The Initiative

In 2015, the faculty and staff of the Academic Development Centre (ADC) began envisioning what our new space in the Riddell Library and Learning Centre would be. In the spirit of innovation, we designated a portion of our allotted square footage for our new Centre to explore and research active learning.

The Riddell Library and Learning Centre opened its doors in Fall 2017, along with our newly constructed experimental Active Learning Classroom (ALC). In response to MRU's Academic Plan, the ADC launched the Active Learning Initiative in Winter 2018 with a small pilot of faculty development offerings and the opportunity for faculty to teach in the ALC. The Initiative moved from pilot to its first iteration in Fall 2018, with a second iteration launching in Winter 2019. Twice a year (May and November) the ADC puts out a call for an expression of interest to participate in the Initiative and teach in the ALC.

The primary goal of the initiative is to promote active learning pedagogies. In addition, we seek to investigate the effects of classroom design on teaching and learning practices that involve active learning pedagogies. The initiative is composed of a community of practice, workshops, consultations, and a research project on teaching in active learning environments. A secondary priority is to conduct research on the impact of learning spaces in teaching and learning practices. Interested faculty would either create their own SOTL project, or be part of a larger study led by the ADC.

In its current iteration the initiative has four streams of engagement:

  1. Faculty development: Offerings focused on active learning pedagogies for all learning spaces.

  2. Teaching in the ALC: Interested faculty will attend an introductory session about active learning and the active learning classroom, as well as contribute data to the ADC research project.

  3. Teaching in the ALC and Reflecting: In addition to the points listed in item 2, participating faculty will also take part in a monthly community of practice (CoP), which will help build a knowledge base for current and future users of the Active Learning Classroom.

  4. Teaching in the ALC, Reflecting, and Researching: In addition to the commitments of both items 2 and 3, participating faculty would also conduct a SOTL project on their teaching. The project would would solely conducted by the interested faculty member, or as a partnership in the larger ADC research project.

Note: Streams 2, 3, 4 are available only to faculty who have successfully completed the Call for Expression of Interest.

Contact

For more information about the Active Learning Initiative, please contact Luciano Santos, 403.440.5059, ldarosa@mtroyal.ca, or John Cheeseman, 403.440.6956, jcheeseman@mtroyal.ca.