The purpose of the Centred on Learning Innovation Fund is to stimulate the development, implementation, and assessment of innovative teaching and learning. Click on 'Abstract' to read more about this year’s proposals:
Toward the creations of a program advisory board
Jess Dixon, Terry Eddy, & Patricia Millar, Faculty of Human Kinetics
Abstract
A critical function for sport management programs, as an applied discipline, is to bridge the gap between theory and practice. One way of doing so, which many sport management programs have turned to, is to create a program-level advisory board. Academic advisory boards, typically consisting of industry professionals, program alumni, and academics, offer numerous potential benefits to program stakeholders. These benefits include enhanced networking and job/internship opportunities, student mentoring, program advocacy, guidance on strategic direction, and fundraising. Sport management has a long and prosperous history at the University of Windsor, dating back to 1984, but the program has never had an advisory board. Given the recent modernization of our program structure, as well as disruption in the sport industry from a variety of micro- and macro-factors (e.g., digital media, social responsibility, the COVID-19 pandemic), we believe this is an opportune moment to establish an advisory board to secure the program’s future. The creation of the board would also align with several pillars of the University’s current strategic plan. As such, we are seeking support to implement a five-phase project to study best practices in academic advisory boards, identify suitable candidates, and ultimately create our own board. If supported, the project will allow three student assistants to benefit from substantial networking opportunities with professionals and alumni, as well as learn invaluable qualitative research, data management, communication, and event management skills. Findings will be shared with both the UWindsor campus and our parent discipline through presentations and potentially one journal publication.
Using an Equity Walk to Create Inclusive Learning Environments for Undergraduate Nursing Students: A Participatory Action Project
Rachel Elliot, Edward Cruz, Debra Sheppard-Lemoine, Sherry Morrell & Gina Pittman, Faculty of Nursing
Abstract
Nursing educators are called to purposefully address diversity, equity, decolonization, and inclusion in undergraduate nursing curriculum. Significant attention has been directed toward addressing health inequities at the population and systems levels, yet little progress has been made in identifying approaches in nursing education to enhance equitable environments for undergraduate students to reach their fullest potential. The purpose of this participatory action project is to understand undergraduate nursing student perceptions of equity in the learning environment through participation in a guided equity walk. An equity walk is a structured process that provides guidance on recognizing, designing, and implementing effective change strategies to establish more equity-minded and culturally safe environments. This methodology will be rooted in postcolonial theory with the end aim of creating sustainable, action-oriented outcomes. Nursing educators in collaboration with fourth year nursing students will critically examine institutional policies, practices, and structures through an intersectional lens. Following the equity walk, focus groups will be facilitated by members of the research team. Data analysis will take place concurrently with data collection with the aim of data immersion to inform subsequent focus groups. Within the Faculty of Nursing, a significant shift to a concept-based curriculum identifies the third year of our program as Nurse as Change Agent. This project aids overall program evaluation to improve teaching and learning and aligns with the ongoing initiatives of the University of Windsor and is innovative for nursing education with the potential to make meaningful organizational change to create and sustain an inclusive and culturally safe environment where all nursing students can succeed.
Building an E-Mentoring Program: Adapting Traditional Peer Mentorship Models for a New Higher Education Context
Tamsin Bacon, Leddy Library; Tina Pugliese & Meagan Auer, School of Dramatic Art
Abstract
At the University of Windsor, the Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Mentorship Program (FAHSSMP) engages up to 1000 students across 8 disciplines every year. FAHSSMP aids in student recruitment and retention, helps students develop transferrable skills, and creates opportunities for relationship building that strengthen our campus community. Like many face-to-face programs, FAHSSMP saw dramatic changes in student experience and satisfaction during the pivot to online learning brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. With hybrid models of learning here to stay, we propose to develop an e-mentoring program to better meet the needs of undergraduate students and the university. The proposed project will first develop a strong knowledge foundation from which to build an e-mentoring program by conducting a research study. This study will synthesize and evaluate extant literature on peer mentorship, focusing on e-mentoring pedagogies; produce an environmental scan of e-mentorship programs; and gather experiential knowledge from former students about their challenges, successes, and thoughts about effective e-mentoring. An e-mentoring program will then be developed before being piloted and evaluated in Fall 2023. Consideration of equity, diversity, and inclusion will be central to this project, as students have uneven access to information and communications technology like computers, mobile phones, and high-speed internet. In turn, the e-mentoring program must be nimble enough to respond to issues of accessibility as they arise across cohorts. The knowledge and resources generated from this pilot will not only benefit the Universityof Windsor, but also be freely accessible to other peer mentorship programs.