|
|
|
|
Welcome Back!: Your Essential Teaching Resources for Fall 2025 |
|
|
A Message from Esther Ignagni,
Executive Director, CELT |
|
|
As we move into the final week of August, all the signs of the new academic year are upon us.
Faculty are in their emails, CELT workshops are filling up and student orientations have begun. A fresh academic year means trying out new ideas and methods in our classes, seeking out new experiences for our students, getting to know new colleagues and new learners and, of course, grappling with some new challenges. It’s also a time to revisit and revive beloved readings, favourite lectures and connect with established friends and students. This fall we are animating the new 2025-2030 academic plan Transforming Futures as we continue to pursue equitable, sustainable,
ethical, high-quality learning and teaching.
It has been difficult to witness the challenges faced by higher education around the world, including those directed at decolonization, equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility. Academic freedom, never entirely secure, has seemed particularly precarious. CELT is proud to continue providing resources that support social justice and equity in the classroom, curriculum planning and experiential learning. New this year look out for the Social Justice Pedagogies Program, the next round for the Black-Focused Pedagogies Grants, the Learning & Teaching Grants Program, and the Indigenous Pedagogies and Curriculum resource.
This September, we’re pleased to share several other opportunities to elaborate and refresh your courses. The Experiential Learning Design Grant and the Live Actor Simulation Grant, two funding opportunities that allow faculty and contract lecturers to build new experiential learning components in their courses. The EL-Hub will also continue hosting Community of Practice events again in 2025-26. Look out
for more information on the monthly Teaching Cafes: Course Design Drop-ins.
CELT continues to offer individual consultation where TMU faculty and contract lecturers can work through teaching and curriculum related questions. For the first time, we will offer ‘drop-in’ sessions once a week where staff and faculty educators can bring their ideas, queries and problems for brainstorming, resources and suggestions. The new Teaching Feedback Program, allows faculty and contract lecturers to gain support and insight on their teaching practice through two options, Teaching Observations or Teaching Refinements.
Generative AI continues to shape learning and teaching. Following its release to faculty in the late spring, the Gemini AI app was made available to students in early August through Google Workspace. We at the CELT know that faculty and contract lecturers vary widely in their approach to and use of AI in their teaching and learning practice and we’re here to help you navigate the AI landscape through our workshops, consultations and resources. We encourage you to reach out whether you are an enthusiastic experimenter, a faculty member who wishes to take a modest approach to adopting and promoting AI literacy with learners, a contract lecturer concerned with AI and academic integrity or a conscientious objector on the basis of equity and environmental
justice. Reach out to the Academic Integrity Office or Teaching Development on behalf of your department or teaching teams.
Wishing you all a great start to the new academic year.
Esther Ignagni
Executive Director
Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching
|
|
|
|
|
Gearing Up for a New Term Guide
|
|
|
A quick reference document with the links to essential tools, resources, and best practices to help ease you back into the classroom this year.
|
|
|
|
|
Announcing Two New Grants |
|
|
Experiential Learning Design Grant
|
 |
This grant will offer instructors an opportunity to meaningfully integrate Experiential Learning into their teaching of one or more confirmed Winter 2026 courses.The grant welcomes proposals for course-level EL integration or short-term innovations that strengthen the practice of individual educators, or that help departments and units further enhance existing high-quality, academic Experiential Learning opportunities presently offered to students.
The deadline for submissions is October 1, 2025.
|
| Learn more and apply for the EL Design Grant
|
|
Live Actor
Simulation Grant |
 |
This grant is designed to support the development of new simulations for courses or professional programming in the 2025-26 academic year. This initiative is intended for units where development costs pose a barrier, and where there is identified potential for ongoing, repeated use of the new simulation following development.
The deadline for submissions is October 1, 2025.
|
| Learn more and apply for the LAS Grant
|
|
|
|
|
Applications open for the Teaching Feedback Program |
|
|
The CELT recently launched the Teaching
Feedback Program, and invites TMU instructors to submit their requests for Teaching Feedback during the Fall 2025 semester.
The Teaching Feedback Program pairs an active instructor with a CELT Educational Developer (ED) to gain support and insight on their teaching practice through two options: Teaching Observations or Teaching Refinements. Together, the instructor and ED identify specific goals and focus areas for Teaching Feedback, such as lesson delivery, facilitating discussion, or student engagement.
If you’re looking for input on your teaching, this program is for you!
Applications for the Fall Semester will remain open until September 30, 2025. Space is limited: apply today.
|
|
|
|
|
We need your input on our resources and services!
The CELT exists to support all learning and teaching at TMU and we would like your feedback on our resources and services. Please take a few minutes to complete our survey and let us know about your experiences with our work, and what support you’d like in the future.
|
| Complete the CELT Community Survey now
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Date: Aug. 26, 2025
Time: 2 p.m. - 3 p.m.
Location: Virtual
|
|
This session is for instructors who plan to teach using Brightspace at TMU for the first time! We will cover the very basics of getting a course shell and the first few things you might do once you have one.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Date:
Aug. 27, 2025
Time: 10 a.m. - 11 a.m.
Location: Virtual
|
|
The Brightspace Assignments tool facilitates the online collection and assessment of student work, and is an excellent way to organize the process, whether teaching remotely or in person.
In this session, we will cover creating an assignment submission folder, viewing student submissions and providing feedback. We will also cover the basics of setting up your gradebook with Brightspace Grades.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Date:
Aug. 27, 2025
Time: 2 p.m. - 3 p.m.
Location: Virtual
|
|
This session is for both new and returning instructors. It will demonstrate an overview of the digital teaching and learning tools supported at TMU in the 2025 - 2026 academic year, with examples of possible uses in your course.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Date: Aug. 28, 2025
Time: 10 a.m. - 11 a.m.
Location: Virtual
|
|
In this session, participants will collaboratively remediate a document in Google Docs for accessibility. They will learn how to apply a proper heading structure, create accessible tables, and other formatting considerations that make documents easy to
maintain and accessible.
Participants will leave with an understanding on how to create and export common documents (like reports, meeting minutes and syllabi) in an accessible format.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Date: Aug. 28, 2025
Time: 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Location: Virtual
|
|
The D2L Brightspace Quizzes tool facilitates the flexible creation, delivery, and grading of online quizzes for a variety of uses, which can be useful for both remote and classroom teaching. In this session, we will demonstrate the core features of
Brightspace Quizzes, including:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Date:
Aug. 28, 2025
Time: 1 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Location: KHW 57
|
|
Join staff from the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching to experiment with Gemini, Google’s suite of generative AI tools that is now available to all TMU faculty, staff, and students. We will offer several stations where you can get hands-on
experience using Gemini in the context of assignments, learning activities, and course administration. CELT staff will also be available for one-on-one conversations to help you think through the possibilities and challenges of using Gemini in the classroom.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Date: Sept. 2, 2025
Time: 12 p.m. - 1 p.m.
Location: Virtual
|
|
Join staff from the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching to experiment with Gemini, Google’s suite of generative AI tools that is now available to all TMU faculty, staff, and students. We will offer several stations where you can get hands-on
experience using Gemini in the context of assignments, learning activities, and course administration. CELT staff will also be available for one-on-one conversations to help you think through the possibilities and challenges of using Gemini in the classroom.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stay up-to-date on upcoming events, programs, grants, awards and best practices through our mailing list.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
