Faculty of Arts Update | Academic Newsletter | Seneca Polytechnic

by Jamie Zeppa, School of English and Liberal Studies

in the March 2021 issue

Last spring, when it became clear that the pandemic was going to last more than a few weeks, faculty from the Faculty of Arts began to meet informally to discuss the challenges of teaching online: what to keep from an in-person course and how to adapt it; when to engage students and with what tools; and how to mark all those discussion posts…. Faculty had questions, and faculty also had answers.

These discussions have grown into the FOA Round Table Series. Each session begins with a panel of experienced faculty who convey their top strategies and quick tips. The session then opens up for other faculty to share their experiences. The focus remains teaching-centered and practical: how to open threads on your first discussion board, for example, or what you should say if students ask you to set up study groups for the entire class on the non-Seneca-supported WhatsApp (short answer: say no).

The round tables have addressed academic integrity, online assessments, supporting students with accommodations, and creating interactive online spaces. Notes and recordings from the sessions can be found on our space in MySeneca. Upcoming round tables will focus on facilitating online group work, creating authentic assessments, and supporting student wellness.

In a similar vein, faculty who teach COM101 and COM111 have continued to share questions and ideas in the Indigenous Readings book club with Mark Solomon, Dean of Student Services and Indigenous Education, and Randy Pitawanakwat, Professor, Student Services and Indigenous Education. COM101 / COM111 requires students to read at least one article by an Indigenous author, and the book club provides an opportunity for faculty to explore cultural and pedagogical issues with Mark and Randy as they prepare their COM lesson plans.

For the last two book clubs, COM faculty were joined by their Humber colleagues to discuss readings on the complexities of land acknowledgements, the value of oral story-telling, and the lack of clean drinking water in First Nations communities in Canada.

Readings for the COM courses are all open-source. Selected by COM faculty, they are housed in an online bank created by Seneca Libraries. The bank, which is organized by theme and by genre, is open to everyone; you are invited to explore.

^{Image source: Photo by FLY:D on Unsplash}

View the March 2021 issue of the Academic Newsletter.