Improving the campus experience at the University of Toronto through student-led design
Written by Georgia Maxwell (Senior Research Assistant) and Marcus Lomboy (Design Research Assistant for Transforming the Instructional Landscape)
For the past four years, the Innovation Hub has teamed up with the Learning Space Management (LSM) Team to examine how learning environments can be improved for both instructors and students.
By Sanskriti Maheshwari, Design Researcher
This blog post is part of Delving into the Digital Campus, a four-part series in collaboration with the Digital Community & Connectedness Project, aimed at understanding how students find and make connections in digital spaces. Each post is a written reflection from our Design Researchers, sharing how the insights from their project has resonated with them in their own lived experiences.
Through taking a course on Interpersonal Relationships, I uncovered something quite eye-opening. ‘Opposites attract’ is just a fantastical expression used to keep us invested in the romantic relationships and friendships that play out in front of our TV and movie screens. In reality, I have found that birds of a feather do in fact flock together. For example, in my own life I have observed that most of my closest friends have identical hobbies, personalities, political views, and so on. When meeting new individuals, any differences in interest or personalities can seem more pronounced than they really are. Possibly because a foundation built on a shared purpose hasn’t been established just yet. This is also something I learnt from my experience conducting the Stories from a Distance Sessions and The Digital Community & Connectedness Project.
By Shankeri Vijayakumar – Data Analysis Researcher and Hai-Dao Le Nguyen – Data Analysis Researcher
Academic Integrity is essential to learning at the University of Toronto as students learn to engage with knowledge and ideas in a way that is respectful and honourable. This past year, the Innovation Hub partnered with U of T’s Provost’s Office to explore what academic integrity means and how it is experienced by students at the university.
Written by Nicholas Smith – Design Research Assistant for the Transforming the Instructional Landscape
What happens when you support instructors as they experiment with technology? During the Winter semester of 2021, the Transforming the Instructional Landscape (TIL) Pilot Project did just that. In the pilot, each member of our instructor cohort was provided with an individualized and adaptable classroom set-up, including high-quality recording equipment, stream decks, and monitor screens, alongside traditional teaching tools such as blackboards and lecterns. Our instructors were also paired with a technical “co-pilot” who ensured that the technology they employed ran smoothly by providing real-time support.
This is a re-post from Redefining Traditional, a community aiming to equip student parents with the tools to navigate their various roles, build a community of support and belonging, as well as providing a space for productive dialogue amongst policy-makers to help reimagine higher education. If you’re interested in contributing to our online community, we encourage you to share your story as a student parent by filling out this form.
Our land acknowledgements series highlights important stories and teachings from each of the Redefining Traditional team members – Heather, Shamim and Kaitlyn. Through these posts, we aim for our community to think about how land acknowledgments are immensely important, and to ensure we engage in teachings about specific cultures beyond a day or month of recognition. We also highlight important questions to support our community so that an acknowledgement moves beyond a ‘script’ and towards an ongoing conversation.
Our final post in this series is by Shamim Ahmed! Our previous two posts are from:
In the fifth (and final!) instalment of Stories Through Research, we explored ‘Learning Through Experience: Fostering Tenacity Through Experiential Education’ at UofT. By holding space for the complexities, needs, and experiences of students, staff and stakeholders in Experiential Learning (EL) at UofT, we began to explore how could the benefits of EL occur throughout students’ whole time at the university?
In the fourth instalment of Stories Through Research, our team discussed the many elements of meaningful student consultation and this might be realized in areas at UofT. Through interviews with staff and students, we were able to gain a deeper understanding of consultation from a variety of perspectives and experiences to ensure consultation is equitable to all involved.
In our third session of Stories Through Research, the Digital Community and Connectedness team shared their findings on building digital connection in uncertainty, and what students need in online communities. From our interviews with students during these uncertain times, we were able to uncover important student needs that can support everyone in digital communities – no matter the platform.
In the second session of Stories Through Research, we explored Universal Design at the University of Toronto and how we can break down barriers at UofT by centering students with disabilities. By understanding accessibility and equity in context at UofT, along with how interconnected this is with Universal Design, all of us can begin exploring how to make a difference in our contexts and reducing barriers in the student experience.
In our first Stories Through Research session, our team shared some of the many important insights that we learned and explored in ‘Food for Student Self-Fulfillment: Examining the Role of Food Insecurity on Campus’. By deeply understanding how present food insecurity is on campus and in higher education, while also centering student experiences and needs, our communities can understand how we can make steps to ensure that all students can experience food security during their studies.