Rethinking Higher Education: Beyond the Buzzwords Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario Conference - November 2013

Link to pictures

I was very excited to be invited to be part of a panel session for the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario Conference's - Rethinking Higher Education: Beyond the Buzzwords in Toronto, Ontario. Here are a few of the conference highlights for me:

David Johnston - Governor General of Canada
He has also been the President of the University of Waterloo, the Principal of McGill University, and the captain of the Harvard University hockey team. The focus of his talk was on the internationalization of education and the importance of providing post-secondary students in Canada with international experiences, He's also a big believer in experiential education in the form of co-ops and practicums. Diplomacy of knowledge across disciplines and cultures.

John Baker - President of D2L
University of Calgary has now moved to D2L from Blackboard so I'm going to get some first hand experience with this learning platform in the winter 2014 semester with my online graduate course in blended learning. John is now focused on different methods of assessment - primarily through the use of portfolios to document classroom and experiential learning experiences.

David Helfand, President of Quest University

• Goal - student engagement in undergraduate education
• Structure - no departments - circular building and circular classrooms - 16 to 20 students around a table
• Curriculum - liberal arts curriculum - 16 specified courses during the first two years, 4 month experiential project
• Delivery - focus on individual inquiry (questions of interest), block system borrowed from Colorado College System, 4th year capstone course

International experience stats

• 2.6% of Canadian undergraduate students report that they have had an international experience
• 8% of MRU students
• 80% of Quest students (other 20% have had a Canadian-based experiential experience)

Canadian MOOCS
University of Toronto experiences with Courseara
Fanshawe College experience with self-organized MOOCs