Join the Network!

Dear Faculty of Arts, 

This week, we are excited to share with everyone that the Arts Research, Scholarship and Creativity Network is now ready to grow and thrive, and open for wider manual enrollment for faculty and for requested enrollment for students!  Currently, there are already 60 Network members!  This inclusive Network aims to support faculty, students, and staff who are engaged in, or wish to become engaged in, research, scholarship, and creativity.  The Network aims to provide a clearinghouse of resources; to facilitate mentorship connections; to promote collaborations and encourage synergies; to stimulate innovative thinking; to foster collegiality; and to raise awareness about the ways that research, scholarship, and creativity contribute to educational excellence. The Network, which is housed on Moodle, is integrated with PebblePad. 

HOW TO JOIN THE NETWORK:

We have outlined below the steps for creating your Network profiles and for manually enrolling in the Moodle. There are also instructions for how students can join.  To this end, we kindly request that you share the student-related instructions (and PDF document attached) by posting them on Moodle in your courses.

STEP 1: CREATING YOUR PROFILE IN PEBBLE PAD: Please see the attached PDF document of instructions (“Howto-PebblePad 2022”), which includes a direct link to the template, to create your PebblePad profile. As per the instructions, you will need to email the URL link to your completed profile to ArtsNetwork@kpu.ca  

STEP 2: SELF-ENROLLMENT FOR FACULTY IN THE NETWORK MOODLE: Once you have created your Network profile, please follow these steps for manually enrollment in the Network (for faculty): 

1. Link to the Network’s Moodle page via this link: https://courses.kpu.ca/course/view.php?id=53036 
2. Log onto Moodle as you normally do by entering your KPU ID and password. 
3. When you arrive at the Network’s Moodle, locate the enrolment key box that appears at the bottom of the course page. 
4. Enter the following password into the enrolment key box: ARTSNetwork then click the “Enrol” button” 
5. Welcome to the Faculty of Arts Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Network!  As a “Network Member,” you can browse and explore the features and people.  

STEP 3: SHARE THE NETWORK WITH YOUR STUDENTS: Please share the PebblePad instructions (the attached PDF document) in your courses by uploading it to your Moodles, and inform your students about this opportunity to join the Network.  Once a student creates a profile and they email the link to ArtsNetwork@kpu.ca, they will then be enrolled in the Moodle. Through the Network, students will be able to connect with their peers and faculty, learn about scholarships and employment opportunities (R.A.-ships), and be notified about upcoming Arts Speaker Series presentations.  

Return and Resume: Covid and the “Phased Return” 

Next week is scheduled as our last week of online teaching, so please keep in mind the following with respect to this “phased return”: 

• We will revert to the delivery model originally scheduled for each course on January 24th. 
• Please note that the original modality for each course (online; blended; or in-person) must be respected. 
• With respect to blended courses, it is vital to respect the days originally selected for in-person sessions since students chose and registered for their courses with these schedules in mind and will have already planned their academic and work lives around these dates.  
• The add/drop deadline for full term classes has been amended to Jan. 23; Jan 16 is the revised add/drop deadline for Session 1 classes. 
• Student services of the “administrative” variety have been open since Jan. 4, albeit with skeleton crews. 

• FRIENDLY REMINDER: Please email your course presentations for the Spring 2022 term to the Dean’s office via:  arts@kpu.ca

Reminders, Opportunities, Information 

STUDENT OPPORTUNITY: EDI Awards Selection Committee: We are excited to send a call out for members of the Arts Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Awards selection panel. The EDI Awards are 2 annual awards presented to an individual and group/team (inclusive of faculty, students, staff, and alumni) in recognition of their outstanding efforts in supporting and promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion within the Faculty of Arts and/or the broader community. You can learn more about the awards here: https://www.kpu.ca/arts/edi-awards  Our goal is to have 2 Arts students/alumni on the awards selection panel, so if you know of current or former students who is interested, please send an email to the Arts Deans Assistant arts.deansassistant@kpu.ca by Friday, January 28^th, 2022. 

STUDENT OPPORTUNITY: The Effects of COVID. The Psychology and Political Science departments are conducting research on how KPU students feel their relationship with the university has changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study will explore changes in students’ goals and motivations regarding their university education and future careers, and in their wider perceptions of their roles both as students within KPU and as student-citizens in their communities. Focus groups will take no more than two hours and will be held online with dates convenient for students’ schedules. Registration is open to all current KPU students, participation is voluntary, and a $20 Amazon gift card will be sent to focus group participants. For more information, please contact Dr. Valérie Vézina (valerie.vezina@kpu.ca) or Dr. Hammond Tarry (hammond.tarry@kpu.ca). https://kpupsychology.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6PyTICCQrnWntk2?Q_CHL=qr 

COIL: Summer 2022: Are you interested in bringing intercultural experiences into the classroom? Try Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) with an international faculty partner and have your students work on a project with students from another country online.  Faculty participants will be sponsored for COIL training. For more information, please follow this link, or contact Associate Dean Shelley Boyd (shelley.boyd@kpu.ca). The deadline for expressions of interest (for the summer 2022 teaching term) is January 31^st 

Respectful Workplace Training: Last year KPU launched an updated version of the online Respect in the Workplace training program. This is reminder that if you have not already done so, please complete the required online Respect in the Workplace program. You will find instructions on how to access the training here.  

‘Preferred’ Names:  As many of you will have noted via an earlier Today@ message, KPU has updated student information change processes, which is an important change especially for trans and enby students. Please follow this link for more information.   There is also a new information page for students on how to change their personal info with the possibility of having one’s email address include one’s ‘preferred’ name. Faculty and staff may want to share this information with students via this link. As of December 15, new students will have their email addresses created using their ‘preferred’ names. 

2022 MULTICULTURAL CALENDAR: This year’s calendar is now available for download on SharePoint: Multicultural Calendar – Home (sharepoint.com) 

Upcoming Nominations and Initiatives 

Faculty of Arts EDI Awards: The nomination period for the Faculty of Arts EDI Awards is open until January 31st.  So, there is still time to get those nominations in!  The Faculty of Arts, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) awards recognize faculty, students, staff, and alumni who have demonstrated excellence in supporting and promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion from an intersectional social justice lens within the Faculty of Arts and/or the broader community. These awards honour individuals or groups/teams within the Faculty of Arts whose actions serve to advance KPU’s commitment to EDI. For more information on nominating an individual or self-nominating your group/team, follow this link. 

JEDI Awards: The nomination period is now open for KPU’s JEDI awards.  Please follow this link for more information: Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Awards | KPU.ca – Kwantlen Polytechnic University 

KDocs: As the KDocsFF’s gold partner, Faculty of Arts received 6 complimentary individual film tickets for KDocFF 2022! We will hold a draw and 6 winners will receive a free film ticket. All Arts faculty and staff are welcome to participate. Please note that they are individual film tickets, not festival passes.  If you wish to enter a draw, please send an email to arts.funding@kpu.ca and indicate which film you would like to see. The Official Selections can be found here: http://www.kdocsff.com/upcoming-events/2022/2/18/kdocsff-2022 The entry closes today, January 14, 2022. 

The first week of the term comes to a close, and the spring semester is now off and running!  We thank everyone for your efforts during the shift to online throughout this phased return.

Please note that we will be having two pauses for the Arts Update in February.  There will be no Updates on February 4 & 25. Please keep sending us any news and announcements for inclusion in future updates.  As always, we welcome your feedback and input. 

Have a relaxing weekend, 

Greg, Wade, Billeh, and Shelley