Category: Teaching & Learning

Coronavirus (11) – The International Student Imperative

Whatever the manifold benefits of a more internationalized student body, at many institutions in Canada, one reigns supreme: money.   It’s a problem everywhere in Canada, but in Ontario, British Columbia and Cape Breton in particular, international student fees make up huge portions of the institutional operating budget: rarely lower than 20% of income and in some cases reaching over 50%.  Partly through government neglect and partly through institutional avarice, institutions became hooked on international student money. And then came a crisis

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Approaches to Marking

Take a breath–this is my one non-corona blog this week.  Since it’s exam time and people are experimenting with new ways of assessment in the midst of an emergency, my mind has been turning around the issue of different methods of marking and assessment.  Not different approaches to grading (which is a whole other story – especially since Canada is one of the very few and possibly only country in the world where there is not a standard national approach to grading, and yes Carleton,

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Coronavirus (9) – September & Big Classes

(Yes, I know, I said I would try to stay off Coronavirus topics.  But it’s bloody hard to talk about anything else, isn’t it?) One of the least attractive features of the modern university is the mega-classroom: the huge, 300-1000 student classes that dominate first-year courses.  These courses, point-blank, are terrible.  I mean, I know, fields of study all have entry points and there are some basics about each one that students need to master before moving on to other

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Coronavirus (8) – Scenario Planning

For the last three weeks, life on university and college campuses has all been about doing what is needed to save the semester and move to remote learning/remote working format.  I get the sense that this is the week when everyone’s attention is going to shift to “omg, what do we do now?”  The answer to that question will vary, of course, but if there is just one piece of advice I could give everyone, it is that the absolute

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Coronavirus (7) – The Decision

Yeah, I know I said I’d stay off this topic this week, but I think there is something that needs saying. It is finally sinking in that this is a long-duration crisis. Not 2 weeks long, not 2 months long: maybe half a year or more.  And that means thinking about September starts now.  We do not know exactly when this thing will unwind, nor how exactly we will phase back into normalcy.  But the frontier is moving back.  Last

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