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Making space

Jamie Isfeld — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 18:26:40 +0000

A portable breast cancer detection device. Warming huts. 3D recreations of brain stems. These are only some of the creations born in maker spaces at the University of Manitoba.

Popping up on post-secondary campuses around the world, these physical spaces allow students to come together to explore new tools and technologies, learn from one another and experiment without fear of failure. Not only do the spaces provide the opportunity to foster innovation and creativity, but they also help build students’ confidence by instilling them with the skills they need to see an idea through to reality.

We’re taking a look at four of the maker spaces that call UM home.

Maker Space, Faculty of Science

Established in 2018, the Faculty of Science’s Maker Space offers a place where students can learn design and fabrication skills, serving a dual purpose with a pedagogical mission as well as allowing for research to take place at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

“It’s about getting people to try things and break down educational barriers,” says Jacob Burgess, assistant professor in the physics and astronomy department. “There is a whole subset of students who engage better if they have a way to create something that feels real. They design it from the ground up and bring that design into reality.”

Since its inception, the Maker Space has opened the doors for students to create high-end, research-grade equipment. The space launched with modest offerings that included a few small 3D printers. Now, the complex boasts 21 3D printers and other state-of-the-art equipment, including an all-metal laser-based 3D printer, CNC machines and injection moulder.

There is a whole subset of students who engage better if they have a way to create something that feels real. They design it from the ground up and bring that design into reality.

While the space is open to all science students, Burgess and his department collaborator, associate professor Wouter Deconinck, hope to attract groups from more departments and continue to collaborate with other maker spaces to help students develop transferable, practical skills that will serve them well in the future.

“Spaces like these add a different dimension to a student’s education. With lectures, there isn’t a whole lot of opportunity to take the knowledge you’ve learned and say, ‘How can I apply this in a unique way?’” he says. “The Maker Space offers the free-form capability to create something from the ground up that fits your vision. You come out with a different set of tools that expands how you apply that scientific knowledge.”

Centre for Architectural Structures and Technology, Faculty of Architecture

A one-of-a-kind interdisciplinary research laboratory in Canada, the Faculty of Architecture’s Centre for Architectural Structures and Technology (C.A.S.T.) provides students with access to technologies relevant to the design, construction and performance of a built environment.

“Students can apply their theory to the physical world, in terms of learning about things they never touched but are important to architecture, like the sequence of an assembly,” says Liane Veness, C.A.S.T. coordinator in the faculty. “Students find they’re more interested and engaged in carrying out a design at a 1:1 scale. Projects with C.A.S.T. inspire them and give them the knowledge and confidence they need as designers.”

The non-profit facility is equipped for work in varied fabrication materials and methods, including concrete casting, masonry, carpentry and earthworks. It offers design builds for students to build 1:1 proof-of-concept prototypes.

“It’s so important to have counterpoints to the digital world,” says Veness. “We host many hands-on workshops offering students the opportunity to work with materials and engage with the physical act of building. This is the place where students are encouraged to be messy and make ‘mistakes.’”

While most users come from the Faculty of Architecture, the space also hosts students from UM’s Price Faculty of Engineering and visitors from other universities, including researchers from around the world who use the space for their own research and offer workshops and lectures to students.

“It’s like a giant sandbox for researchers—you come to play. The way C.A.S.T. is set up, researchers find their work often takes unexpected deviations, inspired by the visible layers of the rich history of the place,” says Veness. “There’s something really infectious about the space and people feel it the moment they walk in.”

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photos by Lancelot Coa

FABLab, Faculty of Architecture

Another interdisciplinary facility in the Faculty of Architecture supports design research and provides students with the opportunity to explore digitally driven design, prototyping and manufacturing. It began not as a maker space in a formal capacity, but as a collection of tools dispersed through the faculty. Eventually, it concentrated its tools and research efforts under one roof, in what’s now known as the FABLab.

“It’s really a hybrid between access to knowledge and tooling students wouldn’t necessarily have access to,” says Jason Hare, FABLab coordinator and technologist. “The real benefit is instilling knowledge and assisting students and researchers in developing prototypes and materializing concepts. They can run the gamut from developing digital apps to prototyping one-off pieces they can bring to a manufacturer.”

It’s really a hybrid between access to knowledge and tooling students wouldn’t necessarily have access to.

One of its higher-profile creations was a detailed model of UM’s Fort Garry campus consisting of over 80 fully 3D-modelled buildings, a collaborative project that took FABLab and other university partners three years to complete.

Primarily used by architecture students, the space is also open to the greater university body. “Our university is so diverse in terms of all of the different faculties. It seems like there is always a need for materializing some ideas, be it proof-of-concept or prototype or even a sign the university needs.”

According to Hare, maintaining a strong relationship with the faculty’s Workshop has also been instrumental to furthering students’ innovation skills. “Analog and digital tools go hand-in-hand in any form, and allow us to collaborate in an interwoven way,” he says. “The tools seem to build on themselves through time. Often, we still need these tools of the past in the future.”

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The Workshop, Faculty of Architecture

A longstanding presence at UM, the Workshop has been tucked into the basement of the Russell building “for as long as people have been in there,” says Kellen Deighton, the Workshop’s coordinator/technician.

Capable of supporting the production of refined models and environmental product and furniture prototypes, the space offers students the chance to experiment with a wide range of tools and equipment for wood-working and plastic.

“I see the role of the Workshop to introduce students to the realities of putting something together—all of the little steps to the actual realization of the object. Even teaching someone how to use a drill is so essential,” says Deighton. “Students are starting with zero baseline knowledge that often leads to an understanding of and appreciation for fabrication, assembly and craft.”

Previously catering to model-making, there is now a push to develop a digital fabrication, which is why the Workshop is closely linked to the FABLab, both in terms of proximity and collaborative projects.

Many students, he continues, decide to take their architectural interest in a different direction and start a design-build company upon graduation. “It’s spaces like the Workshop where students can develop those skills, as they’re tangentially related. We’re conscious of the culture we’re building to make it an inviting space for all students.”

Touted as the future for work, industry and life in general, maker spaces are showing no signs of slowing down in terms of growth. With innumerable benefits to students and researchers, they will continue to inspire creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship—and infinite possibility.

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Equitable by design

Jamie Isfeld — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 15:30:48 +0000

Even if we are not consciously aware of it, we are all beneficiaries of universal design in our everyday lives.

When a pedestrian approaches an intersection, they’ll notice a curb cut as the sidewalk slopes down to meet the street. If the pedestrian has a mobility issue and uses a wheelchair, a cane or a walker, this simple design choice removes a barrier and helps make their journey easier. But if the pedestrian instead is pushing a stroller or, say, pulling a suitcase, the curb cut also benefits them and makes their journey easier as well, even if they don’t have a mobility issue. While it may make a bigger difference to some than to others, the curb cut is helpful to everyone. This is a universal design.

Developed in the late 1990s, the concept of “universal design” and its seven related principles is centered on creating and redesigning spaces to be accessible and equitable to all people.

“The idea is that if we provide spaces that are designed to be accessible for people with mobility issues, with visual impairment, auditory impairment or cognitive impairment, that we make them more accessible to everybody,” says educator, author and practicing architect Mimi Locher, Dean of Architecture at the University of Manitoba.

As instructors, administrators and staff at UM continue their ongoing work of building a more equitable, diverse and inclusive campus, there has been recognition that rethinking approaches to space and design are crucial to improving accessibility for all students. How can we create a more universally designed classroom that is inclusive to everyone? Where are the other areas where a “curb cut” is needed?

photo courtesy of Robert Mizzi

“They’ve taken that phrase and that concept and started to think about what that means in terms of the spaces that people learn in and what’s necessary for them,” says Locher. “Good access impacts everybody positively. It’s not just for those few people that we can see who have an issue or impairment, but it’s really for everybody whether we can see that they need accessibility or not.”

A passionate advocate of equitable design, Locher feels that more conversations with students and marginalized groups is crucial in bridging the gap and creating learning environments that are truly inclusive.

“Often the people who are doing the teaching have never experienced it themselves, and so we need to be careful to bring in people who have and who can speak to it from their own experience and share that,” says Locher. “It’s so valuable for the students.”

Robert Mizzi // photo courtesy of Robert Mizzi

Robert Mizzi is the Canada Research Chair in Queer, Community and Diversity Education and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education’s department of educational administration, foundations and psychology. His current research project explores the notion of spatial justice on campuses in Manitoba, rethinking how spaces can be designed to operationalize intersectionality better in our classrooms.

His two-year study, supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Development grant, focuses on student experiences on campus, and how the way in which spaces are designed impacts the way students of various identities or groups interact with that space. Using the campus map as an analytical tool, these diverse perspectives are being employed to inform a redesigned campus map that reflects these student realities.

“We’re prioritizing the students in this study,” says Mizzi. “It’s about what is being taught as people engage and interact with the space on campus. How does that affect their engagement from what they’re seeing and experiencing? How is that type of engagement changing their learning and social patterns on campus?”

photo courtesy of Robert Mizzi

While there have been many recent positive developments in this area at UM, such as the introduction of trans-inclusive showers at the Active Living Centre, the continued expansion of gender inclusive washrooms around campus, and increased engagement and support for Indigenous students and the expansion of Indigenous spaces like Migizii Agamik – Bald Eagle Lodge, there is still much more work to be done.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought many of the obstacles marginalized people face in their everyday lives to the conversational forefront, and the increased recognition of these challenges has inspired some positive developments in this area on campus, such as remote office hours, increased access to lecture recordings, and increased flexibility with remote learning.

“Moving forward, we really need to think about how we balance the in-person pieces that we feel really are imperative to the kind of education that we do, but also how do we make it more accessible,” says Locher.

“We need to learn what worked well and then try to build on that. We also know what maybe didn’t work as well. Now that we’re moving back to being in person, we could rebuild our in-person engagement and then reflect on what worked well with remote education and how we might be able to build that back in.”

Some professors are aiming to increase inclusive learning through equity walks, where students walk through their classroom or campus and create a map of the potential obstacles that they or others face in their learning environment.

While UM continues to make changes to increase accessibility for and inclusion of marginalized students on campus, Mizzi says there are many practical steps that instructors can take to increase inclusivity and equity in their classroom environments.

“What an instructor can do today is to do an equity walk of their physical classroom or virtual classroom and just look through areas where they think different students with different backgrounds would have a sensory, psychologically, physically, or cognitively different experience than perhaps another student,” recommends Mizzi.

“Whenever there is absenteeism or when there is struggling, students consider space as being a factor in those experiences,” says Mizzi, noting that another practical step would be to take an equity walk outside of the class, outside in the school buildings and just look at what is being posted on the walls and available nearby. “Where are the gender inclusive washrooms? What can people with disabilities access or not access? Where are certain racialized or social groups conjugating, and why those spaces and not others? Perhaps we should have equity walks all around campus and just learn from those who experience it the most–our students.”

Listen to Dr. Mizzi’s interview about inclusion on UM’s new podcast “What’s the Big Idea?”

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Difficult conversations in the classroom

Jamie Isfeld — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 15:30:45 +0000

From both the student and instructor perspective, one of the benefits of attending university is expanding your knowledge(s) and getting exposed to differing viewpoints. In the process, there may be the need to have some difficult—even uncomfortable—conversations in the classroom. Whether in controversial course materials or with micro-aggressive comments, instructors must act appropriately when having these conversations.

Heidi Marx

“Difficult conversations are going to happen; they are part of learning. But they do not need to inflict harm…”

“Difficult conversations come from difficult knowledges,” says Heidi Marx, professor in the religion department and associate dean of graduate studies, curriculum and internationalization in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Manitoba. “Knowledge could mean literature in the humanities, new historical accounts that complicate the standard narrative or studies that deal with social justice issues—essentially, issues that might potentially trouble and force students to revisit things they think they already know about the world, from stories they’ve been told, histories they’ve learned and where those intersect with their own identities.”

The first step in dealing with difficult conversations is setting the tone for the classroom.

“Difficult conversations are going to happen; they are part of learning,” says Jocelyn Thorpe, associate professor in women’s and gender studies and history at UM. “But they do not need to inflict harm, particularly on members of marginalized groups. One way to encourage positive learning through difficult conversations is to create a classroom environment that is mutually supportive and respectful.”

Marx agrees the best strategy for instructors is to start off by collaboratively developing a community for conversation, asking questions that lead to the creation of a code of conduct that is robust enough to cover diverse topics and potential conflicts.

“By co-creating the guidelines for conversation, students maintain ownership. I never cease to be surprised and delighted that students know exactly how they want to be treated themselves and can translate that into general principles for how we treat each other and can be in community together in the classroom,” says Marx. “If you start off with an agreement that you will carry on conversations in a certain way, when you get to the point in class where you anticipate the potential for misunderstanding and conflict, remind students of the code of conduct.”

Setting the tone early can help avoid a more significant level of conflict causing stress and other emotions for both instructors and students alike. “Instructors are often taken by surprise or even shocked if a student says something we’re not expecting. For students, [those incidents] can be traumatizing if they’re not dealt with on the spot, addressed and unpacked,” says Marx.

To that end, instructors should recognize and reflect on their own biases, avoid springing difficult topics on students without warning and remind themselves that not all students will feel the same about a particular topic. Finally, they should remind students there is a real difference between the intention behind a statement and the impact it might have.

When difficult conversations do arise, no matter the cause or topic, it’s critical that instructors acknowledge them and take the lead in addressing the situation.

Jocelyn Thorpe

“Shying away from a difficult conversation doesn’t help. If you let something pass by that is not acceptable, it sends a message to students that you think it is acceptable.”

“Shying away from a difficult conversation doesn’t help,” says Thorpe. “If you let something pass by that is not acceptable, it sends a message to students that you think it is acceptable. It is possible to address an idea and the racist or sexist assumptions behind that idea, for example, without attacking students. In those moments, you as an instructor can model for students the respect for them that you have articulated together at the outset of the course.”

If you don’t know what to say in the moment, that’s OK—but you need to follow up and revisit it in a timely manner, she continues.

“You may think that if you didn’t handle something well in the first place, you have lost the opportunity to address the situation. But you can always go back to something and say, ‘Last week in class, this conversation happened. I missed an opportunity to make it a learning moment. At the time, I felt uncomfortable and didn’t know what to say, but I’ve had time to read and reflect, and here are my thoughts now.’ That way, you not only address the topic, but you also show students that learning is ongoing and part of life, not something to hide or be embarrassed about.”

“If handled well, these conversations can be very fruitful moments for growth,” adds Marx. “It can be a very positive experience because instructors can model for students how to have difficult conversations in a productive way.”

By appropriately managing difficult conversations, instructors provide the opportunity for students to develop a skill set that will stay with them after they graduate—namely, how to listen to people with whom they do not agree, be fully present and hold a conversation around potentially controversial topics.

“If we can do that, we’re teaching the students a real-life skill that will lead to a better, less-polarizing society,” says Marx.

Moni Fricke

“They realize these are real-life situations and are grateful for the experience.”

The College of Rehabilitation Sciences in UM’s Rady Faculty of Health Sciences is playing a unique role in teaching students how to navigate difficult conversations. More than a decade ago, assistant professor Moni Fricke developed a practical lab where students learn how to have difficult conversations in clinical settings—not only in theory, but also in practice.

In addition to recorded lectures and readings, students run through various scenarios with trained actors and how to navigate them, followed by an extensive debriefing session. Scenarios include everything from a senior colleague making micro-aggressive racist comments to dealing with an angry patient who doesn’t want to be discharged.

“It often elicits an emotional response in the students even though they know it’s a simulation,” says Fricke, who is also director of the Office of Interprofessional Collaboration at UM. “But they realize these are real-life situations and are grateful for the experience.”

Thorpe notes many difficult conversations show what kind of world we live in, and understanding how the world works, including how injustice happens, is an important tool for creating a better world. Part of working toward a world where everyone matters is having those conversations.

“All true learning is difficult because it challenges what you think you know and forces you to grow,” she says. “To me, that’s the point of education and where hope lies. Learning creates change.”

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Creating lasting change

Jamie Isfeld — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 15:30:39 +0000

Meaningful action around equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) topics can take many forms, and UM faculties and departments are initiating a wide range of strategies to create lasting change.

In the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management (FKRM), one aspect of EDI is making people feel welcome in physical spaces–and also creating space for new ways of delivering curriculum.

Physical changes in the faculty include a stunning new mural in the Active Living Centre by Anishinaabe-Oyate artist and alum Kristin Flattery—Ozhaawashkwaa Mashkode-Bizhiki (Blue Buffalo Womyn) [BFA(Hons)/17, BEd/20]. Flattery’s vision inspires healthy living for everybody and helps Indigenous students see themselves reflected in the space. “It also shows respect for the land on which our campus is situated,” says Dr. Cheryl Glazebrook, a professor in FKRM who chairs FKRM’s EDI committee.

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Another FKRM enhancement is the addition of a community change room in the Frank Kennedy Centre, which welcomes adults and children of all genders. “We want everyone to feel they have a space they feel comfortable in when participating in our programs,” says Glazebrook. “It’s a retrofitted space with private rooms to change and shower. The public shower is for rinsing before and after swimming, and the expectation is that people remain dressed in the public spaces.”

The change room is a good first step, says Glazebrook. “There are other long-term enhancements we envision that would make our spaces more inclusive and welcoming for everyone.” Multiple stakeholders inside and outside of the university are being consulted about the use of and long-term updates to the spaces.

To facilitate changes in curriculum, FKRM is taking two approaches: create change within existing models, and also consider how models themselves might change to be more equitable, diverse and inclusive.

An example of the first approach is the weaving of EDI-related content into the first-year course, KPER 1200 – Physical Activity, Health and Wellness. “In some offerings of this mandatory course, half of the course is now dedicated to learning about Indigenous histories and health,” says Glazebrook. “We look to purposely integrate this content to signal that these topics are part of the fabric of what we do.” The course is also a popular choice for students outside FKRM, so the impact can be far-reaching.

A successful new curriculum model is SPARC–the Sport, Physical Activity and Recreation in the Community Certificate. Developed for Indigenous peoples in rural and Northern Manitoba, it gives students the skills to program physical education and recreation in their communities. SPARC is a partnership with the Manitoba First Nations Education Centre (MFNERC) to provide barrier-free learning, in part by reducing the time away from home. The program provides cultural, community and academic support, which can help students who have traditionally faced barriers to educational success.

Creating lasting change around EDI can also begin by taking on challenging topics in a group setting as a starting point to change curriculum delivery and content. To this end, the Desautels Faculty of Music and the Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL) are both moving ahead with thought-provoking initiatives for faculty and staff.

‘People are hungry to have these important conversations.’

In the Desautels Faculty of Music, an EDI committee has been meeting monthly since 2019 to consider EDI from a variety of perspectives. From the start, the challenging issues were what members wanted to discuss, says Laura Loewen, the committee chair and Associate Dean, Undergraduate Programs, Desautels Faculty of Music. “People are hungry to have these important conversations,” explains Loewen.

Shortly after the committee’s inception, participants discussed a powerful 2021 article by Stó:lō/Skwah artist, writer and musician Dylan Robinson. Entitled “To all who should be concerned,” the piece outlines the changes that he believes music programs must implement to move toward decolonizing music education.

The piece had a profound effect on committee members. In it, Robinson calls for an end to music curriculums that focus solely on Western art music and the traditional requirements that come with them–regarding admissions, historical knowledge, core skills and performance, for example.

“It underlined that we are just at the very beginning of thinking about EDI in a meaningful way,” says Loewen. “We teach mainly Western art music and jazz. Throughout Desautels, many faculty members are working with Indigenous musicians and expanding the bounds of what we are studying and performing in our classes and research, but there is a lot more that we can do to understand things through an EDI lens. The EDI committee will help us to do this kind of work throughout the Faculty,” she says.

Also taking place under the committee’s direction is a series of four retreats made possible by a grant from UM’s Faculty Development Initiatives Fund. These sessions, facilitated by guest scholars, are open to anyone in the faculty looking to expand their thinking around EDI and include new concepts in their work.

In the first session this May, participants learned from Marion Newman, co-founder of Amplified Opera, an opera company that challenges traditional repertoire and promotes a more collaborative method–including a daily sharing circle–to take an opera from rehearsal to stage.

“She really challenged us and was very inspiring,” says Laura. “That session took place at the end of the school year, so I am interested in seeing how her ideas might be applied by instructors this term.”

Upcoming retreats include one in January with Cary Miller, UM’s Associate Vice-President (Indigenous) Scholarship, Research and Curriculum, and professor in the Department of Indigenous Studies. A third retreat will feature Zilla Jones, who is an African-Canadian lawyer, anti-racist educator, mother, singer and writer.

It makes sense that EDI conversations are also well underway at the Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, which provides leadership and expertise for teaching and learning for UM faculty, staff and graduate students in many areas, including EDI and Indigenous initiatives.

A collective called “Sun Rope” began in September 2021 and has evolved into a space where colleagues discuss wide-ranging topics around EDI, anti-racism, and more, including what EDI means in relation to decolonization, Indigenization and Reconciliation. The collective has discussed, among other things, land acknowledgments, identity and positionality, microaggression and racism, violence and safety in teaching and learning environments, and gender inclusivity.

‘We can talk across our differences and find the points where we can support one another.’

“We can talk across our differences and find the points where we can support one another,” says Robin Attas, Educational Developer at CATL. She and Indigenous Initiatives Educators Leah Fontaine and Jeri Ducharme co-founded the group in response to keen interest from staff.

“We decided that if we are going to be teaching faculty and staff about these things, we should be learning about them together and modeling them in our own work–to inform the way we facilitate sessions, design courses or consult with faculty. We can learn alongside one another, so we are all on the same page,” says Jeri.

Inspired by a Cree term, “’Sun Rope’ represents a rainbow that acts as a bridge provided by the sun,” explains Leah. For this group, it also represents the connection that exists among EDI topics as well as the relationships that educators build to support students and each other.

To continue to ensure a range of perspectives, other staff are now being asked to facilitate sessions with the core group’s help. The result? Now almost all sessions are led by their CATL colleagues. “Everybody learns from each other,” says Leah.

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Learning from the stars, and our backyards

Jamie Isfeld — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 15:30:28 +0000

If the sky is clear on a class night, there’s a good chance you’ll find Danielle Pahud and her first-year astronomy students at the Glenlea Astronomical Observatory (GAO), about 20 km south of the Fort Garry campus. As her students figure out how to operate telescopes, make celestial observations and collect data, they’re also gaining some valuable lessons about life.

Photo by Kira Coop

“My students learn how to identify what they need to achieve their objectives, and to assess and take advantage of the tools at their disposal,” explains Pahud, an instructor in the department of physics and astronomy.

“I encourage my students to start with a goal in mind and, for this course, that involves choosing a scientific question to answer. We then take the time to learn about what observations we need to answer that question, and plan an approach and schedule to attain that goal.”

Experiential learning is often associated with co-ops and work placements, with a focus on making students “job-ready.” But, as Pahud demonstrates, experiential learning is more than career preparation. It is life preparation.

The Glenlea Astronomical Observatory. // photo courtesy of Danielle Pahud

“Things don’t always go as planned–between the weather and quirks with the equipment,” Pahud adds. “So, troubleshooting, creative problem-solving and even re-evaluating goals are part of the course, all of which translates into useful life skills. Plus, they’re often working as a group, so it gives them some real experience working collaboratively with peers.”

A piece of astronomy equipment aimed at the night sky.

At its core, experiential learning is when students learn by doing, and then reflect back to make meaning from what they just learned. Students put into practice their course content, finding ways to apply theoretical concepts in the real world and deepening their learning along the way.

Experiential learning teaches students a variety of life competencies that support them to become more adaptable and resilient in a changing world. It helps students to advance their personal growth and build professional and community connections. This year, as many students are returning to in-person learning, experiential learning also enables students to make new friends and explore new spaces.

The University of Manitoba has a long history of using experiential learning as a pedagogical tool. It views the learning environment as seamless, spanning both formal and informal learning spaces. It supports a broad definition of experiential learning that includes both curricular and co-curricular experiences.

UM also recognizes that experiential learning integrates principles drawn from Indigenous pedagogies, and is inextricably linked to Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing.

A still image from a video of Brian Rice and students launching a canoe.

Brian Rice is a member of the Mohawk Nation and a professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management. He is a land-based educator who has visited Indigenous peoples in many places in the world, and works to integrate experiential learning into his undergraduate and graduate courses.

“Instead of being stuck in classrooms for hours, I wanted my students to experience the actual places where Indigenous history and culture happens.”

“I’d been teaching Indigenous issues for about 26 years when I realized I wanted to approach things differently,” says Rice. “Instead of being stuck in classrooms for hours, I wanted my students to experience the actual places where Indigenous history and culture happens.”

Among other things, Rice has taken students canoeing along the Red River so that they could experience what voyageurs and Indigenous Peoples had been doing for centuries. He’s received permission from an Elder to conduct a sweat lodge for his students and has built snow shelters with them on the university’s agricultural land. Rice has organized overnight camping trips, waking students up at 5:30 am so they can experience the sunrise firsthand and discuss the Indigenous history surrounding them.

The Assiniboia Residential School, as seen in modern day. // photo courtesy of Brian Rice

“We touch on many aspects of pre-colonial and post-colonial history,” Rice explains. “For example, we can go to the places where Métis were forced out of their homes or to the Assiniboia Residential School, which is still there. We can walk down Wellington Crescent, where there are sites that are more than 3,000 years old, and imagine the Indigenous people who lived there and what might have been important to them.”

Rice is especially fond of taking his students for long walks, going as far as 12 kilometers at a time. His passion for walking is not surprising, as he completed a 1,000-kilometre walk from Tyendinaga near Belleville, Ontario to Rochester, New York as part of his doctoral dissertation. His trek followed the Journey of the Peacemaker, which united the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca people into the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

“You don’t have to go 300 miles out into the wilderness to do experiential, land-based learning.”

Ideally, Rice likes to take his students to sites through wooded and natural settings, so they get to experience and learn about nature. “You don’t have to go 300 miles out into the wilderness to do experiential, land-based learning,” he says. “There are wonderful natural settings right here in the city and, because of the rivers, we have a lot of beautiful trails. In the winter, we can even snowshoe up Buffalo Hill at FortWhyte Alive to see the bison herd.”

A metal wayfinding plaque installed on UM's Fort Garry campus to point in the four cardinal directions. // photo courtesy of Brian Rice

Rice believes that one of the core benefits of experiential learning is that it encourages young people to be physically active and healthy. He’s also keen to leverage students’ own creativity and motivation to help them succeed.

According to Rice, “I’d have students who lacked confidence about teaching Indigenous issues and didn’t know where to get relevant information on the assigned topics. When I suggested they could do something artistic, such as a poem or song, their resistance evaporated and they found a way to excavate what they needed to know.”

Students building a snow shelter in heavy parkas. // photo courtesy of Brian Rice.

As a leader in experiential learning, UM encourages all faculty to leverage it as a pedagogical tool. The university has recently outlined six criteria and 12 types of experiential learning as a resource for faculty and staff. You can find the complete list of types of experiential learning on our website.

UM is also committed to providing students with access to more and different types of experiential learning opportunities across all programs. It recently launched UMConnect, the home for both curricular and co-curricular experiential learning, job postings and a number of faculty co-op programs.

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Rethinking UM’s approach to experiential learning

Jamie Isfeld — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 20:20:53 +0000

Whether it’s Lucina, the computerized, realistically reacting labour and delivery mannequin used by the College of Nursing, or statistics students grasping randomization by popping dozens of bags of microwave popcorn, experiential learning (EL) plays a key pedagogical role at the University of Manitoba.

At its core, experiential learning is a pedagogical practice that engages students in learning by doing, and then reflecting critically on their experiences to make meaning of them. Experiential learning provides students with a deep engagement with theory through relevant hands-on activities or immersion in a complex learning environment. It can occur during internships, while students are wrestling with a challenging case study, and throughout a student’s co-op work term, for example.

While experiential learning opportunities have long existed at UM, the university is now identifying even more ways to give learners access to a variety of rich, life-preparing and practical EL experiences inside and out of the classroom, positioning students for success in a changing world.

The university recently made experiential learning a core priority in its interim Strategic Plan (pdf). In response, the Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL) and Student Affairs have partnered to help expand EL opportunities, reduce barriers to participation, and develop processes for measuring impact and recognizing student success. This collaboration is motivated by a common purpose – to benefit all learners through the development and expansion of intentionally designed curricular and co-curricular experiential learning opportunities.

CATL’s recently launched Office of Experiential Learning supports faculty and instructors to enhance and expand EL in their courses and programs. Meanwhile, a new unit within Student Affairs, the Career, Community and Experiential Learning Centre, will promote the benefits of EL to students, support students in matching EL opportunities to competency and career development needs, and cultivate partnerships with community, employers, and industry.

“In order for us to advance experiential learning at UM, it was imperative that we arrive at a common definition, determine the types of EL that are already being offered across the institution, identify any gaps that faculties would like to fill, and develop an infrastructure to support this important work going forward,” explains Laurie Schnarr, vice-provost (students).

This is why UM has implemented a university-wide system, named UM Connect, which will host a catalogue of experiential learning opportunities that is integrated with our student information system. UM Connect will track curricular and co-curricular engagement, generate reports, and produce an official experiential record. Students will be able to use UM Connect to keep track of and share their EL experiences, reflect on their growth, and pick courses and programs that are aligned with their interests and goals.

“We see EL as an opportunity for students to deepen their learning through hands-on activities that can take place in a variety of settings,” says Brandy Usick, executive director, Student Engagement and Success.

“We see EL as an opportunity for students to deepen their learning through hands-on activities that can take place in a variety of settings.”

Some EL opportunities are informed by a social justice approach and attract students who want to make a difference in their local communities or beyond. Commitments to collaborative and reciprocal relationships and outcomes may take the shape of a Community Engaged Learning program or an Applied Research project co-supervised by a faculty member and community partner.

“Experiential learning is alive and well at the University of Manitoba,” says Schnarr. “Now we want to showcase all of this good work in our catalogue and help students to be intentional in choosing opportunities that support their academic goals. By the time they graduate, it is our hope that all students will have engaged in experiential learning at least once, whether inside or outside formal learning spaces.”

UM Connect will also serve as an invaluable tool for faculty and EL facilitators who are working with students, and for CATL and Student Affairs staff who will gain new insights from the data generated by its reports. The Office of Experiential Learning within CATL can support instructors who already offer EL and are keen to do more, as well as those who are integrating experiential learning and would like to explore curriculum options and approaches.

“Experiential learning is something each faculty has and has done well, but often using a wide variety of terms and approaches which can make it challenging to share practices,” says Rebecca Brooks, faculty specialist: experiential learning in CATL’s Office of Experiential Learning. “Bringing together diverse curricular and co-curricular EL into the UM Connect system and starting to use common language will help us find more opportunities to collaborate, share insights, and deepen the impact of EL for all students at UM.”

UM statistics instructor Jenna Tichon has been using EL with her classes since 2020 and finds a tricky concept like randomization sticks better when students do a hands-on project. It’s even more effective when learners pick the subject matter, as they do in a STAT 2300 class sampling project.

“When students get to say this is what I’m really interested in, let’s see how this applies to me, that’s what really drives home the learning,” says Tichon, who attended an April EL CATL workshop where instructors shared what they were doing with EL and their students. “Authentic assessment—this is something that rings true to them and something that brings the course alive for a student,” she says.

EL has been part of teaching and learning for Nicole Harder, associate professor and associate dean undergraduate programs, College of Nursing, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, for more than 20 years. She’s also the Mindermar Professor in Human Simulation, working with increasingly sophisticated stand-ins for real patients as a teaching tool. AR/VR technology will be the next step. Lucina can be programed for a variety of problematic births, teaching coping skills in stressful situations. “Our students can go through experiencing a dozen simulated births before they go out there in clinical practice,” she says.

EL allows students to gain insight into their field of study or to explore areas of interest outside of their academic program. In the process, students have meaningful experiences and develop or strengthen competencies that will serve them well in their careers and in life. EL provides opportunities for students to expand their networks, make connections and add valuable experiences to their resumé.

Reflection, among the Indigenous teaching principles that EL draws from, challenges students to consider diverse perspectives as part of understanding an experience, and these reflections can be shared in many ways, from written journals, to class discussions, to videos.

Experiential learning is very personal, observes Brooks. “Meaningful learning happens when you reflect on your direct experiences and how they influenced what you did, thought, and felt,” Brooks says. “Living in a situation or living through a situation and then having the time and space to make connections about what it means for your personal and academic development.”

“That’s where the real learning occurs,” says Harder of the 20-minutes of guided reflection that takes place after each birth exercise. “Now we’re making sense of what just happened.”

Brooks points out that students bring so many experiences into their classrooms already, instructors can start with an experiential approach from day one, “A good way to start is to have students recall and reflect on past experiences related to the course outcomes or topics, and how that might influence them in upcoming experiences.” Students will have the chance to be more connected to the material right away, and often surprise themselves and each other with what they already bring to the course.

“I think great experiential learning looks like positive transformation.”

At its best, EL looks like students taking ownership and creating many possible futures for themselves from what they’re learning, Brooks says, whether that’s confirming that a particular field is right for them or realizing something new about themselves and their passions.

“I think great experiential learning looks like positive transformation,” says Brooks.

To learn more, visit the Office of Experiential Learning.

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Land as teacher

Jamie Isfeld — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 01:18:13 +0000

When you ask Nicki Ferland, community engaged learning coordinator (Indigenous), about land-based education, she’ll tell you what it is—and is not.

“Land-based education is about learning on, about and from the land,” explains Ferland. “It is about seeing the land as our teacher, putting our relationships with the land and each other at the centre of learning, and recognizing that everyone has something to offer.

“While it is inherently Indigenous, land-based learning should not be pan-Indigenous,” Ferland adds. “Too often we see people blending teachings and symbols from Anishinaabe, Cree and Métis paradigms. The Anishinaabe Seven Sacred Teachings are an example. Other nations have their own stories and teachings that are going to be relevant to their place and environment.”

“Land-based education is about learning on, about and from the land. It is about seeing the land as our teacher, putting our relationships with the land and each other at the centre of learning, and recognizing that everyone has something to offer.”

Ferland is a Two-Spirit Red River Métis with deep roots in Manitoba’s Lorette and Winnipeg’s St. Vital communities. She has a background in human and Indigenous rights, and just completed her Master of Education in Indigenous land-based education at the University of Saskatchewan.

Ferland leads workshops for UM educators on how to incorporate land-based learning into their courses—each one co-facilitated by Indigenous staff advisors. “My way of knowing is Métis,” Ferland explains. “I couldn’t possibly teach the knowledge system of a community I don’t belong to. So I work with Anishinaabe, Dakota or Cree Elders and Knowledge Holders to bring in their own teachings.”

Students learning on and from the land at Bannock Point with Elder Diane Maytwayashing in 2019

Most of the faculty and staff taking Ferland’s workshops are non-Indigenous, with little background in land-based education. Jillian Seniuk Cicek, assistant professor in the Centre for Engineering Professional Practice and Engineering Education, is one of them. She teaches technical communication to engineering students.

“When I joined UM’s faculty in 2018, I was thinking about how Indigenous Peoples and their worldviews were present, or not, in our academic spaces,” she explains. “Fast forward a couple of years and I was involved in several projects incorporating Indigenous Knowledges into engineering courses, supported by the UM Indigenous Initiatives Fund. But I still didn’t really understand what land-based learning was.”

So when Seniuk Cicek heard that Ferland was offering a land-based learning workshop in December 2021, she jumped at the chance. The two-hour online workshop was an introduction to land-based learning for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators, exploring ways to integrate it into the classroom.

Sharing teachings on the land with Elders Charlotte Nolin and Barbara Bruce (Two-Spirit Sundance Grounds)

For Seniuk Cicek, “The most important thing I learned [from the workshop] was that land-based learning is different from outdoor or environmental education. It is about the land as teacher — a fundamentally Indigenous pedagogy that’s tied to an Indigenous worldview, conducted in partnership with Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Holders.”

“…Land-based learning is different from outdoor or environmental education. It is about the land as teacher — a fundamentally Indigenous pedagogy that’s tied to an Indigenous worldview, conducted in partnership with Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Holders.”

Seniuk Cicek is still working on how to integrate land-based learning into her curriculum. She is especially inspired by her colleague Randy Herrmann’s teaching of the construction of the teepee. “The teepee is a design marvel,” explains Seniuk Cicek. “Indigenous people were engineers, long before the colonial model of engineering came along. Teepees need to be constructed with an Elder, who provides guidance throughout its construction.”

Ferland’s next land-based learning workshop takes place this summer—in-person and on the land. It will be co-facilitated by Leah Fontaine, who is Dakota/Anishinaabe/Métis and Jeri Ducharme, who is Métis. Both work as Indigenous initiatives educators in the Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, helping graduate students and faculty incorporate Indigenous content and pedagogies into their curriculum.

They’re taking a group of staff and faculty to UM’s Fort Garry campus to talk about its Indigenous history. Instructors can then take this knowledge and share it with their students, which Ferland says is important for building respectful relationships. “There used to be Red River Métis homes, farms and significant sites here,” she explains. “Where did those people go? How did this become a university campus?”

Archive photo of students taking part in a smudging ceremony (Lower Fort Garry)

Ferland is particularly interested in urban land-based learning, which makes her workshops particularly relevant to UM students, faculty and staff.

“Winnipeg was built on existing Indigenous communities, so this is a perfect place for urban land-based education. We can talk about what it means to live on the land today—to live in the city and go into the bush. We can address the myth that the city is not Indigenous land, and the fallacy that urban Indigenous peoples are less than their rural counterparts.”

Ferland also runs an eight-month land-based course called Land and Water: Land-based Education for UM students, prioritizing those who are Indigenous. They spend time with Elders and Knowledge Holders, engage in ceremonies, and learn about Indigenous peoples’ enduring relationships with the land. Indigenous youth aged 18–35 who are not enrolled at UM are also encouraged to apply.

Dan Henhawk is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management. He comes from the Six Nations of the Grand River and is Mohawk. His work focuses on colonialism’s impact on sport and recreation in Indigenous contexts. His interest in land-based education coincides with his own reconnections to his culture.

“In 2020, I was honoured to speak to the participants of the Land and Water program,” says Henhawk. “It was such a great experience to get to know students outside of the formal class-room setting. I was able to gain valuable insight from the students about their understanding of land-based education, and address their questions and concerns about land-based learning and Indigenous knowledge.”

Exploring the fossil record in the Tyndall stone at The Forks

Land-based learning means engaging with Indigenous people and communities. Fortunately, Ferland and her colleagues Anny Chen and Gerardo Villagrán have developed a framework to support university-Indigenous community partnerships called Working in Good Ways.

“We realized that we weren’t always doing the best job,” explains Ferland. “Even those of us with lots of experience with Indigenous community engagement can cause harm. We knew there were better ways of working, communicating and relating with Indigenous community partners.”

Over a three-year period, Ferland’s team consulted with nearly 100 partners, practitioners and students, the majority of whom are Indigenous. They organized what they learned into seven principles for community engagement. They then offered a series of workshops on the Working in Good Ways framework, many of which Seniuk Cicek also attended and, with the help of Ferland, incorporated into the Decolonizing and Indigenizing Engineering course.

According to Seniuk Cicek, “I am deeply grateful to have Indigenous colleagues like Nicki Ferland, Leah Fontaine, Jeri Ducharme and Randy Herrmann, who are experts in their fields. They are so supportive, generous and gentle, and willing to learn and teach from their own experiences. I know that I need to do this work in a way that is authentic, respectful and reciprocal—and, above all, for the right reasons and with a good heart. Nicki, Leah, Jeri and Randy have taught me that.”

Learn more about how to make land-based learning a part of your courses. The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning is offering a workshop titled Exploring Indigenous Experiential Place-Based Learning Opportunities in Winnipeg, facilitated by Leah Fontaine, M.A. (Indigenous initiatives educator), Jeri Ducharme (Indigenous initiatives educator), and Nicki Ferland, M.Ed. (community engaged learning coordinator, Indigenous). In this workshop, you will learn how to create experiential place-based learning opportunities for students, how to work on a lesson plan for your own course, and more. Register for teaching workshops at the Centre for Advancement of Teaching and Learning.

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Creating an inclusive syllabus

Jamie Isfeld — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 15:17:01 +0000

Often compared to a course contract between instructors and students, syllabi are necessary classroom tools. They set out expectations for teacher and student, providing learners with key information about reading lists, course calendars, assignments, exams and deadlines.

But they can be much more.

At the University of Manitoba, syllabi are increasingly meeting students where they live by bringing equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) to these introduction-to-the-course documents. Teachers are including flexibility around assignments, as well as opportunities for student reflection and input.

“A theme that emerges time and again at teaching and learning centres is that instructors really set the tone for inclusion in their course through the syllabus,” says Robin Attas, educational developer, equity, diversity, inclusion (EDI) in the Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL).

Inclusion is not created via a checklist but there are common elements instructors can flag during the process of creating syllabi, says Attas. For example, is there diversity among the authors on a reading list? Is there a land acknowledgment in the document and is this statement deepened through additional course design and implementation elements? Does the syllabus focus on the instructor making the rules, or does it invite students to be part of the conversation?

Being open to student contributions around issues like what grade weight is given to assignments, inviting them to choose some of the course content, or showing flexibility around deadlines to acknowledge pressures and responsibilities outside the classroom demonstrates the instructor cares about them and wants to meet their needs as individuals.

Attas says inclusive syllabi help students feel like they matter and that can have positive effects on learner outcomes. Research shows students who feel they matter as individuals have better rates of retention.

To help UM faculty create more inclusive syllabi, Attas and her CATL colleagues are facilitating a workshop on developing an inclusive syllabus on Aug. 17. Participants will meet in small groups to get input on one of their syllabi-in-progress “with a focus on inclusive, anti-racist and decolonial principles that are beyond-compliant with UM’s Responsibilities of Academic Staff with Regard to Students (ROASS) requirements.”

CATL also has a project in the works, planned to launch in August, to create a new web resource for instructors to aid in creating inclusive syllabi. Their website also has a wide range of information on EDI strategies, resources and readings.

Some UM instructors have been writing inclusive syllabi for years.

Rebecca Simpson-Litke, assistant professor, music theory at the Desautels Faculty of Music has been creating inclusive syllabi since she was in grad school.

“These are practices that I’ve adopted for many years,” she says. “I’m thinking more and more, as we all are, who is in our classroom?”

“I’m thinking more and more, as we all are, who is in our classroom?”

Simpson-Litke is interested in getting people from all backgrounds into music study, as opposed to what she calls the select and privileged few. An inclusive syllabus can play a role in making students feel they belong in the class, she says.

In the syllabus for her first-year required course in music theory, Simpson-Litke lets her students know that all repertoire is worthy of study and that she encourages and values their suggestions.

“I put that on the first page of the syllabus. I’m excited about the music you’re excited about,” she says.

She also makes it clear she’s flexible about assignments and workload.

“I always have a clause that says if this is difficult for you, talk to me, please,” says Simpson-Litke. “I’ve never felt that students have taken advantage of that in a way that’s inappropriate.”

Simpson-Litke understands why a strict syllabus can appeal to new teachers. It creates boundaries between student and professor and establishes authority.

“It’s okay to show that you care about the students,” she points out. “That doesn’t mean that you’re not strict, that you don’t have high standards.”

“It’s okay to show that you care about the students. That doesn’t mean that you’re not strict, that you don’t have high standards.”

Randy Herrmann is director of the Engineering Access Program (ENGAP) at the Price Faculty of Engineering, which assists Indigenous students succeed in Engineering. He says since he trained as an engineer, not a teacher, he never learned the academic method of writing syllabi. His starting point is what do his students need to know?

For his preparatory physics 1 and preparatory physics 2 non-credit upgrading classes for ENGAP students, his syllabi are sprinkled with humour to explain expectations and deadlines. A cartoon Einstein points to important information. A “this is super-duper important” sticker flags the study topics list.

He also goes over the syllabus with students, having them take turns reading sections aloud and asking them how they’re interpreting each passage.

In January, Herrmann began teaching a new class with assistant professor Jillian Seniuk Cicek offered to all Price Faculty of Engineering students — Decolonizing and Indigenizing Engineering. It’s the first of its kind in Canada.

The course syllabus, prepared by Seniuk Cicek, has an inspiring and welcoming tone and was introduced to students in the first class in a colourful slideshow format. It begins with a land acknowledgement and encourages discussion and reflection, as well as including information on supports for learners.

The syllabus lets students know they are required to hand in a weekly critical reflection on what they experienced and learned in class. Herrmann and Seniuk Cicek put no restrictions on how students submitted the weekly assignment to encourage student choice and to respect Indigenous pedagogies and ways of knowing and sharing knowledges. Students could choose to submit a written response or an audio/visual recording of their critical reflection, or any other medium, making room for multi-model forms of expression and knowledges. “If you want to do it in interpretive dance, that’s okay,” Herrmann told them.

A less-rigid approach to syllabi is the goal, Herrmann says, as it also supports engineering practice.

After all, Herrmann says, whether in creating a syllabus or in the real world of engineering design, flexibility pays off.

For more information on inclusive syllabi, including web resources, workshops or individual consultation, visit the Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning’s website, or email thecentrecontactus@umanitoba.ca.

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Experiential learning made easy

Jamie Isfeld — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 15:12:19 +0000

If you were to look in on Alexa Hryniuk’s anatomy class for first-year medical students, you might be surprised by what you saw – people playing with plasticine.

“I know this sounds like something you would do in grade school,” says Hryniuk. “But once students build their own anatomical model, the light bulb goes off. It lets them take a difficult, hidden part of the human body and really understand it. Students can see how tight the spaces are between organs or how clinical issues can arise.”

Alexa Hryniuk is an assistant professor in human anatomy and cell science. She teaches anatomy and embryology to a wide range of health care providers, including midwives, physician assistants and medical students.

And when it comes to teaching, she knows what she’s doing. Hryniuk has been nominated twice for teaching awards by the Manitoba Medical Students’ Association and has been researching medical education since graduating with her PhD in 2015.

Much of her success has been a result of integrating experiential learning, whereby students “learn by doing” and reflect on the experience. This approach supplements more traditional ways of teaching anatomy, using lectures, diagrams or cadaver dissections.

Micah Grubert Van Iderstine is a first-year medical student who was part of Hryniuk’s anatomy class using plasticine to study women’s reproductive health.

“Building the female pelvic region by hand really helped me to visualize it,” explains Van Iderstine. “In our traditional cadaver-based learning, we’d just see two ends of something sticking out from behind other structures and have to imagine its complete structure. I also thought it was a fun team-building activity, as we were all asked our opinions on where we thought certain pieces should be placed and the process encouraged us to question our own ideas.”

Hryniuk emphasizes the importance of developing activities appropriate for the student’s level of understanding. “You need to tailor the experiential learning model to the group you’re teaching. You don’t want to overload them,” she explains.

When teaching radiology to her first-year medical students, Hryniuk gets them to try an ultrasound machine for the first time. Or, she’ll have them look at a couple of really simple radiology images and try to identify the injury or disease.

“For first-year students, I’m trying to get them to look at clinical scenarios from different angles — just like detectives,” says Hryniuk. “This helps them become really good critical thinkers, which is what we want.”

When teaching diagnostic imaging and anatomy to her fourth-year medical students, she uses a more sophisticated experiential learning approach. For example, students might perform an ultrasound on their own shoulder and, if they see something like a ligament tear, they might go on to describe where to put the transducer to get the best visualization of the anatomical structures.

Hryniuk also shows these students various patient radiology images to see if they can describe the injury or disease, such as a bone fracture or a lump indicative of cancer. She’ll ask the students if they can describe what’s happening in anatomical terms, as well as what the patient is presenting with and what then needs to happen for treatment.

“This way, students are more prepared to serve their patients,” explains Dr. Hryniuk. “And they love this approach — they want more of it. They’re really keen to use the technology and relate it back to their patients.”

“…Students are more prepared to serve their patients, and they love this approach — they want more of it.”

Catherine Robbins, professor in choral studies and music education, also teaches anatomy. But for her, it is a tool to help her students improve how they teach and perform music.

“How we make sound is incredibly complex,” explains Robbins. “So an understanding of the underlying mechanisms is key to learning to teach and developing exercises for the voice. Students need to understand the physiology themselves and not just copy what someone else says.

“From the beginning of a course, I get out the skeletons so students can get a sense of who they are in their body. They explore the size, weight, and function of different body parts and joints, and figure out the best way to develop a dynamic posture and alignment.”

This focus on how the body functions provides the foundation for Robbins’s classes, which have experiential learning at their core. It is this approach that has won her rave reviews from her students, as well as a Merit Award in Teaching from the University of Manitoba in 2016.

For example, in Robbins’s choral conducting class, she divides the classroom into small groups, with each member taking a turn “conducting” the others. In this way, students give and receive feedback about their gestures, the movement of their joints, the quality of their stance or whether they’re breathing with the cues.

According to Robbins, “The challenge of teaching conducting is that they can’t actually practice with an ensemble until they begin their careers. Often, teachers will simply model the movement and ask them to copy it. Instead, I try to give students as much podium time in front of others who respond to them even if it is only one other person. The hope is that by the end of the course, they’ve better prepared themselves to stand in front of an ensemble.”

Robbins’s recommendation to professors in any field is to integrate experiential learning into the classroom immediately. She also believes that the reflection aspect of experiential learning needs to be well thought out and meaningful. Robbins will often get her students to record a video of themselves, review it, record their own feedback, and then discuss a short personal lesson with Robbins regarding how they can improve.

“It’s not enough to simply ask students to write down their reflection, it must be specific and meaningful,” says Robbins. “Once they leave the university, they’re going to need to consistently reflect on what they’re doing to work at their vocal teaching and conducting. I believe meaningful reflection builds the foundation for lifelong learning.”

“I believe meaningful reflection builds the foundation for lifelong learning.”

Hryniuk also offers some sage advice about bringing experiential learning into the classroom. “It doesn’t have to be complicated,” she says. “When I was teaching muscle groups, I had them use their muscles to move around the room or throw something. And don’t be afraid to fail. If something doesn’t work, ask your students for feedback. They’re very perceptive. They’ll let you know what went wrong.”

Bringing experiential learning into the classroom can be as simple as finding a more hands on way to approach a lesson. Two Faculty of Arts professors, Dr. Sarah Elvins and Dr. Vanessa Warne, found a unique way to approach the topic of domestic work in their joint History-English course. Instead of simply reading about it, they had the students actually do nine hands-on projects in domestic work, including butter churning, rag-rug making, embroidery, and cooking Victorian recipes. Students then critically reflect on how their knowledge of the physical work involved in these projects contributes to their understanding of the topics they are studying in their class and through readings.

The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning is offering a workshop titled: Who’s that in the mirror? Turn Experience into Learning through Critical Reflection on August 23 at 1:00pm. Sign up for the workshop and stay tuned for future options, including a workshop titled Getting Started with Experiential Learning.

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Near, though far

Jamie Isfeld — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 21:55:17 +0000

University of Manitoba statistics instructor Jenna Tichon’s students were thrilled to see their pets used as a teaching tool. And computer science instructor Robert Guderian set up virtual coffee hours, where students could talk about anything from coursework to geocaching.

Statistics instructor Jenna Tichon and computer science instructor Robert Guderian.

As the Faculty of Science instructors found novel ways to engage classes in virtual classrooms, they discovered remote teaching had made them even closer to their students. Rituals, familiar routines and building personal connections helped learners feel connected to instructors—and vice versa.

“Something that I had to do is make a point of showing more of myself and making sure that, even if you’re doing an asynchronous course, that your presence is felt as a person.”

“Something that I had to do is make a point of showing more of myself and making sure that, even if you’re doing an asynchronous course, that your presence is felt as a person,” says Tichon.

Guderian and Tichon shared their remote teaching experiences at a February teaching café run by the UM’s Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL).

Colleen Webb, CATL team lead in development and consultation, started the annual round-table teaching cafés in 2017 to share strategies and innovations across UM faculties. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed the 2020 café to February 2021. Three months later, a second café was held, focusing on incorporating Indigenous perspectives and knowledge into teaching.

“With the teaching café we really try and bring in a range of presenters from the different faculties,” says Webb. The small-group participants find inspiration and ideas from their peers, like the joint presentation by the Faculty of Arts and Desautels Faculty of Music involving interpretive dance for the session Dance Like Nobody’s Watching: Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning in the Era of COVID. (read more about that here.)

Guderian says rituals are important to students. One he wanted to replicate for remote learning was the risk-free, informal discussions that typically break out as students leave a lecture. He started a virtual coffee time and told the students: “You can talk about whatever the heck you want.”

He started a virtual coffee time and told the students: “You can talk about whatever the heck you want.”

“And you can actually connect,” he says. “A lot of it was the students talking to other students and that’s something that they’ve lost.”

It was also beneficial for Guderian.

“The thing that I missed the most teaching was those the keen students that would come down and just talk to you after class. How do you find your future graders, how do you find your future lab TA, how do you find your future grad students? Those are the people who would linger after class,” he says.

Predictable things, like always following the same structure of recorded lecture followed by a real-time time class bring a calming sense of pattern. “It’s kind of comforting,” says Guderian. “They really need to be able to lean on something like that.”

Guderian teaches large classes. His smallest group is 65 people. Yet remote learning has made him feel more connected to learners. He feels like he’s sitting across a table from them now—when students have their camera on for virtual learning—rather than lecturing to people in rows of seats that stretch to the back of the room.

Chat functions have been a surprisingly useful tool, Guderian says.

“It’s amazing. Some students that would never ever, ever talk to me, I’ve actually built relationships with.”

“It’s amazing. Some students that would never ever, ever talk to me, I’ve actually built relationships with,” he says. Students who may be reluctant to speak in class are willing to express themselves in a chat function.

Engaging with students weaves through Tichon’s remote instruction. Before Fall Term classes began, she posted a letter, telling students about herself, her academic background and her hobbies. They now know she’s training for half marathon, enjoys playing Final Fantasy and usually has a knitting project on the go.

“Something that I had to do is make a point of showing more of myself. You’re making sure that your presence is felt and that your presence is felt as a person,” she says.

A screenshot of one of Jenna Tichon's online lessons.

Tichon’s first year student welcome video included a virtual tour of the university learning management system UM Learn, as well as where to find online tools like discussion posts and quizzes.

“I also took a moment to say I know this is a really crazy kind of scary time but we’re in this together. If you have problems, you have suggestions, please come talk to me. I’m here. This is an experience that we’re going to figure out together,” Tichon says.

Because she teaches hundreds of first year students, she wanted their initial university experience to be positive, one that extended beyond sitting at a computer. That included opportunities to make connections with her and their classmates.

She was inspired to use her students’ pets as a future teaching tool after an end-of-class chat where they enthusiastically shared photos of their dogs.

Tichon picked up on their engagement by using their dogs’ names to teach a class on setting up a basic randomized experiment. The pooches had to run a timed obstacle course with three possible starting points. Students analyzed the data using computers to see if one led to faster times. The bonus was the surprise of seeing their pets’ names on the assignment.

Like Guderian, Tichon incorporates rituals and routines. She sends a Sunday evening reminder email detailing the classes, labs and what’s due in the coming week to help keep students on track. She includes an encouraging message.

“There’s something important about actually telling someone I care,” says Tichon.

“There’s something important about actually telling someone I care.”

For her third-year classes, Tichon continued her regular classroom practice of a lesson-based prompt question at the end of the day.

“I always told them if you want to say anything else, or talk to me, or tell me anything, include it in there and then we’ll start the next class by talking about it.” The students responded. They had fun with it, too. Some included a stats joke, she says, others added photos.

“I had 325 students that I was having this back and forth with and they each got at least one and usually two or three times a week, a chance to say something personally to me,” says Tichon.

There have also been teaching benefits from remote learning. Guderian says he’s going to continue with pre-recorded lectures when students return to campus, allowing his in-person class time to focus on giving the students experience with the concepts they will have watched already. The pre-recorded lectures are an artifact he can keep and students can return to them as an adjunct to note taking.

“I think we’ll definitely look back and recognize that there were some things that we’ve learned from this experience that we can take forward,” Webb says. “I think we’ve definitely learned how to work with technology far more effectively.”

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