The Application of Educational Technologies in the Internationalization of Curriculum

Event Date & Time

Event Description

UBC’s large international student body for whom English is an Additional Language (EAL), is increasing every year with the inclusion of special programs such as Vantage One, the English Language Institute and the Coordinated Arts Program (CAP). At the same time, faculty are being asked to move towards more student-centered learning and away from the model of the teacher as the expert, through models of blended learning and active learning approaches.

In our session, we wish to explore how the Vantage One program can best adapt and develop teaching and learning strategies, specifically educational technologies, to accommodate for a growing diverse student body with a variety of cultural learning preferences. The focus on students and faculty within the Vantage One program as a “living-lab” of transforming teaching and learning approaches, can then be adapted more broadly to the experience at UBC with the internationalization of curriculum. We emphasize a changing ecosystem with more focus on a blended learning environment.

Active learning stands in contrast to “more traditional” modes of instruction in which the teachers are the main focus and drivers of the interaction and engagement with students being more passive. By a “blended learning ecosystem” we mean the shift that needs to occur in teaching and learning in acknowledging and adapting to the transformational role that technologies play rather than regarding them as simply replacing “traditional” educational tools. In the Vantage One program we explore how our approach can best adapt and develop teaching and learning strategies for a blended learning ecosystem that accommodates a student body with diverse cultural learning preferences.

We wish to share our experience of these new and innovative uses of educational technologies with a broader UBC audience engaged in first-year teaching and learning. We want to learn about the experiences of faculty across campus, and explore how we can strive to develop a collaborative approach within UBC for best practices in the adoption and application of educational technologies in teaching and learning specifically around the internationalization of curriculum.

The session will involve short presentation by faculty involved in the Vantage One Program followed by discussion based on some key questions:

1. How can educational technologies help facilitate the internationalization of curriculum?
2. What are the current experiences/applications across campus? 3. How can we strive to collaborate? A cross-campus endeavour?

FACILITATORS:

• Siobhán McPhee, Senior instructor, Geography/Vantage
• Neil Leveridge, Lecturer, Vantage
• Katherine Lyon, Instructor, Vantage/Sociology
• Amber Shaw, Lecturer, Vantage Academic English Program
• Kayli Johnson, Instructor, Vantage/Chemistry
• Brian Wilson, Faculty Liaison, Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology
• Brett Gilley, Senior Instructor, Earth, Ocean, & Atmospheric Sciences; Chair, Vantage College Science