A Monthly Newsletter from the Centre for Academic and Faculty Enrichment

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CAFE MONTHLY

Welcome back!

Welcome to the first issue of the CAFE Monthly for this academic year. We hope you all had a chance to unplug and enjoy some quality time with family and friends. As we look ahead to this academic year, we have the opportunity to find creative ways to teach and connect with our students - and our colleagues. The CAFE team is here for you - to work with you as you support our students as they navigate through their educational journey. Reach out to us via email, join our various community of practice or workshop series to stay connected with your colleagues, follow us on twitter and keep checking our website as we continuously update our resources and professional development (PD) opportunities. We look forward to connecting with you!

Faculty Spotlight

We will resume our Faculty Spotlight feature in October. We can’t wait to celebrate you!


Fall Supports at the CAFE

During Academic Kick-off, the keynote speaker, Britt Andreatta, provided some strategies and approaches to teaching based on the science of learning. Our team at the CAFE is here to support you as you experiment and apply some of these evidence-based strategies this fall. Don’t be afraid to try something new!

The eLearning Team, led by Tanya Wakelin, provides the following services:

  • DC Connect
    • Use DC Connect to support your teaching! Consider using the DC Connect quiz tool and/or the discussion board to embed retrieval practice opportunities for your students. We are here to support you in all things DC Connect.
  • Educational Technology
  • Video Production
    • Looking for a way to make short videos to demonstrate a skill – or to connect with your students? We can support you with that!
  • Interactive Simulations
    • Provide your students will realistic scenarios that will allow them to cement their learning! We can help you develop activities yourself or can provide further support.

We will be online with extended hours until September 22nd to support you: Monday – Friday 8:30am-6pm. All support requests are triaged through DCConnect@durhamcollege.ca.

The Educational Development Team, led by Amanda Maknyik, provides teaching and learning support

As we move into a new, and somewhat different academic year, please remember that you have direct supports available in the CAFE for your ideas, questions and concerns around teaching and learning. Reach out to us about teaching strategies, active learning ideas, assessments and evaluation plans, remote delivery options, classroom management challenges and more. Throughout the fall, CAFE will be hosting workshops on many of these topics, as well as drop-in sessions specifically dedicated to your planned assessments. Your Educational Development team is here to support you in whatever ways you need to have a successful semester!

Contact Amanda Makynik, manager, Educational Development with your teaching and learning questions!

The Quality Assurance Team, led by Gail Thornton, provides program development, review, and modification support

If you are involved in your program’s reviews including curriculum mapping, and/or program modifications, feel free to reach out to the quality assurance team for support.

Contact Gail Thornton with your questions.


Fall Professional Development Opportunities

In September, we are hosting 50 PD sessions on a variety of topics including:

  • How to create test questions
  • How to use the quiz tool in DC Connect
  • Using the Virtual Classroom or MS Teams
  • And so much more

Check out our September calendar and register now!

Can't find what you're looking for? Want a customized session for your program? Email Tanya.wakelin@durhamcollege.ca (for EdTech/DC Connect/multimedia), or Amanda.Maknyik@durhamcollege.ca (for Teaching and Learning)


Teaching Remotely – Fall

Do you want to learn how to support student learning remotely?

Here's a great opportunity for you to be a part of CAFE's "Teaching Remotely" professional development (PD) workshop series. The workshop series will be facilitated as an asynchronous series with optional synchronous elements. Faculty can choose the option that best suits their needs.

For more information about the course modules, click on https://durhamcollege.ca/cafe/teaching/teaching-remotely-workshop-series/

To enroll in "Teaching Remotely" course, email at DCConnect@durhamcollege.ca with your name and banner number. Synchronous sessions will begin later in September.


Teaching and Learning Tips

1 Minute Teaching and Learning Tip

When providing feedback to your students, acknowledge the positive aspects of the work as well as providing areas that can be improved. As we heard from the keynote speaker at Academic Kickoff, shift feedback from what is wrong to what right looks like and why. For example, reframe "you are missing an introductory sentence" to "an introductory sentence is needed in order for your reader to understand what they will be reading about".

DC Connect tip: With the new annotations tool in DC Connect, you can now provide student feedback without ever downloading the assignment!

Active Learning Strategy tip – adapting from F2F to remote delivery

Think-Pair-Share (TPS): This strategy leverages the power of collegial conversation for extended learning, creative thinking, and recall practice. Since students are unable to turn to a classmate close to them, as they would in a physical classroom, this activity should be pre-planned according to how you would like the activity to be completed. Here are a few options for an "in the moment" TPS activity during remote delivery:

  1. Have students select a partner ahead of time and use a collaborative OneDrive document to have them share their ideas in a written format; or,
  2. Use breakout rooms in the Virtual Classroom (or MS Teams) and allow the program to randomly sort the students into pairs to have a discussion via audio/video. Note: the number of breakout rooms available in Virtual Classroom is currently 8, so if you have more than 16 students you will end up with rooms with 3 students – which still allows for an amazing activity!
  3. Use Flipgrid (included in DC’s Office 365 login for faculty and students) to allow students to partner up asynchronously and share their thoughts in a video post (a bonus - students are building community at the same time!)

Visit the CAFE Active Learning Strategies page for more ideas!

1 Minute DC Connect Tip

Looking for a quick way to communicate with students while developing a faculty online presence? The Video note feature in DC Connect now allows for a thirty-minute recording (or 1GB upload) and includes automatic captions. Video notes can be added to content, discussions, assignment feedback and announcements to keep learning personal and engaging!

If you need captions updated, please email cafe@durhamcollege.ca with the update required.

Synchronous Learning Tip

If you are teaching synchronously this semester, try a flipped approach. Provide students with materials before synchronous class meetings (readings and/or videos) and use the synchronous time to apply and discuss the content. This allows students the time to process and build connections with the material. After the synchronous session, solidify the learning by providing retrieval / practice opportunities.


Presentation Opportunities

Share your teaching practices with your colleagues at the October Reading Week Professional Development day!

Save the date: Monday October 26, 2020

The CAFE is providing a forum for you and your colleagues to share your practices, successes and lessons learnt with your peers. Interesting in presenting? Please complete this short form.

Share your teaching practices with colleagues across the college system through Education Technology Committee Lunch and Learn Webinars!

ETC Virtual Lunch and Learn Series Thumbnail

Fall submissions for the Virtual Lunch and Learn Webinar series now open!

Submit a proposal to Facilitate a Webinar in ETC’s Fall 2020 series before September 25th, 2020.

Attendees join from all Ontario Colleges.

Click on the flyer for more information.


CAFE Team - Did you know?

Did you know that we had over 96,000 visits to our website last academic year? If you haven’t stopped by in a while, check out our website for resources.


Launch: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Pedagogy and Practice course

The Office of Student Diversity, Inclusion and Transitions (OSDIT) and the Centre for Academic and Faculty Enrichment (CAFE) announces the formal launch of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Pedagogy and Practice modules.

Durham College recognizes the rich diversity of all students and the need to ensure this diversity is welcomed and reflected in our teaching and learning practices. These modules were created to introduce faculty and staff to the concepts of inclusion and cultural intelligence so that all students can be equitably supported. This learning opportunity reinforces the College’s values of diversity, inclusion, and respect.

Module topics include:

  • Power and Privilege
  • Navigating Difficult Conversations
  • Inclusive & Responsive Teaching
  • Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
  • Conversations in Decolonization

The modules can be taken independently, but we encourage you to complete the full five-module course, starting with Power, Privilege, and Bias. Faculty members are able to register via DC Connect on the self-registration portal. Employees who complete all of the modules will be awarded with a "Recognition of Completion".


Experiential Learning

Looking for new ways to connect students with industry and community organizations through work-integrated learning? Check out this blog post for opportunities and to learn more about the Riipen integration with DC Connect.


Monthly PD Opportunities


Hold the Dates

The 2020 Learning Outcomes Symposium Program Planning Committee is pleased to offer the following free webinars this fall:

  • A one-hour keynote presentation and Q&A by Dr. Lorna Williams: "Ti Wa7 Szwatenem: What We Know". Indigenous Knowledge and Learning in the Academy”. This will be held in the early afternoon of Thursday, October 8 (exact time TBC).
  • A 90-minute plenary panel discussion on "Developing Adaptable and Resilient Life-long Learners" led by the Hon. Perrin Beatty (President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce). This will be a moderated panel and Q&A discussion and will likely touch on the intersections between WIL, HE and business, as well as the themes of lifelong learning, and quality assurance of co-op/WIL program elements. (October 13, 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.)
  • One additional panel discussion/Q&A with leading experts (TBD) on the topic of "Online/Virtual Learning Outcomes and Assessment in the Context of the COVID-19 Health Crisis" (date/time TBC).

All sessions will be live and will invite moderated chat and questions. We also anticipate recording the sessions and posting these on the Ontario Universities Council on Quality Assurance’s website.

Further details regarding the names of the finalized panel participants, dates/times of the webinars, and registration information will be circulated as soon as these are available.


As always, the CAFE is here for you with resources such as Planning to move your course to remote delivery and Achieving outcomes using educational technology.

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