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What learning research can tell us about effective blended learning course design

Open inspirational seminar 5th of March with Simon Bates, University of British Columbia, Canada.

“Learning science and educational research has contributed to a huge body of knowledge into how we can make teaching (and therefore learning) more effective for our students. However, for faculty members within disciplines, this can often seem an impenetrably dense body of literature, and opportunities for improvements in course design and delivery are lost. This talk will use an interactive and participatory format to highlight some of the main findings from learning research literature in an accessible way. There will be time to start discussions to imagine how the implications of this research can be used to inform the design and delivery of participant’s own courses. A goal for the session will be for participants to feel they have concrete strategies to take back to their Departments to change their approaches to course delivery. The session is relevant for faculty members teaching courses, as well as those in a variety of learning support roles across the institution. Participants will be able to engage in a mock learning quiz using their phones, tablets or laptops.”

The university-wide educational board invites you to an open inspiration seminar

When and where: 5 March, 13:30-15:00 in Lux Auditorium.

Simon Bates

Professor of Teaching, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia,  Vancouver,Canada

Simon Bates
Simon Bates

With leadership responsibility for teaching, learning and technology support to faculty and departments creating credit and non-credit learning opportunities spanning areas of undergraduate, graduate and lifelong learning at UBC. The portfolio also contributes to new program approval and quality assurance processes overseen by the office of the Provost and Vice-President Academic.

He is also a tenured Professor of Teaching in the Physics and Astronomy department. As a passionate champion of evidence-based and technology-enhanced approaches, Simon continues to teach an introductory physics courses, co-teaching with a different faculty colleague each year. Recent innovations in these courses have been the introduction of student-generated learning and assessment content, and use of open educational resources as digital content. He has received teaching awards from both the University of Edinburgh (2006, 2011) and UBC (2016).  

Prior to his current appointment, Simon served as Academic Director of UBC’s Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, a central academic support unit of ~75 FTE, where he oversaw the provision of academic support services to the teaching and learning community, providing an implementation pathway for these strategic projects.