By Lesley LeRoux, TLS freelance writer

When a group of students is interested in taking on special projects outside of coursework, it’s clear that a hunger for learning exists far beyond the classroom.

That’s what systems and computer engineering professor Cheryl Schramm discovered when students would come to her office asking if they could work on something over the summer without pay.

“They’re craving the experience because courses introduce it to them, but the formal classes just make them want to do more,” she says.

Schramm helped fulfill the need for more diverse learning strategies and extracurricular opportunities for students, which earned her a Teaching Achievement Award in 2011 and a Teaching with Technology Award in 2014.

In order to provide students with more hands-on, experiential learning, Schramm championed a robotics club, which was established in 2009. The club organizes robotics competitions in the atrium and hosts weekly ‘hacker sessions.’

“It’s all about enjoying the process of programming and learning through doing and learning through other people,” Schramm says.

“I guess that’s another aspect of my involvement in teaching, is the whole idea of the need for social engagement here at �Ӱ�ԭ�� and the benefits that come from providing connections between people.”

Schramm says her involvement in the club has been mentoring and advocating on the part of the group. She was also instrumental in helping them find a space on campus to store the robots and equipment.

But since the club is fairly self-sustaining, Schramm has used some of the funds from her Teaching Achievement Award to provide each student in one of her classes with a Raspberry Pi, a special type of computer.

The low-cost computers help the students engage more directly with technology in the classroom, and she says several of her students had so much fun with the computers they wanted to continue using them once the course ended.

Technology is a key component to how Schramm approaches teaching. She says she aims for a flipped classroom model, assigning theory through readings and using interactive activities in class to explore at a greater depth.

One particular method she uses is creating YouTube videos with her tablet to show students how to work through various problems.

“It’s not about the correct answer; it’s how you go about answering,” Schramm says. “The important thing that I’m trying to do is give them the ‘how-to’ to achieve that answer.”

By Araina Bond, TLS freelance writer

In the short time that Paloma Raggo has been teaching at �Ӱ�ԭ��, she has certainly been on an adventure.

An Assistant Professor of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership, Raggo came to �Ӱ�ԭ�� in July 2013 with a newly broken ankle and a mandate to develop courses for her program, the first of its kind offered in Canada. Suffice it to say, she had her hands full.

“The first online course was a methods course, which is already a difficult course. Students can be intimidated,” she explains. “I was dealing with the double challenge of building this course online and reaching out to the students, many of them non-traditional students who hadn’t been in school in a long time, so I wanted to make sure I could connect with them and support them throughout the process.”

Raggo rose to the challenge and, in 2014, she was awarded �Ӱ�ԭ��’s Excellence in Teaching with Technology Award for her efforts in combining complicated course material in a new, online format that was both engaging and challenging.

“Sometimes people get intimidated by the technology, but it’s important to think outside the box. If there’s something you can imagine, there is a way to make it happen,” she says.

Raggo adds that the online format has many advantages that are only now being recognized. She feels that there are misconceptions about online courses because they can be perceived as impersonal and hands-off, when the opposite is often true.

“It’s almost ironic. In my research methods course, I get to interact much more with the students who are struggling,” she says. “Some students just really get it and are able to move through at a faster level. I’m able to adapt my interventions to each student. It’s a win-win.”

Though Raggo admits her courses can be challenging, she has former students telling her they keep their research methods textbook on their desks at work. Other students tell her, when they finally meet her in person, that they feel like they already know her.

“I’ve noticed I actually have more one-on-one interactions with students in online courses than in courses I’ve taught in person,” she says.

Raggo is enthusiastic about the opportunities technology continues to provide for the accessibility and advancement of education.

“I feel very privileged,” she says. “The fact that my colleagues in my department and at �Ӱ�ԭ�� trusted me to teach these new courses in this new format, and it is working out so well for both teachers and students, is so rewarding.”

Front to back, page by page, line by line—this is how �Ӱ�ԭ�� humanities professor Gregory MacIsaac teaches his students some of the most challenging texts history has to offer.

It’s all part of the award-winning professor’s unique approach to teaching what he calls “holistic” reading. This means studying and analyzing texts in their entirety rather than picking and choosing sections or pieces of information.

MacIsaac says this approach is necessary to really understand philosophy.

“What you want is to show (students) what it’s like to get inside the book, inside the argument,” he says. “Instead of cramming as much into a course as we could, we have them read fewer things, but we have them read all of it when possible.”

Photo by Dario Balca

A professor at �Ӱ�ԭ��’s College of Humanities since 1998, MacIsaac usually teaches the second-year course “Reason and Revelation.” The reading list includes Plato’s The Republic, Aristotle’s Ethics, and Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Two years ago, he developed HUMS 1200, a course aimed at teaching students how to read and write in a way that will help them be successful. Before, he was trying to teach philosophy and writing simultaneously in his second-year course.

“What I realized is that we’d never taught writing,” he says. “We just had students read quite difficult books, then set them papers.

“I can teach my second year course at a much, much higher level now.”

The 45-year-old is also writing a guide for students on how to navigate philosophy texts that he hopes to finish this year.

MacIsaac’s teaching innovations haven’t gone unrecognized. In 2011, he was awarded the Provost’s Fellowship in Teaching Award for sustained excellence in teaching, the Faculty of Social Sciences Teaching Award, and several other accolades.

A native of Antigonish County, N.S., MacIsaac says his interest in philosophy began in high school and later led to an undergraduate degree in classics from Dalhousie University and graduate studies at Notre Dame University.

These days, MacIsaac’s own research is aimed at finding new ways of reading Plato—one of the authors he first fell in love with.

“When I started reading Plato, I was blown away because I was thinking for the first time in my life, not just taking for granted how the world is, but really considering that things could be otherwise,” he says.

Although his teaching style has changed in his 17 years at �Ӱ�ԭ��, MacIsaac says his aim has always been to help students think this way.

“I think our society places far too high a value on usefulness,” he says. “There is such a thing as sitting back and just thinking about what makes life good, and people who study philosophy and literature and history—it’s our job to think about that stuff, and it’s really important.

“Thinking is just inherently enjoyable and enriching.”

Peggy Hartwick sits before her computer, mouse clicking rapidly as she directs her red-shirted avatar to walk, then run, between virtual campus corridors.

“This is me in 3D,” says Hartwick, who teaches ESL for academic purposes at �Ӱ�ԭ�� – with a twist.

She uses the online environment, which was designed at �Ӱ�ԭ��, to help her students become more comfortable with the language. She can share any indoor or outdoor space on campus with her students’ avatars and get them to communicate in a variety of ways – from talking on headsets to using a webcam to typing instant messages.

“In order to accomplish something, they have to speak, so it pushes them to take risks with their language,” Hartwick explains.

The 3D environment even includes a replica of downtown Ottawa, complete with a market and residential homes, that prompts learning of items in those spaces.

“The barriers of time and place are gone,” says Hartwick, who has been teaching for 10 years. “We can replicate spaces that a traditional classroom couldn’t offer.

“I think what technology does is that for the most part everybody’s communicating, whereas in a traditional classroom, people will sit and be very passive.”

She’s become known in her department for creative technology-based methods and it’s one of the reasons why Hartwick was one of the 2013 Excellence in Teaching with Technology Award winners at �Ӱ�ԭ��.

But it’s been years in the making. She was approached to use the program in a pilot project a few years ago and she’s never looked back. Now French and Russian classes are using them too and Hartwick hopes the university can eventually offer virtual lessons before international students even arrive.

She says she became a believer when a normally shy student, who never uttered a word in the traditional classroom, became the group leader online.

“She just blossomed,” Hartwick says. “That’s what really hooked me.

“The biggest thing for me as a language teacher is that they feel comfortable speaking. They don’t care about making mistakes. Seeing them helping each other in the environment is thrilling.”

In fact, she’s so fascinated by its potential that in September Hartwick started her PhD, which will centre on a theoretical underpinning for the 3D space’s capabilities.

“I believe in it. I don’t think it should take over the classroom at all. I think this is in addition to. It’s about providing alternatives and making learning accessible and interesting,” Hartwick says. “It’s still the early days and I just want to keep pushing the limits.”

Two years ago, Kevin Cheung started having trouble standing for long periods of time. He would get dizzy and feel faint. Doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong, but it was impacting his work.

Cheung teaches math at �Ӱ�ԭ��, and math teachers generally stand and write on the chalkboard a lot. When they’re leading big classes through various problems and complex formulas, students need to be able to see the process.

Cheung tried a few digital teaching aids but found that none of them quite suited his unique needs. So he made his own.

Cheung spent half of his sabbatical developing the software for his own app. As part of that app, he included a chat server, where shy students could send in questions anonymously during class time. He would see the questions pop up on his laptop and could choose to respond immediately or later.

As a complementary perk, Cheung included a feature that allowed students to not only ask questions in text format, but by drawing something (such as a proof to a math question) on the online canvas. In one window, Cheung could see 30-50 submissions from students. He could then project some of the answers on the large screen and have a real-time problem solving session.

It took about eight months for Cheung’s yet-undiagnosed health conditions to improve. He gradually stopped feeling like he would fall or faint. But his application had been such a success that he kept using it, and it helped him garner an Excellence in Teaching with Technology Award from �Ӱ�ԭ�� this year.

“I think it will be essential that we’ll have to integrate some kind of digital component to our teaching to make it more efficient. It’s already helping me teach my students,” he says.

Cheung thinks that educators should embrace technology in their teaching, but realizes that everyone doesn’t want to be, and shouldn’t aim to be, on the leading edge of every new technology, and can stick to technologies that are well-established and less likely to glitch instead.

“It’s important to shape and design things in such a way that it doesn’t look threatening. When it comes to online learning, we have to make things more human.”

Photo by: Chris Roussakis

The Office of the Provost and Vice-President (Academic) and the Office of the Associate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning) are pleased to announce eight outstanding educators who have been named the 2013 �Ӱ�ԭ�� University teaching award winners.

Hal Goldman (Department of History), Adrian Chan (Department of Systems and Computer Engineering) and Shawna Dolansky (College of the Humanities – Religion) received the Provost’s Fellowship in Teaching Award for their dedication and leadership to teaching and learning. They have all been designated as �Ӱ�ԭ�� University teaching fellows and will receive $2,500 each.

Both of this year’s recipients of the Excellence in Teaching with Technology Award excelled at integrating educational technology into the classroom. Professor Kevin Cheung (School of Mathematics and Statistics) developed teaching and learning apps for mobile devices and thoughtfully incorporated BigBlueButton into his practice, while professor Peggy Hartwick (School for Linguistics and Language Studies) incorporated online 3D virtual environments and a student-centered approach to teaching and learning with technology. Both winners will receive $750.

Three new faculty members underscored �Ӱ�ԭ��’s commitment to teaching excellence and innovation, earning them the New Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award. James McGowan (School for Studies in Art and Culture – Music), Vida Panitch (Department of Philosophy) and Rowan Thomson (Department of Physics) all brought enthusiasm to their teaching and engaged their students with active learning experiences and activities. Each winner will receive $500.

The Provost and Vice-President (Academic), Dr. Peter Ricketts, and Associate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning), Dr. Joy Mighty, celebrated the winners at a luncheon on May 30 at Baker’s.

Learn more about the teaching awards available to �Ӱ�ԭ�� faculty and instructors .