University of Calgary
AC-7: Incentives for Developing Courses

Teaching Development
The Taylor Institute fosters the development of research-informed teaching practice at the University of Calgary, with the goal of enhancing teaching and learning including sustainability focused teaching and learning. The Taylor Institute supports instructors in all aspects of their teaching development, including teaching strategies, classroom dynamics, course design, educational technologies, portfolios, philosophies and dossiers, assessment and teaching evaluations.
Over the 2015-2016 year, the Taylor Institute offered 131 Teaching Development workshops with 1,528 participants comprised of faculty, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and staff.
The types of workshops that the Taylor Institute offer that can support sustainability course development includes, but is not limited to:
• Teaching Online Program
• Teaching Philosophies and Dossiers Workshops
• Graduate Student Teaching Development
• SoTL Foundations Program
• Teaching Controversial Issues Workshops
• Curriculum Development Workshops
• Technology Integration Workshops
Course Design Program
The Taylor Institute offers a course design process that is especially beneficial for first-time instructors, for experienced instructors designing a new course, or for redesigning an existing course, and applies to courses taught face-to-face, online or in a blended environment.
Over the 2015-2016 year, the Learning and Instructional Design Team at the Taylor Institute hosted 36 participants in Course Design Programs.
Instructional Skills Workshop
The Instructional Skills Workshop is an intensive, four-day workshop that gives participants the chance to enhance their teaching skills in a small group setting. The Instructional Skills Workshop is designed for faculty, instructors, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, and strengthens instructional skills in lesson planning, teaching, giving and receiving feedback, and critical reflection (Dawson et al., 2014).
Over the 2015-2016 year, the Educational Development Consultant Team of the Taylor Institute hosted 76 participants in Instructional Skills Workshops.
Facilitator Development Workshop
The FDW is a four-day, intensive workshop for Instructional Skills Workshop graduates who are experienced instructors and wish to enhance their group facilitation skills. After completing the FDW, participants become part of a larger network of ISW facilitators and are able build teaching capacity across campus by leading the ISW in their own departments, schools and faculties.
Over the 2015-2016 year, the Educational Development Consultant Team of the Taylor Institute hosted 7 participants in a Facilitator Development Workshop.
The Taylor Institute is also committed to building on the experience and expertise that academic staff and instructors bring to teaching and learning at the University of Calgary. The TI supports individuals and groups to share knowledge and build teaching and learning capacity across campus.
Some of our initiatives include, but are not limited to:
Teaching Academy
The Teaching Academy is a working group of instructors who have received University of Calgary Teaching Awards recognizing their contributions to teaching and learning. A major focus for the Teaching Academy is the establishment of a structure for peer mentorship and peer consultation on campus.
Teaching Scholars program
The Teaching Scholars program provides support for faculty to enhance their educational leadership by pursuing initiatives that enrich the quality of teaching and learning. The Teaching Scholars program will provide recipients with up to $40,000 over three years to implement a specific teaching and learning initiative.
For the pilot program (2015), 10 Teaching Scholars have been appointed. View the list of the Teaching Scholars pilot program recipients here: https://taylorinstitute.ucalgary.ca/community/teaching-scholars/pilot-program-recipients
SoTL Journal Club and SoTL Writing Groups
SoTL Journal Club and SoTL Writing Groups offer different ways of finding a scholarly community devoted to inquiry and research to understand and improve student learning, and the teaching approaches and practices that facilitate that learning. The SoTL Journal Club is made up of regular, informal gatherings where participants discuss a shared reading. Come to one, a few, or the whole series. Each SoTL Writing Group is a small group with a stable membership that meets semi-regularly for support, feedback, and encouragement on SoTL manuscript in progress.
Taylor Institute Teaching Community
The Taylor Institute Teaching Community allows instructors to search for, find and share resources on topics in teaching and learning including those related to sustainability.
The Teaching Community is a place for postsecondary educators to connect, collaborate and communicate. Faculty can access resources that other educators have found helpful, add resources, share ones own research or best practices and discuss topics in postsecondary education.

The Teaching and Learning Grants program supports the development, implementation, critical examination, and dissemination of innovative, creative, and evidence-based approaches to learning.
Projects must engage students in hands-on learning grounded in authentic learning in the field, followed by reflecting on their experiences in a way that will enable them to apply their knowledge in new settings. Grants range from up to $7,500 to $40,000. The program facilitates projects through three structural streams:
-Practice Grants supports the pursuit of professional learning to inform teaching practice by integrating an evidence-based teaching and learning strategy and reflecting on its impact.

-Lesson Study Grants supports team-based studies of a single lesson, carefully developed to promote a significant learning goal. The goal of these projects is to “put a lesson under the microscope, to carefully analyze how students learn from our teaching and then use that knowledge to improve future performance—ours and theirs

-Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Grants supports such work, commonly known as the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). These projects are formal, evidence-based inquiries to better understand or improve student learning.

Over the 2015-2016 year, the Taylor Institute awarded 40 grants for a total sum of $977,487.84. The University of Calgary Teaching and Learning Grants program has been available to faculty for the past 3 years and to date over 91 grants have been issued.