Fall 2025 Welcome!

The OTL team welcomes new and returning faculty, instructors, staff, and students to the 2025-26 academic year. Our work together with you in cultivating contexts for our students to learn inspires the OTL team and matters for our learning community: thank you for all you do to support student learning.

Our office offers resources, programs, and consultations to support instructors at every stage of the teaching journey. We look forward to working together to create meaningful, engaging, and transformative learning experiences for you and your students. Explore our website, follow us on LinkedIn, and contact us at otl@uoguelph.ca.

Invitation: Refocusing OTL's Mandate

Over the 2025-2026 academic year the Office of Teaching and Learning will refocus its mandate, programs, team structure and operations. This work follows a period of change in team members and an expanding scope of work and is guided by a continued commitment to teaching and learning for the University of Guelph, University of Guelph-Humber, and Ridgetown Campus communities. By the end of April 2026 OTL will have:

A clarified and endorsed mandate informed by and responsive to the wide campus community
Programs and activities that have been reviewed and aligned to support and advance the mandate
Team structures and roles that support and advance the mandate.

To achieve these goals, the Office of Teaching and Learning will engage in a community-informed process guided by principles of openness and collaboration. By inviting wide participation in this process and by including a range of ways of sharing perspectives, we aim to hear input on the directions for OTL from the community it serves. Throughout this process we will center community, relationships and deep listening, with intentional prioritization of decolonized approaches to this work.

Look for opportunities to participate in a survey, focus group, or drop-in conversations in our October newsletter and on our website. Reach out to the OTL Director, Erin Aspenlieder at easpen01@uoguelph.ca, if you have questions or suggestions related to this work.

Registration Open: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Banner for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation event. In the background, children’s shoes are lined up on outdoor concrete steps, symbolizing remembrance of children lost to residential schools. Text at the top reads: “SEWEHIA:RAK: WE REMEMBER. National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.” Text on the right reads: “Tuesday, September 30, 1:00–2:00 PM, Johnston Hall.” At the bottom right is a stylized orange and black feather.

She:kon! Hello! OTL will be hosting a memorial event for National Truth and Reconciliation Day on September 30th, 2025, from 1:00-2:00pm beside the front entrance of Johnston Hall on the University of Guelph campus. Sewehia:rak: We Remember is an opportunity for members of the UofG community to name and learn more about the countless victims and survivors of the Canadian Indian Residential Boarding Schools (IRS).

We invite you to be a part of Sewehia:rak: We Remember as a Witness or a Speaker.

As a Witness, you will be present to listen to the names and the stories shared by others. This role is equally important as those who choose to speak. If you would like to be a Witness, please add this invitation link to your calendar.
As a Speaker, we’d like you to research a victim or survivor of the Indian Residential Boarding School system in Canada, independently or with one or more of your colleagues. On the day of the event, we will invite you to share a part of their story for 1-2 minutes. If you would like to be a Speaker, please fill out this form.

If you have any questions about the Sewehia:rak: We Remember Memorial Event, please email Cara Loft at cloft@uoguelph.ca

Nia:wen kowa! Thank you! We hope you can join us for this important event.

Learn more about Sewehia:rak: We Remember

Fall Storytelling in the Arboretum

This Fall, Cara Loft, Educational Developer for Indigenous Knowledges and Pedagogies, will share stories from her Haudenosaunee Culture in the Guelph Arboretum. Please join Cara in the Arboretum on the last Friday morning of each month to listen to traditional Indigenous Storytelling and walk through the Arboretum Trails. This storytelling series provides an opportunity for faculty, students, staff, and community members to experience Haudenosaunee Culture and traditional land-based teaching/learning in a hands-on and accessible way.

Friday, Sept. 26, 9:30-11:00am: Mohawk Creation Story
Friday, Oct. 31, 9:30-11:00am: The Story of the Flying Head (Scary)
Friday, Nov. 28, 9:30-11:00am: The Story of the Three Sisters
Friday, Dec. 12, 9:30-11:00am: The Story of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy

Cara will begin each session with a Traditional Smudge and Hand drum Song and then move outside for a walk and storytelling. Please make sure to wear appropriate clothing for the weather and bring a water bottle! The meeting location will be shared with participants in advance.

Registration will open soon on the Arboretum website. Space is limited to 30 participants and these sessions tend to fill quickly. We hope to see you there! Nia:wen! Thank you!

Program (Re)Design Institute Call for Expressions of Interest

Banner for the Program (Re)Design Institute. The background shows the University of Guelph campus with trees, walkways, and Johnston Hall. The text reads “Program (Re)Design Institute, December 9 & 11, 2025”. Logos at the bottom represent the University of Guelph Office of Quality Assurance, Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, and Office of Teaching and Learning.

The Offices of Graduate and Post-Doctoral Studies, Quality Assurance, and Teaching and Learning are proud to co-host the Program (Re)Design Institute (PRDI). The PRDI is an intensive two-day program to support faculty and staff in designing new or modifying existing undergraduate or graduate degree or diploma programs. Through a series of interactive sessions, consultations with campus experts, and structured writing blocks, participants will work through the new program proposal or major modification process in a supportive and collegial environment.

The PRDI will be held in-person on December 9 to 11, 2025 from 9:00 AM – 4:15 PM.

All University of Guelph, University of Guelph-Humber, and Ridgetown instructors seeking to design a new program or revise an existing program are eligible. Space is limited.

Expressions of Interest due November 7, 2025.

Learn more about PRDI and apply here

Farewell and Congratulations to Dr. Christopher Laursen

I am moving on from the University of Guelph to an exciting new chapter in my career. For the past three years, I’ve grown tremendously as an Educational Developer in the Office of Teaching and Learning. I’ve had the privilege of working with an incredible team of pedagogical experts, promoting evidence-informed teaching, decolonizing and Indigenizing curricula, and supporting adaptation to a rapidly evolving educational landscape. Collaborating with the OTL team, along with UofG faculty, instructors, students, and staff, has been deeply enriching, stimulating, and forward-thinking. OTL brings great expertise and genuine care to guide your teaching journey, and it’s been an honour to contribute.

I’ve been fortunate to contribute meaningfully to initiatives around accessibility, wellbeing, inclusion, and generative AI, and to co-chair the Teaching & Learning Innovations (TLI) Conference since 2023. Each day, walking to work, past the Dairy Bush and the horses, down Reynolds Walk, seeing familiar faces, I’ve felt deep gratitude for all the vibrant UofG community has given me. Many of you know the great passion I’ve brought to my work here. Thank you to everyone I’ve had the pleasure of connecting with at UofG.

With that, I’m excited to share that in early October, I’ll begin a new role as Senior Educational Development Consultant in Curriculum Innovation at the University of Alberta's Centre for Teaching and Learning. I grew up in the Edmonton area, so while I’m sad to leave Guelph, I’m thrilled to return home for adventures with an amazing new team. Please feel free to reach out. I'd love to stay in touch.

With gratitude!
Christopher

Registration Reminders

Spaces are still available in the following upcoming programs and workshops:

Fall 2025 Book Club, reading Teaching Where You Are: Weaving Indigenous and Slow Principles and Pedagogies. Register by September 12.
Artificial Intelligence in Teaching and Learning: Community of Practice. Register by September 23.
Giving Students Feedback on Assignments workshop on September 8. Register by September 5.
Leading and Facilitating Discussions workshop on September 11. Register by September 10.
Effective Lesson Planning for Labs and Seminars workshop on September 12. Register by September 11.
International Teaching Assistants: A Panel Discussion on September 16. Register by September 15.
Leveraging AI for Teaching: Creating Activities, Lectures, and Course Materials on September 23. Register by September 22.

For more teaching resources or to chat with us,
visit our website at https://otl.uoguelph.ca/ or contact us at otl@uoguelph.ca.

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