Laura Winer

A university-wide vision of teaching and learning with information technologies

This paper outlines McGill University’s responses to the challenges of teaching and learning with information systems and technologies; it also gives a description of the underlying philosophy that is guiding these actions. The context at McGill is briefly outlined, with a discussion of the importance of planning and the relevance of these issues for a campus‐based institution. A five‐pronged approach is described that involves: the use of a university‐wide course management system; providing support, training and help for faculty and students; the provision of appropriate hardware installations; incentives for teaching staff; and encouragement for students.

A distributed collaborative science learning laboratory on the internet

Abstract A Distributed Collaborative Science Learning Laboratory (DCSLL) was designed, prototyped, and pilot‐tested as the “Electrical Circuit Simulator.” This laboratory was part of a module on electricity within an introductory distance course for postsecondary students on the scientific method. The concept of DCSLL emerged from work in distance education and new technologies, cooperative/collaborative learning, and science education. Instructional design principles derived from these areas are presented, and their implementation in the DCSLL is described, followed by results from the pilot test. Analysis of the results led to the articulation of six instructional design guidelines, identified as being key to the development of such learning environments.

Sustainable Faculty Development: An Indonesian Case Study

This paper describes a five-year Canadian-Indonesian faculty development project that involved a range of activities and resulted in sustainable faculty development: the creation of faculty development centres in two post-secondary institutions. The mentor-mentee literature that framed the experience resulted in a gradual shifting of responsibility from the Canadians to the Indonesians. Analysis of the experience resulted in five key points that might inform faculty development practice whether internationally or locally. The key points are: time to develop expertise, understanding the multiple cultural contexts, modelling a range of different kinds of knowledge, sharing an external object of study, and changing the nature of problem solving and posing.

Doctoral Student Success: McGill University’s Holistic Support Model

This chapter is a retrospective account of our observations and reflections of McGill University’s cultural shift in supporting graduate student success. We are administrators at McGill University, in Montreal, Canada, who have adapted our thinking about doctoral student success to take into account student needs and experiences, and to facilitate skills development. Our approach is to look at the whole student, consistent with the World Health Organization’s definition of health and Laverick’s (Health promotion practice: Power and empowerment, Sage, Thousand Oaks 2004) “Wellness Wheel”, which we have adapted for the doctoral student context.

Systems Analysis in Small Educational Systems: A Case Study.

Abstract Educational systems analysis should prove to be a strong and irreplaceable tool for the educational technologist concerned with planning innovation. However, the widespread application of this approach mainly to ‘large’ systems frequently makes the educator wonder if it is both worthwhile and affordable to use systems analysis when dealing with a ‘small’ system. In this paper we provide an example which demonstrates that it is not only possible but advantageous to overcome this reluctance and to face the problems involved in the use of systems analysis, even when a small system is concerned. The case we present involves the transformation of a graduate programme in educational technology, in which there are six professors and no more than 30 students are admitted per year, from a lecture‐based system to a self‐instructional one. Several operational research techniques are illustrated.