Areas of Service
A.Service within the Faculty of Health Sciences
1. Joint Teaching Faculty Workload Working Group (participating member), 2014-2015.
Consisting of 3 representatives from the administration and 3 representations from the Teaching Faculty, this committee was tasked with parsing the workload of all 11 Faculty of Health Science Teaching Faculty.Working on this committee was intense and sometimes included 2 meetings in 1 week and over 5.5 hours of one-on-one interviews with individual teaching faculty.
2. Teacher talk (co-organizer), 2013, 2015
As teaching is an immediate and ongoing part of our responsibilities, these hour long sessions were scheduled immediately after the monthly Faculty Council meetings and provided an informal forum for faculty interested in improving and developing their teaching skills.
3. Welcome back retreat 2014
Event organized at the start of the academic year to get academic and administrative staff together before the year begins.
4. Orientation for Bachelor of Allied Health Science students (Panelist). 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014.
Because this degree completion program is fully online, it has been an ongoing challenge to design an orientation to cater to all the students.Students enrolled in this program can be shift-workers, and therefore may not be able to attend orientation, regardless of the time of day it is scheduled.
5. Undergraduate Research Poster Day (Judge), 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014.
Undergraduate students from the Faculty of Health Sciences who had been working on research projects throughout their final year used this as an opportunity to present their work as a poster. Judges worked in pairs to assess the posters and the short talks presented by the students.
6. Evaluation of student poster for out-of sequence student (Judge), 2013, 2014.
Unusual circumstances can mean that some students are not able to present their poster at the scheduled time (Undergraduate Research Poster Day).However, because this is a presentation of their work in their final year, students need this work properly assessed in order for them to fulfill their degree requirements.
7. Development of a Human Health Biology stream within the BHSc program. 2011-2013.
The Comprehensive stream of the Bachelor of Health Sciences was revamped to create 2 more directed pathways, the Public Health and the Human Health Biology streams.I helped to identify gaps within the existing course offerings and propose solutions to create a cohesive and relevant new stream.
8. Undergraduate Program Review (UPR) for the Bachelor of Allied Health Science program (Co-chair), 2012-2013.
This degree completion program started in September 2008 as the first fully online program at UOIT. Dr. Milly Ryan-Harshman and I served as Co-chairs for the committee.Data was collected form the Registrar’s office as well as through a student survey on four cohorts of students starting from 2008 until 2011 and included into a report which was reviewed by external reviewers.Individual and group interviews were also held between reviewers and instructors.
9. Undergraduate Program Review for the Bachelor of Health Science program, 2013-2014.
A similar process to the one listed above was held for another FOHS program.
10. Accreditation of the Nursing program, Georgian College, 2013- 2014.
This degree completion program expanded with the articulation program with Georgian College.Students were either based at Georgian College, Barrie or at Durham College/UOIT, Oshawa.Individual and group interviews were also held between reviewers and instructors.
11. Faculty Council meeting, monthly (voting member). 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.
Scheduled monthly through the academic years, this is the main formal forum of communication within the Faculty of Health Sciences.
12. Bachelor of Health Science program meeting (each term). 2011-2015.
Scheduled each term through the academic year, this is the main formal forum of communication within the Faculty of Health Sciences for the various streams (Kinesiology, Comprehensive, Public Health and Human Health Biology) within this degree program.
B.Service within the wider UOIT community
13. New Faculty Mentorship Luncheon (Panelist), 2013, 2014.
Organized by the Teaching and Learning Center, this was scheduled during the middle of the Fall term for new Faculty to connect with each other. It consisted of an informal lunch and discussion between the new Faculty and a panel of their more experienced colleagues.
14. New Faculty Orientation (Panelist), 2013, 2014.
The two day program allows incoming faculty to become familiar with various aspects of teaching and working at UOIT.I was part of the panel of more experienced faculty sharing our experiences about teaching and student life at UOIT.
15. Award Selection Committee (Voting Member), Staff Awards of Excellence, 2013.
The voting members of this committee consisted of representatives from the administrative and from the academic areas. We were given binders with the nominations from each of the following categories, Administrative/Technical, Professional/Manager, Senior Administration and Academic, to review and then met on three separate occasions to discuss and collate our ranking of the nominations for each category.
16. Graduate Student Conference (Judge), 2011, 2012, 2013.
Graduate students from various faculties at UOIT presented their progress, either as a poster or as a short talk. Judges were recruited from each faculty to assess these presentations.
17. Summer Research Showcase (Judge), 2014.
Undergraduate students who had been working on research projects through the summer used this as an opportunity to present their work as a poster. Judges worked mainly in teams to assess the posters and the short talks presented by the students.
18. Gap analysis of fully online programs at UOIT, 2012-2013.
Due to the scarcity of fully online programs at UOIT, and the relatively small enrolment numbers in each of the programs, the administrative and support staff in the wider UOIT community are often unaware of the unique needs of the students in these programs.This documentation of the gaps in the student services available for these students served as a spring board for dialogue and change in order to increase equity.
19. Brown Bag Lunch Seminar (Presenter), Faculty of Education, 2013
I presented a talk entitled "University Learning in an Online World: Students' Use of Digital Technology" to members of the Faculty of Education. This research project focussed on student use of technology.
20. Research Symposium (Presenter), Faculty of Education, 2013.
This weekend long symposium was attended largely of students in the Bachelor of Education program, UOIT and consisted of multiple sessions of 40 minute talks. My presentation on “The Use of Clickers in the Classroom” stimulated lively discussion and was attended by the Dean of the Faculty.
21. Teaching Certificate workshops (Leader), 2009, 2010, 2011
This workshop was attended by instructors and teaching assistants (TAs) who wanted to learn more about group work. This session encompassed formation of groups, identifying the optimum size of groups and the allocation of marks for various members of a group.
C.Service outside the UOIT community
22. Durham District School Board (DDSB) Intermediate Science Olympic event, 2014
Teams from schools throughout the DDSB met to compete in a series of science related activities. The day concluded with my 20 minute talk on an aspect of science.
23. UOIT open house, 2012.
This event aimed to promote UOIT as a premier institution for undergraduate studies.