Teaching and Learning Support

Throughout your teaching career, you may find yourself teaching undergraduate or graduate courses, both of which could include leading seminars, supervising labs, teaching in a large lecture hall or online, or leading students through educational experiences outside the classroom. In all these different situations, you will be involved in designing courses; leading, supporting, and facilitating learning experiences; developing assessment materials; mentoring students and grading their work; and, in some circumstances, working with lab instructors, teaching assistants or colleagues who are teaching the same course.

Whether you are new to teaching, inheriting a well established course and working to make it your own, or are teaching a topic that is on the edge of your area of expertise, the prospect of embarking on teaching a new course can be daunting. You are joining a community that is committed to supporting and assisting you on this journey. Some of the educational resources available to you are listed below. As you continue developing your teaching practice, these same resources will be available to help with professional development in the direction you would like to grow as an educator.

Teaching and Learning Centre

The Teaching and Learning Centre (TLC) coordinates a broad variety of activities, programs, and resources geared to the needs of faculty and instructional staff at all stages of their careers. Our Instructional Resources Hub has a wide range of curated resources on topics that instructors frequently need. Our popular Lunch and Learn sessions, mentorship opportunities, communities of practice, reading groups, discussion sessions and one-on-one consultations for the development of new and existing courses in any delivery format can be accessed through the TLC.

Instructional designers in the TLC support instructors with course and assessment design, teaching practice, and other pedagogical initiatives.  If you have questions around best practices related to teaching connect with one of the instructional designers through our easy to use booking system.  You can also talk to them to learn how to effectively leverage Moodle, the learning management system used at UPEI, using new tools or activities. They can also help you with immediate needs through the Moodle support portal.

The Instructional multimedia specialists can help if you have ideas for incorporating media (audio, video, graphics, etc.) into your teaching but need some support to implement them. Instructional multimedia specialists can help you conceptualize your project, work with you to   and can provide training so that you have the skills to undertake the project with confidence.

Reach out to staff in the TLC to discuss ideas or challenges that you may experience with your classroom practice whether in-person or online. In addition, if you are looking for support for scholarship of teaching and learning research projects, the TLC team can help. You can reach out via email TLC@upei.ca or drop in to the Centre located in the Robertson Library Annex, Room 228.

The Teaching and Learning Centre Team

• Jason Hogan, Instructional Designer, Book an appointment with Jason Hogan
• Joel MacDonald, Instructional Designer, Book an appointment with Joel MacDonald
• Angie Petty, Instructional Designer, Book an appointment with Angie Petty 
• Kristy McKinney, Instructional Multimedia Specialist
• Martyn Iannece, Instructional Multimedia Specialist
• Charlene VanLeeuwen, Manager

Certificate in Unversity Education: Academic Instructional Skills Program

All faculty, regardless of the type of appointment (tenure stream, limited term contract, or sessional), are invited to participate in UPEI’s Certificate in University Teaching: Academic Instructional Skills Program. This program is a series of self-paced, asynchronous micro courses, with some occasional synchronous elements (in-person or online as circumstances and schedules allow), that introduces educators to information that will help them design effective and meaningful courses for our students. For more details and to self-enroll in the certificate program. 

ITSS Help Desk for Technical Support

Extended support for evening classes

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Library

• introduce library services and research skills to your students;
• help you find open textbooks, open educational resources, and material from the Library’s collections to lower the textbook cost of your course;
• develop workshops to strengthen your students’ research skills;
• provide tutorials or guides to support the research assignments in your course;
• tackle systematic, scoping, and other reviews (with your students or in your own research);
• redesign research assignments around particular skills, topics, resources, or technology;
• provide relevant library resources to your students through Moodle;
• develop a publication strategy for your own or your students’ research; and
• provide the necessary library resource reports for new programs, new courses, and program reviews.