An Introduction

Two elements at play in the project

The building and refining of a 4 university alliance within Northern Ontario

Prior to this project, an unofficial alliance had been formed between Lakehead, Laurentian, Nipissing and Algoma universities to support their smaller centers of teaching and learning, and their common strategic initiatives, through collegial sharing of resources and faculty development opportunities. At the outset of the pandemic, this group co-hosted the Borealis Summer Institute for Teaching and Learning in 2020.

This collaboration formed the foundation of partnership for the Encouraging Faculty Development Through Micro-Credentialing VLS 2.0 project proposal as it provided an opportunity to utilize a real project to formalize the impact this alliance could have, to support these centers, and Northern Ontario university faculty effectively.

Benefits

• Ongoing discussion between these centers occurred throughout the project that would not have been otherwise possible, and
• Leadership involvement allowed for discussion on specific elements of the alliance that would be supported, and to identify processes that could be tested and refined (notification of shared events/workshops, personnel who could market shared events/workshops, etc).

Challenges

• This element made the mapping and reward system a much more complex endeavor (pathways needed to be relevant/possible for all faculty across all universities),
• Not all centers offered the same events/supports, making each university ‘unique’, and
• Not all centers were ready to frame their offerings in such a way that ‘evidence’ could be provided (key badge award criteria) as validation of upskilling/mastery.

The building and refining of a reward and recognition system

Previous to this project some reward elements (badges/certificates) were being issued in some workshops/events, some of the time, across multiple platforms (Credly, LMS, center-created, etc). There was no transparent connection between rewards that offered faculty explicit direction to scaffold/ladder their learning.

The use of eCampusOntario’s Passport functionality, along with a CanCred Pro account allowed the group of 4 members in the Northern Ontario Universities Alliance (herein referred to as NOUA) to create a dedicated space for their faculty, and to implement the overarching goals and tasks outlined in the VLS 2.0 proposal submitted.

These platforms/spaces allowed for a robust series of badges, and a set of development pathways that link these badges together, to be created/implemented so that they could be available to all NOUA faculty.

Benefits

• To amplify the offerings of each institution, so that instructors at all institutions can attend training offered by all member universities,
• To allow workshops/events to be delivered, which may not have run at a single institution due to small enrollment numbers,
• Financial commitments to offer a full scope of faculty development offerings is reduced, and
• Staffing commitments to offer a full scope of faculty development offerings is mitigated.

Challenges

• Scheduling emerging support events is often ‘on the fly’ and so may not provide enough notice to other alliance members
• Securing an Alliance Lead for each institution to collaborate on the maintenance and currency of the system, and to review badge applications on an ongoing basis, and
• The transition from system development to sustainable and integrated element of each center (post VLS) will need to be managed

Project Proposal Goals/Tasks

The Teaching Commons (Lakehead) and Teaching Hub (Nipissing) proposed to develop and pilot a system of reward and recognition within the NOUA that supports faculty development, in ways that are appropriate to current teaching and learning environments, while recognizing faculty who improve their practice in large and small, formal and informal ways by;

• Mapping the landscape of development opportunities open to instructors within the universities of the NOUA,
• Recognizing informal and non formal acts which positively impact teaching development/excellence,
• Building a set of pathways instructors can follow, to develop in areas of;
  • highest determined need, and/or
  • highest determined interest
• Using these pathways to guide the execution of future development opportunities within and beyond university centers of teaching and learning.

The expectation from the integration of a badging system, to the educational development practice of NOUA centers is community growth and deeper learning, in increasingly flexible ways, which meet faculty where they are at, and motivate their continued growth and development.

Proposed Project overarching Question

How will university centers of Teaching and Learning, to encourage faculty experimentation and growth, reward (faculty) educational development in ways that honor the complexity of educational development practices?

Proposed Project Design Questions & Assumptions

The project design aimed to answer the following questions, originating from the following assumptions;