ctl annual rpt 2013-14 v19comp · 2015-01-14 · iii) teaching portfolio workshop there were three...

The Centre for Teaching and Learning Annual Report, 2013/2014

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PERSONNEL, (NON-CASUAL) FOR 2013/2014

• Director (Associate Professor, Biological Sciences) - C. Hasenkampf, PhD • Associate Director - J. Patterson, MLS, M.Ed. • Associate Director; Accessibility and Writing Support, (Senior Lecturer) - N. Johnston, PhD • Business Officer - K. Chan • Adm. Asst. for the Director, Associate Director and Business Officer - J. Brunton • Program Assistant, Student Programming – A. Seto-Hung (B. Monroy, mat leave) • Information Literacy & Research Skills Coordinator (joint appt. with UTSC Library) – S. Fedko, MLIS • Coordinator, English Language Development, (Senior Lecturer) - E. Khoo, PhD • English Language Development Support (Lecturer, 60%) - H.L. Meacock • English Language Development Support (Lecturer, 49%) – R. Wiseman, PhD • Coordinator, The Writing Centre (Senior Lecturer) - S. King, PhD • Writing Support, The Writing Centre (Lecturer, 24%) - R. Hurl, Ph.D • Coordinator, Service Learning and Outreach (Senior Lecturer) - K. Persaud, PhD (On leave) • Interim Coordinator, Service Learning and Outreach; Peer Facilitation Strategist – C. Bongard,

PhD • Coordinator, Math and Statistics Learning Centre (Senior Lecturer) - Z. Shahbazi, PhD • Statistics, Math and Statistics Learning Centre (Lecturer) – S. Kang, Ph.D • Graduate Student and Teaching Assistant Support Coordinator (Lecturer 15%) - S. Stevenson,

Ph.D • Educational Technologies Administrator - B. Sutherland, M.Ed. • Coordinator, WebOption Lecturecasting, Mark McKee • Test-scanning Services, Blackboard Support, Presentation Skills – A. Irani, M.ES, M.MSc.


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Teaching Expertise Training and Support for Faculty A. EVENTS i) NEW INSTRUCTOR TEACHING ORIENTATIONS We had two types of new instructor orientations: • A three day event (‘Get It While It’s Hot’) in July, combined with a New Faculty Orientation • two-hour mini-orientation sessions for Summer and Winter terms (Powerpoint slides

and a package containing a variety of course resource materials provided) In total, we reached 80 instructors.

ii) NUTRITION FOR EDUCATORS (NFE) TEACHING SEMINAR SERIES The CTL organized 25 teaching-related seminars/workshops followed by discussion and lunch. Total attendance at NFEs was 427. iii) TEACHING PORTFOLIO WORKSHOP There were three teaching portfolio workshops offered with 23 faculty attending one or more. iv) FACULTY TEACHING SHOWCASE AND CELEBRATION OF TEACHING There were 77 people attending this all-day Celebration of Teaching which featured a keynote address, workshops, roundtables and a poster and display session.


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B. PROGRAMMING In total CTL sent out 174 participation letters to UTSC community members for the instructors, librarians, staff and graduate students who attended our events. Even with our robust set of offerings, CTL works closely with the Centre for Teaching Innovation and Support (St. George campus), sharing program ideas and ensuring that UTSC faculty have full access to all the centrally-delivered programs. i) TEACHING AWARDS Previously CTL had maintained the web site for the UTSC’s Teaching Awards, and creating promotional materials. The website has been re-developed and the Principal’s Office now maintains it. CTL continues to maintain the criteria for the awards and provide support to nominators. J. LeBoutillier CTL’s Associate Director, Course Evaluations and Curricular Issues, served as advisor to nominators, answered questions/provided guidance when requested, and as an adjudicator for the awards. The CTL Director also helps identify faculty at UTSC who would be competitive for the U of T President’s Teaching Award and assists the departmental nominator as they prepare the nomination package. ii) TEACHING GRANTS CTL coordinates the promotion, administration and adjudication of the existing teaching grants (Equipment, Assessment and Course enhancement. (Included in this grant process are Software Grants, which are funds held by IITS). There is a twice-annual call for proposals with an online application process. A maximum of $100,000 is dispersed to improve the teaching endeavor. We also reimbursed up to $300 for seven UTSC instructors for attendance/presentations at teaching related conferences. First Round –

Enhancement Applications Christine Berkowitz

Dept of Historical and Cultural Studies

Scarborough Oral History Project -‐ Oral History Training $900

Zackary Taylor Dept of Human Geography

Development of a Municipal Council Simulation $3,200

George Quan Fun Dept of Management OnLine Discussion FAQ and Manual $4,000

Wanda Restivo

Dept of Physical and Environmental Sciences Chemistry Model Kits-‐teaching tool $1,480

Nicholas Eyles

Dept of Physical and Environmental Sciences

Outside-‐Inside: Bringing the environment into the classroom by creating virtual field experiences for urban students $8,800

Rania Salem Dept of Sociology

Diversifying Modes of Delivery in a Large-‐Enrollment Course: Student-‐Centered Exercises in the Logic of Social Inquiry $3,200

Total Awarded

$21,580


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Equipment Applications

Mandy Meriano

Dept of Physical and Environmental Sciences Ground Penetrating Radar $4,378

Christine Berkowitz

Dept of Historical and Cultural Studies

Scarborough Oral History Project Digital Voice Recorders $1,241

Joanna Heathcote

Dept of Management

Video Recorder & Website for viewing oral presentations by MGTA35 students $875

Genevieve Dewar Dept of Anthropology Replicas of human skeletal remains $5,475

Wanda Restivo

Dept of Physical and Environmental Sciences Melting Point Apparatus $19,095

Total Awarded

$31,064

Software Applications

Margaret Kohn Dept of Political Science Poll Everywhere $361

Artur Izmaylov

Dept of Physical and Environmental Sciences

Electronic structure modeling and visualization $9,695

Total Awarded

$10,056

TOTAL $62,700 Second Round

Enhancement Applications Thembela Kepe

Dept of Human Geography Picturing the Field in Geography $3,330

Douglas Bors Dept of Psychology

Tools for Teaching Data Analysis in the Social and Behavioural Sciences $3,744

Daniel Tysdal Dept of English

Communities, Duties, and Conflicts of the Canadian Poet $1,050

Total Awarded $8,124

Equipment Applications Francisco Estrada

Dept of Computer and Mathematical Webcams $1,000


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Sciences Total Awarded $1,000

Software Applications Aarthi Ashok

Dept of Biological Sciences

Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) $1,241

Total Awarded $1,241

Assessment Applications

Aarthi Ashok

Dept of Biological Sciences

Impact of \"Thinking Tutorials\" on students\' academic performance in BIOB10Y $961

Total Awarded $961 TOTAL $11,326


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Facilitating and Supporting a Teaching ‘Community of Practice’ A. CTL Ambassadors The CTL Ambassadors are UTSC instructors from various academic departments that serve in an advisory role to CTL on matters such programming, technology and classroom concerns, and more. They meet several times a year. B. CTL Book Club In this second year of the book club, the book What the Best College Teachers Do, by Ken Bain, was read and discussed. A total of 25 individual instructors attended the discussions, and typically 5 or 6 attended each meeting. C. INSTRUCTIONAL SKILLS WORKSHOPS This year CTL offered two Instructional Skills Workshops with a total of 17 participants (across a range of disciplines), with two facilitators in each ISW. This brings total participation in UTSC ISWs to 59, since the first ISW at UTSC in 2011. (A few participants have been from UTM or UTSG.) The feedback from participants has been consistently positive. Some of the participants in an early ISW subsequently took further training (the Facilitator Development Workshop/FDW) and have now co-facilitated an ISW. The Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) program is a 3-day (24-hour) intensive event, consisting of a laboratory approach to the improvement of teaching and learning. Participants review basic ideas about teaching, check current practices, and are encouraged to experiment with new instructional strategies and techniques, and receive feedback. It is grounded in active, experiential learning, and


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is one of the few opportunities for instructors to observe other instructors teaching. It closely ties in to CTL’s mission by promoting active enhancement of instructor teaching. This year, we initiated a pre-ISW survey and will follow it up with the same participants with a post-ISW survey in 6 months. Our goal is to look at if/how ISW attendees changed some of their teaching practices because of participation in an ISW. UTSC has the largest group of ISW graduates at the University of Toronto, and looks forward to continuing to offer the program.


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TA Training Support, Graduate Student Workshops, and Graduate Professional Skills TA & GRADUATE STUDENT SUPPORT The Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) offers pedagogical and professional workshops, as well as other programming, to support teaching assistants and graduate students. This support was expanded in 2013-14, so that more programming of the tri-campus Teaching Assistant Training Program (TATP) and Graduate Professional Skills program (GPS) was offered on the UTSC campus. The mission has been to support TAs and graduate students in their professional development as teachers, and to enable graduate students to enhance other professional skills, as well as improve their writing in academic and professional contexts. Programming has been coordinated by Dr. Sheryl Stevenson since July 1, 2012. This year, Dr. Stevenson has worked with, and fostered collaborations among, faculty and staff across campus with the goal of significantly expanding support for TAs and graduate students on campus. The number of teaching-oriented workshops, eligible for credit in the TATP program, has doubled in 2013-14 (an increase from four to eight offerings), while workshops focusing on graduate students’ professional skills, offered with the GPS program, have tripled (from three to nine). Another GPS event on campus, the second annual Graduate Professional Day, drew on productive campus-wide partnerships to attract 39 participants—17% of the graduate students affiliated with UTSC. In addition, the Graduate Editing Support initiative, fulfilling CTL’s mission of supporting students as learners, provided 51 consultations for graduate students to help improve their writing and editing skills. This year, an increasing number of graduate students used this support to revise their papers for publication; students who benefited from this service had four papers published and two others accepted for publication during the report period. In addition, the January 2013 GPS workshops on the resume/CV and on interview skills drew the attention of coordinators of the NSERC Collaborative Research and Training Experience Program in Arctic Atmospheric Science (CREATE). CREATE offers graduate student participants a week-long summer program in Alliston, Ontario, in which participants attend daily seminars, mostly


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presented by scientists. In July 2013, Ruth Louden (AA&CC), Sarah King (The Writing Centre), and Sheryl Stevenson presented an invited workshop, supported by funding from CREATE ($1,500). Hence, the UTSC GPS program has helped generate funding for AA&CC and CTL. CTL’s TA & Graduate Student Support program has thus had four primary areas of focus:

• To work with invested partners in developing and enhancing UTSC offerings for the tri-campus Graduate Professional Skills (GPS) program, creating the 2013-14 UTSC GPS workshop series, open to any graduate students from all three campuses while providing opportunities for credit in the GPS certificate program;

• To work with the director of the tri-campus Teaching Assistants’ Training Program (TATP), the UTSC TATP trainer, and departments with TAs to plan and develop offerings in UTSC’s 2013-14 TATP workshop series and departmental training sessions, as well as supporting and promoting mandatory TA training sessions;

• To work with invested partners, especially the UTSC Masters of Environmental Science Internship program, as well as TATP, to offer an annual, highly successful day-long event, Graduate Professional Day, with workshops for both GPS and TATP credit;

• To expand and improve the unique writing initiative, Graduate Editing Support, through which the program Coordinator, Sheryl Stevenson, offers individual instruction and advice on the students’ written projects, to strengthen their writing and editing skills in contexts ranging from brief conference proposals to lengthy research proposals.

These four areas of focus are detailed sequentially in the sections below. I. Development of the GPS program at UTSC The tri-campus Graduate Professional Skills program aims to prepare graduate students for their future careers through emphasis on development of skills that are not limited to specific disciplinary programs. Successful completion of GPS is acknowledged by a notation on the graduate student’s transcript. Helping to develop GPS offerings on campus is one of the mandates of the TA & Graduate Student Support program. For the program’s Coordinator, these efforts have entailed frequent meetings and correspondence with the director and others at the GPS program (School of Graduate Studies, St. George campus) and with invested partners at UTSC, including the Office of the Vice Dean, Graduate Education, the Vice Principal, Research, the UTSC Library, and AA&CC. The Coordinator’s role has been to promote and facilitate the development of several proposals for new GPS workshops; such proposals have to meet specific criteria and be approved by a GPS committee. There were six new (or completely revised) GPS workshops on campus during the period of this report (see Appendix 1). Overall, nine workshops eligible for GPS credit were offered this year, in comparison to three workshops for 2012-13. This dramatic increase was made possible in part by the efforts, indicated in Appendix 1, to include more faculty and staff as co-developers and presenters of new, valuable programming. Graduate Professional Day (detailed in part III) and CTL’s Teaching Showcase were also eligible for GPS credit. See Appendix 2 for the complete list of 2013-14 workshops, with attendance figures. II. Supporting & Developing TA Training and TATP Offerings at UTSC The university provides central funding for the tri-campus Teaching Assistants’ Training Program (TATP). The Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation (CTSI) hires and trains TATP trainers. But a faculty member from CTL is on the hiring committee for the UTSC TATP trainer. Also CTL provides administrative support such as organizing the UTSC TATP workshop series, scheduling


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rooms for all workshops and training sessions, regularly promoting the events, and handling communications both prior to and following workshops to ensure students receive credit toward their certificates. TATP training is two-fold: 1) mandatory training sessions for new teaching assistants, and 2) workshops on various aspects of TA teaching development. TAs and graduate students can gain a certificate if they attend a specified number and type of workshops. The UTSC TATP trainer provides the first-time TA training sessions for the fall and spring term, but does not offer the summer training sessions. CTL uses funds provided by the Vice Dean, Graduate Education, to hire a person with requisite TATP training to provide the mandatory TA training for the summer session. Beyond the mandatory training sessions, the UTSC TATP trainer also co-presents some TATP workshops at the Scarborough campus, as well as contributing to St. George offerings. To contribute to CTL’s mission of TA training, the Coordinator of the TA & Graduate Student Support program has worked this year to expand the TATP workshop series on campus and align it with Nutrition for Educators workshops, so that TAs and graduate students can take advantage of more teaching-enhancement opportunities on campus. These efforts have included collaborating with TATP administrators at CTSI, as well as with the UTSC TATP trainer, while also seeking UTSC faculty and staff to develop and present additional workshops. Drawing more partners into this collaboration has been one key to the dramatic doubling of the number of workshops that were able to be run this year. Also, during the summer of 2013, Management launched a writing intensive component in MGTA05, the large first-year course, with a new writing assignment involving two short essays. To support the initiative, Nancy Johnston (Associate Director of CTL and Writing Support Coordinator for The Writing Centre) consulted with two faculty members on assignment design and created an interactive training module with a writing focus for TA graders. Benchmarking of grades, time management, and how to provide formative feedback were covered in a 90-minute workshop delivered by Dr. Johnston and Sandra Romain, TA Trainer for UTSC. The MGT instructors have indicated that the writing initiative was a success, and they noted an improvement in writing competence of students from their first to second essay. Similarly, in Sociology, a two-hour training module was developed by Sarah King and Nancy Johnston in consultation with two senior Sociology TAs, as well as with the department chair and faculty. This training session, delivered by Dr. King and Dr. Johnston, emphasized departmental writing competency goals. In all, nine TA training sessions (mandatory and also departmental TA training) were provided at UTSC during the report period. Beyond these training sessions, eight TATP workshops ran successfully this year, compared to four in 2012-13. In addition, five workshops in the Nutrition for Educators series were also eligible for TATP credit. See Appendix 3 for the list of TATP workshops, training sessions, and eligible NFE events, with attendance figures. III. Graduate Professional Day 2014 Finding ways to enhance attendance at CTL’s day-long event for graduate students and TAs has been an important mandate for the TA & Graduate Student Support program. In March of 2013, the program first offered Graduate Professional Day, an all-day event combining diverse workshops and a panel discussion. The event developed strong attendance through CTL’s collaboration with the Masters of Environmental Science internship program and GPS, along with involvement of the Vice Dean, Graduate Education.


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For the March 2013 event, 38 graduate students registered and 27 attended, a 200% increase from TA Day in 2012 (attended by 9 students). In 2014, Graduate Professional Day was held in mid-January, which appeared to be a better time, since 61 graduate students registered and 39 attended—an increase in attendance of 44.4% from the preceding year. The program in 2014 (see Appendix 4) was substantially different from the 2013 event, including the addition of concurrent sessions. One such session, on poster presentations, was a full-length workshop eligible for separate GPS credit, so that some students were able to earn two GPS credits for the day. Another concurrent session was an advanced TATP workshop that was offered at the request of some UTSC graduate students. Although the session did not draw sufficient enrollment to run, plans are underway to include a TATP workshop as a concurrent offering in next year’s Graduate Professional Day. Feedback was very positive. Based on 30 evaluations, the average rating for all sessions was 4 on a 5-point scale, and 100% of those who provided a rating on the overall event stated that they would recommend it to others. Moreover, 84% of ratings for the individual sessions indicated the sessions were either 5 (“Exceptionally valuable”) or 4 (“Very good”). IV. Developing Graduate Editing Support, Online and Face to Face With increasing numbers of graduate students at UTSC, their needs as writers have become more salient. While graduate students have long utilized The Writing Centre’s services, they have done so in a limited way. Thus the fourth mandate of CTL’s programming for graduate students has been to develop a mode of writing support that fits their distinct needs as writers. The Graduate Editing Support initiative offers a new form of support in that its predominant mode of interaction with students is through email and other online formats, in contrast with the face-to-face individual instruction that is fundamental to writing centre pedagogy. The flexibility of exchanges through email allows the Coordinator of TA & Graduate Student Support to provide advice on editing, as well as explanations of grammar and punctuation, on lengthy and highly specialized projects such as 30-page research proposals for dissertations and papers for publication. Email exchanges provide time for the program Coordinator not only to carefully read the documents themselves, but also to consider comments by the student’s supervisor or suggestions from editors and reviewers (in cases where the student is revising and resubmitting a paper to a journal). For longer projects that need extensive revision, the program Coordinator provides advice and instruction in stages, encouraging the student to make revisions throughout the manuscript based on the feedback for one section; then the Coordinator moves on to check the next section. In this way, the graduate students improve their own editing. Overall, 51 one-to-one consultations were provided to graduate students in the report period, totaling 44.5 hours. Appendix 6 provides a breakdown of types of consultations. Indicators of the effectiveness of CTL’s Graduate Editing Support initiative can be seen through graduate students’ evaluations. Online evaluations for 2013-14 show that 100% of respondents would recommend the service to others, with an average rating of 5.5 out of 6 for how helpful they found it in improving their writing skills. The evaluations included the following comment: “The interaction with the instructor is superb and very fast. The instructor replies very quickly to email solicitations and provides meaningful comments that significantly improve the structure and quality of my writing.” Moreover, one student who was completing the Masters of Environmental Science degree had applied without success to dentistry programs for the past 2 years; he reported that after he sought advice on his personal statement through Graduate Editing Support, he finally attained his goal of being admitted to one of his chosen dentistry programs.


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In addition, four of the graduate students who sought help with a paper that was being submitted (or resubmitted) to a journal were successful in publishing their papers this year (see Appendix 5), and two other students reported papers accepted for publication. V. Conclusion: Future Directions for CTL’s TA & Graduate Student Support Initiatives Since UTSC has approximately 225 affiliated graduate students (compared with roughly 14,000 at St. George), building attendance at TA training and graduate student professional skills programming for the campus population is a challenge. But the rapid increase in offerings and attendance this year offers a strong indicator of TA and graduate student interest in this programming. Also it is notable that UTSC’s unique GPS offerings have attracted St. George graduate students; in our enrollment figures for GPS-eligible events, 12 out of 106 attendees represent St. George students who learned of our events through the GPS website. Hence, the TA & Graduate Student Support program will continue to work with invested partners to develop valuable programming to enhance specific teaching and professional skills for this relatively small but growing population at UTSC. More regular and effective promotion of events was a key strategy this year. The striking increase in TATP and GPS workshops in 2013-14 was also facilitated by offering three of the workshops through both programs, so that students could get credit in either. Moreover, attendance at “Best Practices in Formative Feedback” was undoubtedly boosted by making it part of the Teaching Showcase, even though the session was held as an early morning (9 – 11 am) “pre-conference” event. Similar combinations with other programs or events will be planned in the future to increase attendance. The TA & Graduate Student Support program will also continue to foster and develop collaborations with department faculty on initiatives to promote writing through supporting TAs in writing-intensive courses. In addition, to further enhance participation in TATP workshops in 2014-15, the Coordinator of TA & Graduate Student Support will work with the new UTSC TATP trainer on efforts to draw more undergraduate TAs into the program. A welcome event for new TAs will be offered in conjunction with the initial first-time training session in the fall term. A communications network with departments that employ undergraduates as TAs will also be established. The main changes for Graduate Professional Day planned for 2014-15 will be to continue to develop and enhance the day’s programming, so that not only new participants will be attracted in 2015, but some people who have attended might return for new sessions. Moreover, discussions with graduate students who participated this year, along with comments in evaluations of the event, have led to plans for Roger Francis (UTSC Arts & Science Co-op Program) and Ruth Louden (AA&CC) to each develop a 3-hour workshop for GPS, based on their Graduate Professional Day sessions. Along with professional skills programming, continued growth of the graduate writing initiative is expected for the coming year. Through increased FTE load assigned to TA & Graduate Student Support starting July 1, 2014 (from .3 FTE to .4 FTE), the program’s Coordinator will be able to offer writing and editing support to more students. Appendix 1: New Workshops Developed and Offered at UTSC for the Graduate Professional Skills (GPS) Program • “Fundamentals of Effective Research Grant Writing”—presented by Malcolm Campbell, Vice Principal, Research (co-developed with Sheryl Stevenson, TA & Graduate Student Support Coordinator).


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• “The 3 Minute Thesis™: An Interactive Guide for Graduate Students”—co-developed and co-presented by Sarah Forbes, Scholarly Communications Librarian, and Sheryl Stevenson. This workshop was the first of its kind in the GPS program; to set it up and promote it, Sheryl Stevenson liaised with the School of Graduate Studies office (St. George campus) that sponsors the University of Toronto’s annual 3 Minute Thesis™ competition, in which PhD students present their research to a general audience. The Graduate Students’ Association at Scarborough (GSAS) got behind the GPS 3 Minute Thesis™ workshop, as well as the follow-up individual practice sessions (for six students), in order to enhance the preparation of UTSC graduate students for the 2014 competitions. • “Fostering Academic Integrity among Undergraduates”—an entirely revised workshop for both GPS and TATP credit, developed and presented by Sheryl Stevenson, partly drawing upon findings and materials of the UTSC AIM initiative (Academic Integrity Matters). • “Translating Research into Practice: Creating a Poster Presentation Plan”—co-developed and co-presented by Sarah Forbes and Adon Irani (Academic Communication & Technology Specialist, CTL). This new workshop for the GPS program was expanded from a shorter offering at Graduate Professional Day 2013. • “Research Ethics in the Social Sciences and Humanities”—presented by Dean Sharpe, Research Ethics Board Manager—Social Sciences & Humanities. This GPS-eligible workshop, regularly presented at the St. George campus, was offered for the first time at UTSC through collaborative efforts of Sheryl Stevenson and the Office of the Vice Principal, Research. • “Best Practices in Formative Feedback”—presented by Nancy Johnston, Writing Support Coordinator (The Writing Centre) and Associate Director, CTL. This workshop was offered in conjunction with the TATP program and CTL’s Teaching Showcase, so that it drew some faculty and staff, as well as graduate students and TAs. Appendix 2: 2013-14 Workshops and Events Eligible for Credit in the Graduate Professional Skills Program (GPS) Workshop / Event: Fall (F) and Spring (S) 2013-14 Facilitators Attendance Fundamentals of Effective Research Grant Writing (F) Malcolm Campbell 10 The 3 Minute Thesis™: An Interactive Guide for Graduate Students (F)

Sarah Forbes Sheryl Stevenson

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Fostering Academic Integrity among Undergraduates (F)

Sheryl Stevenson 8

Selling Your Skills on Paper: Preparing a Resume and/or CV

Sarah King Kira Bruschke

3

Graduate Professional Day (S) Various presenters 39 Translating Research into Practice: Creating a Poster Presentation Plan (S)

Sarah Forbes Adon Irani

6

Strengthening Undergraduates’ Research and Writing Skills (S)

Sarah Fedko Sheryl Stevenson

7

Research Ethics in the Social Sciences and Humanities (S)

Dean Sharpe 2 (along with 8 others)

Advanced Interview Skills for Graduate Students (S) Ruth Louden 9


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Sheryl Stevenson Best Practices in Formative Feedback (S) Nancy Johnston 11 (along with 3

others) Teaching Showcase (S) Various presenters 4 (along with

73 others) TOTAL 106* *Attendance of graduate students & TAs; the total excludes others (faculty and staff).


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Appendix 3: 2013-14 Workshops and Sessions Associated with the Teaching Assistants’ Training Program, including Nutrition for Educators Workshops Eligible for TATP Credit Total attendance at TATP-credit events or TA training sessions: 237 TATP Workshops: Fall (F) and Spring (S) 2013-14 Facilitators Attendance Classroom Management Strategies (F) Malama Tsimenis 10 Effective and Efficient Grading (F) Sandra Romain 5 Fostering Academic Integrity among Undergraduates (F)

Sheryl Stevenson 8

The Teaching Dossier (F) Michelle Majeed 9 Strengthening Undergraduates’ Research and Writing Skills (S)

Sarah Fedko Sheryl Stevenson

7

Effective Communication with Your Teaching Team (S)

Sandra Romain 5

Translating Your TA Experience into Marketable Skills (S)

Sandra Romain Mariam Aslam

9

Best Practices in Formative Feedback (S) Nancy Johnston 11 (along with 3 others)

TOTAL 64* *Attendance of graduate students & TAs; the total excludes others (faculty and staff). 2013-14 TA Training Sessions: Summer, (F) Fall, (S) Spring

Facilitators Attendance

Catch-All: All Disciplines (Summer) Michelle Hoffman 12 Biology & Math (F) Sandra Romain

Ben Moulton 35

Biology & Math (F) Sandra Romain Andreea Lupascu

31

Management (F) Sandra Romain Michelle Majeed

30

Catch-All: All Disciplines (F) Sandra Romain 2 Sciences (S) Sandra Romain

Andreea Lupascu 21

Catch-All: All Disciplines (S) Sandra Romain Sandra Campeanu

32

TOTAL

163

Nutrition for Educators: Workshops Eligible for TATP Credit

Facilitators Attendance*

Strategies for Supporting ESL/ELL Students in Our Courses

Elaine Khoo Heather-Lynne Meacock

1

Mental Health Issues on Campus: Identifying and Responding to Students

Elsa Kiosses 2

Active Learning: Sharing Ideas That Work Effie Sauer, Shadi Dalili, 4


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Lana Mikhaylichenko, & Zohreh Shahbazi

Writing as Skill / Writing to Learn Anne Milne, April Franco, Corinne Beauquis, & Sarah King

1

Instructional Uses of Social / Digital Media Leslie Chan, Bill Gough, Daniel Tysdal, & Brian Sutherland

2

TOTAL *Only TA & graduate student attendance is shown.

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Appendix 4: Schedule/Sessions for Graduate Professional Day 2014

Concurrent Morning Workshops

In IC 318

8:45 – 9:15 Sign in: Pick up your badge and folder (coffee/tea)

9:15 – 10:45 Personal Branding: From Plato to Placement

-‐-‐Roger Francis, Director, Arts & Science Co-op Programs

10:45 – 11:00 Break

11:00 – 12:00 Handling Stress

-‐-‐Erin Bradford, Team Leader, Counselling Services, Health & Wellness Centre

In IC 404

8:45-9:00 Sign in (IC 318): Pick up your badge and folder (coffee/tea)

9:00 – 12:00 TATP Microteaching I: Presentation Skills Builder

Lunchtime Panel (IC 318)

12:00 – 1:30 Lunch and panel discussion

Topic: Challenges of the Workplace (Including Difficult People)

-‐-‐Cindy Bongard, (PhD, UTSC), Service Learning and Peer Facilitation Strategist, CTL


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Appendix 5: Published Papers Co-Authored by Graduate Students Who Benefited from Graduate Editing Support Amini, K., Chanb, N.W.C., & Kraatza, H.-B. (2014). Toll-like receptor 3 modified Au electrode: An

investigation into the interaction of TLR3 immobilized on Au surfaces with poly (I:C). Analytical Methods. DOI: 10.1039/c4ay00369a.

Jien, J., & Gough, W. (2013). The influence of Atlantic hurricanes on Southern Ontario’s precipitation extremes. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 114(1-2), 55-60.

Liang,A., Paulo,C., Zhu,Y., & Dittrich,M. (2013). CaCO3 biomineralization on cyanobacterial surfaces: Insights from experiments with three Synechococcus strains. Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces, 111, 600-608.

Paulo, C., & Dittrich, M. (2013). 2D Raman spectroscopy study of dolomite and cyanobacterial extracellular polymeric substances from Khor Al-Adaid sabkha (Qatar). Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, 44(11), 1563–1569.

Appendix 6: Graduate Editing Support—Types of Consultations 60-minute appointments (face-to-face): 11 30-minute appointments (face-to-face): 6 60-minute online consultations: 31 30-minute online consultations: 3

Total one-to-one consultations: 51 Total hours of consultations: 46.5 The table below offers a breakdown of types of writing (or writing-related issues) that graduate students received help with. The table’s figures present numbers of sessions. Figures not in parentheses represent sessions of about 60 minutes in length, while those in parentheses indicate shorter sessions (30 minutes). Longer projects, including papers for publication, usually required more than one session, especially if ESL issues were involved. Mode Short

Projects1 Course Papers

Papers for Publication2

Long Projects3

Job Search4

General Advice

Total: Consultations Completed

Face-to- Face

4(3) 2(2) 5 (1) 11(6)

Online 4(2) 25 2 (1) 31(3) Totals: Type of Help

8(5) 27(2) 5 2 (2) 42(9)

1 Short projects included a conference proposal, a personal statement for a dentistry program application, an OGS Plan of Study, two grant proposals, and a consultation on applications for postdoctoral fellowships. 2 Papers for publication ranged from 18-35 pages in length, sometimes including a cover letter responding to journal editors’ and reviewers’ suggestions in cases where the graduate student was resubmitting a paper. Usually 2-3 sessions were required for each paper. 3 Long projects included Masters of Environmental Science internship reports (30-35 pages) and research proposals for dissertations that require more than one consultation. 4 Consultations related to the job search included advice on cover letters, resumes and CVs.


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Support for Faculty with Educational Technology SUMMARY The Ed Tech team supports UTSC faculty in their use of technology to more efficiently run their courses, and to strategize in delivery of course content to enhance student learning. The team also collaborates with other units to bring our pedagogical perspectives to various joint endeavors. Service to UTSC staff and students is provided in specific key areas. These are the key services/support that we deliver:

• Blackboard and academic technologies support (including workshops and documentation), e.g. iClickers, Turnitin, Collaborate • Test-scanning • WebOption Lecturecasting • Support/liaison for teaching grant technology projects • Course evaluation support (supporting pre-promotion instructors only by preparing print materials) • CTL projects - supporting internal CTL work, e.g. enhancing data collection and integration, cardswiping, event registration, database development

Other services/programming provided by the Ed Tech team that are not necessarily technology-specific:

• Presentation Skills for students • coordinating CTL participation in the CCR initiative • Junior Ambassadors • Communications support, e.g. brochures, programs, posters for various CTL units and key campus events, an Ed Tech e-newsletter.


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KEY ED TECH INFORMATION 2013/14

• Faculty consultations – 1016 (B. Sutherland, A. Irani combined; staff, students - 429 consultations) (Note: each consultation could consist of 2 or more phone calls and/or emails) • Weboption – 105 courses (30635 student hours) • Workshops – 22 workshops (92 participants). (This includes standalone ed tech events, and contributions to CTL lunchtime events and the CTL Showcase) (See Appendix One.) • Test scanning – 840 tests (102,129 sheets) • Course Evaluations – supporting pre-promotion instructors only, by providing evaluation documents in print; Summer 2013, 5 courses (120 sheets); Fall 2013, 34 courses (1857 sheets); Winter 2014, 38 courses (1721 sheets)

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY STAFF Adon Irani, Academic Communications and Technologies Specialist Mark Mckee, Projects Manager, WebOption Lecturecasting Coordinator/Technology Initiatives Project Manager Brian Sutherland, Educational Technologies Administrator Janice Patterson, Associate Director, CTL

Part A – Academic Communications and Technology Specialist Educational Technologies, e.g. BlackBoard CTL's Ed Tech team provides direct support to faculty on using Blackboard, Turnitin, Bb Collaborate, Excel, and other educational technologies. Please refer to our website for additional details: http://http://ctl.utsc.utoronto.ca/technology/ In 2013-2014, I provided faculty consultations on a total of 171 occasions.

Assisting in tri-campus EdTech documentation Our Ed Tech team continues to collaborate with CTSI to prepare documentation for the upgraded Blackboard Learning Portal. In addition to creating and updating tip sheets, support has been provided on integrating the new documentation into the Drupal-based http://portalinfo.utoronto.ca site.

Test Scanning CTL provides a Test Scanning service for faculty wishing to use multiple-choice exams in their courses. This free service provides a 2-business day turn-around, and a detailed PDF report that includes question-by-question item analysis offering insight into the quality of each test question. For more information, please visit: http://ctl.utsc.utoronto.ca/home/testscanning. In 2013-2014 we scanned 102,129 individual test sheets.

2013-2014 Total 102129 sheets --> 840 tests

Fall 2013 49084 sheets --> 367 tests Summer 2013 12515 sheets --> 165 tests Winter 2014 40530 sheets --> 308 tests


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Test scanning improvements Significant improvements have been made to the Test Scanning process, leading to substantial reductions in the number of technical steps involved in processing a test. These improvements have allowed us to maintain, and often improve, our turn-around time. Additionally, we have improved our communications and provide specific help instructions along with the processed results for each request.

Course evaluations on paper Substantial effort has been taken to support the University's mandate for course evaluations. Some faculty who are pre-promotion remain eligible for paper-based evaluations, with the resulting data needing to be integrated back into the official tri-campus system. Extensive resources are required to provide this service. It is expected to continue for the next few years until all faculty hired before Summer 2012 have been promoted or are no longer employed by the University

• Summer, 5 courses (120 sheets) • Fall, 34 courses (1857 sheets) • Winter, 38 courses (1721 sheets)

CTL/IITS Faculty Liaison CTL has combined forces with IITS to provide targeted consulting services to faculty that have received TEG or ITIF grant funding. These services ensure the educational psychology and pedagogical requirements are respected while working with the ITIS developers throughout the entire project development life-cycle. Currently there are several projects in development. Presentation Skills CTL offers free student workshops on Academic Communication and Presentation Skills. These workshops are delivered by work-study students under the supervision of our Academic Communications & Technology Specialist (who also provides training). Topics include Presenting Basics, Handling Presentation Anxiety, Understanding Language & Audience, Storyboarding, Prezi, PowerPoint, Excel Data Visualization, and Mind Mapping. In 2013-2014 we consulted with Faculty

Anthropology+5%+

Arts,+Culture+and+Media+4%+

Biology+21%+

Computer+Math+Studies+5%+

Department+of+Physical+&+

Environmental+Sciences+12%+

Health+Studies+3%+

Management+11%+

Philosophy+1%+

PoliFcal+Science+1%+

Psychology+28%+

Sociology+5%+

Other+4%+

2013%2014'Top'Academic'Department'users'of'scantron'services'


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on 28 separate occasions; delivered 51 hours of in-class workshops; and, 71 hours of student workshops (delivered by our work-study students). CTL Website renewal CTL is in the process of replacing its various websites, including the main CTL site, all unit sites (TWC, ELDC, MSLC), all program sites (Service Learning, Presentation Skills, Summer Learning Institutes), and our Ed Technology support website. This is a complex process due to the number of units in CTL and differing needs and sheer volume of the information and resources to be migrated. The websites use the award-winning UTSC website style, upgraded to Drupal 7, and will provide special capacity to house all our tipsheets and digital resources. This process is expected to come to completion by end of Summer 2014. CTL Junior Ambassador program We have successfully launched our CTL Jr. Ambassador Program. Our Jr. Ambassadors are hand-selected, top students who are familiar with all our various CTL student service offerings. They represent CTL at promotional and student intake events throughout the year, on over 30 separate occasions. We currently have a total of 13 students in our Jr. Ambassador pool. Co-Curricular Record CTL is participating in the Co-Curricular Record launch. Currently we have 11 positions validated in the CCR, with close to 50 students eligible for CTL-related CCR activities. CTL also has a representative sitting on the UTSC CCR approvals committee and is fully participating in each phase of the CCR’s implementation. Organizational development and advisory services Adon has taken an active role within CTL to assist with the achievement of targeted internal improvements. In concert with Mark McKee, substantial effort has been taken to enhance communications processes within the department and across the campus. This is expected to continue into 2014-2015. Data analysis and visualization support CTL has been improving its internal reporting and data tracking. Mark McKee and Adon Irani have been instrumental in enabling this process. By working in collaboration with IITS to improve data availability, and with specific efforts in Excel to enhance data readability and clarity, the end result has been greater support for our internal units in data collection and analysis. Ultimately this allows for better understanding of who our clients are and how to support/assist them. Goals 2014-2015 CTL will complete its website renewal process and launch its set of sites mid 2014. CTL's Presentation Skills team has its lead student facilitator graduating, so we will be bringing on and training new students into this role. Additional workshops are planned for development, and we will be collaborating with UTSC’s Arts & Science Co-op to offer our workshops as validated training sessions for their students. Several projects now exist in the TEG/IITF pipeline, and we expect a number of these projects to complete their development cycle over the next academic year. We also hope to strengthen our relationship between IITS/CTL in our faculty liaison role.


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Part B – The WebOption Lecturecast Service The WebOption service shows definite signs of leveling off this year with the total course request count at 105 courses, down by 5% over the previous year. Substantial growth in the number of courses offered in the Fall 2013 semester (32%) helped to offset a larger decline for the Summer 2013 semester (-39%) and Winter 2014 semester (-11%). A total of 30,635 students were enrolled in courses serviced by WebOption in 2013/2014 marking a 2% decrease over the previous three semesters. The Fall 2013 semester also noted a record high of over 130 hours of lecture recordings each week. WebOption has extended its interest for some instructors this year by recording tutorials, mid-term/final reviews and example problems. This new offering allows instructors to provide additional learning resources to the students enrolled in the course while freeing up lecture time to reinforce the fundamentals of more difficult concepts. We expect this popularity will continue to grow to include more courses that traditionally have only offered lecture recordings. WebOption Lecturecasting Course Count 2010-2014

% Increase -39% 3% 32% 8% -11% -15% -5% -2%

As we experience the expected leveling off in popularity, a strong core of repeat courses remains as loyal users of the WebOption service. Subtle increases and declines are beginning to show as new users “try out” the service and monitor its effect on their students study habits and lecture attendance. The diversity among new users continues to widen as evidenced by such courses as VPMA93, “Listening to Music”, MGTA35, “Management Communications for non co-op”, and MATC46, “Differential Equations”. Students continue to rely on the service as an additional learning tool as evidenced by the substantial hit count on the website, consistently in the 800,000 range. See the Ed Tech Administrator’s report below for an outline of some technical enhancements to the WebOption. As noted, Mark McKee works closely with Adon Irani to enhance CTL communications, and internal data analysis and visualization support. This includes projects such as enhancing data collection and integration, cardswiping, event registration, and communications support, e.g. brochures, programs, posters for various CTL units and key campus events, and an Ed Tech e-newsletter.

2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 Summer Full Courses 21 26 36 22 Summer Enrolment 2879 3219 3698 3824 Fall Full Courses 30 41 38 50 Fall Enrolment 11786 13909 14860 16040 Winter Full Courses 25 25 37 33 Winter Enrolment 10853 11294 12613 10771 Total Full Courses 76 92 111 105

Total Enrolment 25518 28422 31171 30635


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Presentations/Discussions CTL Celebration of Teaching/Faculty Showcase – Teaching and Learning With Video Outside the Classroom. Lead by Mark McKee; co-contributors – Adon Irani, Brian Sutherland (Roundtable discussion; 24 attendees).

Part C – Educational Technologies Blackboard consultations (*includes consultations of both B. Sutherland and A. Irani) – Note: each instance of support could involve 2 or more emails or phone calls:

Faculty Staff Students Blackboard 691 110 124 Intranet 43 21 12 Other 111 32 130 TOTAL 1016 163 266 TOTAL = 1445*

Workshops – See Appendix One. Turnitin B. Sutherland and A. Irani contributed actively to the launch (by the St. George team) and support of the Blackboard Turnitin Direct Submit tool this past year, and many UTSC instructors were using it. Unfortunately due to some technical issues, the module has been removed from Blackboard and we’ve returned to using the previous set-up. Technical Support for WebOption We also made substantial improvements in the WebOption lecturecast system. In the physical infrastructure, production services were moved to the IITS VM servers with a higher performance disk array. In services integration, we implemented the Shibboleth-based weblogin authentication system. Weblogin allows students to pass seamlessly from Blackboard into the lecturecast system while maintaining login-state, reducing the level of complexity required to reach course videos. We also advocated successfully to have the weblogin system upgraded to support mobile devices (smartphones and tablets), our alternative broadcast portal. In the WebOption, CTL produced more than 2 500 1- 3 hour lecture videos for approximately 100 courses this year. We continued to pilot the caption editing system. We also accomplished the following: migrated the ecturecast system to three IITS servers, for better performance, and implemented new lecturecast system features including an administrative graphical user environment that allows for easier system updates. IClickers iClicker continues to be used across the campus with good success in most departments, notably the sciences and languages. Faculty are beginning to evaluate web-based alternatives, with varying degrees of success. An iClicker Blackboard integrated authentication module that simplifies the process of tracking users was tested during the Winter term. (See Appendix 2). Other project enhancements/accomplishments a. Service Learning & Outreach online application system

- multi-year coverage, reference and reporting - ability to copy postings from one year to another


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b. CTL Event Registration System - booking system improvements: ability to mail merge session evaluation data to respondents c. Blackboard Support Material - new Blackboard support pages detailing the pedagogy and application of rubrics; academic integrity resources and application (esp. Turnitin Direct Submit); additional Blackboard Collaborate support resources - maintained and updated support site of 50+ pages, consisting of screen shots, videos and links d. Assignment Calculator - extended and upgraded the assignment calculator to support new calculate types, and text-message students reminders at key milestones Presentations 1) TechKnowFile 2013:

- Quizzical: Collaborative Student Generated Test Taking Tool (with D. Riggs, principal presenter) - Lecture Captioning: Big Crowds Correcting Big Data (co presented with S. Laughton, UTM)

2) CTL Lunchtime Workshop: Instructional Uses of Social / Digital Media (roundtable facilitator) 3) Teaching Showcase: Teaching and Learning With Video Outside the Classroom (facilitator w/ Adon Irani and Mark McKee)

COLLABORATIONS The Educational Technology team contributed actively to various UT tri-campus discussion groups and forums such as:

• Blackboard upgrade documentation group • Turnitin discussion • Mobile devices forum and website • Blackboard Collaborate Implementation Group • Blackboard Documentation Group • eLearning Group w/ Director, Online Learning Strategies

FUTURE DIRECTIONS We anticipate that the busy pace of ed tech work in 2013/14 will continue into 2014/15. We anticipate completion of the renewal of both the main CTL website and unit websites (e.g. Writing Centre), which represents a significant amount of work for A. Irani leading the project and the units involve in re-imagining their sites. Expected launch of this set of sites is mid-2014. There are also several grant-funded faculty technology initiatives in the pipeline where we expect to complete the development cycle over the next academic year. In these we have a pedagogical support/liaison role involving significant collaboration with IITS, and we look forward to strengthening our connection with them. We will work closely with colleagues in the new campus Educational Technology Working Group. We will continue to enhance connections and collaboration with tri-campus colleagues re Blackboard and other technologies. We will continue supporting CTL units and staff regarding organizational development and advisory services, and data analysis and visualization support. Outcomes and feedback from our recent CTL retreat, and ongoing internal conversations, will connect to this work.


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Appendix 1: Workshops/Attendance

Title # GIWIH workshops 13 Blackboard for Liaison Librarians 12 iClicker Drop In Clinic 0 Blackboard Drop-In Clinic 2 Blackboard Drop-In Clinic (Repeat) 0 Blackboard TA Drop-In Clinic 0 The iClicker Audience Response System 1 Course Communications 2 Blackboard Drop In Clinic 0 Using Turnitin Direct-Submit - Plagiarism Detection Made Easy 2

Blackboard Challenges & Best Practices 0 Advanced Blackboard Grade Centre 2 Collaborate - Online Whiteboard and Virtual Classroom 1

Getting the Most from U of T Teaching Stations 1

Mobile U of T 10 Blackboard 101 0 Class Discussions using Blogs, Journals, and Discussion Boards 0

Using the Blackboard Grade Centre 0 Customizing Your Blackboard Courses 3 Instructional Uses of Social / Digital Media 15

Audience Participation and the iClicker System 1

Using Turnitin Direct-Submit – Plagiarism Detection Made Easy 3

A Celebration of Teaching and Faculty Showcase! – Teaching and Learning with Video

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TOTAL ATTENDEES 92


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Appendix 2: Instructors using iClickers

Julian Lowman Shadi Dalili Nirusha Thavarajah Tanzina Mohshin Heather Lynne Meacock Jovan Stefanovic Janelle Leboutillier Malama Tsimensis Joanne Nash John Miron Johann Bayer Sherri Thiele Caroline Barakat Brian Wilson


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Undergraduate Learning Support

A. Writing Centre Prepared by Sarah King, with input from Nancy Johnston and Sheryl Stevenson

SUMMARY The mission of the UTSC Writing Centre is to support writers and teachers using writing, at the University of Toronto Scarborough. We focus on the writing in the university community, which includes academic, scientific, formal, reflective, and creative writing. We focus on writing as a process that includes reading, pre-‐writing, planning, drafting, revising and editing. Our approach to both writers and teachers is learning-‐focused, process-‐based, collaborative, and community-‐oriented. Support for writers: We support students as learners in fulfilling the intellectual demands of their courses through one-‐to-‐one work on academic writing, writing groups, peer-‐run writing clinics, and in-‐class writing workshops. In 2013/14, we worked with 655 students one-‐to-‐one in 1823 hours of consultation, saw 529 students in 1111 drop-‐in meetings, facilitated 20 hours of writing clinics attended by 241 students, taught 41 in-‐class workshops in 29 different courses across 12 different departments. Support for teachers: We support instructors in their development as expert teachers through promoting both writing-‐to-‐learn activities, and effective writing assignments, formal and informal. In over 43 hours of consultations with course instructors held in 2013/14, we promoted scaffolded assignments, peer review, formative feedback, and writing-‐to-‐learn activities. We met with groups of faculty and TAs teaching writing-‐intensive courses in five departments. We offered or facilitated workshops for instructors (including TAs) on course and assignment design, formative feedback, creative teaching, and writing-‐to-‐learn. We organized a mini-‐conference that brought 40 writing instructors from across the three campuses to UTSC to engage in informed discussion about their teaching practices. Writing communities: We foster student and instructor communities of practice. In 2013/14 we trained and mentored 10 junior and senior writing peers to support writers in a range of courses. We also offered a small writing group attended by 3 to 4 students every week. We supported instructor and TA communities of practice in teaching writing through workshops on writing, meetings with faculty and TAs from five departments, and ongoing collegial discussions and feedback. Partnerships: We collaborate extensively with both academic and non-‐academic partners to support students and faculty alike. In 2013/14, as one of five members of the Academic Integrity Matters team, we participated in delivering workshops on academic integrity to 464 students, targeting incoming students and international students to develop their understanding of—and ability to meet—the university’s expectations. We partnered with Academic Advising & Career Centre to support students writing


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applications for graduate and professional schools through workshops delivered to 44 students, and through new Assignment Calculator materials. The following report begins by briefly outlining our staff and programming. The bulk of the report is divided in two, beginning with student programming followed by faculty programming. Details of community-‐building and partnerships are integrated into each section. A. Background Staff The UTSC Writing Centre is an academic unit staffed by professional writing instructors, all of whom hold at least a Master’s degree, and all of whom have taught courses at the university level.


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Senior Lecturers (full-‐time): Sarah King, PhD English, Writing Centre Coordinator (0.8 FTE) Nancy Johnston, PhD English, Writing Support Coordinator (also CTL Associate Director)Lecturers (part-‐time): Sheryl Stevenson, PhD English (0.2 FTE in TWC) Ryan Hurl, PhD Political Science (0.1 FTE in TWC) Writing Instructors (CUPE 3902 Unit 3): Mina Arakawa, MFA Asher Ghaffar, MA, PhD ABD Colette Granger, PhD Education Michael Lapointe, PhD English Maggie Roberts, MA, PhD ABD Thomas Robles, MEd, Adult Education


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Location http://ctl.utsc.utoronto.ca/twc/ The Writing Centre is physically located in the Academic Resource Centre, Room 210, right across from the UTSC Library. We have four offices in which we meet one-‐to-‐one with students, and where students regularly stop in to pick up handouts on writing that range from advice to worksheets. On our website, we provide the same handouts plus links to many more writing resources, online seminars, video clips and advice. B. Support for Student Writers

a. One-‐to-‐one support in 50-‐minute appointments Writers need readers, and our one-‐to-‐one appointments provide students with experienced academic readers who can quickly assess strengths and weaknesses, target problems, and teach writers how to find solutions. We work with students in all the disciplines taught at UTSC, and at all levels, from those just starting first year to PhD students. In 2013-‐14, we offered 1823 50-‐minute appointments, attended by 655 different students. As the charts below indicate, we serve undergraduate students almost equally across years of study. Use by discipline varies widely, with the largest numbers of students coming from Management (33%), followed by Psychology (16%) and Anthropology (12%). Graduate students are generally referred to Dr. Sheryl Stevenson, who offers one-‐to-‐one advice on writing through CTL’s Graduate Student Support Program (reported separately).


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Students value 50-‐minute appointments highly. In anonymous evaluations conducted in November 2013 and March 2014, 100% of students would return or recommend The Writing Centre to their friends. Appointments are consistently very highly rated: on a 6-‐point scale where 1 is very poor and 6 is outstanding, 87 % of students ranked quality of instruction as either very good or outstanding. In March 2014, one student commented: “I really appreciate the opportunity that the Writing Center provides for students at UTSC, because not everyone is capable of writing perfectly, and a second opinion is always really helpful. I find the guidance and support that the Writing Center provides is remarkable.” Another wrote, “I have used the services from the writing center every semester and I find that every semester the quality of my writing has improved significantly.”

Drop-‐in hours The value students place on 50-‐minute writing appointments means that demand for appointments always exceeds our ability to grant them. On our electronic waiting list, maintained through our appointment booking system, we have an average of 4 students every day, up to a maximum of 22 students on a single day. In order to ensure that as many student writers as possible have some feedback on their work, we offer daily drop-‐in hours where students can meet with an instructor for up to 20 minutes. In 2013-‐14, we saw 529 students in 1111 drop-‐in sessions; 236 of these also had 50-‐minute sessions. As the pie chart below indicates, as in the 50-‐minute appointments, students attending drop-‐ins come from across disciplines and across years at UTSC. Management, Psychology, and Anthropology students remain our largest users.


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Usage varies fairly consistently over the course of the term, with two peaks, one before reading week and one at the end of term, as illustrated by the following graph, which includes students seen in both 50-‐minute appointments and drop-‐in hours.


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b. In-‐class workshops Under the leadership of the Writing Support Coordinator, Dr. Nancy Johnston, The Writing Centre offers an innovative program of customized in-‐class workshops tailored to instructor goals, assignment genre and student needs. Workshops vary in length, from 20-‐minute introductions with a focus on a particular assignment, to 90-‐minute workshops that lead students through several writing and editing activities. Occasionally, more than one workshop is offered in a course, or workshops are paired with writing clinics or with special blocks of one-‐to-‐one appointments. Preparing each workshop involves consultation and planning in collaboration with the course instructor, development of instructional materials that are sent to course instructor (and generally posted to Blackboard course pages), and follow-‐up feedback. In 2013-‐14, writing instructors visited over 60 different classes (sometimes multiple sections of the same course), presenting brief introductions to The Writing Centre in 6 courses, mostly large first-‐year classes, and delivering tailored workshops, between 25 to 90 minutes in length, in 29 (see Appendix A for details of the workshops). Many of these workshops, which take place in class time, are repeat visits, indicating the value that instructors place on them. Feedback is also very positive, as the following sample comment from an ENGB05 instructor indicates: “Just wanted to let you know that my students have just submitted their "writing reflection journals" for the end of the semester (in which they reflect on what they're learned and their take-‐aways from B05), and, once again, your name came up many times as one of the most helpful classes of the semester.” The planning and presentation of these workshops is integral to our mission of supporting both writers and teachers, as the process educates both students—about the assignment and the writing process—and instructor—about how to teach writing and support writers. A unique combination of Writing Centre and Writing in the Disciplines work, we have presented workshops on this at several conferences this year, including the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE), Inkshed (May 2014) and have submitted an abstract to present next year at the largest North American conference on writing, the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC 2015).

c. Writing Clinics and Writing Peers A second unique Writing Centre program are Writing Clinics, where trained writing peers work with students in a hands-‐off environment. The primary goal is to foster a community of peer-‐to-‐peer learning. Writing Peers are selected and carefully trained to assist students attending writing clinics to formulate questions about writing assignments, engage in brainstorming and support research activities. In 2013/14, 3 senior peers (a new designation) and 7 junior peers supported 20 hours of clinics attended by 241 students. Senior peers supported the Writing Support Coordinator in training and mentoring junior peers. Clinics were offered in courses in Psychology, English, Sociology, Biology, Management, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Arts Culture Media. Notable was a highly successful collaboration with the Biology RezApps for a residence BIOA01 clinic (50 students). BIOA01 and ACMA01 students are strong users of the writing clinics. Senior Peer Angela Mahendiran created a poster to showcase the Writing Clinics and Peer Program at the UTSC Teaching Showcase (see Appendix B).


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d. Small-‐group writing support

Personal Statement and Graduate School Application Support Since 2008, The Writing Centre has partnered with Academic Advising & Career Centre to offer regular workshops for students on writing their personal statements for applications for graduate and professional schools. In 2013/14, we offered four workshops, three on Getting Started, and one on Editing attended by a total of 44 students. We also collaborated to develop two new timelines for the popular Assignment Calculator program, offered by the Library and Centre for Teaching and Learning: Personal Statement and Applying for Graduate School. Completed in March 2014, these already have had 76 and 66 hits respectively. These can be found at: https://ctl.utsc.utoronto.ca/assignmentcal/ Stand-‐alone Writing Workshops Writing seminars open to all students are a fairly standard writing centre program, and UTSC has a long history of offering an excellent series. However, over the last five years, we observe that while registration remains high, attendance is often low, suggesting that students are interested but may be facing competing demands on their time. In 2012, Writing Specialist Dr. Sheryl Stevenson decided to transition our stand-‐alone seminars to an online format, beginning with the two most popular seminars: Writing at University, and Understanding Assignments. In 2013/14 she added 3 new workshops to our online series:

• Grammar Hot Spots • De-‐Stress: Reducing Test Anxiety • Using Source Well: Integrating Evidence in Humanities Papers

Workshops can be viewed at http://ctl.utsc.utoronto.ca/twc/mods Acknowledging that student interest remains, we also offered Writing at University and Understanding Assignments in the fall, and 12 students attended. Dr. Stevenson also offered a workshop on creating a strong introduction and thesis, attended by 9 students.

Writer’s Space Dr. Sheryl Stevenson runs a small weekly writing group where students met, for one hour in the Fall and 2 hours in the Spring, to read one another’s work and offer supportive feedback. Weekly attendance varies from 1 to 6 students, with 3 or 4 students attending most weeks.

e. Fostering Academic Integrity The Writing Centre is one of the founding partners in the Academic Integrity Matters team, which includes representatives from the International Student Centre, Academic Advising & Career Centre, The English Language Development Centre, and the Dean’s office (Dean’s designate for Academic Integrity). In 2013/14 AIM offered 5 workshops to a general audience, plus 5 to international students (GreenPath and Fair Taiwan), and 2 more for incoming students (ELD SLI), reaching a total of 464 students. In addition, the Wheel of Misfortune, a game-‐based teaching tool, was used at two outreach events in May and June 2013, and at all 20 Get Started days in June and July 2013.

f. Summer Support for Incoming Students The Writing SLI was offered for the first time in August 2012, borrowing elements from its predecessor, the award-‐winning Research, Writing, and Presentation SLI (offered 2005-‐2009), but with a new focus


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on critical reading and writing and a primarily online format. In summer 2013, we reviewed student and instructor feedback and revised the program in two ways. First, we expanded the on-‐campus elements to create a truly blended learning experience: an introductory on-‐campus class designed to build community and pro-‐actively address challenging elements in the program, and an optional on-‐campus mid-‐week study session. When the program was offered in August 2013, 18 students signed up and participated actively in both on-‐campus meetings and online activities. g. Contributing to a Positive Student Experience In the Writing Centre, we see ourselves contributing quietly but effectively to a positive student experience at university, conducive to overall mental health and well-‐being. The Writing Centre Coordinator is a member of the UTSC Mental Health Network and moderated two faculty presentations related to student mental health. In 2013/14, we produced a small informative flyer on the academic and personal benefits of Expressive Writing (see Appendix C). The initial run of these flyers has been exhausted, and the flyer has been requested by at least one instructor. Our one-‐to-‐one appointments, staffed by experienced university instructors, offer an opportunity for students to connect to a faculty member without risk. They help allay student anxiety and build student confidence by clarifying the expectations of academic writing, and offering a trustworthy sounding board for ideas and drafts. Returning students often form bonds with specific instructors who become mentors. Referrals from AccessAbility Services allow instructors to work closely with selected students. The online De-‐Stress workshop focuses on teaching simple research-‐based techniques students can use to relieve stress and perform to their potential. Both the writing clinics and peer program invite students to work on their writing in a community of supportive peers. B. Support for Instructors, Faculty and Departments In addition to working directly with students in many contexts, we also work extensively with faculty, course instructors and to a lesser extent, with Teaching Assistants. Our goals in these consultations, workshops, and collaborations are to build community, share our pedagogical approach, and encourage instructors to adopt effective teaching practices that will benefit their students. a. Consultations with Individual faculty members Coordinators and Writing Specialists offer consultations on writing assignment design and teaching, covering a wide range of topics including scaffolding, peer review, grading strategies, formative feedback, and rubrics. In 2013/14, we spent 43 hours in consultations with faculty in departments including Anthropology, Geography, Sociology, English, Physics, Management, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Arts Culture and Media. Additional informal conversations often take place on the bus, at various faculty events, or in the line at Tim Horton’s. Consultations include new faculty, sometimes teaching for the first time and often not in their first language, experienced instructors concerned about a new trend they are observing, or highly skilled instructors looking for creative ideas, ways of tweaking already successful assignments. Feedback is often oral, but on occasion we receive emails like the following: I did, in fact, incorporate your comments into my syllabus and as a result executed a very successful course. The course received an average 4.9/5 evaluation from students.[…] I greatly appreciate all your feedback on my course and thank you so much for helping make it a resounding success. (e-‐mail to Dr. Nancy Johnston in March 2014).


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b. Departmental Writing Initiatives TWC expertise has been sought by a growing number of departments as they increase their expectations and support for student writing. TWC is invited to department meetings and/or to meet with faculty and TAs in writing-‐intensive courses, to consult on curriculum and assignment design, TA training, and student support. City Studies. In July 2013, TWC Coordinator and Writing Support Coordinator, along with CTL colleagues Sarah Fedko and Allyson Skene, met with City Studies faculty and TAs, to discuss ongoing departmental initiatives in writing and strategize about future support. The meeting was followed by informal meetings with two faculty members, and one in-‐class visit. Management. Over the last five years, The Writing Centre has consulted with many Management faculty members over the years for in-‐class writing support, TA training for marking, and design of assignments. In 2011, the Management Department consulted with TWC and ELDC Coordinators on developing their students writing skills in all courses, particularly in first-‐year. In 2013, Management launched a writing intensive component in their first-‐year course, MGTA02, intended to get students writing two short essays in the first semester and provide formative feedback on their writing. Writing Support Coordinator Dr. Nancy Johnston was engaged in discussions about assignment design and TA training to support, designed an interactive training module for TA graders on how to provide formative feedback on writing, and presented it in collaboration with Sandra Romain, TA Trainer for UTSC. Management instructors noted an improvement in writing competence by students completing these assignments. Sociology. Following a departmental review that included a recommendation for increased attention to student writing skills, the Sociology Department has committed to writing-‐intensive courses and approached TWC for additional input, particularly into training and supporting TAs in these courses. Writing Support Coordinator Dr. Nancy Johnston developed a two-‐hour training module on Formative Feedback in consultation with two senior TAs in Sociology, delivered with Dr. Sarah King to 8 participants. Materials developed were created with papers written by former students, and work materials were based on both Writing Centre materials, and Sociology academic models. Additional support for the department included one-‐to-‐one consultations with four sociology faculty and two Teaching Assistants. TWC Coordinator Sarah King facilitated a session on writing the personal statement tailored to sociology students as part of a workshop on options for sociology graduates. Arts Culture Media. In January 2014, ELDC and TWC faculty were invited to meet with eight ACM faculty concerned about a perceived downward trend in student writing skills and motivation. TWC Coordinator Sarah King consulted with faculty in advance of the meeting and prepared materials clarifying CTL support for students and suggesting possible avenues of support. Follow-‐up meetings with two instructors in Arts Management were held in March and April. English. The English Department takes writing very seriously, offering a foundational workshop course for all majors and specialists, ENGB05: Critical Writing About Literature. This year Sarah King taught one section of the course and consulted frequently with the course coordinator. In February 2014, as a result of faculty concerns about student writing, similar to those in ACM, TWC Coordinator met with English Department Chair and Associate Chair concerning initiatives to support writers. She then presented CTL support and some key suggestions for faculty at an English department meeting.


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c. Writing-‐Related Workshops for Instructors and Teaching Assistants Writing Centre faculty are regular contributors to CTL’s programming for instructors. In our faculty and TA workshops, we actively engage participants in learning through reflection, writing, and small-‐group activities, as well as group discussion. Particularly in the NFE series, we strive to create a forum where discipline-‐based instructors can shine, and where connections between instructors in different disciplines can be made. In 2013/14, TWC Coordinator Sarah King, with librarian Sarah Fedko, offered a workshop on Course Design at the summer series, Get it While It’s Hot. Sheryl Stevenson and Sarah King coordinated the Nutrition for Educators series, which included three workshops directly related to writing and teaching: Modeling the Research Process: Making the Proposal Assignment Work (S. Fedko and A. Allahwalla); Writing as Skill/Writing to Learn (C. Beauquis, A. Franco, A. Milne; The Creative Playground (N. Johnston and A. Westoll). The UTSC Teaching Showcase included a workshop on formative feedback and two round-‐tables, one on active learning and another on rubrics, all facilitated by Writing Centre faculty. d. Tri-‐campus writing instructor meeting at UTSC There are fourteen independent writing programs at the University of Toronto, as well as a range of discipline-‐based writing courses in different departments and faculties, creating a diverse and loosely affiliated community of writing instructors. In April 2014, the UTSC Writing Centre, in partnership with ELDC, hosted the Spring Writing Instructors Professional Development Session-‐-‐the first time in ten years that the meeting has been held away from the downtown campus. We expanded the usual half-‐day workshop into a full day mini-‐conference, and welcomed 40 writing instructors from all three campuses to the Instructional Centre. Nancy Johnston started the session with two creative activities around writing and teaching. Part-‐time writing instructors took a leadership role, with Maggie Roberts and Tom Robles facilitating morning round tables on sharing effective teaching practices, where writing instructors from four units presented their practices, including UTSC faculty Heather-‐Lynne Meacock and Sheryl Stevenson. In the afternoon, ELDC instructor Ali Hadidi introduced participants to Activity Theory and facilitated its application to different writing teaching contexts (see Appendix for complete program). Feedback after the session commented on the excellence of the teaching practices, the interactivity, collegiality, and overall stimulation of the day. Conclusion: Future Directions The year ahead promises exciting challenges and opportunities for The Writing Centre. In keeping with our focus on student learning, faculty teaching, collaboration and community, we propose the following areas: • Continue to build student communities of practice around writing through the writing peer program

and through structured encouragement of frequent writing centre users to form writing partners; • Continue to build our partnerships with academic support units and student groups on campus; • Further develop our strategic collaborations with CTL colleagues in TA and Graduate Student

Support, English Language Development Centre, and the UTSC library in order to extend and deepen our partnerships with faculty;

• Deepen existing partnership with departments, including a renewal of online resources for faculty, increased follow-‐up and assessment of programming.


38

Appendix A: Customized writing workshops (not including introductions) taught in credit courses 2013/14


39

Appendix B: Poster on Writing Clinics and Writing Peer Program

Created by Angela Mahendiran and presented at the UTSC Teaching Showcase (April 9) and at the writing instructor mini-‐conference, How We Teach (April 16).


40

Appendix C: New Writing Centre Flyer on Expressive Writing

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41

Benefits of Expressive Wri ng for Students

THE WRITING CENTRE

The Wri ng Centre supports students in improving their wri ng skills. Feel free to visit us at AC210 and browse our student resources and handouts. You can also speak with a Wri ng Specialist or book a one-on-one appointment. Also, we hold Wri ng Clinics throughout the year.

For more informa on and resources visit the Wri ng Centre website:

h p://ctl.utsc.utoronto.ca/twc/main

Contact:

Dr. Sarah King Wri ng Centre Coordinator

WHAT IS EXPRESSIVE

WRITING?

Expressive wri ng is about taking personal experiences and pu ng them down on paper. Studies have shown that if we write about stressful events, we func on be er and are happier overall.

Stress, anxiety, nervousness...these are experiences all students are familiar with.

Relief can come in many forms, and one of the simplest is expressive wri ng.

WANT TO TRY IT? Expressive wri ng is very simple – write freely about your thoughts and emo ons regarding a personal event in your life. You can do this any me, anywhere. If you would like to try Dr. James Pennebaker’s formula, which studies have shown improves wellness, here is how you do it… Pennebaker’s Formula:

x� Write about either a trauma c event in your life or something that is concerning you right now for 15-30 minutes per day for 3-5 consecu ve days

x� Don’t worry about spelling, grammar or

punctua on….just WRITE x� Once you start, keep going un l me is up x� You can write about the same topic or a

different topic each me

References:

Fra aroli, Joanne, Michael Thomas, and Sonja Lyubomirsky. "Opening up in the classroom: Effects of expressive wri ng on graduate school entrance exam performance." Emo on 11.3 (2011): 691-696.

Klein, Ki y, and Adriel Boals. "Expressive wri ng can increase working memory capacity." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 130.3 (2001): 520-533.

Pennebaker, James W. "Wri ng about emo onal experiences as a therapeu c process." Psychological Science 8.3 (1997): 162-166.

Pennebaker, James W. “Wri ng to Heal: A Guided Journal for Recovering from Trauma and Emo onal Upheaval.” Oakland: New Harbinger Publica ons, 2004. Print.

Peterson, Jordan B., and Raymond Mar. "The Benefits of Wri ng." University of Toronto, 2010. Web. 24 September 2013 <h p://www.selfauthoring.com/Wri ngBenefits%20with%20Instruc ons%20December%202010.pdf>

Ramirez, Gerardo, and Sian L. Beilock. "Wri ng about tes ng worries boosts exam performance in the classroom." science 331.6014 (2011): 211-213.

Sadovnik, Amparo. et al. “Effects of expressive wri ng about workplace events on sa sfac on, stress, and well-being.” Journal of Academy of Business and Economics. 11.4 (2011): 231-241.

“People who engage in expressive wri ng report feeling happier and less nega ve than before wri ng.”

- Wri ng to Heal

by James W. Pennebaker

ACADEMIC BENEFITS x� Increased working memory

capacity

x� Improved produc vity and

performance

x� Associated with higher test scores

and lower anxiety in standardized

exams (GRE, MCAT, LSAT, PCAT)

HEALTH BENEFITS x� Improved physical and

psychological health

x� Increased the immune response

x� Decreased likelihood of brooding/

dwelling on the past

WORK BENEFITS

x� Improved coping with workplace

stress

x� Aids in finding employment faster

a er job loss

WHAT CAN I WRITE

ABOUT?

Expressive wri ng can include

significant events in your personal life:

x� Trauma c events in your past

x� Your short and long-term goals

x� Any test anxie es you may have


42

B. Service Learning and Outreach

Note: prior to Summer 2012, Service Learning and Outreach was known as Science Engagement, and serviced faculty, students and courses from only the science departments. Now, the Service Learning and Outreach (SLO) program serves all UTSC departments. SUMMARY MISSION: To provide directed opportunities for student-based community engagement and enhanced understanding of service learning practices and theory while undertaking community stewardship and support roles. Service Learning & Outreach at UTSC continues to grow and to support the CTL missions, including 1) supporting instructors in their development as expert teachers, and 2) supporting students as learners to fulfill the intellectual demands of their courses and to move to autonomous life-long learners. Through the combined completion of supervised service learning placements and CTLB03 course components, SL&O students are given the opportunity to actualize their theoretical learning as well as simultaneously provide direct or indirect benefits to a community of interest, thus creating the potential for enhance professionalism, self-awareness, and opportunities for future employment. RESULTS: For the 2013-2014 academic year, the SL&O program at UTSC supported 6 Departments, 11 courses, 7 faculty, 53 students and 11 community partners, with more than 2200 students supported via enrollment in courses supported by in-reach students and faculty. As well, numerous additional faculty provided or received consultation and advisement relating to service learning programming. COORDINATION: Program Coordinator: Dr. Kamini Persaud, Senior Lecturer (On leave 13/14) Outreach Coordinator (50%): Dr. A. Skene (to Fall 2013); Dr. Cindy Bongard (from Fall 2013) DATA COMPARISON OF 2012/2013 AND 2013/2014:

Description 2012/2013 2013/2014 Increase or Decrease

OUTREACH Students (#s) 22 17 ˅ IN-REACH Students (#s) 30 36 ˄ TOTAL 42 53 ˄ Departments Involved (#s) 8 8 -- Different Courses Supported by In-reach Students (#s)

8 11 ˄

Different Faculty Who Offered In-reach Placements (#s)

15 16 ˄

Different Community Partners (#s) 12 17 ˄ Faculty Supported by SLO (#s) 12 12 -- TERMS OFFERED = 3 (Summer 2013, Fall 2013, Winter 2014) COURSE: CTLB03H3 Introduction to Service Learning (Previously known as SCIB03H Introduction to Service Learning in the Sciences)


43

• 0.5 B-level elective credit • Breadth Requirement: Social and Behavioural Sciences INSTRUCTION: • Janice Patterson (Summer 2013, Fall 2013, Winter 2014) • Ryan Hurl (Fall 2013, Winter 2014)

NUMBER OF STUDENTS ENROLLED IN CTLB03H3 = 53 Type Term

“IN-REACH” Placements

“OUTREACH” Placements

Total

SUMMER 2013 11 7 18 FALL 2013 13 8 21 WINTER 2014 12 2 14 Total 36 17 53

DEPARTMENTS INVOLVED (PLACEMENTS FILLED) = 6 Involves students, faculty and courses in the departments of • Arts, Culture & Media (Intro to Art History) • Biological Sciences • Health Sciences • Management • Physical & Environmental Sciences (Chemistry, Environmental Science) • Psychology (Neuroscience, Psychology)

DEPARTMENTS THAT OFFERED PLACEMENTS, BUT PLACEMENTS NOT FILLED: Arts, Culture & Media (Music); Computer Science; Historical and Cultural Studies; International Development Studies.

NO. OF DIFFERENT COURSES SUPPORTED BY IN-REACH STUDENTS = 11 • BIOB12: Cell & Molecular Biology (x 2 terms); enrollment = 265 • BIOC17: Microbiology: Bacterial Cell (x 2 terms); enrollment = 349 • CHMB41: H: Organic Chemistry I (x 2 terms); enrollment = 475 • CHMB42H: Organic Chemistry II; enrollment = 315 • CHMC47: H3: Bio-Organic Chemistry; enrollment = 96 • EESA09H: Wind; enrollment = 164 • HLTC22H: Foundations in Health Studies; enrollment = 52 • MGHC02: H: Leadership Skills; enrollment = 34 • NROB60H: Neuroanatomy Lab (x 2 terms); enrollment = 179 • PSYB64H: An Introduction to Physiological Psychology; enrollment = 174 • VPHA46: H: Ways of Seeing; enrollment = 128

TOTAL NO. OF STUDENTS IN COURSES SUPPORTED BY IN-REACH = 2231 NO. OF DIFFERENT FACULTY WHO OFFERED IN-REACH PLACEMENTS = 16

• Aarthi Ashok (Biological Sciences) × 2 terms • Caroline Barakat (Health Studes) * × 1 term


44

• Johann Bayer (Physical Sci) * × 2 terms • Shelley Brunt (Biological Sciences) × 1 term • Shadi Dalili (Chemistry) × 1 term • Brian Harrington (Computer Science)* × 2 terms • Ryan Johnson (Computer Science) * × 1 term • Janelle Leboutillier (Psychology/Neuroscience) × 1 term • Lana Mikhaylichenko (Chemistry) × 2 terms • Tanzina Mohsin (Environmental Science) × 1 term • Phani Radhakrishnan (Management) × 2 terms • Suzanne Sicchia (IDS) * × 2 terms • Michelle Silver (Health Studies) *filled only 1 term × 2 terms • Silvija Stefanovic (EnvSci) * × 1 term • Erin Webster (Art) × 1 term • Lenard Whiting (Music) * × 2 terms

*Placement not filled NO. OF DIFFERENT COMMUNITY PARTNERS, (OUTREACH) = 17

• Models of Human Diseases Project, Faculty of Medicine, U of T • Let's Talk Science • Pathways to Education Canada (Gov.’s of Ontario & Canada) • Imani Academic Mentorship Program • Experiential Learning Low Incidence Team, Toronto District School Board • Research Study, St Michael’s Hospital • Health and Wellness Centre, UTSC • Citizen Scientists, Rouge Park (*placement not filled) • North East Year Round Alternative Centre (*placement not filled) • ArtHeart (*placement not filled) • English Language Development Centre, UTSC • Bloorview (*placement not filled) • Sick Kids, Lab assistant • Sporometrics, Lab technician • Visions of Science (*placement not filled) • Keenan Research Centre, Geriatric Psychiatry • Research Assistant CAMH (*placement not filled)

GENERAL SERVICE LEARNING FACULTY SUPPORT: 15 faculty consulted with SLO staff on topics such as how to integrate a service learning component into their courses; staff provided consultation, informational resources, instructional materials, in-class lessons, etc. CELEBRATION OF UTSC SERVICE LEARNING PARTNERSHIPS: MAY 1, 2013 As a gesture of appreciation, UTSC faculty who taught service learning courses during the 2013-2014 year were asked to invite their community partners to a lunch celebrating service learning through community partnership. Everyone was given a certificate of thanks as well as a UTSC-inscribed USB key. Those who did not attend were mailed out certificates and gifts. The table below summarizes the attendance information. Invited Faculty

Dept/SL course taught

Attending Invited Community Partner


45

Ahmed Allahwala

Human Geography, City Studies CITC01

NOT Attending

East Scarborough Boys and Girls Club METRAC

Christine Berkowitz

Historical and Cultural Studies HISD44

Attending Scarborough Museum NOT Attending

Multicultural History Society of Ontario (MHSO)

Susannah Bunce

Human Geography CITC02

Attending East Scarborough Storefront Mornelle CAN Coalition (Mornelle Court All Stars Home Work Program

Morningside Branch, Toronto Public Library

NOT Attending

Good Luck Catering

Michelle Silver

Anthropology, Health Studies HTLC01

NOT Attending

Canadian Mental Health Association Canadian Red Cross Toronto Intergenerational Partnerships Toronto Harm Reduction Task Force Victoria Village

Janice Patterson Kamini Persaud

Centre for Teaching and Learning CTLB03

Attending Let's Talk Science Models of Human Diseases Project Pathways to Education Scarborough Village, YouthLink TDSB Eastern Commerce CI

NOT Attending

Visions of Science St. Michael's Hospital CAMH Global Health Division, Dalla Lana Public School of Health Health and Wellness, UTSC

Malama Tsimenis

Centre for Linguistics, French FRED01/6

Attending Markham Museum

FUTURE DIRECTIONS:

1) Continued improvements for the SL&O webpage are being reviewed by the coordinator and EdTech staff. As well, improvements to the automated online application system have been implemented and further efforts will be ongoing to create streamlined and consistent data capture and analysis for the SL&O program events.

2) We will continue to reach out to prospective community partners, encouraging students to become involved in shaping their placement directions.


46

3) Further promotion of the SL&O program will be supported via improved social media presence and organization of events to recognize community partners as well as outstanding in-reach supervisors.

C. Facilitated Study Groups (Summer 2013, Fall 2013, partial Winter 2014)

SUMMARY Facilitated Study Groups, or FSGs are they are commonly known around campus, offer a successful alternative learning model for students, and thus ultimately provide support for faculty as well. MISSION: FSGs are designed to enhance the student experience, reduce attrition, and help students succeed or perform beyond expectations in courses demonstrating a history of particularly challenging content. This peer-mentoring model is operated by trained undergraduate students who have successfully completed and excelled in the course they are supporting, and who have acquired the skills required to interact with and provide encouragement to a wide range of student learners. Students participating in FSGs strive to become autonomous learners by interacting with peers, developing note-taking and study skills, and discovering that the solutions are within reach when creative alternative thinking practices are introduced. This is a form of experiential learning that helps students break away from the static, top down ‘obedient model’. As such, FSGs become a potential pathway for students to move forward successfully into post-graduate studies and career opportunities upon completion of their undergraduate degree. FSGs support UTSC’s Mission by 1) supporting students as learners to fulfill the intellectual demands of their courses and to move to autonomous life-long learners; and 2) supporting instructors in their development as expert teachers – this is achieved indirectly as FSG students interact on a more independent platform with both their peers and course instructors. RESULTS: For the 2013-2014 academic year, the FSG program supported 37 courses (including 3 terms) with more than 977 study groups, providing over 7000 student contact hours (as of March 31). The overall average grade of FSG participants for the Summer and Fall terms combined was 72, while the equivalent for non-participants was 67. As well, the overall combined attrition for the FSG participants was 4% relative to 8% for non-participants. UNIT OVERVIEW FSGs were successfully introduced at UTSC in 2009 and achieved a tangible presence on campus shortly thereafter. For 2013-2014, the FSG program was coordinated by Allyson Skene and Cindy Bongard (reporting to Janice Patterson), and run by numerous trained undergraduate student facilitators. The session hours are set to equal the number of lecture hours for each course, and facilitators are also allocated paid time to prepare materials and develop strategies to run successful student learning support sessions. Attendance data is collected for each session and is coupled with end-of term grade data to determine whether sessions decrease attrition and help improve grades relative to non-participants. Reports providing this type of information as well as qualitative comments from FSG attendees are provided to the course instructor, department Chairs, as well as the Registrar after the end of term. The data summarized below demonstrate the effectiveness of the FSG model. HIGHLIGHTS


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• In the 2013-2014 academic year, the FSG program supported 37 courses with more than 977 study groups, providing over 7000 student contact hours (as of March 31).

• Participation is down from the previous year with respect to student contact hours, but there was an increase in the number of study groups offered this year, and included almost 2000 student participation ‘units’ (pooling all courses, including FSG attendance in multiple courses), with a number of students attending FSGs for more than one course.

• Participating students attended an average 5 study groups for each course, and average attendance at each study group was 8.

• Mean final grade of students who participated in FSGs in Summer and Fall 2013 was 72, while mean grade of those who did not was 68 (p<0.001).

• There was only 4% of total attrition in courses where students who had attended FSGs, even though FSG participants constitute approximately 16% of enrolment.

• 26 Facilitators received training: 9 returned from previous years and 17 were new this year. Of this latter group, 7 led study groups in more than one term.

• Finding space continues to be a struggle. Securing space right at the start of term is crucial to the program’s success: if students are not able to engage at the onset of term, they may not elect to get involved as other distractions accumulate. As the program grows, it becomes more and more difficult to find appropriate rooms for the study groups.

ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION Participation in FSGs in the 2013-2014 academic year reached an all-time high in terms of the number of study sessions run. Over 1400 unique UTSC students participated in FSGs in the three terms, attending an average of 5 study groups per course.

Table 1: Breakdown of attendance and participation rates in the FSG program

TERM # of courses participating

# of Study Groups

# of student contact hours

# of unique individuals attending

Mean # of Sessions Attended

Mean attendance at each session

Summer 2013 7 252 863 174 5 4

Fall 2013 14 388 3853 1036 3 10

Winter 2014

(as of March 31)

15 337* 2949* 744* 6* 9*

All terms combined 36 977 7665 1409† 5 8

* Actual numbers are higher than indicated here, as not all data from print sign-in sheets is in. †This number represents total unique individuals in the 2013-2014 academic year as of March 31, 2014. Students who attended FSGs in more than one course are counted only once.

Note re Table 1


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The drop in Fall 2013 student contact hours from Fall 2012 is partly due to a slight overstatement in F2012 (actual number was 4968, not 5047) as well as difficulties that presented in the collection of manual sign-in data. Staffing changes and transitions could have resulted in reduced program operation effectiveness due to time limitations. The total number of unique students (students who attended FSGs in more than one course are counted only once) dropped significantly from 2012-2013 to 2013-2014 (1685 to 1409), but this could also be tied to difficulties in capturing the manual sign-in data. In the winter of 2014, the Attic was used out of necessity and only manual sign-up sheets could be used in this room; thus, data missing from these sessions could have a large impact. We continue to work on trying to improve data capture, as it is essential to build trend analyses that accurately reflect the impact of FSGs on student success. GRADES AND RETENTION Generally, both grades and attrition data continue to suggest the value inherent in the FSG program. Higher mean grades for FSG participants were observed in all 20 unique courses supported by FSGs, where final marks were available (Table 2). While these results were not statistically significant for every course (based on t-test), the p-value is 0.01 or less in the following for summer and fall terms: ACMA01, BIOA01 (both terms), BIOA10, CHMA10, CHMA11, CHMB41, CHMB42, LINA03, MATA30, MGTA01, MGTA02, PHYA01, PSYA01, and SOCB05. When Summer and Fall data are combined, the mean final grade of FSG participants is 72, whereas for non-participants it is 67, and this result is significant, though the effect size was low (p< 0.01,Cohen’s d = 0.12). FSG participants were also typically less likely to drop the supported course. In half of the courses, attrition rates were higher for non-participants than participants, and sometimes substantially so. The courses that deviated from this trend may have done so due to low participation rates in the study groups. Further, when all courses are combined, attrition rates for those who attended FSGs (3%) were less than half of that of non-participants (8%). Plus, FSG participants comprised only 6% of the total attrition for all courses combined, even though they represented 16% of the enrolment.


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Table 2: Comparing mean grades and attrition rates for FSG vs. non-FSG students, 2013.

Term Course Mean Grades (%) Attrition Rate


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FSG NON-FSG

FSG

n (% of group)

NON-FSG

n (% of group)

SUMMER

2013

BIOA01H3 72 64 2 (10) 5 (29)

BIOA02H3 65 63 0 (0) 10 (0)

CHMA11H3 66 61 1 (3) 4 (20)

CHMB42H3 68 55 1 (5) 2 (33)

MGTA01H3 73 69 0 (0) 3 (0)

MGTA02H3 77 69 0 (0) 4 (0)

STAB22H3 78 74 3 (9) 6 (33)

FALL

2013

ACMA01H3 78 72 0 (0) 7 (4)

BIOA01H3 73 70 2 (2) 9 (2)

BIOA10H3 72 69 0 (0) 12 (4)

CHMA10H3 73 71 0 (0) 21 (3)

CHMB41H3 69 65 4 (4) 28 (11)

LINA01H3 73 69 0 (0) 2 (1)

MATA30H3 71 54 7 (13) 20 (6)

MGAB01H3 72 70 2 (3) 2 (<1)

MGTA01H3 73 69 4 (3) 4 (<1)

PHYA10H3 69 64 7 (22) 6 (4)

PSYA01H3 76 70 3 (2) 23 (2)

SOCB05H3 79 66 0 (0) 6 (4)

STAB22H3 70 69 3 (5) 11 (2)

Summer and Fall Combined 72 67 1.95 (4.0) 9.25 (8.0)

STUDENT FEEDBACK

Students demonstrated enthusiasm about participating in the FSG program. In the Winter 2014 end-of-term surveys, approximately 70% of respondents agreed that the sessions were “helpful” or “very helpful” and “actively engaged them in the course material”. These quantitative results are supported by student comments (note final comment about substandard rooms):

To say that the FSG sessions helped me in CHMB42 would be an understatement. I can surely credit the FSG sessions not only for a substantial increase in my grades but also for a more rewarding experience studying organic chemistry.


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Our facilitator was very encouraging, full of positivity and enthusiasm. This most definitely made me feel more comfortable and i didnt feel shy asking questions because he was always so welcoming.

Keep up the great work!

I would really appreciate it if there were FSGs created for second and third year biology courses (Animal physiology, plant physiology, and BIOB12.

It was a pleasure working in groups and having some challenging concepts cleared up while discussing it with my peers.

We should have been accommodated with a larger study room for both sessions. A lot of the times (especially in the Attic room), we couldn't even see the board. When there is so much enthusiasm from so many people in this difficult course, we should be provided at least with a room that has sufficient seating arrangements for everyone.

The most common complaint students had related to the room availability/suitability, followed by the number or time of sessions, as many found that they were unable to attend because their schedule conflicted with the FSG schedule for that class. Although a survey at the beginning of term helps to determine the best times for the study groups, it has proved very difficult to find times where all who want to attend are able to do so.

The second most common complaint related to room size. Study groups, especially for larger courses, were often overcrowded, and some students were turned away simply because they could not squeeze into the room. Attempts to mitigate this problem by moving to larger rooms or offering more study groups for these courses were helpful, but were not sufficient to solve the problem because of the difficulty of finding available and suitable space on campus. In some cases, it was simply not possible to move or add another session because no adequate rooms were available at the needed times. Thus, some sessions were larger than ideal.

FACILITATOR TRAINING The FSG program hired and trained 26 facilitators over the course of the 2013-2014 academic year. Of these, 17 started this year, and 7 led study groups for 2 terms or more. Facilitators continue to receive intensive training at the beginning of each term to prepare them for their responsibilities. The value of these initial training sessions was further validated by numerous faculty members, one of which presented in the 2014 Teaching Showcase to convey to colleagues the extent to which he was impressed by the FSG process and facilitators (Dr. Brian Wilson, DPES).

The initial facilitator training is supplemented by a mid-term review process, including the use of a peer-review system in which facilitators observe one another’s sessions and provide effective feedback and suggestions for mentoring others; a checklist is provided to guide them in their observations. Both of the facilitators involved in the peer review process engage in discussion after the observation session, and contemplate constructive suggestions and strategies, as well as participating in consideration of future goals based on historical events occurring in their sessions.

The Senior Facilitator position was not resumed this year: one of the returning senior facilitators from the fall provided some consultation, particularly to new facilitators, as well as


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tracking manual attendance under the Workstudy program. An additional previous facilitator, another Workstudy student for FSGs in the winter term, observed sessions on a random basis through the Winter term in order to gain data for improving the initial training of the facilitators. This student also participated in the initial facilitator training. The role of senior facilitator will likely be resumed in future sessions once the training has been modified to increase the expected outcome of effective, results-oriented facilitation.

CONCLUSIONS and FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Instructors have been enthusiastic about the program, and an increasing number are inquiring about adding FSGs to their courses. However, before the program will be able to accommodate all of these requests, it will eventually be necessary to both increase the budget (for increased training and ‘enrichment’) and solve the dearth of space problems. Ideally, the program would have access to a dedicated room with a capacity of ~60 that is flexible enough to be subdivided into smaller rooms when necessary. A higher priority in the room booking system could also help ensure that FSGs can start at the beginning of term. Because of current space and budgetary constraints, the program will not be able to grow substantially in the near future. We hope that dedicated space in the R-wing renovation project will address some of the space issues. Given that the available rooms for use by FSGs (outside of the CTL rooms) decreased from 9 to 2 from Fall 2013 to Winter 2014, it is clear that room availability for FSGs is significantly diminishing over time. As campus wide enrollments continue to grow, FSGs will struggle to maintain services due to the lack of suitable available space to run sessions. The Attic, which will no longer be available in future terms, was the ONLY space large enough to accommodate students flocking to the popular FGS sessions, but this space was originally designed to serve as a campus pub/studio so the lighting was poor and a chalk board had to be borrowed from Facilities Management for the duration of the term.

One proposed solution is to have FSGs for the larger courses bundled in with the other course components (such as tutorials, practicals, etc.) for the purpose of fall/winter room scheduling by the Registrar's Office, as this would help out a great deal. It might also be useful to consult with individual departments to determine which courses within the department are the strongest candidates for FSG support: once this is determined, then Departmental support for FSGs would be established, and course instructors would then be informed that this resource will be attached to their course to support students in the upcoming term. This is something to consider as the FSG program continues to gain momentum, resulting in significant improvements in student learning outcomes.

Required Administrative improvements

1) New scheduling systems are needed to help ensure that the greatest number of students can attend at the scheduled times. As well, given that very large volumes of data are required to track FSG outcomes, we need to work with partners to refine the processes of data capture to ensure consistency from course to course, term to term, and year to year.

2) An improved sign-in system is required to negate the need for continued use of manual sign-sheets which can be highly unreliable, particularly when template documents are not used (missing dates, name of facilitator, course information)

3) Development of consistent, reliable methods for statistical assessment of the FSG will require ongoing effort and investment of time.


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Required Program Improvements

1) Possible expansion of the Senior Facilitator position to include more mentoring opportunities for experienced facilitators will be examined.

2) Development of new training modules to help ensure that the facilitators are able to adequately manage the large numbers of students in a given session and continue to promote the peer-mentoring model:

a. Based on observations and subsequent discussions of all Winter 2014 facilitators made by the coordinator, facilitators were very enthusiastic and knowledgeable, and were very interested in continuing to discover methods to support their student community and made suggestions directing at helping one another.

b. Use of instructional videos will be increased as well as role-playing activities. c. Facilitators will be required to report data captured via manual sign-in sheets on a

weekly basis, with paid time allocated accordingly and intermittent head count comparisons with data received as a means of preventing future losses of attendance data.

Final comment: FSGs have an established track record of improving both grade performance and retention in supported courses as participating students develop and integrate learning and study strategies. Consequently, they provide options to students who might otherwise walk away from challenging courses that are required in their Program of Study. An added benefit is that the FSG facilitators gain invaluable academic, employment, and relationship-building experience as well as life skills while they progress program delivery.


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D. Math and Stats Learning Centre MSLC Mission The Math and Statistics Learning Centre (MSLC) creates a vibrant learning environment in which students appreciate the beauty of Mathematics and Statistics, rather than considering it as a burden in their academic life. Who we are Dr. Zohreh Shahbazi (Coordinator, Senior Lecturer), Dr. Sohee Kang (Lecturer), 5 Mathematics TAs and 2 Statistics TAs. What we do The Math and Statistics Learning Centre (MSLC) provide free seminars, workshops, virtual tutoring, individual appointments, and small-group consultations to improve students’ proficiency in various mathematics and statistics subjects. Strategy: Collaborative Learning methodology: working together, building together, learning together, changing together, improving together, in order to learn skills and build knowledge. “Learning is enhanced when it is more like a team effort than a solo race. Good learning, like good work, is collaborative and social, not competitive and isolated. Sharing one's ideas and responding to others improve thinking and deepen understanding." (Gerdy, 1998)

Executive Summary of MSLC Activity during 2013-2014: Number of Students

Who Used MSLC Services Number of TA Hours Number of Workshops/

Seminars offered 6611 1560 35

Highlighted Initiatives of MSLC:

Developing a new virtual tutoring tool for novice

users

Developing materials for an online Math Prep Course

and Review Modules

Initiating a summer workshop (Data

Manipulation and Analysis) for Co-op students

IMPACT - The examination of the students’ performance in one of the calculus courses during fall term demonstrates that students who used drop-in Centre help hours often or very often had 12% better chance to achieve a mark more than 80, 7% better chance to achieve a mark more than 70 and 9% better chance to achieve a mark more than 60. See ‘Impact’ in Section A below.

The detailed centre activity report of two divisions, mathematics and statistics, can be found at the following sections A and B.


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A. MSLC – Mathematics The primary MSLC goal is to provide support to undergraduate students to fulfill the intellectual demands of their courses. During fall 2013 and winter 2014 MSLC offered the following mathematics support:

1. Drop-in center hours: all UTSC students from any discipline can come and ask math related questions. Hours: 10 hours per week for 14 weeks in summer, 25 hours per week for 14 weeks in fall, and 22 hours per week for 14 weeks in winter (see Table 1 for number of students that used the service).

2. Virtual tutoring: MSLC provides online tutoring for students enrolled in first year Mathematics courses. This innovative approach greatly assists students off campus and during out of office hours. Hours: 1 hour per week 14 weeks in summer, 2 hours per week for 14 weeks in fall, and 2 hours per week for 14 weeks in winter.

3. Workshops, Review Modules, Seminars, and Talks: MSLC provides review modules for first year Calculus and also term test and final exam review sessions for first year Mathematics courses. 13 events in fall and 11 events in winter term (see Table 2 and 3 for details).

4. Math SLI (Mathematics Preparedness Course): MSLC provides a short, intensive on-campus program designed to help students build mathematical skill sets in the transition from high school to university during summer. The course was able to target students with a weak mathematical background, and was found to have a positive impact on these students’ readiness for the university calculus courses. In addition to improvements in students’ mathematical skills, the course was also found enjoyable and was rated positively. Students also expressed that the course helped them adjust to the transition from high school to university. We tracked the performance of a small sample of the students who took in summer 2012 in one of the first-year calculus classes offered at UTSC in the following semester. Out of the 31 students we were able to track, 24 of them (77%) eventually passed the calculus course. The passing rate is substantially higher than the 50% rate expected from students who received less than 70% on the diagnostic test. . (Below is the figure of Pre- and post-skill tests grade distribution)

Summer of 2013: 3 sections offered in the last two weeks of August, 57 students


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In-person help at the Centre and virtual tutoring The majority of students who were coming to the Centre were enrolled in the following courses:

ü MATB44F, MATB41F , MATA31F, MATA30F/Y, MATA32F, MATA33, MATA35, MATA36, MATA37, MATB24F, MATC01F, CSCB36F, MATC34F, MATC09F, MATC15, ECMA04H3, ECMA06H3, ECMB02H3, ECMB12H3, ECMB06H3, ECMB11H3, ECMB12H3, CHMB21H3S

Workshops During 2013/2014 MSLC developed and delivered 24 mathematics workshops (see Table 2 and 3 for dates and number of students).

ü One Review module (two hours) was designed to review the basic materials needed for success for calculus courses.

ü Twenty three Workshops (two hours each) were developed focusing on the needs of all students who are taking first year calculus courses to review specific challenging topics in their courses.

On-going Activities • The publication of MSLC newsletter is in preparation. • The current virtual tutoring tool has the limitation that is difficult for novice users who

do not know the common mathematical expression to fully use this tool. Thus, we are developing new virtual tutoring tool which uses drop down menu of mathematical operators and symbols like Word Equation Editor (A sample calculus virtual session using the MathIM platform is shown below)


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• The preparation of material for online Math Prep Course and Review Modules (See Appendix 1 for sample material)

Impact We developed several papers and online questionnaires to measure the success of services on students’ performance. The examination of the students’ performance in one of the calculus courses during fall term demonstrates that students who used drop-in Centre help hours often or very often had 12% better chance to achieve a mark more than 80, 7% better chance to achieve a mark more than 70 and 9% better chance to achieve a mark more than 60.


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Table 1: Mathematics Support

Total number of students participated in review modules and seminars: 2502 students

Program Hours/sessions offered

Number of participating students

1) Math Prep Course Use two skills tests and perception tests to evaluate effectiveness.

3 sections (hired two TAs each with 50 hours and one sessional lecturer 1/2 FTC

57 students

2) Regular Help Hours • In AC312, MSLC hired TAs who provided

small group help sessions to all UTSC students.

• In IC404, CMS hired TAs who held their office hours to help students with specific math & stats courses.

840 hours (350 hours for fall, 350 hours for winter, and 140 hours for summer)

Approximately 1311 in AC 312 visits (437 students swiped their cards in fall and winter semester) 1500 visits in IC404 (approximated)

3) Virtual Tutorials • Implemented an online evaluation tool

• Using the LaTeX based chat room

MathIM

126 hours (14 hours for Summer, 28 hours for Fall, and 28 hours in Winter )

95 visits (45 students)

5) Seminars & Review Modules Created a survey to evaluate seminars

24 two-hour seminars

2502 students

6) Individual Help Sessions We improved this service this year by helping students in need in a regular basis.

90 hours 125 visits (50 students)

9) Courses that benefited from the programs offered.

MATB44F, MATB41F , MATA31F, MATA30F/Y, MATA32F, MATA33, MATA35, MATA36, MATA37, MATB24F, MATC01F, CSCB36F, MATC34F, MATC09F, MATC15, ECMA04H3, ECMA06H3, ECMB02H3, ECMB12H3, ECMB06H3, ECMB11H3, ECMB12H3, CHMB21H3S

1160 TA hours A sessional lecturer for SLI (1/2 FTC)

Total number of students visits 5, 590


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Table 2: Fall/Winter Review Modules and Seminars (1535 students)

Date and Time Course Topic Number

of students

Tuesday, September 16, 6-8pm MATB44F 45 Wednesday, September 17, 6-8pm MATB44F 45

Friday, September 27, 3-5pm MATA30F Seminar for functions 80 Friday, October 25, 3-5pm MATA30F Term test review 200 Friday, November 15, 3-5pm MATA30F Derivatives 80 Wednesday, November 20, 5-7pm MATA30F Term test review 85

Friday, November 22, 3-5pm MATA30F

Application of derivatives and Introduction to

integration

150

Tuesday, December 3, 2-5pm MATA30F Final exam review 200 Tuesday, February 25, 6-8pm MATA30S Term test review 85 Wednesday, February 26, 6-8pm MATA30S Term test review 55

Thursday, February 27, 5-7pm MATA36S Term test review 60

Wednesday, April 9, 1-3pm MATA30S Final exam review 150 Wednesday, April 9, 3:30-5:30pm MATA30S Final exam review 150

Wednesday, April 9, 6:30-8:30pm MATA36S Final exam review 150

Table 3: Fall/Winter MATA31 Seminars (967 Students)

Date and Time Topic Number of students September 21, 1pm-3pm Quiz 1 Prep 200 October 5, 1pm-3pm Quiz 2 Prep 170 October 19, 1pm-3pm Mid Term Prep 185 November 9, 1pm-3pm Quiz 3 Prep 210 November 23, 1pm-3pm Quiz 4 Prep 160 February 15, 1pm-3pm Midterm Review 10 February 22, 1pm-3pm Midterm Review 10 March 29, 1pm-4pm Final Review 10 April 5, 1pm-4pm Final Review 12


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B. MSLC – Statistics The primary goal of Statistics division of MSLC is to provide support to undergraduate students to fulfill the intellectual demands of their Statistics courses. We also provide statistical consultation for faculty and graduate students to facilitate their research endeavors. During fall 2013 and winter 2014 MSLC was offering the following statistics support for undergraduate and graduate students and faculty:

1. Drop-in center hours: all UTSC students, graduate students, and faculty members from any discipline can come and ask statistics-related questions Hours: 14 hours per week for fall and winter (see table 4 for the details about the number of students who visited the center).

2. Virtual tutoring (2 hours per week, between 2 TAs) + email communication

3. Workshop and Seminars: One workshop and 4 seminars in the fall and 6

seminars in winter term (see table 5 for the details). Main Highlighted Activities:

ü To increase awareness of the MSLC and statistical help that we are offering, at the beginning of the fall term we visited the classes offering an introductory statistics courses in the following different disciplines ( presentation slides are attached at the Appendix 2):

- STAB22 (statistics course for general science and social science students) 2 sections: approximately 700 students

- MGEB11 (management department) 2 sections: approximately 270 students - PSYB07 (psychology): approximately 240 students.

ü We held a total of 11 Statistics workshop and seminars for preparation of midterm and final exam.

ü We initiated the summer workshop for Co-op students (please find the pamphlet at the Appendix 2).

ü We provided the Statistical consultation for Faculty and graduate students’ research. In person help at the centre and virtual tutoring The majority of students who were coming to the Centre were enrolled in the following courses:

- ECMB11H3, ECMB12H3, STAB22H3, STAB27S, PSYB07H3, PSCB57H3, SOCB06H, CHMB21H3S

Workshop and Seminars During 2013/2014 one workshop and 10 seminars were developed and delivered (see Table 5 for titles, dates and number of students). Workshop was developed focusing on needs of those who were thinking of taking statistical courses, and seminars were focused on students currently enrolled in one of the statistical courses, e.g. STAB22 whose enrollment is about 700 per semester. Support for faculty and graduate students During 2013/2014 SLC provided statistical consultation for three faculty members from department of Linguistics, Biology and English Development Center, and two graduate students in Chemical Engineering and Public policy.


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On-going Activities

• We are developing a booklet for quantitative approaches in educational research that any UTSC education practitioner uses it as a toolkit to enhance their teaching activities.

• We develop a summer workshop (Data manipulation & Analysis) for co-op students to promote R statistical language for statistical analysis and use of database and excel.

• We collaborate with units inside of Center for Teaching and Learning to support through the statistical analysis to promote their unit activities especially with English Development Center.

Table 4: Statistics Support

Program Hours offered Number of participating students

1) Regular Help Hours 392 (280 hours by TAs) 218 visits 2) Virtual Tutorials 56 50 visits 3) Workshops & Seminars

2 hours for one workshop and 2 hours for each 10 seminars

727

4) Individual Help Sessions

26 26 visits

5) Courses that benefited with the offered programs

ECMB11H3, ECMB12H3, STAB22H3, STAB27S PSYB07H3, PSCB57H3, SOCB06H, CHMB21H3S

400 TA hours Total number of students visits (1021)

Table 5: Fall/Winter Workshop and Seminars (presenter: Dr. Sohee Kang) Total number of students participated in workshop and seminars: 727

Type Date and Time Location Course Topic Number of students

Workshop

Wednesday, Sep. 25, 3-5pm

MW 110 No

specific course

Fighting Stats Anxiety 12

Seminars

Wednesday, Oct. 16, 3-5pm MW 110 STAB22 Midterm exam

review 100

Monday, Oct. 21, 5-7pm IC 302 STAB22 Midterm exam

review 40

Friday, Nov. 22, 5-7pm IC 220 STAB22 Final exam

review 100

Friday, Nov. 29, 5-7pm IC 220 STAB22 Final exam

review 100


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Thursday, Feb. 20,1-3pm IC 220 STAB22

Midterm exam review

(WebOption) 100

Friday, Feb. 21, 1-3pm IC 220 STAB27 Midterm exam

review 60

Friday, Mar. 21, 3:00-4:00pm IC 230 STAB27

Post Midterm exam review (WebOption)

15

Monday, April 7, 3-5pm HW 216 STAB22 Final exam

review 120

Tuesday, April 8, 3-5pm HW 216 STAB22 Final exam

review 80

Thursday, April 17, 5-7pm

IC 220 STAB27 Final exam review

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Table 6: Total numbers of students used all MSLC services

Math & Stats program information together 1560 TA hours Total number visits = 6,611

visits


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Appendix 1 Partial Online Calculus Notes


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Appendix 2 Students drop-‐in activities by each month Distribution of Students’ Subject

(Statistics division) (Statistics division)

Pamphlet of Summer Workshop for Co-‐op Students

Sep. Oct. Nov. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr.

020

4060

80

Health Studies

Psychology

Management

NeuroScience

SociologyBiology

Other


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D. English Language Development Centre Prepared by Dr. Elaine Khoo with assistance from Heather-Lynne Meacock

SUMMARY

The English Language Development Centre (ELDC) serves faculty and students by fostering greater inclusivity of diversity in learning environments while empowering students with language skills/confidence to engage effectively.

Given the increasing linguistic and cultural diversity on campus, ELDC’s innovative proactive co-curricular programs have helped students address their cognitive, affective and sociocultural challenges with academic integration. Key ELDC Data:

Core ELDC programs attracted a total of 6000 visits. (Café series: 2334 visits; Reading and Writing by Email (RWE): 3216 virtual and physical visits; facilitation training: 198 visits and ELD Summer Learning Institutes: 252 visits) [See Appendix 1] ELDC Core programs reached 1138 students. Outreach ELDC activities reached 3831 students. [See Appendix 1] The Academic Integrity Matters (AIM) project reached 472 students. [see 3.2] Successful pilot of the Academic English Health Check (AEHC), with 1056 tests being taken. AEHC was shown to be a good indicator of which students would benefit from proactive support in English Language Development. Of the students who took AEHC, 82% were found to have attended one or more of the ELDC’s core co-curricular programs recommended to them. [see 2.4] New collaborations with faculty and other units were established [see 3.0] New research collaboration with Student Life: Student Engagement and Learning Networks [see 3.3] Awarded Provost’s 2013 Instructional Technology Innovation Fund (ITIF) grant: Interactive Website for Facilitating Accelerated Student Vocabulary Acquisition Across Disciplines [See 5.0]


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1.0 Introduction ELDC supports students by fast-tracking their English language development and concomitant development of critical thinking skills so that they are better able to achieve better academic integration as well as support their peers in doing so. As stated on the ELDC website, our mission is: To help students participate more actively and achieve greater success at university through better critical thinking and English language communication skills. Given the increasing linguistic and cultural diversity among the student population arising mainly from internationalization and immigration, we need a systematic way to encourage faster academic integration that enriches the teaching-learning dynamics. The English Language Development Centre (ELDC) fulfills the Centre for Teaching and Learning’s mission to serve faculty and students by focusing on ways that enhances greater inclusivity of cultural and linguistic diversity in learning environments while empowering students with the language, skills and confidence to engage effectively in order to contribute to the learning community. ELDC supports faculty by facilitating a community of practice in which there is dynamic exchange of ideas and best practices for greater inclusivity of linguistic/cultural diversity in their courses and thus harnessing the inherent advantages of diverse perspectives and experiences among the students to contribute towards a better learning environment for all. Some starting efforts are invested in contributing to the training of teaching assistants and graduate student professionals to scaffold and facilitate the expression of diverse perspectives that stimulate critical thinking in students they support. Since academic English is no-one’s mother-tongue, ELDC’s innovative approaches to accelerating students’ academic integration into higher education learning environment through overcoming initial linguistic/cultural obstacles benefit students across disciplines, and particularly students who: (a) speak English as a Second or Additional language; (b) have learned a different variety of formal English; (c) find university-level English a

•  proactive support before Year 1

•  avilabla to incoming students

ELDSLI

•  available at start of semester

• All students encouraged to test

AEHC

• Cafe series • RWE •  FTC • ELD Consultation

Core ELDC programs

proactive orientation of new faculty to diversity

New Faculty Orientation

Address linguistic/cultural needs within courses ELD Consultations

Continuous Outreach

Development of resources that enhances inclusivity of diverse needs of multilingual students

Pedagogical Collaboratio

ns

Figure 1. ELDC twin-‐track support for faculty and students


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challenge (d) have returned as mature students; (e) are first generation at university; or (f) are Generation 1.5 students. With greater internationalization, and a more significant proportion of the domestic student population having language- and culture-related needs besides the regular transition from high school to university challenges, there has been a strong resonance of the ELDC program among the students. In order to serve this two-pronged function for faculty and students, ELDC also collaborates with other departments and units both in core curricular areas as well as in co-curricular ways that best support students’ English language development so that they can enjoy the highest quality educational experience on campus and beyond (e.g. in Co-op placements and other internships or voluntary work) The ELDC team consists of one full-time Senior Lecturer, Dr. Elaine Khoo, Coordinator, a 0.6 FTE Lecturer, Heather-Lynne Meacock, 0.49 FTE Lecturer, Dr. Rebecca Wiseman, and experienced CUPE 3 Writing Instructors: Dr. Negin Dahya, Maggie Roberts, Tom Robles, Max Gatta, and Ali Hadidi. ELDC also fosters student and alumni staff as a part of our ELD team, through the work-study program as well as through casual hire. Six non-teaching staff members were mentored and learned new skills while working on a variety of projects: Elaine Villegas, Brian Yang, Charlie Choi, Judy Duong, Vicky Chong and Hong Ling Huang.

2.0 Core ELDC Programs Each of the core programs has its unique curriculum and pedagogy: 2.1 Café series The innovative Communication Cafe was introduced in 2005 and since that time has developed a comprehensive range of programming to meet the growing academic communication, critical thinking and multi-literacy needs of today’s diverse student body. Cafe programming is now comprised of 4 unique streams, each designed to meet a range of English language proficiencies and the academic and professional communication skills students require in order to meet the academic demands of their courses. Using innovative game-based and cooperative learning activities, Cafes offer a dynamic learning environment that not only meets students’ academic communication needs, but enables them to develop and practice the autonomous learning strategies they need to become the adaptable, creative, innovative problem solvers and lifelong learners of the 21st century. With 153 co-curricular workshops offered in 2013-14 and 2334 visits, Cafe programming is clearly resonating with students and community partners alike. 2.1.1 Communication Cafes The flagship Communication Cafe program features pedagogical games and cooperative activities designed to promote the development of academic and professional oral communication skills, as well as critical, reflective, and creative thinking. The Communication Cafe stream offers 10 different workshops facilitated by ELDC faculty and instructors, offered at multiple times during the first 6 weeks of each academic term. Each session takes a different focus and students select modules that best meet their needs. Through repeated visits to Cafe and a high level of engagement and interaction


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during the workshops, students actively develop their communicative competency across multiple contexts. The Communication Cafe stream offered 83 workshops in 2012-13, attracting 1646 visits. 2.1.2 Discussion Skills-Building Cafes These casual one-hour workshops use multimedia such as film, video, audio and images to generate discussions on current, interesting topics. Hands-on, instructor-led activities are designed to provide students with the opportunity to build their English language discussion skills while critically engaging with multiple modes of meaning making. 10 different modules are offered, with multiple sessions weekly offered during the first 6 weeks of term. New modules are frequently added in order to meet the needs of students who attend the Discussion Skills Cafes on a regular basis. 2.1.3 Vocabulary Cafes The development of a threshold of targeted academic vocabulary is crucial for academic work and aids in both comprehension and overall proficiency. Weekly Vocabulary Cafes offer students the opportunity to learn different sets of essential academic vocabulary items through interactive, activity-based workshops in order to cope better with reading, listening, and writing. The Vocabulary Cafe runs for 5 weeks at the start of each term, with 1 theme per week and multiple sessions. This Café is essential for students who have been identified by the Academic English Health Check as deficient in their core lexical knowledge. 2.1.4 Seminars Interactive seminars that train students in learning the key strategies to effective English language acquisition and usage are conducted in the following areas: § Fast-Track Your Academic Writing Skills Development § Expand Your Active Vocabulary § Reading Academic Texts and Making Notes Key Café statistics in 2013-14 728 students went through Cafes 12 students were so committed that they attended 10 or more cafes and earned a certificate 153 sessions were conducted in Stream 1 2334 visits to Cafes ands seminars 2.2 Personalized Academic Reading and Writing through Email (RWE) In its 9th year of operation, the RWE program addresses a very difficult and otherwise almost insurmountable problem faced by many students who have serious linguistic and cultural challenges with the academic demands at university. Through a blended learning model students’ daily online writing as well as fortnightly face-to-face consultations with highly qualified and experienced tutors, improve their critical thinking and academic writing skills..


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Figure 2. Small daily investments of time in reading and writing particularly of course readings amounts to a substantial 19 hours of reading and 9.6 hours of writing in a month that can account for positive transformation in students’ ability to cope with course materials. Sustained student engagement in developing their academic reading, writing, critical thinking and vocabulary skills with continuous interactive support by the RWE tutors can result is a statistically significant (at 95% confidence level) improvement in Academic English ability as measured by the Academic English Health Check (see Appendix 3). The strengths of this program lie in its personalized, no-risk and voluntary engagement model for reading and writing. Since most of the students choose to read their course readings and assignment materials and then write their responses to them, this daily practice helps them keep abreast of their course readings every week. As students share their thoughts about their course materials with their tutors, they engage in deeper learning about their course materials. Thus, the RWE model engages students in co-investing approximately 28.6 hours of reading and writing with tri-weekly email responses from their tutors in order to have a 1 hour appointment with their tutor Sample comment from professor:

• I'm very impressed with <studentname 4>'s effort. She is sharp and contributes a great deal to class discussion…Her writing and presentations are excellent. (Note. This is a student who wrote more than 60 emails)

• Comments from students about RWE:

• I enjoy writing to the tutor and hearing their opinions. As well as that, this program gives a form of motivation to always work productively, get readings done daily and be goal oriented.

Key RWE statistics in 2013-14 335 students went through the RWE program 15 graduate students were served in this program 61 students wrote 40-70 critical thinking emails Over 10,000 -20 000 words….No. of words written in cases where students who wrote 40-70 emails in Fall 2013 7:1 ratio of student investment of time versus tutor investment of time per student 2805 critical thinking emails written by RWE students 411 face-to-face consultations with tutors 1870 hours of reading by RWE students


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935 hours of writing by RWE students 12 students qualified to be awarded the RWE Certificate of Achievement for their prolific writing of critical thinking emails that resulted in transformative change 2.3 Facilitator Training Certificate Program The Facilitation Training Certificate Program (FTC) is a leadership and peer facilitation program offered through ELDC for highly committed students who have regularly attended the Communication Cafes series. FTC candidates are selected through a competitive application process twice a year. The program is designed to offer students an opportunity to take up a supported leadership-mentoring role in our Cafes, and in our broader academic community. The formal and experiential learning components focus on developing essential academic and interpersonal communication skills, teamwork, inquiry and professionalism. Students are also encouraged to help initiate and develop new projects/outreach/mentoring/liaising initiatives that would further support the needs of both incoming students and their ELDC peers. In 2013-14, 33 FTC peer-facilitators were enrolled in the program and supported over for their peers through over 80 Cafes. This year our FTC peers also made significant contributions towards our outreach and extended learning opportunities, providing new initiatives, expanding existing outreach, and making new and exciting knowledge and communication connections. Highlights of this team’s capstone projects include:

• liaising between the Residence Life Team and the ELDC to provide students in Residence with information about Café Programming, both informally and through an Academic Promotional Event hosted in the Residence

• extending our social media outreach by daily posting of academic vocabulary items, communication challenges; interesting resources, event notifications, and general campus new of relevance.

• creation of a wiki which seeks to provide student facilitators at UTSC and beyond with a space to share resources, discuss issues, form community, and contribute knowledge

• production of a video about the FTC program and the ways in which it can assist students towards meeting personal and academic goals (anticipated to be on our website for fall of 2014)

Other highlights of the FTC team include the creation of new activities for Cafes including research for a new Discussion Skills Café considering communication in relation to technology; a warm-up activity to be integrated with the What’s Your Story Café, and an innovative Science Café, which seeks to bridge discipline content with academic strategies. 2.4 Academic English Health Check (AEHC) Given that there is no course at UTSC where academic English is not needed, students’ ability in English has an impact on their engagement in courses, quality of learning and retention levels. The Academic English Health Check (AEHC) provides students with the opportunity to get confidential feedback on the results of their performance on a 20-minute online test and get guidance which ELDC support they should pursue in order to address their Academic English needs.


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The AEHC test and its results allowed us to reach and support our students in several ways:

• engage these students proactively at the start of the semester to work on their English skills

• prioritize getting most at-risk students into the active groups and working with full Reading and Writing through Email (RWE) tutor support

• bringing more students forward to benefit from ELDC support • seeing their score helped many students begin taking responsibility to work on

transforming their Academic English ability. 1056 times…the test was taken 82.1% of AEHC students followed recommendations that came with their results and attended one of ELDC’s core programs 56.8% of test-takers were domestic students 43.2% of test-takers were international students 2.5 English Language Development Summer Learning Institute (ELD SLI) ELD SLI is a unique non-credit program that proactively offers students the opportunity to learn the valuable academic communication and critical thinking skills they need to be successful at university. Through a carefully designed and stimulating curriculum, students learn effective strategies and language development skills, as well as make important networking contacts that will give them a head start when they begin their programs in September. Two sessions were run each day. A total of 42 students were enrolled. Of these 22 students were awarded the ELD SLI Scholarships for outstanding engagement and achievement in ELD SLI 2013.

3.0 Key Collaborations ELDC successfully collaborates with academic departments and other units across campus to enhance better learning experiences for our students and to offer faculty and staff the opportunity of enriched practice.

3.1 Collaborations with faculty teaching courses across disciplines

In a pilot project in Fall 2013 to support students’ English Language development in science courses, students in a large foundation physics class were offered the opportunity to earn a bonus of up to 2% for engaging with writing daily for 60 days in RWE. Participation was totally voluntary, and students were encouraged to use their course texts for their daily 40-minute reading. This pilot was an immense success at three levels:

(a) in engaging science students to develop their skills to articulate their ideas clearly beyond problem-solving with equations and numbers; (b) communicating fundamental science concepts to non-science educated readers and engaged these readers to interact with their ideas;


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(c) engaging students in sustained writing in ways that they otherwise would not have been able to do in their science courses, thus providing them with the opportunity an invaluable skill needed for the precision of scientific writing. Due to the success in engaging students in the Physics course (PHYA11) in Fall 2013, the program was expanded to 10 new collaborating courses in Winter 2014 in Management, Social Science, Chemistry, Visual and Performing Arts (CHMC31, MGEC43, SOCB49, SOCC23, VPHB53, VPHB72, VPHB74,VPHB77, VPSA62)

3.2 AIM (Academic Integrity Matters): Aim to Meet Academic Expectations.

The productive AIM Collaboration consists of the Dean’s office, Centre for Teaching and Learning (Writing Centre and English Language Development Centre), Academic Advising and Career Centre, and the International Student Centre. Jointly offered interactive workshops provide students with a holistic approach to understanding and avoiding academic offences through four key areas: (1) cross-cultural and situated understandings of plagiarism and academic integrity; (2) ways to understand and apply the university’s code on academic matters; (3) writing skills for using sources responsibly; and (4) time-management and motivation strategies that help students maintain their commitment to academic integrity.

The collaboration of academic and student life units to promote a culture of integrity on our campus, in tandem with partnering faculty, collaborative peer to peer learning methods, and a proactive, informative approach, creates a community of practice that brings faculty, staff, and students together in positive ways towards a common goal. A total of thirteen sessions, reaching over 450 students, was offered throughout the 2013-14 academic year, including key workshops for incoming students in Green Path, Fair Taiwan and the English Language Development Summer Learning Institute, held during the summer months. Additional students were reached through awareness events held during Get Started programming and outreach initiatives in the winter months. New initiatives for the AIM team include increased efforts to partner with faculty who alert their classes to the value of Academic integrity on campus and include attendance at one of the AIM Workshops for credit or recognition in their courses. An interactive digital version of the scenario-based game, Wheel of (Miss) Fortune, was developed by the ELDC student team and the game can now be used more extensively for outreach events on campus.

3.3 Student Engagement and Learning Networks: Collaborating on a New Frontier This research collaboration by the English Language Development Centre and the Student Life Department explores multilingual, undergraduate students’ perceptions of the benefits of participating in Knowledge Learning Networks (KLNs) at UTSC. The project undertakes that collaborative research among academic and student life units may contribute to a more robust understanding of KLNs among our multilingual student body, and may additionally suggest opportunities for both formal and informal integrated support on our campus. Completion of the report is anticipated for July 2014.


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3.4 Collaboration with Arts and Science Co-op Continuing the collaboration begun in 2011 with Arts and Science Co-op, Communication Cafes and the Discussion Skills Cafes provide learning and development options for pre work-term Co-op students, which are eligible or inclusion as a part of their NWoW(Navigating the World of Work). 3.5 Collaborations with the International Student Centre We additionally continue to partner with the International Student Centre through ongoing promotional exchange and integrated support. FTC peer facilitators work with the English Conversation Partners from ISC to host two outreach events per year (“Bundle Up” and the St. Patrick’s Day Scavenger Hunt”) in an effort to bridge language support opportunities for international students which consider not only academic but interpersonal, cultural and social aspects. These collaborations foster a climate of support and assist in the development of the knowledge learning networks across academic and student life domains. 3.6 Collaborations with office of Dean & Vice-Principal (Academic) ELDC fulfills requests from the Office of the Dean and Vice-Principal (Academic) to conduct the Academic English Health Check, as well as English Language Development sessions for the Greenpath cohort of students as well as the Fair Taiwan cohort so that students are acquainted with the support pertinent to their success. For these students, specially prepared “preview” Cafes are also offered in late August, in order to allow incoming students the opportunity to become familiar with the no-risk, interactive learning environment of the Cafes. Proactively connecting with these students addresses any potential affective or pragmatic issues that students may have and allows for an early investment in the program.

4.0 New developments ELDC continues to identify further areas of needs that have to be addressed.

4.1 Co-Curricular Record

Café programming recognizes student involvement as an integral part of the learning and university experience and values both formal and informal learning opportunities. These values align with the new Co-curricular Record (CCR) piloted in the fall of 2013 and ELDC offers CCR recognition for 2 streams of Café-related programming: Graduates of The Facilitation Training Certificate Program (20 graduates in 2013-14), and Café Certificates of Participation, for those students who demonstrate a commitment to their English communication development by attending 10 Cafes or more.

4.2 Communication Café Challenge We additionally seek ways to provide learning opportunities that extend the content and strategies encountered in the Cafes outside of the classroom. The Communication Challenge begun in 2012-13 was modified this year and has met with increased success. Weekly challenges based on Cafes topics (e.g. identifying logical fallacies) are posted, both on campus and through our social media, and students enter their weekly ballots. Each week a random draw of a correct answer is made for small gift card that can be used on campus. This year we had 10 winners over the fall and winter terms, with over


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60 ballots cast. Next year we hope to increase this number through better and more integrated promotion. 4.2 Wordplay Critical Reading Workshops As a response to repeated requests for help in academic reading, this series of 8 highly interactive workshops are currently being developed by Dr. Rebecca Wiseman to be piloted in the Summer Semester starting April 2014. 4.3 Grammar Group To respond to student needs, Heather-Lynne and Dr. Sheryl Stevenson are working on developing an informal risk-free support for students to improve their grammar. More work will be invested in identifying specific areas of top-priority needs during summer.

5.0 Working with Faculty Apart from having consultation sessions with faculty interested in address “ESL problems” in their courses, ELDC faculty has contributed to sessions at New Faculty Orientation, Nutrition for Educators, and the CTL annual faculty teaching Showcase. In addition, ELDC has worked successfully with faculty teaching 11 courses to directly support writing needs of students in their respective classes so that they are able to develop critical thinking, reading and writing skills that enable them to engage better with their course materials (also see section 4.2.2). In a third area of development, faculty in History, Management and Visual Arts will be collaborating with Dr. Elaine Khoo on the ITIF project, Interactive Website for Facilitating Accelerated Student Vocabulary Acquisition Across Discipline

6.0 ELDC Faculty Teaching Credit Courses ELDC faculty taught the following credit courses that meet the breadth requirement for Arts, Literature and Language. CTLA01 H3 Foundations in Effective Academic Communication CTLA02 H3 Exploring Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Academic Contexts During Summer 2013, the fully online version of CTLA01 H3 LEC99 Foundations in Effective Academic Communication was taught by Dr. Elaine Khoo as one of two pioneering online courses at UTSC under the Online Undergraduate Course Initiative (OUCI) from the office of the Vice-Provost (Academic).

7.0 Moving Forward: Dissemination of key ELDC practices ELDC faculty have engaged in professional activities as follows: ELL 3rd Annual Day of Conversation (April 10, 2014) among key ELL leaders across several Ontario universities.


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CTL Annual Teaching Showcase (April 9, 2014)—Heather-Lynne Meacock and her team conducted interactive display for AIM; Elaine Khoo conducted a workshop for faculty and TAs on Ways to Address Language Issues that Impact Student Engagement and Learning UofT Tricampus Professional Development Day for Writing Instructors (April 16, 2014), co-organized with Writing Centre. One of ELDC’s writing instructors, Ali Hadidi, did a presentation to all participants on “Applying Activity Theory to Writing Instruction Systems: Theorizing our Practice” using RWE as a model. Heather-Lynne Meacock led a roundtable discussion on “Hedging and L2 speakers”. Tom Robles led a roundtable on “Teaching Analysis”. Maggie Roberts and Tom Robles coordinated the Sharing Effective Practices sessions. A paper on RWE has been accepted for presentation in Germany in July 2015. A paper on Communication Café has been accepted for presentation in an international conference on games in September 2015.


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Appendix 1: Overview of Activities and Participation Profiles 2013-14

Stream 1: Oral communication and academic coping skills, critical thinking, fluency and confidence for academic engagement

Stream 2: Academic Writing skills, critical thinking and academic identity

Stream 3: leadership skills development, service and learning community

Stream 4: helping incoming students with transition to university

Communication Café 83 events @1.5 hrs (=124.5 training hrs) 493 different students 1646 visits

Academic Vocabulary Café 18 events @1.5 hrs (=27 training hrs) 65 different students 90 visits

Personalized Academic Reading and Writing through Email (RWE) 2805 critical thinking emails (=2805 virtual “visits”) 411 face-to-face meetings (=visits)

Facilitator Training Certificate Program (FTC) § Silver Level § Gold Level Service learning component: >80 cafes (@2 facilitators per café Personal training component: 12 hours of instructional training (6 events); 72 pieces of Reflective writing 20 personal skills projects 7 group capstone projects 20 graduates in April FTC graduation

English Language Development Summer Learning Institute 6 on-campus days plus online (@6 hrs of on-campus)

Discussion Skills Café 25 events @1 hr (25 training hrs) 183 different students 222 visits

Seminars 27 events @1.5 hr (= 40.5 training hrs) 322 different students 376 visits

Total for Stream 1: 153 events (83+18+25+27=)

N/a Total: 6 events

6 events

2334 visits 3216 visits 198 visits 252 visits


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(2805 + 411) (6 x 33) 1063 different students (based on adding up the unique identifiers in each Café component). However, since some students participate in several components in the Café stream, the unique identifiers indicated that 728 students found the various components of Café useful, and thus participated in more than one Café component.

335 different students



217 training hours (124.5+25+27+40.5)

1870 hours of reading and 935 hours of writing

Hours of personal training (excluding the experiential training of supporting peers during the Cafes listed under Stream 1) cannot be estimated.

36 training hours

6000 visits (2334+3216+198+252) 1138 different students Approximately 5.3 visits per student This high no. of visits/contacts per student indicates that the programs resonated with students’ needs, thus engaging students in sustained self-selected learning.


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Appendix 2: Overview of ELDC Academic Outreach through non-core ELDC programming and collaboration


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Note. Since we do not have the means to know if a student appears in more than each of these categories, we are merely adding up the number of students we are aware of in each category.

Appendix 3

Outreach/collaboration (No. of students indicated in brackets)

Subtotal/Total No. students

Under-graduate Class Visits

CHMC31 Intermediate Inorganic Chemistry (33) CSCD03 Social Impact of Information Technology (26) ENGD08 Topics in African Literature (30) GASA01/HISA06 Introducing Global Asia and its Histories (300) LGGA61 Introductory Mandarin II (31) LGGB61 Intermediate Mandarin II (23) LGGC61 Advanced Mandarin II (33) LINA01 Introduction to Linguistics (600) MCEC43 Organization Strategies (22) MDSA01 Introduction to Media Studies (316) MDSB 62 Visual Culture (80) MGEC40 Economics of Organization and Management (29) MGEC40 Economics of Organization and Management (17) PHYA10 Introduction to Physics IA (300) PHYA11 Introduction to Physics IB (310) POLC53 Canadian Environmental Policy (53) SOCB49 Sociology of Family (110 students) SOCC23 Practicum in Qualitative Research Methods (14) VPHB53 Medieval Art (40) VPHB72 Museum and Curatorial Practice: Theoretical and Ethical Issues (27) VPHB74 Art in Early Modern Europe: Renaissances Outside of Italy (39) VPHB77 Asia in Display (40) VPHC54 Art Writing (25 s) VPSA62 Foundation Studies in Studio (17)

2515

Academic Integrity Matters

AIM sessions: 13 seminars serving 472 students in total 2 outreach events:

472 Co-op Orientation Program

Navigating the World of Work orientation session

500 Graduate courses

Master’s in Environmental Science

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One-on-one These consultation session were conducted by Elaine Khoo (25)and Maggie Roberts (4)

29

Preparation for university

Greenpath Program 225 Fair Taiwan 19

TOTAL 3831


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Figure 3 The improvement of students’ Academic English measured by the AEHC after engagement in RWE over 8 weeks.

Appendix 4 - Insights from Pilot run of RWE-in-courses initiative A survey of students in this pilot project showed their appreciation of how much the RWE process benefited them. Students expressed that they had written more than they otherwise would because of the expectations set in this program. This is a great step forward in successfully engaging science students in voluntarily writing to improve their writing skills. We found that by engaging these physics students to write their understanding of physics concepts in order to communicate with a non-physics trained instructor forced students to learn how to express themselves beyond mathematical equations and numerical calculations. On a scale of 1-5 where 1=strongly disagree and 5=strongly agree, the students who responded to the survey (N=12) indicated that the RWE program had helped them in various ways, notably in helping them understand their course materials better and becoming more critical readers(4.1 out of 5) and becoming feeling that they have a good supportive relationship with a tutor who is encouraging him/her in writing (4.2 out of 5)

Table 2: Student responses on the impact of RWE on their academic learning needs.

0 0 2

0

3 3

6 5 4 3

7

0 0 1 1 0

3 3

6 5 3

11

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

0 1 -‐ 10 11 -‐ 20 21 -‐ 30 31 -‐ 40 41 -‐ 50 51 -‐ 60 61 -‐ 70 71 -‐ 80 81 -‐ 90 91 -‐ 100

# of Students

Total AEHC Score

Fall 2013 RWE Students (Total AEHC Score Improvement) [N = 33]

# of Students (Pre) # of Students (Post)


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On a scale of 1-‐5, please indicate your responses: "As a result of my engagement in the RWE Program...”

Average Response

I have expanded my active vocabulary. 3.3 I am doing my academic reading more effectively. 3.8 I am keeping up with my course readings more effectively. 3.8 I like that I am participating in an academic conversation on different topics. 3.8 I am more aware of using correct grammar and linguistic expressions. 3.8 I am able to explore my ideas about my course materials in a no-‐risk environment. 3.8 I am more confident when working on my course assignments. 3.8 I enjoy reading a wide range of topics. 3.9 I feel that I am able to read my academic texts more critically. 3.9 I am more confident about expressing my thoughts in writing. 4.0 I am enjoying writing to my tutor. 4.1 I feel that I am expressing my ideas more critically in writing. 4.1 Writing to my tutor has helped me understand my course readings better. 4.1 My writing is more organized and easier to read. 4.2 I have developed a good relationship with a supportive tutor. 4.2


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Table 3: Indication of how RWE engages students in reading and writing essential to their courses No. of CT emails written over the semester

No. of hours spent by students in the reading and writing process

No. of students

More than 60 More than 60 hours 2

40-60 40-60 hours 7 20-39 20-39 hours 20 10-19 10-19 hours 12 3-9 3-9 hours 15 Students who wrote between 30 -70 emails benefited tremendously from their online and face-to-face support from their tutors and their improved abilities were noticed by their professors. Listed below are comments from professors from Collaborating courses from Winter 2014:

• I did notice an improvement in <studentname 1>’s comprehension and she seemed to be learning more than at the beginning.

• So delighted to hear that these students were involved in your program. Yes, <studentname 2> is doing so well these days -so much better than when she arrived in first year! I am quite proud of her efforts. And good to hear about <studentname 3>, as well. She has definitely improved since September!

• I'm very impressed with <studentname 4>'s effort. She is sharp and contributes a great deal to class discussion…Her writing and presentation are excellent. (Note. This is a student who wrote more than 60 emails)

Comments from students about RWE:

• I enjoy writing to the tutor and hearing their opinions. As well as that, this program gives a form of motivation to always work productively, get readings done daily and be goal oriented.

• The best factor I like about the RWE Program is the interaction with my tutor, <Tutorname>. He made me feel confident in English writing, and he gave me a lot of useful advice. I enjoy having an appointment with him

• I am able to discuss both academic and non academic writing in-depth without the constraints of marks.

• I liked having direct access to a tutor who was willingly to listen to my ideas, even when they were outlandish or somewhat disorganized. My tutor helped me focus my thoughts, and guide me towards more comprehensive writing.

ctl annual rpt 2013-14 v19comp · 2015-01-14 · iii) teaching portfolio workshop there were three...

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