Documentation:CTLT programs/CTLT Institute/2025 Spring
2025 CTLT Spring Institute
The 2025 CTLT Spring Institute was held in partnership with UBC's Celebrate Learning Week. The theme this year was:
PRACTICES THAT FOSTER ACADEMIC RESILIENCE AND ADVANCE INNOVATION IN EDUCATION
This year’s theme emphasized the importance of creating meaningful learning experiences within the evolving academic landscapes.
- Approaches that enhance flexibility and inclusivity in learning environments.
- Strategies that empower educators and students to thrive amidst challenges.
- Innovations that reimagine pedagogy, curriculum design, or technology integration.
- Collaborative practices that nurture community and reciprocity in academia.
| Date | Title and Description | Facilitators | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 5, 2025 | Active Learning & Inclusive Teaching: Synergies and AntagonismsThis interactive session will provide instructors with strategies that support students with diverse identities and learning needs when participating in collaborative active learning and assignments. Participants will consider neurodivergent conditions, gender, and the needs of English as an Additional Language (EAL) students and how that those identities interact with different active learning strategies, especially in their own discipline. Participants will explore strategies grounded in the literature (including Universal Design for Learning) with the goal of developing practical techniques for creating active learning activities that support inclusivity. Learning objectives for this session include:
Define Active Learning, Inclusion, and describe how they interact Identify challenges in your own discipline regarding this interaction Create & discover strategies to enhance inclusion in active learning |
Natalie Westwood, Program Developer, Graduate Student Program, CTLT; Anka Lekhi, Associate Professor of Teaching, Department of Chemistry, UBC | slides
Flipcharts and resources from the session flipchart 1 flipchart 2 |
| May 5, 2025 | Workshopping a Model for Developing a Grade Alignment Policy Across (multi-section) CoursesHow can multi-section courses balance coordination with instructor autonomy while ensuring students experience fairness and consistency? This interactive session introduces a new Model of Grade Alignment Policy Development, designed to help units and instructors navigate the complexities of grade alignment with intention and flexibility. Developed from research on student and instructor perspectives, the model considers key factors such as policy design, implementation supports, authenticity, ethics, inclusion, and broader institutional norms. Participants will engage in critical discussions, explore potential unintended consequences of grade alignment policies, and workshop the model as a practical tool for scaffolding decision-making. Through small-group activities, we will unpack our assumptions and questions about grade alignment efforts, evaluate one model’s usefulness, and broadly discuss course coordination as an ongoing, collaborative process.
By the end of this session, participants will be able to: Critically discuss grade alignment policies from multiple perspectives. Evaluate the effectiveness of a model for supporting grade alignment policy development. Consider course coordination as an ongoing cycle of collaboration. |
Catherine Rawn, Professor of Teaching and the Associate Head, Undergraduate Affairs in the Department of Psychology, UBC | |
| May 6, 2025 | Exploring Faculty Wellbeing: Stories and Strategies for Academic and Personal WellbeingStress is a common part of being a faculty member, but how are you coping? Do you feel your wellbeing is under siege and not sure what to do about it? In this panel session, faculty at different career stages will share stories, surface relatable challenges, and suggest creative strategies and resources they have used to address stressors encountered as part of everyday practice. Come listen, discuss, and share your stories, and leave with strategies to de-stress common challenges faced by educators in higher education.This panel will:Develop your awareness of resources and communities that support faculty wellbeing on campus. Help you identify strategies to address different stressors that are common to the faculty experience.
Give you opportunities to explore current strategies that address faculty stressors in your own practice. |
Jenna Usprech, Associate Professor of Teaching, SBME;
Gail Hammond, Associate Professor of Teaching in Food, Nutrition and Health; Negar Harandi, Assistant Professor of Teaching, SBME |
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| May 7, 2025 | Students as Partners in Course Re-Design: Looking Back and Looking Forward on the Impact of Student-Faculty Partnerships at UBCWhat happens when students, faculty, and staff collaborate as equal partners in course design? From 2022 to 2025, UBC Vancouver’s Students as Partners Initiative funded 52 course redesign projects across 10 faculties, engaging 133 undergraduate students as co-creators alongside 65 faculty and 23 staff. This panel discussion brings together voices from these partnerships to reflect on the transformative impact of co-creation in higher education. Panelists will share insights into how these experiences have shaped their teaching, learning, and curricular practices—both in the moment and in their ongoing work. Looking back at past projects and forward to the future of partnership-based course design, this session will explore how engaging students as co-creators can enhance teaching, deepen learning, and drive meaningful educational change. By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Identify key benefits and challenges of student-faculty partnerships in course redesign. Reflect on how partnership approaches can influence teaching, learning, and curriculum development. Explore strategies for embedding student partnerships into future educational initiatives. |
Dr. Caroline Lebrec, Assistant Professor of Teaching, Faculty of Arts;
Savindya Mudadeniya, Student, Faculty of Arts; Shreya Diwan, Student, Faculty of Science; Rohil Sharma, Alumni, Faculty of Arts; Dr. Robyn Newell, Assistant Professor of Teaching, School of Biomedical Engineering; Jessica Tran, Master’s Student, Faculty of Applied Science; Roselynn Verwood, Curriculum Consultant, Students as Partners Strategist, CTLT |
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| May 7, 2025 | Fostering Neurodiversity Affirming Teaching ApproachesIn this interactive session, participants will be introduced to neurodiversity as an umbrella concept, and the impact of neurodivergence on student learning. Together, we will consider how to foster a neurodiversity affirming classroom environment. We will explore teaching practices as well as strategies to mitigate access friction.
By the end of this session, participants will: Appreciate the impact of neurodivergence on student learning Brainstorm strategies to foster a neurodiversity affirming classroom environment Commit to one change participants will implement in their teaching practice |
Jens Vent-Schmidt, Educational Consultant: Design and Facilitation, CTLT;
Electra Eleftheriadou, Educational Consultant for Inclusion, UBCO |
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| May 7, 2025 | Scripting Collaborative Writing to Foster Student Learning and Student ResilienceDo you want your students to enjoy working together and producing collaborative texts that showcase their best work? Are you afraid of being “that instructor” who assigns collaborative work that students loathe — that they experience as inequitable, isolating, ineffective, or just plain miserable? This workshop introduces you to groundbreaking research on the benefits of using collaboration and collaborative writing to foster learning and to prevailing models and scripts you can use to support diverse students and foster student resilience. The workshop highlights many diverse collaborative scripts you can offer students — to help them survive and thrive when immersed in the inherent complexity of collaborative work — and invites you to learn, in turn, from students by asking them to share scripts from their own cultural and epistemic contexts. You will reflect on collaborative scripts you have used in the past and ‘try on’ new scripts to use in your own teaching contexts — and come away with resources you can use to design collaborative writing work that builds trust and supports learning among diverse students. | Rebecca Carruthers Den Hoed, Assistant Professor of Teaching in the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media at UBC | slides |
