Fall 2024 / October 23

with Robert Savelle [LS] & Edin Ibric [MAD]

During the Winter of 2024, a General Education course teamed up with a Media Art and Design course to pilot a collaborative student project. Students from the Game-Art course Environment Art 2 (GAME 2201) were offered the opportunity to enroll in the GNED course History of Modern Western Civilization (GNED 1437), where the major assignment in both courses would overlap. For those in the Game-Art program who enrolled in the course, the assignment was created to support their work within their MAD Environment course, while still meeting the learning outcomes for their GNED History course. The end result was a collaborative project that, while evaluated separately, sought to bring together diverse themes and topics into a cohesive and creative project.

During this session we will discuss how this idea came about, the logistical and educational challenges of combining the course assignments, as well as the results of this pilot project, both from an instructor and student perspective. As a first attempt at this type of interdisciplinary assignment, we hope to take what we have learned through the results and feedback to improve and expand upon similar cross-departmental collaborations in future years at Durham College.

My presentation would be on the use of comics in teaching and education, comics as assignments, and reading comics. I teach GNED 1325: Deconstructing Superheroes, and am working on my PhD in comics studies through Memorial University.

We do a few things with comics in the course, the first is read them, and students complete two different close reading assignments; students must closely read the comics we analyze and discuss in class. Close readings are often used to summarize cases, or texts in English literature courses, so that students can more deeply engage with that particular text. As comics are not simply text, students are also tasked with offering their analysis/interpretations of visual information and how it forms a sequential narrative.

The second is that students are asked to create a comic or a character as an assignment, and are given specific prompts to follow (and then must reflect on how their comic follows their chosen prompt). The students have created comics that have allowed them to express themselves in a different format or outlet. A few examples of student work from this assignment have included:

• Two different Black students using the comic assignment format as a way to work through a racist incident (one was based on a comment directed at the student, the other an incident with Durham Region police)
• A student using the visual format of the comic to express how they feel they are "aromantic"
• A student designed a "bro-topia" that satirized domestic/household expectations of women
• A male student created a fantasy character that subverted male gender stereotypes In my presentation, I can talk about how comics are "multi-modal" and how one could incorporate them as assignments or as learning tools.

with Carol Ducharme [LS]

This session shares teaching and learning examples for supporting learning drawing from Indigenous holistic approaches of the Sweetgrass Braid; Mind, Body, and Spirit.

Join this session facilitated by PT Indigenous professor (Faculty of Liberal Studies), and former Post Secondary Indigenous Learning Strategist for ideas on enhancing learning by engaging learners using a two-eyed seeing lens.

with Scott Brown [LS]

Alfred North Whitehead's theory of education outlines three general phases: Romance, Precision, and Generalization. Whitehead suggests that for learning to take place, learners must pass through these three phases. Ideally, students will be led through these phases by their instructors and teachers. This mini-teach session will familiarize the audience with the three phases and will go over some strategies for making these phases more obvious and explicit in our courses.

with Kate Gibbings [DC Libraries]

Students’ use of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT can sometimes lead to academic integrity issues. As a librarian visiting classes to deliver library and research instruction, I found that adding a generative AI research tool evaluation activity was a natural extension of the concepts and skills I was teaching. Drawing on DC’s Framework for Implementing Generative AI, I facilitated an activity in which groups prompted Copilot, Consensus and Perplexity with research questions, analyzed the sources retrieved and the tool itself, and learned how to use those sources without engaging in plagiarism or poor citation habits.

In this interactive session hosted by Lucy Romao Vandepol, Director of Student and Career Development at Durham College and Mental Fitness and Empowerment Coach at Shifting Perspectives Coaching, you will identify what is hindering your well-being, productivity, relationships, and, ultimately, the student experience.

We will explore how our internal narratives can hold us back and lead to stress, exhaustion, and burnout, ultimately affecting our self-esteem, quality of life, and the student experience. You’ll gain practical, actionable strategies to help you and your students thrive.

This session will provide valuable insight into what obstructs your path and offer clear steps to help you and your impact on the student experience be EPIC!

Join us on this empowering journey toward student success!

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the core concepts of Positive Intelligence
• Recognize how internal narratives contribute to stress, exhaustion, and burnout Identify how mindset and internal narratives impact student success
• Discover actionable strategies that will help you and your students thrive

During this session, our aim is to provide an overview of our innovative approach to teaching healthcare students about social justice by ‘placing them in the shoes’ of a client working their way out of poverty using virtual simulation. Our study sought to assess the usability, functionality, and potential impact of the Virtual Simulation Module (VSM) on empathy, stigma reduction, and learning outcomes. By immersing students in the experiences of individuals facing poverty, the session will hopefully foster a collective understanding and empathy, thereby transforming the perspectives of learners together.

Join us while we explore AI hacks that streamline your daily tasks, from crafting calendar files to simplifying instructions for others. Let AI help organize your day fewer keystrokes and clicks, so you can focus on teaching!

with Lucy Romao Vandepol [Student and Career Development]

In this interactive session hosted by Lucy Romao Vandepol, Director of Student and Career Development at Durham College and Mental Fitness and Empowerment Coach at Shifting Perspectives Coaching, you will identify what is hindering your well-being, productivity, relationships, and, ultimately, the student experience.

We will explore how our internal narratives can hold us back and lead to stress, exhaustion, and burnout, ultimately affecting our self-esteem, quality of life, and the student experience. You’ll gain practical, actionable strategies to help you and your students thrive.

This session will provide valuable insight into what obstructs your path and offer clear steps to help you and your impact on the student experience be EPIC!

Join us on this empowering journey toward student success!

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the core concepts of Positive Intelligence
• Recognize how internal narratives contribute to stress, exhaustion, and burnout Identify how mindset and internal narratives impact student success
• Discover actionable strategies that will help you and your students thrive

with Michelle Rivers and Dr. Lynne N. Kennette