Support

CTLT  provides a range of resources and information to help instructors to ensure that their course materials are accessible for all learners. Accessibility 101 provides information, strategies and links to help instructors improve access to digital content, so that students with all physical abilities can access their learning materials. The Universal Design for Learning Hub (UDL) provides information about the UDL framework and its 3 core principles that encourage educators to employ multiple means of engagement, multiple means of representation, and multiple means of action and expression, in the design of their courses to support a more inclusive and accessible learning environment for all learners.  On the UDL Hub, you will find information and resources about UDL as well as examples of UBC faculty and staff who have employed UDL approaches in their courses, and links to Central and Faculty support units with expertise in Accessibility and UDL.

The Classroom Climate Series is a year-long program where faculty, teaching assistants, researchers, graduate students, and staff from all over the University have the opportunity to challenge their own assumptions about what they have learned about Aboriginal people, become more critically aware of their teaching and research practices, and learn more about how they engage with topics that challenge their own social location within the institution. The breadth of participants’ experiences, locations, and roles within the University create a unique environment for the exchange of interdisciplinary approaches to teaching, and an opportunity to engage with and share experiences from a diverse range of perspectives.

This strategically-designed series creates a unique learning experience for participants by combining a series of mini-class lectures, interactive group activities, and one-on-one discussions with a strong focus on activities and discussions designed to evoke critical thinking and self-awareness. As a result, participants gain skills to create a more clearly developed and informed approach to understanding and teaching about Aboriginal and other socially contentious issues in a curricular setting.

To learn more about the series offerings from this year and to keep up to date with new offerings please contact Erin Run (erin.yun@ubc.ca) to be added to the email list.
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The CDI is a three-day workshop in which participants work individually and collaboratively to design or re-design a course they are (or will be) teaching. Throughout the workshop, participants will acquire a broadened understanding of course design concepts, and will gain skills and tools they can apply to their own course. The focus of the workshop is on having participants work with the major concepts and questions that need to be considered as they design a course. Ultimately, the goal of the CDI is to support instructors as they work to enhance their students’ learning.
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The CTLT Institute is hosted three times each year by CTLT. The Spring, Summer, and Winter Institutes feature interactive workshops where participants have an opportunity to network, gain practical ideas and share best practices with their fellow colleagues and members of the UBC community.
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Seeking support to evaluate your TLEF project? Start with the project evaluation guidelines. Our team of experts is available to help you design and implement an evaluation plan to help determine whether the intended impacts of your TLEF project were achieved. We can help with the identification of relevant indicators and methods, as well as with data collection and analysis. Ten hours of in-kind support is available to support funded projects.

Our team holds two TLEF Evaluation Workshops every year. Upcoming offerings will be posted to the CTLT Events website.

Please contact Trish Varao-Sousa (trish.varao-sousa@ubc.ca) for consultation and support.

In collaboration with CTLT, the Student Diversity Initiative team provides strategic support, consultations, professional development opportunities, and resources for faculty, instructors, and TAs to create more inclusive and equitable learning opportunities for diverse students at UBC.

For resources, professional development opportunities, and work happening across UBC that are related to equity, diversity, and inclusion in teaching and learning, please visit the Inclusive Teaching @ UBC website: https://inclusiveteaching.ctlt.ubc.ca.

The CTLT Indigenous Initiatives team provides support and professional development to faculty, graduate students, and units across campus by building capacity around Indigenous engagement within teaching and learning. This includes services such as: consultations, TA training, resource development, and providing customized workshops to the UBC teaching and learning community. We offer professional development sessions on topics such as navigating difficult conversations in the classroom, Indigenous engagement in teaching and learning, classroom climate, and decolonizing approaches to diversity and inclusion. For more information, visit the Indigenous Initiatives website or contact Amy Perreault, Associate Director, Indigenous Initiatives, CTLT (amy.perreault@ubc.ca).

Looking for support with course design? Request a one-on-one consultation to discuss how you can refine your course design to better support student learning and create an improved student experience. These personalized consultations offer an opportunity to:

• discuss teaching in an online, hybrid, or multi-access environment,
• explore how to enhance assessments and learning activities,
• develop strategies to support active learning,
• learn how to create accessible and inclusive content,
• discover technologies that promote interaction and engagement,
• investigate how to reduce instructor workload,

and more.

The LT Hub is a central resource where faculty and staff can drop in to explore the learning technology tools available to them at UBC for use in traditional classrooms, blended courses, and fully online learning. Applicants who are considering the development or the adoption of Learning Technology tools (LT Tools), must consult with the LT Hub before submitting a TLEF proposal to ensure that they are familiar with guidelines relating to requests for LT adoption and assessment at UBC.

The LT Hub's  Learning Technology (LT) Incubator can provide support to funded UBC learning technology projects by housing their software development within the LT Hub. Please reach out early in your planning to get input from the LT Incubator Team on your proposal and to explore the possibility of collaboration.

Please contact Tammy Yasrobi, Associate Director, Teaching and Learning Technology if you have questions or to arrange a consultation.

DIY Media Guides and UBC Media Makers offer resources, examples, and process guides to help you get your DIY project off the ground. The Planning Guide may be a good first step to get you thinking about your project.

Workshops are offered throughout the year and are open to faculty and student project teams involved in DIY digital media production.

Studio Sessions/Support: UBC Studios offers the use of the Lightboard studio and DIY studio for recording video. Expert staff are available to help.

Note that if you are planning a DIY media project and will be need help, please consult with your local Faulty instructional support unit or UBC Studios early in the planning process.
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Open” is a significant teaching and learning practice at UBC and one of the TLEF priorities is for projects that “create, adapt, or integrate open educational resources to make education more affordable and accessible to students.” Teaching and learning materials developed with the support of the TLEF must be made available for re-use within UBC. TLEF project teams are encouraged to license and share materials developed with TLEF funding under an appropriate Creative Commons license. CTLT provides consultation services to help facilitate this sharing as well as to support the effective development and integration, open educational resources (OER) and open educational practices (OEP) with teaching, learning, and curriculum goals. Additionally, the UBCV OER Fund offers grants to support the use of OER in credit courses, helping to make learning materials more affordable and accessible for students. If you're considering using open resources to reduce learning material costs and improve access, you may wish to apply for an OER grant. Get hands-on support on the effective use of OER, the development of open collaboration practices, the understanding of open license and copyright, digital content sharing methods, the use of open learning technologies, and evidence-based open pedagogies. For more information, visit the Open UBC site or contact Will Engle, Strategist, Open Education Initiatives, CTLT (will.engle@ubc.ca).

Throughout the summer and fall, CTLT hosts a variety of professional development and support opportunities for faculty to explore ways of bringing innovation into their teaching practice and to prepare potential TLEF applicants for upcoming proposal development. Faculty are encouraged to look to both CTLT and their local Faculty support units for a variety of opportunities for support in developing their proposals over the coming months.

If there is a specific area that you are interested in receiving support on and you do not see it in the list of opportunities below, please contact Zoe Morris, Associate Director, Teaching and Learning Professional Development, CTLT.

Topics include:

• Innovation with respect to teaching practice.
• Hands-on opportunities to experiment with techniques to increase student engagement in classroom-based and online activities.
• Evidence-based practices that foster skills and higher order learning in the classroom.
• Exposure to learning technologies that enrich the quality of learning materials, enable opportunities for student interactions, and increase the frequency and impact of assessment both in-class and online.

The TA Development Educational Developer at CTLT partners with faculties to provide training and support for graduate students and teaching assistants (TAs) involved with TLEF projects. This includes consultation on professional development workshops and programs for TAs, as well as workshop design and facilitation. For more information contact Shaya Golparian (shaya.golparian@ubc.ca).

Please note that the Graduate Student Programs team at CTLT also offers support for departmental TA Training Programs where it assists with the development of training and resources that are responsive to the unique teaching situations across disciplines. Find more information about areas of support offered for TA Training programs or contact Shaya Golparian (shaya.golparian@ubc.ca).

The Certificate in Advanced Teaching and Learning (CATL) is a 13 month program that focuses participants on advanced pedagogical theory and practice, with a particular focus on uncovering and understanding discipline-specific pedagogies, as well as the opportunity to do a small-scale SoTL project. Graduates of the program are UBC graduate students who have engaged deeply with lesson and course design, and have designed, executed, and presented on a small scale SoTL project. If you are interested in hiring a CATL graduate, or a current CATL student to contribute to your TLEF project, please contact Joseph Topornycky (joseph.toporycky@ubc.ca) for more information.