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Author: Lauren Spring

Lauren Spring, PhD, has been a post-secondary educator since 2012. Before joining Conestoga as a Teaching and Learning Consultant, Lauren taught at Wilfrid Laurier, Brock, Ryerson, York, and the University of Toronto where she also completed her PhD in Adult Education and Community Development. She has also led workshops for students and faculty at colleges and universities across the country. Lauren holds an MA in International Development and has expertise in critical disability and mad studies, trauma work, research-based theatre, role-play simulations, and feminist and arts-based approaches to adult education and community engagement. Lauren has also worked as an educator at the Art Gallery of Ontario since 2008 where she designs and delivers art tours and workshops for elementary and high school students and diverse groups of adult learners.
September 29, 2023

Instructional Strategies

Reading Time: 8 minutesWhat are instructional strategies and why are they important? Whether you recognize it or not, almost everything you do in the classroom is an instructional strategy. For example, when you’re standing at the front of the room sharing new content with learners and helping clarify what’s written on class slides, you’re engaging with a “direct” instructional strategy. If you then...
Categories Effective Teaching/Teaching for Learning Comments: 0
September 13, 2023

Active Learning on Zoom: Padlet

Reading Time: 3 minutesPromoting active participation in class is beneficial for students because they are incorporated into the activities and are contributors to their learning process. Essentially, students obtain and retain more knowledge by doing. It can be challenging to find ways to keep students engaged in these ways when teaching online. Padlet is an innovative tool that can help enhance participation, as...
Categories EdTech for Active Learning/Online Synchronous/Teaching with Teams/Tech-Enhanced Teaching Comments: 0
July 6, 2023

Active Learning on Zoom: Annotate

Reading Time: 3 minutesOpportunities to share reactions, expressions, and ideas are vital to the creation of a rich learning environment and classroom community. Even when classes are conducted virtually, the online classroom environment should be one where students feel safe to share their ideas and opinions and otherwise contribute to discussions. The annotate feature on Zoom can help students develop social skills, collaborate,...
Categories EdTech for Active Learning/Online Synchronous/Teaching with Teams/Tech-Enhanced Teaching Comments: 0
July 2, 2023

An Introduction to Case-Based Learning 

Reading Time: 7 minutesThe Case Research Committee (CRC) oversees the  Open Access Teaching Case Journal (OATCJ) and the Case Research Development Program (CRDP) at Conestoga College, School of Business.  The OATCJ is published using open education practices (OEP) and is a free-to-use, free-to-publish, double-blind peer-reviewed publishing outlet.   The Case Research Development Program was developed to increase the accessibility of teaching resources, research and...
Categories Assessment Design & Development/Quality Assessment Comments: 0
June 26, 2023

Active Learning on Zoom: Mentimeter Word Clouds

Reading Time: 2 minutesThe power of connecting ideas, feelings, and words in class is beneficial for the learning process, it can help clarify understanding and allow students to get a sense of their peers’ reactions to a key topic, and it also has the potential to help students track how their thoughts and feelings about certain course-related themes evolve over time. Mentimeter word...
Categories EdTech for Active Learning/Online Synchronous/Teaching with Teams/Tech-Enhanced Teaching Comments: 0
June 26, 2023

Active Learning on Zoom: Whiteboards

Reading Time: 2 minutesMost of us are familiar with using whiteboards in classrooms to explain a topic, highlight key ideas, or to allow students to contribute collaboratively; much of this can also be achieved using the whiteboard feature on Zoom. In this short video, we’ll see an example of how Nasreen invites students to work together and exchange and share ideas using the whiteboard...
Categories EdTech for Active Learning/Teaching with Teams/Tech-Enhanced Teaching Comments: 0
March 27, 2023

Active Learning on Zoom: Breakout Rooms

Reading Time: 4 minutesConestoga College encourages teamwork and collaboration in diverse groups where students can learn from each other. Small group discussions in person or virtually help promote peer-to-peer interaction, critical reflection, and perspective and content sharing. In this short video, we’ll see an example of how Lauren promotes collaborative work through the breakout room tool in Zoom.  Breakout group sessions may be...
Categories EdTech for Active Learning/Teaching for Learning/Teaching with Teams/Tech-Enhanced Teaching Comments: 0
July 14, 2022

Group Work for Effective Learning and Assessment

Reading Time: < 1 minuteView this video introduction to the learning path to better understand some best practices for setting up group assignments, guiding groups, and marking group work. Teaching and Learning Conestoga (2022, November 15). Group Work as an Effective Learning and Assessment Experience [Video]. YouTube. What’s Next? After you’ve viewed this video, you may also want to take a look at some...
Categories Effective Teaching/New Faculty/Student Engagement & Communication/Teaching for Learning
June 29, 2022

Marking Assignments in eConestoga

Reading Time: < 1 minuteView this video introduction to the learning path to better understand how to access and grade assessments in eConestoga. Additional Resources After you’ve viewed this video, you may also want to take a look at some of the Hub posts referenced. For additional support, access eConestoga’s regular weekday drop-in sessions. Below are the faculty learning hub posts referenced throughout this...
Categories Grading & Grading Tools/New Faculty/Quality Assessment
April 13, 2022

Active and Problem-Based Learning Resources

Reading Time: 8 minutesWhether teaching virtually, in person, or any combination of the two, faculty are often looking for ways to keep students engaged during class. Active learning and problem-based learning (PBL) approaches provide students with meaningful and memorable pedagogical experiences that encourage them to be the drivers of their own learning and to relate what is discussed in class to the outside...
Categories Effective Teaching/Library Services/Teaching for Learning
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