We provide a broad range of support and services to York’s teaching and learning community, from conferences and orientations, to consultations, support with grants and awards, as well as customized workshops.
Events
New faculty orientation
A teaching and learning orientation for new faculty is offered a few times a year.
Teaching in Focus (TiF) conference
This annual conference is an opportunity for the York community to connect, present their innovations, and talk about teaching.
Services
Faculty specific workshops
Workshops can be requested by a Faculty or Department/School to meet your specific teaching needs. These sessions may be facilitated by an educational developer or in collaboration with Faculty members at a date, time, and location convenient for you and your colleagues.
To request a faculty specific workshop, please contact your liaison educational developer.
Consultations
Consultations are individual appointments with an Educational Developer offered as a means to explore a wide variety of topics related to your teaching here at York. You may wish to meet with an Educational Developer to explore your own teaching practice through reflection and research, or to discuss the learning outcomes, teaching strategies, and assessment strategies for your course(s).
To request a consultation, please contact your liaison educational developer.
Support for internal & external teaching awards nominations
There are a variety of awards and grants internal to York and external awards and fellowships recognizing outstanding teaching and teachers. To learn more or to request support in developing your award application, please contact Matthew Dunleavy, Educational Developer, mdunleav@yorku.ca.
In addition to one-on-one support, in 2023 the Teaching Commons will offer a combination of roundtables, talks, workshops, resources, and one-on-one consultations to support the development of dossiers and applications for internal and external teaching awards. Participants are encouraged to attend all sessions with the expectation of creating and application and dossier by the conclusion of the programming, but we welcome faculty to sign up for individual sessions that may be of interest.
Formative Classroom Observations
The Teaching Commons is offering colleagues who teach at York (Course Directors) the opportunity to participate in a formative teaching observation. This process is not a formal evaluation or assessment, but rather a voluntary and collaborative activity designed to inspire a reflective dialogue on classroom teaching. This program is open to a course at any level and of any type (e.g. lecture, seminar, etc). Typically, this process is centered on your goals for participating in the program and a classroom observation by an Educational Developer. By engaging in this process, you will gain insight into your current teaching practice while also exploring diverse teaching strategies or course design ideas.
Observations can be done in an in person (face to face) class or a synchronous (live) online class. You may also wish to add your liaison Educational Developer to your eClass site as an auditor to review the overall organization of your site or a particular eClass activity, or to have the Educational Developer observe any combination of synchronous and asynchronous remote and/or in person engagement.
To request an observation, complete the formative observation request form
Teaching and learning committees
Educational Developers serve on a variety of cross-functional committees supporting interdisciplinary projects and programs. If your committee could benefit from the pedagogical insights and expertise of an educational developer, please contact teaching@yorku.ca
Academic Innovation Fund (AiF) application support
The Academic Innovation Fund (AiF) is an opportunity to apply for funding to support innovative projects and courses supporting teaching and learning at York. An Educational Developer can support you in navigating the AiF application process and in brainstorming or refining project ideas. To request a consultation, please contact teaching@yorku.ca.