Written by Carla Alexander, Content Writer Fostering connectedness with one’s peers is an important part of the student experience. That connectedness can take many forms — taking part in clubs, participating in sports, and building friendships with one’s fellow students. But what happens when life forces us indoors? Or life…
Innovation & Compassion: The Importance of Design Thinking
Written by Carla Alexander, Content Writer
Students often face complex challenges. When it comes to topics like mental health, success in the classroom, food insecurity, we may stop ourselves and think: how can these issues ever truly be understood? After all, many universities have been in business for centuries, and these issues are still as prevalent amongst their students as they were decades ago. However, there is a way to approach these ‘wicked’ problems, no matter how difficult they may seem: design thinking.
Design thinking forms the foundation of our work at the Innovation Hub. Our methodology involves a “human-centred” approach to student issues — but what does that mean, exactly? What is design thinking, and how can it be used to solve the hard-hitting issues that students face?
Commuting and COVID-19: Moving Into The Future
Written by Carla Alexander, Content Writer Icons illustrated by Vlada Gorchkova, Digital Storyteller University of Toronto is considered by many to be a “commuter university” — a school where many individuals commute, as opposed to living on campus. According to Student Move TO,…
Revisiting the Domains of Innovation
Written by Carla Alexander, Content Writer
So much has changed within the past year — not only within the world, or the university, but within the Innovation Hub as well. As the Innovation Hub progressed throughout the pandemic, our projects have highlighted new and continuing issues students navigate, such as flourishing in online classrooms or maintaining connectiveness online. With this context in mind it’s important to begin thinking about the tools that guide, frame, and inspire our work, including the most important one of all: the Domains of Innovation.
Cyberbullying and Mental Health: CAMH is looking for participants!
At the Innovation Hub, we see and experience how incredibly important student mental health is in our communities. In this community repost, we would like to highlight an important study by one of our community partners, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), and how you or a peer could participate in an important study this summer!
Mental Health Research Opportunity – Detection and Intervention of Cyberbullying on Social Media
Are you a social media user? Do you have thoughts and concerns about cyberbullying? Are you looking to get involved?
We are doing a study to better understand the needs and preferences of youth (ages 16-21) around cyberbullying on social media platforms. Our team is looking to engage with youth who are interested in collaborating with researchers to generate insights that will aid in the development of a digital tool to help prevent cyberbullying.