About the MicroCourse:
Positionality refers to the dynamic relationship between an individual and their various personal and social identities, including gender, race, class, ethnicity, ability, and place. As facilitators, developing a positionality statement becomes a critical self-reflective practice that shows how your biases, histories, and intersectionality influence your teaching. Embracing this process not only models reflexivity but also becomes a powerful strategy for fostering student success (Harrington, 2020). In this Facilitating Learning Online (FLO) MicroCourse, we will explore positionality statements and their role in the context of teaching and learning. We will also examine personal, place-based, and social identities and reflect how these layers influence your teaching practices.
Through interactive activities, we will learn how to develop and effectively integrate positionality statements into teaching approaches, fostering a more inclusive and self-reflective learning environment. While most of the learning will happen asynchronously, we have one synchronous session planned on Wednesday, December 6, at 10:00–11:30 a.m. PT.
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Explore the definition of positionality and discuss the role of a positionality statement in teaching and learning.
- Gain a deeper understanding of your personal, place-based, and social identities and how these layers impact your teaching and learning practices.
- Develop positionality statements when teaching and learning in a digital age.
- Discuss strategies to integrate the practice of positionality into teaching and learning to enhance your facilitating skills and promote a welcoming and inclusive teaching practice.
Register now!
About the Facilitators:
Gwen Nguyen (she/her) is a learning and teaching advisor at BCcampus. Prior to BCcampus, Gwen worked as a learning experience designer at the University of Victoria, supporting educators with developing and delivering courses in all the modes: face to face, hybrid, and online. She has also worked as a university lecturer and researcher at the University of Victoria and the Kanazawa Institute of Technology in Japan. Gwen holds a PhD in education studies and an MA in applied linguistics. Her research interests include poetry inquiry as a reflection practice in education, digital pedagogies in higher education, and participatory action research. Gwen has experience with positionality as an instructor and researcher.
Britt Dzioba (she/her) is an advisor on the Learning and Teaching team at BCcampus and holds a Master of Education, specializing in adult learning. Her graduate research focused on digital literacy education in community-based programs. As a researcher working with community partners, Britt has invested a lot of time into thinking about her positionality and incorporating it into her academic and professional work. You can read more about Britt’s approach to positionality in her blog post “Bringing the Practice of Positionality into Teaching and Learning.”
About the FLO MicroCourse:
Despite the recent growth in online and hybrid modes of teaching, many learning management systems lack simple and elegant ways for students to share, collaborate on, and discuss their multimedia assignments. Join this free one-week Facilitating Learning Online (FLO) MicroCourse to learn about different methods for managing media collections in hybrid learning environments.
In this course you will explore platforms such as WordPress, GitHub, SPLOTs, and Notion and focus on enhancing participant engagement and fostering a sense of community by:
- Examining simple tools for sharing media
- Contributing simple multimedia works such as text, images, and documents to different platforms
- Developing a space to facilitate student collaboration
- Creating a gallery or portfolio to showcase student work
While most of the learning will happen asynchronously, we have one synchronous session planned on January 30, 2024, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., and on February 2, 2024, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
Register now!
About the Facilitator:
Jason Toal (he/him) is a creative educator and visual practitioner. From the sketch book to the webpage, from the classroom to the boardroom, he facilitates learning experiences on visual practice, educational technology, media, and more. A self-proclaimed “OG” from the SCoPE community, he is the person to ask if you are curious what the acronym stands for or why it has upper- and lowercase letters.
About the Event:
Facilitating Learning Online (FLO) MicroCourses are short, single-topic, hands-on, practical, and free. Over the course of a week, you will have the opportunity to dip into the FLO experience and leave with something practical and useful for your teaching practice.
Are your discussion forums stale or overwhelming for you and your students? In asynchronous courses, there are as many ways to launch a discussion as there are topics to discuss. Even if the activity is anchored in carefully selected reading and resources, the words and media you use to invite learners to engage can make your course active and memorable. Think about a collaborative discussion on any topic. Consider the nature of the interactions between discussion participants, select a format for the discussion and a suitable app, and write a compelling discussion prompt. Then invite others — your peers in this course — to comment on their willingness to engage based on your springboard tactics.
While the focus of this course is on writing discussion prompts, we will introduce a few apps to spruce up discussion forums. This course includes mostly asynchronous activities, which means you can spread your 6–13 hours of participation over the whole week. One optional synchronous session will be recorded for participants who cannot attend. Save the date and time: February 26, 2024, 9:30–10:30 a.m.
Registration coming soon!
About the Facilitator:
Your lead FLO facilitator will be Annie Prud’homme-Généreux. Annie (she/her) was one of the founding faculty of Quest University Canada, where she developed innovative curricula and experimented with diverse pedagogies and assignments. After several years working in administration and leadership in and out of academia, she returned to her roots and passion: designing curricula and teaching undergraduate science courses at the University of British Columbia. She’s engaged in several faculty development initiatives that promote the use evidence-based teaching and learning practices, such as how to create inclusive and equitable classrooms, using generative AI, and using case studies. She is in the final stage of a Master of Open, Digital, and Distance Education at Athabasca University and has completed two graduate degrees online (in addition to many Massive Open Online and continuing education courses), giving her a unique lens to the use of online discussions as a learner and educator. She is the author of the Faculty Focus article series 21 Ways to Structure an Online Discussion.