Topic: Teaching and learning
Mentors play critical role in quality of university and college experience, new poll suggests
In order to have a rewarding college experience, students should build a constellation of mentors. This constellation should be a diverse set of faculty, staff and peers who will get students out of their comfort zones and challenge them to learn more – and more deeply – than they thought they could. Students should begin to build this network during their first year of college.
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When losing one’s research partner is like losing a part of oneself
“If you want to see Rich alive, now’s the time.” I sucked in air as I read the text from his wife. I knew this was coming. But, I had been hoping for a miracle. I met my friend Richard Thompson at a mental health grant-writing boot camp at Cornell Medical Center almost 20 years ago. We were both young psychologists hoping to learn how to secure federal funding for our own research. Senior scientists, mainly academic psychiatrists, were presenting seven days’ worth of tips and tutorials on what the National Institutes of Health wanted in a scientifically solid and innovative proposal.
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How playful design is transforming university education
A group of 25 interns sit at Baycrest Health Sciences, a research centre for aging in Canada, their eyes glued to their smart phones. They are playing SOS — an award-winning game that simulates real-world gerontology practice — where they compete with other students to earn virtual currency. Across town, a group of professors sit around a table at George Brown College, designing a role-playing game with a virtual hospital called The Grid, based on a Matrix-like theme of saving the world from ignorance, for an accredited program in health sciences. Yet another team of game programmers are hard at work at Humber College, building a virtual reality experience of a subway car after a bomb incident. Players wear goggles, moving from person to person, saving some and tagging others for care later on.
READ MOREPhD completion: an evidence-based guide for students, supervisors and universities
This discrepancy does not necessarily mean postgraduate research students “failed” their degree. Common reasons not completing a degree include changes of career goals, work-family conflicts, poor health or financial strain. Alternatively, some students remain enrolled in their degree for long periods without making significant progress.
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What happened to the issue of postsecondary education?
Postsecondary education is an issue that affects a majority of Ontarians, but it does not often feature prominently in provincial elections. How […]
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Navigating racism: Black graduate students need support
I have mixed feelings about my experiences in graduate school. As a Black, first-generation Canadian and the first in my family to become a doctoral student, I did not understand the culture of the academy. If I knew then what I know now as an Adjunct Professor teaching part time, I might have made different choices.
READ MORECan we really teach ‘Indigenizing’ courses online?
On April 16, Canadians — and internet users around the world — have the opportunity to participate in “Indigenous Canada,” a Massive […]
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Stop treating students like customers and start working with them as partners in learning
Students and lecturers at the University of Queensland researching ‘students as partners’ activities across Australian universities. The University of Queensland University […]
READ MORENew federal program tackles spiraling costs of college textbooks in U.S.
The new grant program, administered by the U.S. Department of Education, will support the creation or improved use of open textbooks for use at any college and university. Open textbooks are made freely available online by their authors. They can also be changed and combined by instructors who use them in their classes.
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