On May 16, the Teaching and Learning Centre (TLC) received the 2022 UFV Teamwork Award. The TLC team consists of about 11 people and has played a major role in assisting faculty and students in the transition to online work over the course of 2020 to now. According to Maureen Wideman, associate vice president of the TLC, the award was a great way for the team to be acknowledged by the university.
Wideman said, “Before [COVID-19], maybe eight to nine per cent of our courses were online and we had a few that were hybrid. Within five days the entire school had to go online. For a lot of our faculty, that was really difficult, and so this team just came out and supported that whole process of moving online.” Wideman mentioned that after the initial temporary shift to online learning, the team focused on the longevity of online education and making it work well for everyone involved.
Once the big shift to online learning was made, Wideman mentioned that the TLC team worked to create nine “micro-courses.” They were pre-recorded lessons that were available for anybody who wanted to take them. The courses talked about everything from how to move your course online; to how to teach online; how to assess online; how to create student engagement; how to indigenize when you’re online; and how to work with International students, who were in China or India.
The team also researched various online learning tools and would do departmental presentations to help the faculty make the best use of the tools they found. In addition, the team would do one-on-one consultations with staff who had specific questions. Wideman mentioned that these consultations could be as short as ten minutes or as long as half a day. The TLC team was also working with the IT department to help students with any difficulties they had during this time. If the IT department decided a student needed more help than they could provide, they would be referred to the TLC team.
“We were working nights and weekends. We were working between Christmas and New Year’s, which is when the university would normally close, but because faculty members are at home creating their courses between Christmas and New Year’s for the January start, we were available for them. We made sure that we were available to help,” said Wideman.
During the recent flooding in 2021, there was another quick shift back to online learning. The shift was nearly seamless, according to Wideman. The TLC team assisted in making sure all students and staff had the equipment and means to complete their semester as many had their homes flooded and were required to evacuate.
The TLC team is considerably small in size in comparison to other equivalent support teams at other universities of similar size to UFV. Wideman mentioned, “The diversity of the team, such as this, is paramount to its success. Our faculty and students are diverse and the issues to be resolved are often complex, requiring different areas of expertise; this requires a diversity in both race, culture, education, and disciplinary expertise and technical ability.” She stated that every member of the team has their own “diversity gift” that expands the team’s knowledge and understanding as a whole.
The TLC team was honoured to be selected for the 2022 UFV Teamwork award that is one of three Service Excellence awards presented annually to UFV staff and faculty. They have done a great deal of work behind the scenes to keep the education of UFV flowing as smoothly as possible and will continue to be there to support the university community.
Emmaline is working on her BA and ambitions to become an English teacher. They always say, those who cannot do, teach. She spends her free time buying, reading, and hoarding books with the hope that one day she will have no furniture and instead only have piles of books.
