“The electronic or digital portfolio is an ideal format for collecting evidence of student learning, especially for those outcomes not amenable or appropriate for standardized measurement. Additionally, ePortfolios can facilitate student reflection upon and engagement with their own learning across multiyear degree programs, across different, and across diverse learning styles while helping students set and…
Nishan Perera is a regular faculty member of the KPU Marketing department, the Educational Consultant for Course Design and Assessment with the Teaching and Learning Common, and the former Chair of Marketing. For this edition of our Faculty Spotlight, Nishan shares his story with us. Also known as “the Pearl of the Indian Ocean,” Sri…
As I near the end of my time in the Teaching and Learning Commons, I am reflecting on the last two years. I have reconceptualized my role as an educator several times since April 2020, integrating new tools, enacting greater pedagogical care, and problem solving in different ways. I’ve been introduced to new methodologies and…
Catherine Chow is a Chemistry Instructor with the Faculty of Science and Horticulture at KPU. She completed her graduate studies at The University of British Columbia (UBC) in organometallic chemistry, and following a post-graduate internship at a chemical research lab in Germany, Catherine returned to Vancouver and joined us at KPU in 2013. In 2021,…
As we enter each new semester, we look forward to greeting our students, anticipating their journey of learning and development, hopeful for what our students will achieve. In the midst of that hope, our expectations may be tempered with our knowledge, gained from past experience, that some of our students may not succeed. If only…
Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting with Dr. Farhad Dastur, a psychologyinstructor at KPU. We had a fruitful and energizing conversation where wediscussed his love for nature, his extensive traveling (I have a feeling I haven’theard half of the destinations he has explored), his passion for teaching, hisnew position in T&L Commons as an…
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about peer reviews? Ponder for a moment and write down a few thoughts before you proceed. Did you think about peer reviews as a tool for students to assess the work of their peers, or a way to evaluate peer contributions towards…
Recently, I gave a virtual keynote at the 2021 OLC Accelerate Conference. The title of my talk was 20/21: A Pedagogical Journey. In it I reflected on the journey of higher education over the past 18 months, including the many lessons learned and some of the lessons that have gone begging. In this post I share two…
Many of us come to our work with complex and multifaceted values. For those of us engaged in work around open education, a common and shared value is the unwavering belief that education should be a public good. For many of us, this means that the learning taking place within our institutions should be as…
Taanishi kiiyawow. As Rachel Chong greets me in Michif, the native tongue of her people, she smiles brightly. “I’m in no way an expert, but I’ve been trying to learn the traditional language of my ancestors recently. I’m still very new at this.” Crediting her newfound skill to St. Albert Further Education, where she recently…