Sessions & Bios
Context and Collaborative Learning Design
Tannis Morgan, BCIT
This session will describe the collaborative team approach and provide some examples of collaborative learning design models used at BCIT. BCIT is characterized by a considerable range of programs and students, which requires careful consideration of the teaching and learning context and the various stakeholders – professional governing bodies, industry, subject matter experts, and program requirements – in the development of learning and teaching materials. As a result, the e-learning continuum is quite varied at BCIT and presents both challenge and opportunities.
Bio
Tannis Morgan is an Instructional Development Consultant with the Learning and Teaching Centre at BCIT, where, in addition to helping programs integrate educational technology into their programs and courses, she also helps programs with curriculum development, faculty development, and educational research.
Designing Learning Spaces in Physical and Virtual Settings
Alyssa Wise, SFU and Justin Marples, UBC
What does it mean to design “spaces” for learning? How do our design choices reflect our aims and perspectives and how do they create different affordances and constraints for learning? How does learning space design differ in physical and virtual settings and how can they inform each other? In this session, Alyssa Wise and Justin Marples will tackle these and other big questions from a learning space design perspective. They will touch on principles of student learning, illustrate how these principles have been applied, in both virtual and physical learning environments, and invite you to explore how spaces might be designed otherwise in order to support student learning.
Bios
Alyssa Wise [web]
Dr. Alyssa Wise is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. Her research focuses on the design and use of online environments for learning. Coming from a constructivist perspective on learning, she is currently investigating the tensions (and overlap) between “consumer” and “community” models for online learning.
Justin Marples
Justin Marples is the Director, Classroom Services, University of British Columbia. Justin has been involved in university administration facilities development, human resources, and financial management. He has spent the past 10 years ensuring that UBC’s formal spaces (classrooms and teaching laboratories) and informal learning spaces support the university’s strategic goals. The process involves classroom services teams working closely with academic and service unit stakeholders to ensure their needs are incorporated into learning space design and operations.
Large Scale Learning Design
Karen Belfer, Vancouver Community College
In this presentation participants will learn from the experience that the faculty of the School of Instructor Education at Vancouver Community College went through to redesign the well-known Provincial Instructor Diploma Program. The redesign started with an internal and external program evaluation, and from there a visioning session and curriculum mapping exercise with much input from stakeholders. This session will focus on the process but will also cover the challenges faced and lessons learned.
Bio
Karen Belfer is the Dean for the Centre for Instructional Development and School of Instructor Education at Vancouver Community College. Prior to VCC she worked as an Educational Consultant for BCIT, UBC and TechBC. As a consultant, she has managed projects internationally and in various Canadian institutions. Her focus is the implementation of educational technologies to enhance the learning process (e.g. e-portfolios, social software, web-based learning). Karen did her undergraduate work in Informatics, her Masters in Education, and Ph.D. in Educational Research at the Anahuac University in Mexico, where she taught for over 10 years. Karen has extensive experience in faculty training, research, development, design, implementation and evaluation of the use of technology in higher education. Her research interests are in the assessment of online social learning environments, teaching perspectives and teamwork.
Designing for Engagement
Denise Withers, UBC (denise.withers@sauder.ubc.ca)
Foundational learning theories recognize that getting and keeping students’ attention during learning activities is critical to effective learning. Yet, little research has been done on how to address this challenge explicitly in design processes, especially when teaching adult learners.
Denise Withers, Learning Design Specialist at the Sauder School of Business (UBC) and retired documentary filmmaker, tackles this tough topic by exploring, then building on, the combined experience of the workshop participants as facilitators of learning, as well as the latest research into engagement. Together, Denise and the audience will:
- De-bunk marketing hype about what engagement is – and isn’t.
- Explore the concept of the “gap” as the essence of engagement.
- Discover why story is one of the most powerful tools designers have for engaging learners.
- Try out some of Denise’s practical “10+1” design tips for generating and sustaining learner engagement.
Bio
Leading design at the intersection of learning, engagement and technology.
An award-winning educator and designer, Denise Withers has 25 years of experience facilitating learning through higher education, corporate training, popular media and community outreach. She combines this practical expertise with a strong academic background that includes a Master of Science investigating engagement design in technology-mediated adult learning, and a Certificate in Adult and Continuing Education.
As a Learning Design Specialist at the Sauder School of Business, Denise works with faculty, students, staff and key stake-holders to enhance learner engagement and learner success through applied activity, curriculum and research design.