Teaching & Learning Centre Information for Chairs | The Teaching & Learning Centre | Seneca Polytechnic

_{Updated: April 10, 2024}

Welcome to the Teaching & Learning Centre Information Hub for Chairs!

This page is curated with you in mind, serving as a central resource hub to assist you in planning and supporting your faculty members. Here, you will discover a spectrum of resources tailored to empower and enhance the teaching and learning experience for your faculty.

Navigate through the following key areas:

• Support for Flexible Delivery
• Faculty Development Program Schedule and Deadlines
• Curriculum Integration in Winter 2024
• The Professional Development Plan for Non Full-time Faculty Members
• Teaching & Learning Centre Days
• Learn@Seneca Blackboard Ultra Webinars and Drop-ins
• Calls for Proposals

This hub is your ally in empowering your faculty and steering them towards success. For any questions or additional support, feel free to reach out to us at teaching@senecapolytechnic.ca.

Support for Flexible Delivery

Upcoming sections of our Fundamentals of Flexible Course Design and Delivery course:

• May 1-21, 2024 — registration in MyPD closes at 1 p.m. (Eastern) on Tuesday, Apr. 30, 2024

Please note that these upcoming sections are designed for employees who have not yet registered for the course.
If anyone registered for a previous section, they still have full access to the course content and they can return to it at any time through BBTeach.

We are curating resources to support flexible delivery on our Flexible Teaching (HyFlex) webpage.

We recommend beginning here: our Flexible Course Delivery page created in Adobe Express, our Envisioning Your Course Through a Flexible Lens nutshell (a self-paced online module), and our Five Things I’ve Learned about Flexible Teaching from Conversations with Seneca Faculty Spark Plug article.

New: Seneca Flexible Classroom Instructional Video — this video shows how to set up and use the flexible classrooms on campus.

Faculty Development Program Schedule and Deadlines

The First Bundle in the Faculty Development Program began on Jan. 16, 2024 and the Second Bundle in the Faculty Development Program began on Jan. 17, 2024.

Important deadlines for your faculty for the winter 2024 term:

• In winter 2024, the first bundle ends on Apr. 9, 2024 and the second bundle ends on Apr. 10, 2024; all participants should complete the deliverables by this date.
• If extra time is needed, the faculty member needs to let their facilitator know. The final deadline to complete the winter 2024 deliverables is Friday, Apr. 26, 2024 — any faculty members who have not completed the deliverables for their winter 2024 bundle by Apr. 26 will not be eligible to participate in their next bundle in summer 2024.

Important deadlines for you:

• If any of your faculty members currently in the Faculty Development Program will not be able to participate in the Faculty Development Program in May/June 2024, please let us know before Feb. 15, 2024. Our staffing and scheduling for the Faculty Development Program bundles will be set up by then, making changes difficult.

In May/June 2024, the second and third bundles in the Faculty Development Program will run. Please note that the first bundle is not running in summer 2024 and we do not offer bundles of the Faculty Development Program in July/August. For the schedule details, please see the email from Ashley sent on Jan. 23, 2024.

Curriculum Integration in Winter 2024

Key dates for you:

• Jan. 23: Launch: Curriculum Integration 2024 kickoff
  We will offer day and evening timeslots.
• Feb. 26-Mar. 1 (Week 5 of the Curriculum Integration project in winter 2024): Chair midpoint check-in
  Review initial work of the project deliverable, a Curriculum Integration Action Plan (CIAP).
• Apr. 1: Sharing and Celebration Day
  Save the date! Chairs are invited to join us!
• Apr. 1-5 (Week 10 of the Curriculum Integration project in winter 2024): Chairs to discuss latest CIAP draft with Faculty Champions
  Discuss the progress on the full CIAP.
• Apr. 16: Winter 2024 Give Away Day.
  This is the celebration and sharing event for the cohort 2 faculty champions. Chairs are welcome to join us. Please register in MyPD.
• Apr. 26: Faculty Champions submit their final CIAP.
  Meet with your Faculty Champions to review and sign-off on the CIAP. Discuss next steps for implementation.

The Professional Development Plan for Non Full-time Faculty Members

A professional development plan has been created for Seneca’s non full-time faculty members: PD Plan for Non Full-time Faculty. The hours of remuneration per course (at the meeting rate) are listed on the PD Plan webpage. Every course in the PD Plan is micro-credentialled and the micro-credential can be used as proof of completion if needed.

The summer 2024 courses are now open for registration in MyPD: Professional Development Plan for Non Full-time Faculty Summer 2024 Flyer (PDF) .

These courses are open to all faculty members and instructors.

Teaching & Learning Centre Days

Teaching & Learning Day Spring 2024 is on Tuesday, Apr. 30 at King Campus. A day dedicated to showcasing and sharing ideas and activities about how to enhance teaching and learning. Come share perspectives, experiences, and practices for teaching and learning at the one-day conference. The theme is "Elevate, Empower, Excel: Celebrating Faculty Success Stories."

Register to attend in MyPD. Join us and celebrate faculty successes!

Learn@Seneca Blackboard Ultra Support

Full details about our Learn@Seneca Blackboard Ultra webinars and drop-ins are available on the Blackboard Ultra Webinars and Drop-Ins webpage.

Our Blackboard Ultra website is where faculty can find all the resources they'll need to teach in Blackboard Ultra. With how-to articles, best practices, resources, and videos, this space hosts all of the Teaching & Learning Centre's Blackboard Ultra materials.

We recommend beginning with our Blackboard Ultra Crash Course. It walks through the main features of Blackboard Ultra. We have the Quick Tour, a short introduction video about Blackboard Ultra, and the Course Tour, showing what a course could look like in Blackboard Ultra.

The Crash Course also include four instructional videos that cover the vast majority of topics faculty need to know to successfully teach in Blackboard Ultra:

The First Look at Blackboard Ultra – explore the menu and content areas of Blackboard Ultra, then start creating content: documents, folders, and modules

Building Assessments – explore the details of assessments in Blackboard Ultra

Using the Gradebook – explore the Gradebook in Blackboard Ultra and see how all the same features are still available plus some quality-of-life improvements

Groups and Accommodations – explore how to create groups and add them to assignments, plus how to set up accommodations and exceptions

These are polished versions of our webinars that were recorded without audience questions.

Faculty may also be interested in our Blackboard Ultra Nutshells! Nutshells are a series of quick, self-paced, online learning modules for faculty. Our Blackboard Ultra series of Nutshells provide faculty with an overview of Blackboard Ultra in addition to tips, best practices, and resources.

Calls for Proposals

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) call for proposals closed on Mar. 28, 2024.

The Open Educational Resources (OER) grant application closed on Nov. 15, 2023.

The Extended Reality in Teaching and Learning Call for Proposals closed on Nov. 3, 2023.

_{Header photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash}