This is a program we launched in Fall 2017, to coordinate programming offered by the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning for graduate students who are interested in developing expertise in university teaching and learning.
It's run on the badges.ucalgary.ca platform built by my team (go, team!), as well as D2L courses for online content and discussion. As grad students work through the program, they earn badges for completing a set of workshops or sessions in an area of focus:
- Emerging Teachers Development
- Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Foundations
- Learning Spaces & Digital Pedagogies
- Theories and Issues in Teaching & Learning
- Developing Your Teaching Dossier
(My team works with our Learning and Instructional Design team to offer sessions in the Learning Spaces & Digital Pedagogies badge.)
If a grad student works through all of the badges over a year or 2, they earn the full certificate, which is a recognized credential. It's a great, low-stakes way to scaffold grad students as they build expertise in teaching as part of their career as students at UCalgary.
The narrative of teaching development in higher education is often "nobody ever thinks of grad students. ever!". Here's an example of what happens when a university values teaching, and an entire Institute mobilizes to develop robust and sustained programming for graduate students to develop into great teachers.
Next, instructors and faculty members…
