STLHE 2016 Takes a "Walk on the WALS Side"
From June 21-24 2016, Western University and Fanshawe College hosted the 36th annual Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) conference.
Building on this year’s conference theme, “Empowering Learners, Effecting Change,” a number of faculty and staff from Western and beyond used WALS to facilitate interactive workshops and showcase innovative teaching tools and techniques. Western-organized sessions included:
“Supporting eLearning on campus: Drawing inspiration from the continuous improvement of an eLearning toolkit” (Lauren Anstey, Stephanie Horsley, Jennifer Sadler, Gavan Watson)
“Reflective Choreography: Construct Mapping to Facilitate Teaching and Student Participation in an Active Learning Space” (Graham Smith, Sandi Spaulding)
“Take a Walk on the WALS Side: Innovative Teaching in Western Active Learning Space” (Angela Borchert, Rob Corless, Sarah McLean, Aaron Price, Graham Smith, Sandi Spaulding, Stephanie Oliver, Gavan Watson)
“Using Prezi to Facilitate Active Learning” (Graham Smith)
“The Frontiers of Service-Learning at Canadian Universities” (Sunaina Assanand, Ann Bigelow, Vladimir Kricsfalusy, Aleksandra Zecevic)
“Welcome to My Classroom: The Two Hour Taskforce on Barriers to Educational Innovation” (Tom Haffie)
“Enhancing the learner-instructor relationship in an on-line learning environment: Lessons from both perspectives” (Nicole Campbell, Wendy Crocker)
For a full list of STLHE workshops in WALS, click here.
The photos below show “Take a Walk on the WALS Side: Innovative Teaching in Western Active Learning Space,” a timed gallery walk featuring seven WALS instructors and their students, TAs, and RAs. During the 50 minute session, participants had the chance to visit three pods of their choice. At each pod, participants explored how instructors use WALS’ unique spatial and technological affordances, gained hands on experience with a range of eLearning tools and active learning strategies, and networked with other participants.
Participants explore how Dr. Aaron Price uses gamification in his Engineering course.
Dr. Rob Corless showcases how his experimental math students create and project basins of attraction in WALS.
Dr. Sandi Spaulding shows a participant how to correct posture using the ceiling camera and whiteboard markers.
Dr. Aleksandra Zecevic simulates aging in a demo from her Gerontology in Practice class.
