February 2022

OTL Announcements

Announcing the 2022/23 Associate Vice-President (Academic) SoTL Grant Call for Proposals

The goal of the Associate Vice-President (Academic) (AVPA) Grant for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is to encourage and support scholarship that informs and enhances learning experiences, teaching practices, and educational development within and across disciplines by providing financial support for research projects. The AVPA SoTL Grant competition considers submissions designed to support any aspect of SoTL.  

Please submit your completed proposal via email to the AVPA’s office no later than 4:00pm March 21st, 2022, using the downloadable proposal and budget templates available on the OTL website. We welcome and look forward to new AVPA SoTL Grant applicants. 

Teaching Resource

Grading student work can be a source of stress as it can contribute substantially to instructors’ workloads. This resource includes guidance to help make grading more efficient to reduce some of the work related to planning, while maintaining a high standard of feedback for students.  

Upcoming Programming for Graduate Students

The following University Teaching Foundations workshops are open to all U of G Teaching Assistants and sessional instructors:  

Facilitating Discussions: February 16th, 2:00pm – 4:00pm 

• This workshop will explore topics such as how to effectively engage learners in discussion, encourage equal participation, deal with conflict and disagreement, and establish criteria for assessing participation in class discussions.

Written Feedback on Written Assignments: March 8th, 10:00am – 12:00pm 

• This workshop will provide strategies for improving the effectiveness of written feedback on written assignments. We will identify challenges to providing feedback to our students, define strategies for improving our own approaches, and practice hands-on feedback writing techniques. 

U of G SoTL Spotlight

Group work can be a source of stress for students if it is not managed effectively. A team of U of G researchers from the Department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences studied the effectiveness of a Group Work Contract in in-person and distance education courses. In both course formats, the Group Work Contract improved students’ attitudes about group work, improved group work dynamics and communication and reduced their anxiety about working in groups. The study was published in the International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and includes the Group Work Contract that instructors can adapt for their courses. The researchers were supported by a COESP BioEd Research grant to Dr. Jennifer Monk. 

We’d love to spotlight your work! If you have a recent SoTL (scholarship of teaching and learning) or DBER (disciplinary-based educational research) publication that you’d like us to feature, please contact otl@uoguelph.ca or jreniers@uoguelph.ca