Podcast assignments in higher education foster students' deep engagement in course content, knowledge construction, technical skills, and problem-solving abilities. We designed a podcast assignment in a First Year Seminar course based on student-led interviews comparing theoretical concepts to lived experiences of the interviewees. Students were…

Flexible Learning (FL) is a pedagogical approach allowing for flexibility of time, place, and audience, including but not solely focused on the use of technologies. We describe Flexible Learning as a pedagogical approach in four courses framed by three key themes: 1) objectives and aspects of course design, 2) evaluation and assessment, and 3)…

Creative Problem-Solving (CPS) can be a transformative teaching methodology that supports a dialogical learning atmosphere that can transcend the traditional classroom and inspire excellence in students by linking real life experiences with the curriculum. It supports a sense of inquiry that incorporates both experiential learning and the…

Developed at the University of British Columbia (UBC), UBC Mix creates interdisciplinary learning experiences for students by developing partnerships between existing courses, and between existing courses and other learning opportunities. UBC Mix connects faculty members interested in making their courses more interdisciplinary, and facilitates…

Critical reflection is a highly valued and widely applied learning approach in higher education. There are many benefits associated with engaging in critical reflection, and it is often integrated into the design of graduate level courses on university teaching as a life-long learning strategy to help ensure that learners build their capacity as…

Research skills are a valued commodity by industry and university administrators. Despite the importance placed on these skills students typically dislike taking research method courses where these skills are learned. However, training in research skills does not necessarily have to be confined to these courses. In this study participants at a…

Graduate students use existing knowledge and are ultimately expected to add to that knowledge. Students in a Masters of Education entry course were asked to find a Wikipedia page related to the course topics, critique it, and make improvements to it to begin to develop these skills. In this paper, I examine ways in which their perspectives were…

This paper encourages shifts in praxis to promote the thoughtful inclusion of creativity into higher education assignments in order to broaden and deepen student experience, and offer greater integration between required assignments and the complexity of students' lives. Obstacles to integrating creativity into academia are also briefly explored.…

In the Fall 2009 term, we participated as students and instructor in a graduate education course modeled after participatory pedagogy. Siemens (2008) defines this approach as "one that does not fully define all curricular needs in advance of interacting with learners...Multiple perspectives, opinions, and active creation on the part of…

How do you know what students in your course "took away" with them? Why not ask? Through a learning portfolio assignment, I invited students to show: how they met the course objectives; connections they made to other courses as well as aspects of their lives; and their views and perspectives about the course material and processes. They…

Students come to university with diverse tastes, experiences, and backgrounds, yet we often want them to embrace a body of aesthetics, philosophies, and ideologies that reflect the material we and our established disciplines value as central. However, by using their own backgrounds as a basis for exploration, discovery, and sharing, students can…