2023 Stewardship Committee

University of Waterloo

Chair

I have been a part of OUCEL since it began in 2007. It has been a tremendously valuable and fulfilling experience, both personally and professionally, and I feel a strong commitment to the organization. As part of the Stewardship Committee, I want to help ensure that it continues to be a nexus of information sharing, collegial collaboration, and mutual growth for all participants, as we collectively provide leadership and wisdom around e-learning in the province.

University of Windsor

Past Chair

I believe wholeheartedly in the value of this community, and am very glad to be able to contribute to its development and resilience in the coming years. OUCeL is a community that opened its arms and welcomed me when I moved to Canada almost a decade ago, and I feel at home when I am with my colleagues from this group. I have contributed to the planning of our annual meetings for several years, and have hosted OUCeL at Windsor, so I'm comfortable supporting the community in this way. I am very active in online, open and technology-enhanced education in the province as a member of the eCampus Ontario Board of Directors and through involvement in many other aspects of eCampus' activities, as well as international organisations in the field. Above all, I want to see our community continue to thrive, to maintain its unique connections to the people who share our space in post secondary education, and to collectively share our wisdom so that we can advocate effectively for the people we serve in our institutions. I am excited to see how our community continues to evolve, and to play an active role in that development as chair of the OUCeL Stewardship Committee.

University of Ontario Institute of Technology

I've been a member of OUCeL since the Fall of 2018. I was an original member of the interim Stewardship Committee, having volunteered to serve as I recognized the importance of formalizing OUCEL in order to garner better recognition on the post-secondary landscape, as well as supporting others in their work at their respective institutions. I'm honoured to be part of this organization and look forward to learning about and contributing to eLearning. Additionally, I serve on Ontario Tech's Student Success Committee and see a strong synergy between the work of OUCeL and supporting students. I also think my background allows me to bring an interesting perspective and skill set to the Stewardship role.

McMaster University

My interest in serving on OUCEL’s Stewardship Committee is primarily based on giving back to a group that has provided so much to me professionally. My experiences in multiple teaching and learning-centered roles at McMaster University and in working and collaborating with eCampusOntario, has provided me with both institutional and system-wide perspectives on how to foster the creation and support of enriching tech-enhanced teaching and learning experiences. My background is rooted in many areas‚ including learning design, technology platform evaluation, acquisition and thoughtful use, faculty development programming, open education and open pedagogies, inclusive teaching practices and cultivating digital literacies for post-secondary communities. I have experienced the countless benefits collaborating across institutions can provide, and work on OUCEL’s Stewardship Committee will feed into my belief that this collaboration across our institutions is key to shaping our collective future. OUCEL represents to me a group that strives toward a shared purpose of cultivating excellence in tech-enhanced teaching and learning, while looking beyond our own institutional and structural constraints.

Nipissing University

[NOTE: Patrick has had to resign from his position on the Stewardship Committee, so his position is now vacant and the process of finding a replacement has been initiated. We thank Patrick for his service and leadership. STEWARDSHIP COMMITTEE]

When I returned to Ontario, after 20 years away, OUCeL immediately became an important community for me. I was appointed as Nipissing University’s inaugural Dean of Teaching in October 2019; and 5 months later (March 2020) everything changed with a global pandemic. The support I received from this group, helped me (and NU) navigate the brave new world that was emergency remote everything. Joining the steering committee; now is my time to give back.

My background includes decades of field-based teaching, online/hybrid teaching, open teaching and a blend of all these styles augmenting and supporting one another. I am a Full Professor of Physical and Health Education, and have held faculty positions in New Zealand, British Columbia, Norway, Nova Scotia and Iceland. I am a 3M National Teaching Fellow (2014), and a 2020 Fellow of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL).

University of Windsor

OUCEL was the very first group I got to interact with when I started my career in educational development in 2015 and I was made to feel welcome and valued even with my lack of experience. As part of the stewardship committee I want to give back to this valuable group and support the positive influence it has within our community. Within my office I support a wide range of technologies (virtual learning environments, video recording/editing, authoring tools, captioning, digital math, assistive technologies, etc.). I also sit on various committees and working groups related to professional development, accessibility, technology, and eLearning strategies. Finally, I have the pleasure of continuing to teach an asynchronous online Astronomy course.