Terms of Reference
The Provost’s Award for Collaborative Teaching and Learning is awarded to a team of two or more instructors involved in the successful delivery of a collaborative and curricular teaching and learning initiative.
Reward and Recognition
Award recipients will be publicly recognized at an annual event and receive a $2000 prize.
Eligibility
- Collaboration by two or more instructors in the design and delivery of the project
- Initiative must be curricular
- Initiative must have been completed more than once
Submission Deadline
Submission Deadline: The deadline for nomination submissions is February 15th each year. Please submit proposals using the submission portal:
Applications
Application Format
Applications for this award may be submitted by or on behalf of the instructional team and should include a narrative that provides the following evidence of the initiative’s positive impact on student learning and the student experience, organized in alignment with the Provost’s Prize criteria.
The application should be no more than 10 pages in length and should include the following:
Cover page (not counted in page limit):
- title of the project
- a brief description of the project
- a list of all involved faculty, staff, and/or community members, briefing stating the role each person played
Narrative providing evidence of impact:
- Commitment to development/evolution over time (Criterion 4)
- Alignment of outcomes, instructional strategies, and assessments with overall goal and intent of the project (Criteria 2 and 3)
- If available and appropriate, work from more than one student completed to meet the requirements of the project (Criteria 2 and 3)
- Student testimonials about how the collaboration impacted their learning (Criteria 1-4)
- One full set of end-of-term student feedback (Criteria 1-4)
- Provide an unabridged set of end-of term student feedback for each professor/instructor/individual involved in the collaboration (this does not count towards the 10-page limit)
- Provide a 1-page summary of the data as it relates to the nomination with a clear interpretation of the data with a focus and alignment to Criteria 1-4 (this will count towards the 10-page limit).
Criteria
Criterion 1: Exemplify learning
Educators should “exemplify active learning and curiosity, demonstrate broad thinking, follow ethical principles, and engage with students and peers in a respectful manner”
A strong personal commitment to the ideal of learning may be demonstrated by, for example, maintaining:
- a passion for discovery that contributes to proficiency in one’s field
- a positive attitude toward, respect for, and trust in students and peers
- consideration of broad perspectives and worldviews
Criterion 2: Strive for Excellence in Teaching
Educators commit to “Integrate research, scholarship, artistic work and /or professional activities with teaching; Align learning outcomes, teaching activities and assessment; and Develop respectful and inclusive learning environments that support student learning”
Striving for excellence in teaching may be demonstrated by, for example:
- developing opportunities for students to be inspired and engaged with and in the process of authentic inquiry, wherever possible, in their learning
- be aware of and select appropriate instructional strategies and assessments that are aligned with stated learning outcomes
- include all learners in the process of creating respectful and empowering spaces for learning
Criterion 3: Assess fairly
Educators commit to “Communicate and uphold clear academic expectations and standards; and Perform fair and relevant assessment for and of student learning”
Providing students with assessment as, for, and of learning, with timely and constructive feedback to fuel ongoing learning may be demonstrated by, for example:
- designing assessments as learning, which allow students to regularly self-assess their learning
- designing assessments for learning, which accompany regular, objective, constructive opportunities for feedback that engenders improvement
- designing assessments of learning that align with course outcomes and provide student the opportunity to fairly demonstrate what they have learned
Criterion 4: Enhance continuously
Educators commit to “Solicit and reflect on feedback from students, peers and others; and Engage in lifelong learning and continuous enhancement of teaching practice”
Engagement in ongoing assessment of practice paired with reflection and continuous development as an educator may be demonstrated by, for example:
- reflecting on and continually enhancing teaching practice in response to feedback and student learning outcomes
- engage with other educators to share and discuss their practice so they are learning with and from others
Past Recipients
"The Dean’s Forum on Access to Justice is a unique, innovative and collaborative teaching and learning initiative where law students engage in researching and proposing solutions to critical access to justice problems that exist in the Canadian justice system. The course allows for interface and collaboration between a number of justice system stakeholders in Saskatchewan and our law students. Together they identify and discuss critical access to justice problems and students then design processes of action to address these problems. First established in 2013, the course has become established as a signature course for which law students actively compete for admission.” - Dean’s Forum application
The College of Arts and Science’s Aboriginal Student Achievement Program (ASAP) brings together a large team of staff and faculty to offer a dynamic and supportive first-year experience to Indigenous students. ASAP was originally created, five years ago, to improve the retention rates of Indigenous students from first to second year by improving the first-year experience. First year students register in ASAP through a designated Aboriginal Academic Advisor, who continues to support and guide them throughout their first year. ASAP is a learning community program, meaning that groups of up to 30 Indigenous students take three small first-year courses together and support each other in their university experience. In addition to these courses, the students also participate in an academic tutorial for each course and a weekly Learning Communities hour led by a Peer Mentor, an upper-year Indigenous student. During these meetings, students build community, learn about study skills and career options, participate in cultural activities and get involved in the larger university community.
This unique, collaborative course builds on the possibilities of involving arts with science to deepen the awareness and understanding of key issues related to water for students, their collaborators and public audiences.
The 2014 Provost's Prize for Innovative Practice in Collaborative Teaching and Learning was awarded to Dr. Mela Mansfield from the Department of Psychiatry and Dr. Glen Luther from the College of Law. This project involved the two departments jointly hosting the interprofessional Law and Psychiatry Seminar series over the course of 12-15 weeks. Instructors from both fields lead the seminars, and the series is offered to students each academic year.
Since its inception in its current form eight years ago, at least three peer-reviewed publications resulted from the series, in which law students are coached to write for publications using psychiatric results. Participants in the seminars include law students and psychiatry residents who are then able to interact with and learn about each others' approach to dealing with offenders, which is meant to foster greater understanding and collaboration between these two groups of future professionals. This collaboration and communication may in turn result in more positive outcomes for the offenders with whom both groups of seminar participants may have contact in their professions.
The 2013 Provost's Project Grant for Innovative Practice in Teaching and Learning was awarded to an interprofessional team consisting of Dr. Jill Bally, Dr. Shelley Spurr, Dr. Lorna Butler, Dr. Mary Ellen Andrews and Dr. Heather Exner-Pirot (College of Nursing) and Dr. Alyssa Hayes (College of Dentistry) for "Northern Innovative Teaching and Learning Practice in Pediatric Nursing Education: Caring For Kids Where They Live." It will engage northern Aboriginal nursing students in supporting oral health care for northern children.
The 2013 Provost’s Prize for Innovative Practice in Collaborative Teaching and Learning was awarded to Dr.s Michael Bradley and Gap Soo Chang from the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics and Ramaswami Sammynaiken of the Saskatchewan Structural Sciences Centre (SSSC) and Biochemistry for their project called “Innovative Laboratory for Engineering Physicists and Physicists in the 21st Century.” The project put together two different upper year instructional approaches so that students would have an opportunity to apply their technical skills to a real-world consultative problem.
The resulting course, Physics 404, is an innovative blend of the strengths of structured, rigorous approach used by upper year ‘cook book’ labs, and the more open ended approach used in an undergraduate thesis. Bradley said, “the upper year labs have a high level of complexity but the script is already written,” meaning that the outcomes are set, so students are not pushed to be creative. Physics 404 is taught in two phases, a training phase using state-of-the-art equipment available in the department and SSSC, and a consulting problem phase that lets students apply what they learned in the first phase. In between the two phases, an experienced professional consultant outlines the ups and downs of consulting, how to set up a consulting company and how to approach a consulting contract.
The 2012 Provost's Project Grant for Innovative Practice in Teaching and Learning was awarded to Dr.s Priscilla Settee (Department of Native Studies), Sarah Buhler (College of Law), and Nancy Van Styvendale (Department of English) for "Inside-Out on the "Outside,"" which partners students from the U of S, ""non-traditional" learners" from a gang-prevention initiative called Str8 Up, and mature students from Oskayak High school. Part of the proposal includes funds for filmmaker Marcel Petit to produce a documentary film about the experience.
The project will create a transformative learning experience for students as they come together as co-learners and co-creators of knowledge, informed by vastly different life experiences. The project will challenge ideas about knowledge, learning and societal assumptions about which "types" of people should come together in a common project of discovery," said Sarah Buhler.
Inside-Out on the "Outside" is modelled after a community-based education program that started as a partnership between a Philadelphia jail and Temple University in 1997. Simone Davis from Inside-Out Canada met with Settee, Buhler and Van Styvendale in May 2012 and "is enthusiastic about the idea of adapting Inside-Out in this way." Inside-Out on the "Outside" will be implemented through cross-listed 3-credit courses, one course being offered each year and will focus on will develop community-based and student centred curriculum. Faculty training began in the summer of 2013 and course ran from January to April 2014.
The 2012 Provost’s Prize for Innovative Practice in Collaborative Teaching and Learning was awarded to the Longitudinal Elderly Person Shadowing (LEPS). First implemented in 2007 and offered annually since then, LEPS “is an innovative, inter-professional experience that brings together students and professors from several health science disciplines at the University of Saskatchewan and healthy seniors from Luther Tower.”
The program involves students who are partnered with a senior, who they meet and interview in accordance with a set of guidelines. The students first learn about the lives older adults have lived. Then, during three subsequent visits, students learn about the seniors’ contemporary experiences to assess how much is known about services available.
As of 2011, 258 students had taken part in LEPS. Participation has impacted students’ comfort level and perception of older adults. It has also deepened their understanding of the healthcare services and professionals. Students who enter the workforce with this understanding can work more cohesively with other professionals and provide more effective care to the elderly. As Dr. Lou Qaulitiere, Acting Dean of Medicine, notes, the prize will “support the extension of the LEPS program to continue to support the collaboration of future healthcare students and older adults."
A second Provost’s Grant was awarded to an innovative distributed learning project that uses telerobotic technology to bring faculty expertise to remote and rural northern communities. "Telerobotics: The use of Technology for Teacher Presence in the Delivery of an Undergraduate Nursing Course," will be used to connect students in these remote communities with faculty members at the U of S in a way that allows that faculty member to see what their student is seeing.
Students and faculty will be connected using "an articulated flat-screen monitor for visual display that utilizes a dual camera configuration and full on-board audio." The robot, called the RP-7, is the design of a California company called InTouch Health. According to the project’s proposal, it also contains ""peripherals” or specialized equipment used for specific physical assessment examinations for example, a stethoscope …, an otoscope …, and an ophthalmoscope …, can be connected to the robot and will allow the faculty member to observe what the student is seeing." The undergraduate nursing students in northern Saskatchewan communities who will benefit from this technology are not only the first in Canada to do so, but the first in the world.
Telerobotics as a method of providing distributed learning is expected to deliver two primary benefits to students: it will "provide the opportunity for "universal access" to a quality education that otherwise would not be possible due to geographic location" and it "facilitates a community approach to education." The project lead is Assistant Professor Carol Bullin from the College of Nursing, who delivers two courses using this technology.
The 2010 Provost’s Prize for Innovative Practice in Collaborative Teaching and Learning was awarded to the Interprofessional Problem-Based Learning Team in the Health Sciences made up of applicants from Clinical Psychology, Medicine, Nursing, Nutrition, Pharmacy, Physical Therapy, and Social Work (U of Regina) titled "Innovative Practice in Interprofessional Health Sciences Problem-Based Learning".
The intent of the initiative was to incorporate interprofessional Problem-based Learning (iPBL) into the programs of hundreds of health professions students over several years. Faculty from multiple Colleges and Departments have been involved in organizing modules covering a variety of health related topics (e.g., care of patients with HIV/AIDS, Palliative Care, and Aboriginal Health and Healing). The implementation of the program over the years has resulted in high gains in students' knowledge and enjoyment and an appreciation of the interprofessional aspects of the innovative iPBL modules. The innovation has demonstrated involvement by a large number of faculty and staff from several health professions programs, a strong commitment to teaching and learning over nearly 10 years, and a very positive impact on student learning and student learning experiences. The Interprofessional Problem-Based Learning Team submission reflects the emphasis this group of health professionals places on teaching and learning and their commitment to initiate innovative programs that support student learning.
The 2010 Provost's Project Grant for Innovation in Teaching and Learning was awarded to the College of Nursing and Department of Drama, College of Art and Sciences titled "Practice Patients for Advanced Practice Nursing".
The intent of the proposal was to utilize the knowledge that the Drama students have acquired in class and give them the opportunity to develop their dramatic skills as mock patients for the Nurse Practitioner students, both for physical assessment labs and for the Objective Structured Clinical Exam. Faculty in the College of Nursing and the Department of Drama will be involved in the development and implementation of the program to create standardized patients for use across disciplines and across programs for both graduate and undergraduate learners. Several other Health Science groups on campus (e.g., Pharmacy and Nutrition, Physical Therapy, Medicine) may also benefit from this innovation. The innovation allows for mutual benefit for both drama students as well as nurse practitioner students. These students have the opportunity to work with each other and transform the knowledge they have learned into practice. The College of Nursing and Department of Drama's joint submission reflects the emphasis these academic units place on teaching and learning and their commitment to initiate innovative programs that support student learning.
The project lead was Tony Tung from the College of Nursing.
The 2009 Provost’s Prize for Innovative Practice in Collaborative Teaching and Learning was awarded to the College of Kinesiology for its initiative in peer review of teaching and faculty professional development. The Prize was chosen by a selection committee comprised of Ernie Barber, Vice-Provost Teaching and Learning, Jim Greer, Director of the University Learning Centre, Richard Schwier, Acting Director of the University Learning Centre, and Candace Bloomquist, Graduate Service Fellow at the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching Effectiveness.
The College of Kinesiology initiative was designed to stimulate interest in teaching and learning and to maintain a continuous awareness of relevant literature for college faculty. All faculty in the College of Kinesiology were involved in the implementation of a peer review process designed to enhance the pedagogical skills of both experienced and less experienced faculty through feedback and modeling.
The College developed a “Peer Teaching Evaluation Guidelines and Recommendations” manual and a training session was conducted to help support faculty implementation of the initiative. The positive impact of the initiative on the faculty was evident in the testimonials of several faculty members. Furthermore, the initiative enhances the pedagogical skills of the faculty which contribute to improving the student learning experience through more skilled teaching by instructors. For example, one improvement to the student learning experience is the implementation of a common course outline which is used by all faculty within the college to ensure that important aspects of all courses are presented in a clear and consistent fashion. The College of Kinesiology submission reflects the emphasis the College of Kinesiology places on teaching and learning and their commitment to initiate innovative programs that support student learning.
The 2009 Provost's Project Grant for Innovation in Teaching and Learning was awarded to the Department of Educational Foundations to support the development of its integrated Master's of Education program through land-based institutes and distance education courses. The department is initiating, with collaborators from the University of Alberta and local communities, an land-based Indigenous Education approach that combines locally situated and distance learning approaches to offer a unique Masters of Education program.
The design and delivery of the entire program is framed from within an indigenous paradigm. Four summer institutes will be taught by indigenous faculty, and offered on or near First Nations, Inuit, or Metis communities where students will have access to local knowledge holders, traditional ceremonies, and land-based teachings. Three relevant distance education courses, co-designed with the groups and infused with Aboriginal content and perspectives, will be offered during the Fall and Winter terms. The program is aimed at certified teachers, administrators, master's or doctoral students, and other educational professionals who wish to pursue graduate education through an holistic lived experience that is consistent with cultural teachings according to local protocols.
The 2008 Provost’s Prize for Innovative Practice in Teaching and Learning was awarded to the Western College of Veterinary Medicine for their project entitled "Integrative Teaching and Learning to Bridge Basic and Clinical Sciences in Veterinary Medicine". The College met all the criteria for the award in terms of collaborative unit-wide effort and innovation shown to improve the student learning experience. In particular, the implementation of the “biomedical rounds” course provides a new kind of experiential learning that integrates traditional classroom learning with realistic case studies and practical learning experiences. Students claim that this has led to a significant improvement in their learning experience.
The selection committee comprised of Dr. Ernie Barber, Vice-Provost Teaching and Learning, Dr. Jim Greer, Director University Learning Centre and a graduate student unanimously agreed that while other projects were strong contenders, this project was exemplary.
In the words of our graduate student member of the selection committee, “Veterinary Medicine’s application reflects a teaching response to a need articulated by students. Goals are clearly established and the process used speaks to how the faculty did not simply use a problem-based learning process, but rather found a way to address the specific needs of both their students and their department through the use of didactic teaching combined with a case study approach. Evidence of how this approach has worked for students is also included in the application. When considered against the criteria, Veterinary Medicine’s application shows a strong and balanced commitment to both teaching and learning. I do feel that Vet Med’s blending of processes to suit their needs is innovative.”
The 2008 Provost's Project Grant for Innovation in Teaching and Learning was awarded to the Department of History for their project entitled "The Greystone Year: An Intensive, Interdisciplinary, and Collaboratively-Taught Introduction to the Western Humanistic Tradition". This project involves development of a 12 credit-unit foundation-year course that crosses disciplines and departments within the College of Arts and Science, which should provide students with an intensive learning experience quite different from normal first-year studies. It will offer students a broader view of liberal arts education, allow for integration of ideas across disciplinary boundaries, and better prepare students for deeper critical thinking.