| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 68.36 |
| Liaison | Patricia Huynh |
| Submission Date | Dec. 10, 2024 |
University of Waterloo
AC-7: Incentives for Developing Courses
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
2.00 / 2.00 |
Mat
Thijssen Sustainability Manager Sustainability Office |
Does the institution have an ongoing program that offers incentives for academic staff in multiple disciplines or departments to develop new sustainability courses and/or incorporate sustainability into existing courses? :
A brief description of the incentive program(s):
Waterloo has recently launched targeted Sustainability Integration in Curriculum (SIC) grants to support ongoing efforts to embed sustainability across any program of study. The SIC grants are open to any faculty member at University of Waterloo, and are designed to initiate or accelerate programmatic sustainability considerations. This could include professional development for the department on any aspect of the curriculum integration framework that has been developed (1. Understand sustainability concepts, 2. Connect sustainability concepts to disciplinary learning outcomes, 3. Integrate through existing or new curricular pathways, 4. Evaluate efforts to advance sustainability learning outcomes, and 5. Adapt and enhance sustainability integration alongside global transitions in understanding, implementation, and impacts). This builds upon targeted grants that were developed through Waterloo’s Sustainability Action Fund, which have included running workshops for how sustainability can be integrated into theatre and performance, in ways such as set design, scripting, and audience engagement within the Theatre and Performance program, as well as a project to develop “Status of Sustainability” infosheets within Civil and Environmental Engineering, which map out sustainability connections specific to the discipline.
A brief description of the incentives that academic staff who participate in the program(s) receive:
The SIC grants have a wide eligibility for project ideas which are based on internal grant transfers that could be put toward professional development at the departmental scale, or at an individual scale (i.e. conference attendance) if there is a clear pathway for departmental/programmatic outcomes or integration, research assistantship support, and more. In addition, Waterloo’s Policy 76 on Faculty Appointments provides an opportunity for teaching-stream faculty to take a teaching release on their course load to focus on other pedagogical elements, educational elements, and/or educational leadership in support of teaching. This can be utilized to influence innovative design and development of sustainability integration. The policy also defines earned course reductions that are granted to enable projects or activities that have the potential to improve teaching and learning at the University of Waterloo.
Optional Fields
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