Cet article brosse le portrait de l’appréciation de la qualité d’un SPOC (pour Small Private Online Course) portant sur la formation hybride en enseignement supérieur au collégial par ses apprenants. Développé à l’intention des enseignants et des conseillers pédagogiques en enseignement collégial, ce SPOC a été offert à six cohortes d’apprenants, en français et en anglais. Planifié principalement en mode asynchrone en ligne tout en offrant des occasions d’interactions, le SPOC proposait aussi deux choix de parcours de formation, en survol ou en profondeur. Dans cette étude, l’appréciation de la qualité du SPOC par ses apprenants a été examinée tant par rapport à son potentiel pour l’apprentissage (qualité du contenu, soutien aux apprentissages, communications et interactions, évaluation des apprentissages) que par rapport aux aspects technologiques de son implantation en ligne (conception visuelle, navigation, accessibilité). Un total de 177 participants a rempli un questionnaire en ligne et 20 participants se sont joints à quatre groupes de discussion. Les statistiques descriptives et les analyses des résultats des tests t visant à comparer les perceptions des participants aux volets francophone et anglophone issues des données quantitatives ont été enrichies et complétées par une analyse de contenu des données qualitatives. L’analyse très détaillée de l’appréciation de la qualité du SPOC par rapport aux écrits scientifiques actuels fournit des pistes pour la conception future de SPOC en enseignement collégial.
The scholarly landscape is shifting towards online knowledge production and consumption. Understanding the effect this digital shift has on teaching in practical and collaboration-based contexts is timely since many online applications and webtools are being developed to promote student engagement in asynchronous online courses across a variety of disciplines. The Virtual Mystery (VM) webtool was created for large in-person courses to provide online asynchronous student collaboration in the form of hybridized problem-based learning case studies to small groups of students. This study examines the impact of course delivery (online vs blended) on these group collaborations and quality of work for the VM webtool. This paper analyzes anonymous student survey data from six iterations of a large first-year archaeology and biological anthropology course with two different modalities (online vs blended). Quantitative data was collected from students through course surveys using a Likert scale. Qualitative data was collected from student survey reflections and analyzed in relation to the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework. While the VM exercises create a learning environment that inherently incentivizes critical thinking creating a strong Cognitive Presence for students in the CoI framework, results indicate key weaknesses to Social and Teaching Presence in online learning environments. In particular, this is related to the loss of group communication and the desire for more interaction with teaching assistants and instructors. This study reveals that in online courses, additional course-mediated mechanisms may be needed to facilitate and maintain collaboration/communication between student group members in informal social interactions in online hybridized problem-based learning projects.
L’utilisation du format hybride pour l’enseignement en contexte universitaire est à la hausse, cependant, peu d’études ont observé son efficacité auprès des étudiants et recueilli leurs points de vue à cet égard, spécifiquement dans le domaine de la psychologie. Le but de cet article est donc de documenter des études dont l’objet porte sur l’utilisation des cours hybrides en psychologie de premier cycle à l’université. Les objectifs sont de recenser les études qui ont porté sur 1) la relation entre les cours hybrides de premier cycle en psychologie et la performance universitaire des étudiants ainsi que 2) sur leurs perceptions et leur niveau de satisfaction vis-à-vis les cours hybrides et 3) sur les facteurs pouvant contribuer à la réussite et à une expérience positive en contexte de cours hybride. Malgré le nombre limité d’études recensées, les résultats sont prometteurs pour l’enseignement hybride de la psychologie au niveau universitaire.
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) in Canada has significantly transformed since the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the lens of the 4M (micro-meso-macro-mega) Framework, this scholarly personal narrative discusses the factors that impact the advancement of Canadian SoTL post-pandemic from the perspectives of seven scholars of varying rank and position from seven universities across Canada. Our collective insights highlight the unique opportunities and challenges for SoTL work at the individual, departmental/program, institutional, and beyond-institutional levels, that both emerged and persisted following the COVID-19 pandemic. We discuss practical suggestions, such as leveraging technology including generative AI and working collaboratively, for the continued advancement of Canadian SoTL in the post-pandemic higher education landscape.
Among cooperative learning strategies, the Jigsaw classroom activity is particularly adaptable, working well across diverse age groups and academic disciplines. This strategy is especially relevant in graduate-level statistics courses, which are notoriously difficult and intimidating for non-mathematical students. This qualitative case study explored graduate students’ experiences with the Jigsaw classroom activity in a statistics course within a psychology program. Through semi-structured focus group interviews and reflection papers, participants reflected on the effectiveness of the approach and the challenges encountered. Reflexive thematic analysis identified key themes related to the students’ perceptions and experiences. Pre- and post-survey results indicated a decrease in students’ level of statistical anxiety. The scores on multiple-choice quizzes also demonstrated students’ good understanding of the material presented. Overall, results indicated that students perceived the Jigsaw learning activity as effective in enhancing certain elements of statistical literacy, such as collaboration, academic performance, critical skills, and attitudes toward statistics, while also reducing statistical anxiety. Additionally, participants reported increased engagement and confidence in tackling statistical problems. However, challenges such as uneven effort distribution and initial confusion about the activity’s structure were noted. Suggestions for addressing these challenges included clearer instructions and better time management.
Nursing schools are known for their combination of demanding academic requirements and often stressful clinical experiences. Nursing instructors at a polytechnic in western Canada noted ongoing concerns with nursing students struggling to manage their anxiety. The goal of this study was to understand if self-care activities introduced during each clinical rotation day would help to reduce feelings of anxiety and stress in second- and third-year nursing students. Nursing instructor participants were given a list of the four self-care activities (gratitude list, deep breathing, journalling, and colouring) to be explained and practiced at the end of each clinical day. At the end of the completed clinical session, the participating nursing students and nursing instructors were given a questionnaire to complete during their final post-conference regarding the effectiveness of the self-care activities. Braun and Clark’s framework for thematic analysis was employed to answer the research objective. Statistical descriptive analysis was also completed on the post-activity questionnaires submitted by the nursing student and nursing instructor participants. The data revealed that both second- and third-year students identified colouring and deep breathing as the most effective activities in reducing feelings of stress and anxiety. Nursing instructors also identified colouring as the preferred method of self-care for both groups. This study supports the need to include self-care activities in the clinical environment and highlights the importance of developing these skills early in nursing education.
Non-Indigenous graduate students can play an important role in decolonizing academic practices, thereby supporting post-secondary institutions’ efforts to Indigenize learning in Canada. Preparing non-Indigenous students to unlearn colonizing practices and obtaining their proactive contribution, therefore, remains an urgent task. Against this background, the following interrelated questions have been examined: how do non-Indigenous graduate students understand the meaning and purpose of Indigenization of learning? How do current academic strategies prepare non-Indigenous students to participate in decolonizing practices? An online survey with 10 questions was administered among non-Indigenous graduate students at a research-intensive university in Southwestern Ontario. A total of 42 students participated in the survey. The data were thematically analyzed in three major areas, including a) content, b) teaching method, and c) participation in community-based practices. The findings demonstrated some significant improvements in the non-Indigenous students’ knowledge of Indigenous communities, traditions, and histories. However, improvements in the areas of teaching and community relations were minimal. The non-Indigenous students lacked practical exposure to Indigenous knowledge-sharing methods, nor were they seen participating in community-based activities.
Misconceptions about research and lack of engagement are well-documented barriers in undergraduate research methods classes. Active learning and experiential strategies have helped address these challenges. Arts-based research, which integrates creative practices at different stages of the research process, represents a promising pedagogical approach. This paper provides empirical evidence of its potential in undergraduate research education. In Fall 2022, a group of Communication Studies majors collaborated with engineering peers to design chind & omacr;gu, Japanese "useless artifacts" that reject commodification and functionality. This arts-making experience provided Communication Studies students with data for an arts-based research experience. A thematic analysis of eight critical reflection journals from Communication Studies majors in a capstone seminar in Communication and Media Studies revealed that students perceive arts-based research as new and challenging, often leading to personalized and subjective research outcomes. This study argues that the perceived novelty, challenge, and subjectivity of arts-based research do not just facilitate transformative learning and the development of students' research voices; they also provide the conditions to experience and critically reflect on the limitations of disciplinary knowledge production.
In this study, we explore the transformation of social work students from experiencing research anxiety to active engagement in research conducted within a mandatory course at a leading Canadian university. Traditionally, many social workers have perceived a distinct divide between practical social work and academic research, often viewing research methodologies as intimidating and unrelated to their professional responsibilities. The course was reformatted to help students view research as integral to effective social work and consider themselves as potential researchers. Grounded in critical pedagogy, disability justice, trauma-informed education, and anti-oppressive frameworks, this manuscript draws from detailed reflections on teaching strategies and extensive student feedback to propose ten principles aimed at fostering research-informed competencies among social work undergraduate students. These principles are designed to cultivate curiosity, mastery, and enjoyment in research, making this approach beneficial to social work students and anyone experiencing educational anxiety or resistance. This manuscript underscores the importance of transforming educational strategies to help students develop competencies that enhance their professional abilities and personal confidence in tackling new and challenging learning areas.
The paper “Critical Reflection on Educator Experiences of Negotiated Grading” reports on an alternative grading system in higher education. Instead of the traditional method where the teacher solely decides grades, this “negotiated grading” system involves students in the grading process. Educators from nursing and business disciplines shared their experiences with this approach.
This study, conducted at a North American research-intensive university with two campuses, examined the relationship between faculty beliefs and teaching practices concerning student wellbeing. Drawing on results from a 2023 institutional survey (17.9% response rate), the research questions explored whether faculty believe their teaching practices influence student wellbeing, whether they employ wellbeing-focused practices, and if their beliefs align with their actions. Findings revealed that respondents overwhelmingly believed (92%) that their teaching practices impact student wellbeing. In terms of practices, a majority of faculty reported discussing wellbeing topics (55%) and sharing wellbeing resources (52%) within their class. At the same time, some differences were found in the adoption of wellbeing strategies based on years of teaching experience and course level. In terms of alignment, a statistically significant association was found between faculty beliefs about their impact on student wellbeing and whether they employ wellbeing practices in class. This strong connection between beliefs and practices offers opportunities for addressing student wellbeing at individual, support unit, and institutional levels.
Can we be changemakers without empathy? If we seek to build tomorrow’s leaders, do we need to rethink leadership education to support the growth of the next generations’ changemakers? This exploratory research partnership explored students’ empathetic leadership capabilities through an out-of-classroom learning experience with a social enterprise providing equine-assisted coaching (n=17). Students subsequently participated in a post-event survey to assess their capabilities and their interpretation of the experience’s impact (n=8). Results, while preliminary, suggest that students gained awareness of their capabilities through self-reflection and saw the need for strengthening, even if they did not report uniform growth in those capabilities. This strongly suggests current approaches to building empathetic leadership skills in post-secondary education require reconsideration. Additionally, this research partnership highlights significant ongoing barriers to meaningful community engagement, including academic culture, timelines, and success metrics.
We investigated perceptions of a longstanding undergraduate course grade alignment policy in a large psychology department at a large research-oriented university. Reflexive Thematic Analysis of instructor interviews and student focus groups led to developing six themes revealing the policy’s perceived impact on teaching and learning practices. Discussion emphasizes three major findings. First, this policy influences how instructors design and deliver courses; implementation differences have consequences for students. Second, instructors and students alike worry about this policy’s impact on grades perceived beyond the institution. Third, participants situate this policy in a dynamic and relational ethical landscape, connecting it to systemic barriers to inclusion, fairness, trust, and authenticity. This research illuminates many complex ways a department-level grade alignment policy can impact teaching and learning, including unintended consequences and opportunities for change. Broadly, it showcases academic policies as important contributors to teaching and learning context—elaborating a key principle of good practice in SoTL.
The purpose of this research was to explore undergraduate students’ attitudes towards Indigenous People, Indigenous health care, and how students feel about having to engage in mandatory Indigenous course content. Studies have demonstrated that taking courses with Indigenous content improves cultural competency, thereby improving the overall health outcomes of Indigenous people (Stansfield & Browne, 2012). The exploration of student attitudes toward mandatory Indigenous content is a novel area of study. Health students were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. Data was processed using thematic analysis. Student attitudes towards Indigenous people could inform how students feel about engaging in mandatory Indigenous courses. Results support that students overwhelmingly endorsed the implementation of mandatory Indigenous content. It was also found that although students currently feel comfortable working with Indigenous people, they recognize potential health barriers and agree that culturally competent health care can ease some of the health care issues faced by Indigenous people.
Despite the widespread use of the American Psychological Association (APA) citations and referencing guidelines in undergraduate courses, students continue to make errors, perceiving the task of incorporating these guidelines as burdensome and tedious. To support students’ use of the guidelines, various aids have been developed, such as online citation generators, workshops, and handouts, with mixed results. One avenue to examine the errors students are making with the APA guidelines is to explore their motivation. Utilizing Situated Expectancy-Value Theory as our theoretical framework, we explored student motivation for incorporating the APA guidelines into their work, focusing on the components of expectancy, value, and cost. One hundred and fifty-five undergraduate students completed our online survey and indicated high expectancy and value and midline cost when considering implementing the APA guidelines into their assignments. Yet, when provided with an APA referencing task to complete, perceptions of expectancy and value dropped significantly. Students also identified various reasons for their perceptions of expectancy, value, and cost related to APA referencing, such as their reliance on resources to be correct (expectancy), the professionalism associated with correct use of the APA guidelines (value), and the time and effort required (cost). Our results are discussed in terms of recommendations for future support for students. We also address limitations and avenues for future research.
Self-regulated learners can independently plan, carry out, and evaluate their own learning process, and self-regulated learning (SRL) is positively associated with academic success. However, youth, limited post-secondary experience, and online delivery are all factors independently associated with poorer SRL skills. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, online course offerings have flourished, creating unprecedented challenges for first-year undergraduate students. Using a mixed-method approach, this study examined how SRL attitudes and behaviours contributed to the success and/or resilience of students enrolled in an online introductory physiology course. SRL skills were significantly associated with students’ final grades. High-achieving students also planned to use more learning strategies that are supported by evidence compared to their lower-achieving peers. Importantly, SRL skills also contributed to student ability to improve throughout the term. “Greatest improvers” adequately identified necessary changes to their study methods and were more likely to do so early in the semester, compared to less resilient students. Conversely, an astounding 60% of low-achieving students who expressed dissatisfaction with their midterm exam grades were unable to identify alternate learning strategies to prepare for the final exam. This suggests that having a more extensive “SRL studying toolbox” allows students to choose task-appropriate study methods and to adjust their learning behaviors when necessary. Promoting academic success for entry-level students in online environments requires more than teaching course content. Rather, it necessitates instructional methods that scaffold SRL to encourage students to adopt effective learning techniques and attitudes.
Anti-oppression refers to principles and practices that challenge existing oppressive structures. Training in anti-oppression is not universally offered in population health graduate programs in Canada, and there are few formal qualitative evaluations on students’ perceptions of existing trainings in the literature. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to evaluate the impact as well as students’ perceptions of a training on concepts related to identity, power, and privilege within the McGill School of Population and Global Health (SPGH) context. A team of students, faculty, and staff designed and implemented a voluntary workshop on anti-oppressive practices for graduate students enrolled in SPGH programs in 2023. We used a qualitative, participatory action design within a transformative paradigm to evaluate the workshop. Attendees were invited to participate in the study’s focus groups or one-on-one interviews. Qualitative data was analyzed through thematic analysis using NVivo 12. Of the 37 workshop attendees, 10 students participated in the study. We conducted four focus groups and one one-on-one interview. Participant perspectives were divided into the themes of relevance, safety and social change, collectivity, impact, and participant-driven development of equity training under the pillars of belonging, care, growth, and sustainability. Students found the training effective at improving interpersonal skills. However, they expected more content about addressing systemic forms of oppression within the population health field. The workshop was implemented effectively and successfully established a safe environment for learning. Additionally, this study provides a framework to design, develop, and evaluate anti-oppression workshops in population health education settings using a garden metaphor and demonstrates how the framework can be implemented. Further research and trainings should consider having anti-oppressive content more relevant to the population health field.
Wicked or complex problems pose significant negative consequences on human, animal, and environmental health. Some wicked problems such as climate change are considered “super wicked” as their impacts worsen over time, making them even more challenging and urgent to address. The One Health approach has been widely recognized as a promising method for addressing complex problems by promoting the collaboration between different disciplines and stakeholders. There is a need to train health professionals to appropriately apply the One Health approach to better address and help mitigate the effects of complex problems. The aim of this scoping review was to identify pedagogical strategies that promote integration of multiple disciplines and perspectives to address complex problems in classrooms across Canada and the United States of America. Five databases were searched for relevant literature, with primary research articles published in 2016 or later being eligible for review. The search yielded 6,552 articles, with 22 articles ultimately being eligible for inclusion. Case-based learning (21/22 articles; 95.5%), followed by collaborative learning (19/22; 86.4%) and community-based learning (9/22; 40.9%), were found to be the most common pedagogical approaches used to address complex problems. Almost all articles combined more than one pedagogical approach (21/22; 95.5%). Case-based and collaborative learning were commonly paired together (18/22; 81.8%). Transdisciplinarity was primarily applied in two ways: diverse teaching teams and student backgrounds (8/22; 36.4%), and engagement of community members or field experts (14/22; 63.6%). A variety of large-scale and small-scale assessment strategies were implemented by instructors to align with corresponding pedagogical approaches. The findings from this review provide an overview of different pedagogical and assessment strategies to facilitate learning and understanding of complex problems within the classroom.
Teaching assistants (TAs) play a pivotal role in higher education as they spend a significant amount of time supporting student learning and are often perceived by students as approachable and valuable mentors. In recent years, many large post-secondary institutions have offered centralized teaching assistant training programs, as well as in-depth faculty or department-specific programs. However, despite the acknowledgment of their significance, less is understood regarding the development, delivery, and evaluation of TA training programs, particularly ones that are centralized. This study sought to evaluate a newly developed centralized TA training program to understand the experiences of TAs as well as their perceived needs and recommendations to be able to fulfil their TA duties. This is a mandatory, paid training, and is offered through both in-person and online modules to all first-time teaching assistants across all schools and faculties. A unique component of this program is that the TAs are paid for their training hours. Survey data and semi-structured interviews illuminated the level of utility of each learning module as well as gaps that have been overlooked in the training. Overall, the results provide a good understanding of the TAs’ experiences with the training as well as recommendations for refinement of the training.
