the Stories of Indigenous Business Leaders in Canada
Project lead: Katherine Davis (Asper School of Business)

Management: Financial, Social, and Ecological Well-Being
Project lead: Bruno Dyck (Asper School of Business)

Linguistics Textbook (participation in Rebus Textbook Success Program)
Project lead: Julie Doner (Linguistics)

Applications are still being accepted

We continue to accept proposals for UM OER grants, and applications will remain open while funds are available. Apply for UM OER grant and reviewing an open textbook now.

Funding and educational opportunities

UM Libraries received the Advance Open Ed 2023–2024 fund to enhance the use of OERs and advance the principles of open access. In addition to the UM OER grant, the fund supports open publishing projects, peer review of existing OERs, and educational opportunities for students and faculty, including a speaker series and support for participation in open education conferences.

UM OER speaker series session one was presented by Dr. Rajiv Jhangiani, Vice Provost Teaching & Learning, Brock University. Watch the video “From access to justice: Realizing the transformative potential of open educational practices”.

Explore Open@UM to learn more about open access and open scholarship at UM.