Global Connections

Celebrating CTSI’s 10th anniversary with a countdown of teaching and learning initiatives and partnerships at U of T.

One of President Gertler’s Three Priorities is to ‘Strengthen and deepen key international partnerships by means of a well-defined strategic focus’ and CTSI is committed to this goal. Over the past decade, CTSI has connected with institutions, individuals and initiatives around the globe — exchanging expertise and research with the expressed purpose of enhancing teaching effectiveness and the student experience.

  • Supporting U of T’s position as a leading institution in course evaluation and assessment of teaching, CTSI founded and hosted the inaugural international Course Evaluation Institute in October 2018 with 41 invited participants (faculty, staff and senior administrators) from 21 international institutions. Future Course Evaluation Institutes will be held every two years.
  • CTSI staff members regularly contribute research to scholarly journals and publications that advance the topic of educational development for faculty and graduate students and also engage in international conferences and networks.
    • Recent publications include:
      • Najafi, H., Rolheiser, C., Harrison, L. & Heikoop, W. (2018). Connecting learner motivation to learner progress and completion in Massive Open Online Courses. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, 44(2), 1-22.
      • Ellis, D.E., Chu, S.T.L., Popovic, C., Rolheiser, C., Le-May Sheffield, S., Wolf, P., & Wright, W.A. (2018). Educational Development Guide Series: No. 3. Centre Reviews: Strategies for Success. Ottawa, ON: Educational Developers Caucus.
      • Greene, M., Vander Kloet, M., & Kasprzak, M. (2018, April). No more horror stories: Reimagining graduate student supervision. University Affairs. p. 48.
    • CTSI and TATP staff members are presenting at June 2019’s Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education conference in Winnipeg – Guiding the Journey: Learner – Teacher – Learner. Sessions include a preconference: Exploring Your “Teaching Presence”: A Performance Based Teaching Development Cohort Process that Assesses Impact, Why Metrics Can’t Tell Us Everything about Teaching Assistant Training; and, a workshop, Facilitating University Teacher Growth Through the Intentional Design of Course Evaluation Strategies and Processes.
    • Ellis, D., Chu, S., & Rolheiser, C. (2018, November). Assessing our teaching centre work: Planning a successful external review. POD Network Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon.
    • American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Conference, Toronto, ON, April, 2019
      • Rolheiser, C. (April, 2019). Innovating MOOC pedagogies. Chair, facilitated poster session.
      • Bramesfeld, K., Hum, G., Rolheiser, C., Burnett, M., & McCahan, S. (2019, April). Evaluating the Validity and Interpretability of Course Evaluation Instruments Using Institution Specific Data. Paper presentation.
      • Najafi, H., Harrison, L., Rolheiser, C., & Heikoop, W. (2019, April). MOOC Learners’ Use of Discussion Forums to Seek and to Receive Help. Poster.
      • Hum, G. (2019, April). Supporting the Valid Use of Course Evaluations Through Implementation and Communication. Panel presentation, Exploring the Contested Narratives of the Value of Student Evaluations of Teaching.
      • Hum, G. (2019, April). Understanding and Exploring the Relationship Between Research Work and Career Outcomes for Science Graduate Students. Paper presentation.
    • The Director of CTSI, Carol Rolheiser, is co-chair of the Scholarship of Leading (SoL), a Special Interest Group (SIG) within the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) since 2017. Case studies of educational leadership are being submitted from SIG members for a current research initiative.
  • The University of Hong Kong’s Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning launched a teaching portfolio site – TP21 – that includes CTSI’s Teaching Dossier Guide as an external resource.
  • International colleagues have contributed to CTSI’s programming and resources, including the Flipped Classroom Project from the University of Adelaide.
  • In 2016, CTSI hosted Professor Geoff Scott, Emeritus Professor at Western Sydney University and Australian National Senior Teaching Fellow. Scott facilitated a workshop on developing and assessing ‘future-ready’ graduates and hosted the Powerful Assessments Invitational Showcase, which provided U of T faculty with an opportunity to submit and discuss their own assessment practices, for inclusion into an international resource developed by Scott’s team (http://flipcurric.edu.au). 34 U of T faculty members attended this workshop and showcased their assessment practices.
  • CTSI has welcomed many international delegations interested in learning more about CTSI and U of T’s process, programs and initiatives enhancing teaching effectiveness and the student experience in higher education. Visitors this past month were from the National University in Singapore and a delegation from the University of Agder, Norway.

alt= photo of visitors from Norway