4 minute read
Dean's Note
Welcome to 2023 and a New Year at Humber Research and Innovation
2022 WAS A BUSY YEAR for ORI as we try and follow the directive of “Lead. Transform. Differentiate.” Easy words to say—much harder to do!
So a few updates along those lines. In this issue, you will read some reflections on our participation at ESOMAR. We are the only institution in Canada that has acquired membership in this global qualitative research organization. Usually reserved for industry partnerships only, we forged a relationship to explore how we might collaborate in qualitative consumer research and hope to form a student club shortly. More to come.
We are a finalist in the Canadian Online Publishing Awards! We will be sending our SPARK team to the award ceremony so keep your fingers crossed for us.
We successfully disseminated our research on learning practices at the Academy of Management Teaching and Learning Conference in Seattle as well as the International Scholarship and Learning Conference in Kelowna, BC. We also published a paper on our collaboration with our Global Polytechnic Alliance Partners, Jan Hendrik Roodt and Steve
Henry from Otago Polytechnic in New Zealand and Thomas Iskov and Niels Bjerre Tange, from VIA in Denmark. Our focus underlined that the purpose of Higher Education is to produce learning not just instruction and how that changes the current field of polytechnic education. The current international focus is on Student Centered Learning and Teaching—putting the emphasis on research on how we learn. Our research question was How can we move toward a joint research agenda for delivering professional practice programmes on the basis of our SCLT-review that makes sense both from a comparative perspective and from three, individual, institutional viewpoints? We are continuing to explore the power of student agency through SCLT. Are you interested in getting involved with our group? Come talk to me!
As a result of our ongoing work in faculty development, we were invited to present at the SOTL Commons Conference at Georgia Southern University in February 2023. ORI SoTL research focus differs from reflective teaching in that it not only involves questioning one’s teaching strategy but formally gathering and exploring evidence, identifying learning theory, researching the literature, refining your practice and then finally going public with your ideas in order to make a contribution to the field. This helps grow our reputation at Humber. The holidays are always busy as submissions for 2023 are due—so we have completed our new proposals to the Academy of Management (AoM), Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICAN), Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STHLE/SOTL), the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (ASAC) and the Canadian Association of Research Administrators (CARA).
ADAPTED FROM THE CONNECTED CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK, 2022.
One new community of practice is called the “Connected Curriculum Framework” and explores how the use of research in your day-to-day teaching practice not only increases student agency in the classroom but increases engagement and learning retention. Based in current research from the University College in London, England—the paper is available in Microsoft teams for you to explore. Using current research allows us to stimulate new creative ideas for enriching learner experience.
We have learned much from the pandemic—mainly that the rules of the game have changed—and that the new rules have yet to be written. Check out our communities of practice and our research workshops and come play with us! It is an open road ahead.
NOBEL LAUREATE CARL WIEMAN (2016)
Ginger Grant, PhD. Dean, Office of Research & Innovation
Photo by Tanya Perdikoulias
