Online and Blended Learning
Educational Leaders in Residence (ELR) are responsible for developing and implementing high-impact, institutional teaching and learning projects that lead to clear outcomes and results.
ELRs for Online and Blended Learning work collaboratively to advance blended and online course design, expertise and pedagogies across campus.
Role description
In the area of online and blended learning, the Educational Leaders in Residence collaborate with the Taylor Institute and the Vice-Provost (Teaching and Learning) to:
- Review and advise on the development of standards and regulations to support and advance online and blended learning at UCalgary.
- Facilitate campus conversations related to online learning through existing campus networks and committees.
- Advise and consult with academic programs on meaningfully integrating online and blended learning in new program proposals, in collaboration with academic staff in the TI and the program innovation hub.
- Advise on and develop resources and supports needed to support academic staff, teaching assistants, students and other university stakeholders in the development of teaching expertise in online and blended learning.
- Contribute to scholarship related to online and blended learning, including evaluating and disseminating the success and impact of initiatives implemented to strengthen online and blended learning.
- Participate in the development of an institutional strategy related to online and blended learning at the University of Calgary, including capturing the lesson learned and how we have transformed teaching and learning through COVID.
- Connect with other Educational Leaders in Residence, TI leadership and the VPTL to report on progress and relevant findings.
- Evaluate the online learning project’s success, and provide final recommendations for a sustainable model for the development and delivery of online learning at the University of Calgary (Jessica Ayala)
- Lead a collaborative working group of instructors developing online courses (Jessica Ayala)
- Identify enablers and barriers to, and advocate for teaching and learning in online environments (Jessica Ayala)
Former Educational Leaders in Residence
Corey Flynn, PhD
Educational Leader in Residence from Jan 2022 - Dec 2024
Dr. Corey Flynn has been a faculty member at the University of Calgary since 2009, and is currently a Senior Instructor in the Department of Biological Sciences and the BSc Neuroscience program. He is also currently the Assistant Head – Undergraduate for the Department of Biological Sciences.
Dr. Flynn have always had a strong interest in technology-assisted teaching and learning practices and was involved in the Online Course Delivery Program in Winter 2020. The transition to emergency remote delivery due to the COVID-19 pandemic allowed him to utilize these tools and the skills he had gained to help improve online and blended learning.
As an Educational Leader in Residence for online and blended learning, he looks forward to taking stock of all the ways instruction changed during COVID and helping to ensure that these lessons learned shape and improve our teaching practices moving forward.
Featured contributions
Derritt Mason, PhD
Educational Leader in Residence from April 2022 - June 2024
Derritt Mason is an Associate Professor of English whose research interests include children’s and young adult literature, gender and sexuality, and cultural/media studies. He is the author of Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture (UP of Mississippi, 2021) and the co-editor, with Kenneth B. Kidd, of Queer as Camp: Essays on Summer, Style, and Sexuality (Fordham UP, 2019). Derritt is the recipient of a 2021 Students’ Union Teaching Excellence Award and a 2020 Faculty of Arts Award for Outstanding Early Career Teacher. He has published on teaching and learning topics including the use of “Let’s Play” video game essays in the classroom (Teaching & Learning Inquiry 9.1), and teaching “close reading” to first-year English students (Pedagogy 22.3).
Featured contributions
Jessica Ayala, PhD
Educational Leader in Residence from July 2019 - July 2021
Dr. Jessica Ayala is Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Social Work. She has been teaching at U of C for 19 years and teaches a range of courses in online, blended and face-to-face environments, including field education, research methods, and diversity and social justice. She is the recipient of the 2017 Faculty of Social Work Educational Leadership Teaching Excellence Award, and the 2017 University of Calgary Teaching Award for Teaching in Online Environments. Her research interests include field education and online and blended learning.