Documentation:Faculty Resource Guide/About

Documentation:Faculty Resource Guide

Home • Quick Contacts • About This Guide • How to Get Started • Resources • Organizations • Events and Opportunities • What e-Learning Tools Can I Use? • Distance Learning
Help and Support for Students and TA's

Welcome to UBC

As Director of an organization responsible for learning technology and distance education initiatives at UBC Vancouver, I’d like to invite you to join UBC’s e-Learning Community. This community comprises faculty, students and professional staff from across the physical and virtual campus who are dedicated to quality teaching and learning, using technology as a strategic lever to address learning and teaching needs. UBC’s reputation for technology-enhanced learning is international in scope and long-standing; we mark 60 years of offering distance education courses to the Province and world in 2009-10.

What else will be happening in 2009-10? We will be completing our WebCT Vista migration, making a variety of collaborative applications available campus-wide (e.g., the WordPress Multiuser blogging platform, MediaWiki), and testing new media tools (e.g., Kaltura, a videoremix tool). Combine these campus initiatives with numerous faculty-based innovative learning technology projects and the stage is set for quite a year!

The Resource Guide is designed to orient new members of UBC’s learning and teaching community to UBC by:

providing a high level view of UBC’s e-learning landscape;
pointing you to the key contacts, services and tools available to you; and
flagging some of the events and opportunities for training, support, professional development, networking and community building.

You will find diverse and ample opportunities to hear about what others are doing, to learn how to use various tools and methods and to share your ideas and questions with your colleagues. Hand in hand with the excitement of using technology is a commitment to understanding its impact on teaching and learning through the Institute for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Your local instructional support unit is an excellent starting place for your UBC journey into e-learning. The members of UBC’s Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology are also here to assist! Please check the various resources and websites listed in this guide to find out about opportunities to share ideas and best practices with colleagues through workshops, communities of practice, online training events, seminars, conferences and newsletters.

I welcome you to this community and wish you success in all of your endeavours at UBC.

Michelle Lamberson, Director,
Centre for Teaching, Learning & Technology

About this Guide

This is the fifth edition of the UBC Faculty e-Learning Resource Guide that focuses on orienting new and returning faculty to e-learning @ UBC. In collaboration with UBC’s e-learning community, this guide will evolve to reflect UBC’s diversity and capture the excitement and energy of faculty, students and staff engaged in e-learning activities.

Throughout this guide you will notice references to the 7 Principles of Effective Teaching. We have tried to connect these principles with the specific tools and resources offered on campus to encourage you to connect the integration of technology with sound pedagogical practices.

For more information, please see: http://ctlt.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2010/09/SevenPrinciples_pdf.pdf

We welcome your feedback about edits, additions, subtractions and corrections that you would like to see in future versions.

Please email Kele Fleming with your feedback and suggestions kele.fleming@ubc.ca,

or fill out our online survey: http://blogs.ubc.ca/frg/survey

The UBC Faculty e-Learning Resource Guide was developed by the Centre for Teaching, Learning & Technology. Many members of UBC’s e-learning community contributed to this guide as writers, reviewers or supporters. This is by no means a complete list of those involved.

Thanks to: Peter Arthur, Alice Cassidy, Lynda Cooper, Pat Darragh, Kele Fleming, Janice Johnson, Brian Lamb, Michelle Lamberson, Sean Lay, Jeanne Lee, Cyprien Lomas, Dianne Mackay, Simon Neame, Catherine Paul, Gary Poole, Uli Rauch, Novak Rogic, Ted Schellenberg, Jim Sibley, Cindy Underhill, Tim Wang, Alison Wong, Michael Wong, Joe Zerdin.