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Drawing on the qualitative research interview, the authors propose the Educational Development Interview is an important but understudied form of significant conversation and educational developmen...

Increasing instructional quality in higher education is a key goal of educational development (ED) work, yet demonstrating complex outcomes remains challenging and lacks practical guidance. Evaluat...

The purpose of this paper was to describe the development of a survey to evaluate a large, first-year,online, gamified engineering design course. Our literature review briefly summarizes the importance of engineering design experiences in terms of affective outcomes such as belonging and motivation, as well as the potential benefits of game elements and active learning in course design and delivery. However, fully online design courses have yet to be studied. After a brief description of our context, we provide a comprehensive literature review of the scales and surveys used in related education research and describe our questionnaire development process, resulting in a 61-question survey to assess our online course’s support of students’ intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, and belonging. We present our survey, composed of newly developed questions as well as modified questions from literature, so that others may use and adapt it to theircontexts, and conclude with recommendations for future work.

The purpose of this study was to develop and provide psychometric evidence of the Educational Development Impact Questionnaire (EDIQ) for evaluating complex outcomes of multifaceted educational development work within centres of teaching and learning. Our study addresses the need for a user-friendly and psychometrically sound survey instrument adaptable to differing higher education contexts. Our outcomes framework, mapping the intended short- and medium-term outcomes of our centre’s educational development activities, provided the necessary framework on which to create survey items. Scores from 267 instructors from a research-intensive university provided the data for examining the EDIQ’s initial factor structure using exploratory factor analysis. We justify our use of two different cut-scores to generate two models of factor structures. Factors common to both models are instructor growth, scholarship of teaching and learning, technology integration, impact on students, and knowledge enhancement. We discuss how the models provide different opportunities for assessing short-term and medium-term outcomes over time and the usefulness of the EDIQ beyond the current study context.

Scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) scholars, including those who are not in formal positions of leadership, are uniquely positioned to engage in leadership activities that can grow the field, influence their colleagues, and effect change in their local contexts as well as in institutional, disciplinary, and the broader Canadian contexts. Drawing upon the existing SoTL literature and our own diverse experiences, we propose a framework that describes institutional contexts in terms of local SoTL activity (microcultures) and administrative support (macro-level) and use it to describe the many ways that SoTL scholars can and do “lead up” to effect change depending on their own context. We conclude by inviting scholars to consider, reflect upon, and experiment with their leadership activities, not only for their own professional growth but also to contribute to the literature in this area. Les professeurs qui font des recherches dans le domaine de l’avancement des connaissances en enseignement et en apprentissage (ACEA), y compris ceux qui n’occupent pas un poste de leadership formel, occupent une position unique pour s’engager dans des activités de leadership qui peuvent faire avancer le domaine, influencer leurs collègues et effectuer des changements dans leurs contextes locaux ainsi que dans les contextes plus vastes de leur établissement, de leur discipline et du contexte canadien en général. En nous appuyant sur la documentation déjà publiée en ACEA et sur nos diverses expériences personnelles, nous proposons un cadre qui décrit les contextes institutionnels en termes d’activités d’ACEA locales (micro-cultures) et de soutien administratif (niveau macro) que nous utilisons pour décrire les diverses manières dont les chercheurs en ACEA peuvent en arriver à effectuer des changements selon leur propre contexte. En conclusion, nous invitons les chercheurs à prendre en considération leurs activités de leadership, à y réfléchir et à faire des expériences, non seulement pour leur propre croissance professionnelle mais également pour contribuer à la documentation dans ce domaine.

Academic Development Centre, Institute for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Mount Royal University

This chapter briefly describes the SoTL research development program and context at Mount Royal University, reports initial results from a study of the program's impact on participants’ teaching and scholarly activities, and situates the findings regarding individual impact, department-level impact, institution-level impact, and discipline-level impact within the current literature and the Canadian context.

Confinement of the heel due to the counter of the shoe is believed to influence heel pad biomechanics. Using a two-dimensional finite element model of the heel pad and shoe during a simulation of static standing, the aim of this study was to quantify the potential effect of confinement on internal heel pad stress. Non-weightbearing MRI and weightbearing MRI with plantar pressure and ground reaction force data were recorded for a single subject. The non-weightbearing MRI was used to create two FE models of the heel pad, using either homogeneous or composite material properties. The composite model included a distinction in material properties between fat pad and skin. Vertical and medial-lateral forces, as measured on the subject's heel, were applied to the models and vertical compressive strains for both models were comparable with those observed by weightbearing MRI. However, only for the composite model was the predicted plantar pressure distribution comparable with measured data. The composite model was therefore used in further analyses. In this composite model, the internal stresses were located mainly in the skin and were predominantly tensile in nature, whereas the stress state in the fat pad approached hydrostatic conditions. A representation of a running shoe, including an insole, midsole and heel counter was then added to the composite heel pad to form the shod model. In order to investigate the counter effect, the load was applied to the shod model with and without the heel counter. The effect of the counter on peak stress was to elevate compression (0-50%), reduce tension (22-34%) and reduce shear (22-28%) in the skin. In addition, the counter reduced both compressive (20-40%) and shear (58-80%) stress in the fat pad and tension in the fat pad remained negligible. Taken together the results indicate that a well-fitted counter works in sympathy with the internal structure of the heel pad and could be an effective reducer of heel pad stress. However, further research needs to be undertaken to assess the long-term effects on the soft-tissues, practicalities of achieving good fit and behavior under dynamic events.

The structural behaviour of the human heel pad has been studied extensively due to its ability to absorb shock, protect against excessive local stress, and reduce plantar pressures. However, the material properties of the tissue have not been adequately measured. These must be known in order to perform a finite element analysis of the effect of factors such as foot geometry and shoe/surface construction on heel pad function. Therefore, the purposes of this study were to (a) measure the viscoelastic behaviour of the fat pad in compression, and (b) to determine an appropriate constitutive equation to model the tissue. A series of unconfined compression tests were performed on 8 mm diameter cylinders of fat pad tissue, consisting of quasi-static, 175, 350 mm/s and stress-relaxation tests to ∼50% deformation. The tissue exhibited nonlinear, viscoelastic behaviour. No significant difference was found in the quasi-static behaviour between samples from different locations and orientations in the heel. The stress-relaxation tests were used to determine the time constant ( τ 1 =0.5 s), the 175 mm/s test to determine the relaxation coefficient ( g 1 =28), and the 350 mm/s compression test to determine the material constants ( C 100 = C 010 =0.01, C 200 = C 020 =0.1 Pa) of a single-phase, hyperelastic, linear viscoelastic strain energy function ( r 2 =0.98).

Academic Development Centre, Institute for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Mount Royal Universit

The premise of student-centered teaching is to respond to the ways in which students engage with the context and content of their learning, and therefore the purpose of this study was to find out how students visualize three-dimensional statics problems from two-dimensional diagrams early in a first-year engineering course. Think-alouds were conducted where students were asked to describe magnitudes and directions of various forces acting in three-dimensional spaces. Three key themes emerged: students have more trouble visualizing points behind, or vectors pointing into, the plane of the page; students may not use contextual clues to aid in their visualization; and students rely on equations to answer problems even when not necessary or even possible to do so. These findings are important to instructors in disciplines where spatial visualization is important because as they are already “experts” in this skill, they may underestimate the difficulty students initially face in approaching these problems. The value of using think-alouds to reveal student thinking as they struggle with concepts is also discussed. La prémisse de l’enseignement centré sur l’apprenant est de réagir à la manière dont les étudiants s’intéressent réellement au contexte et au contenu de leur apprentissage. En conséquence, le but de cette étude était de découvrir comment les étudiants visualisent les problèmes statiques tridimensionnels à partir de diagrammes bi-dimensionnels, dans un cours de génie de première année. Des exercices de réflexion à haute voix ont été effectués, au cours desquels on a demandé aux étudiants de décrire les magnitudes et les directions de diverses forces qui agissaient dans des espaces tridimensionnels. Trois thèmes clés sont apparus : les étudiants ont davantage de difficulté à visualiser les points qui se trouvent derrière le niveau de la page ou les vecteurs tournés dans la direction de la page; les étudiants n’utilisent pas toujours les indices contextuels dans leur visualisation; et enfin, les étudiants s’appuient sur les équations pour répondre aux problèmes, même quand ce n’est pas nécessaire ou quand c’est impossible à faire. Ces conclusions présentent un grand intérêt pour les enseignants de disciplines où la visualisation spatiale est importante car, puisqu’eux-mêmes sont déjà « experts » dans cette compétence, ils risquent de mésestimer la difficulté à laquelle les étudiants sont confrontés, au début, quand ils essaient de résoudre ces problèmes. L’article discute également de la valeur de l’utilisation d’exercices de réflexion à haute voix pour révéler ce que pensent les étudiants quand ils sont aux prises avec un problème.

Peer Instruction (PI) is a widely used pedagogy which generally includes the use of two main teaching strategies: student pre-class preparation with an associated online quiz, and active in-class engagement including small-group discussions about conceptual questions. As an instructor trying this pedagogy for the first time, my purpose was to investigate both students’ learning and attitudes in my first/second year engineering dynamics course, using their answers to the reading quizzes as the main source of data. In short, students with the highest quiz marks did well in the course, indicating successful reading and learning strategies. Similarly, students with the lowest quiz marks attained lower overall marks. Students who did less well in the course were also more negative about the PI format (the class size of 17 did not allow for statistical analysis). Negative comments tended to be related to an expectation that the teacher should lecture more, indicating less understanding of cognitive principles. These results will provide a baseline for evaluating future teaching efforts which will include examining whether more directly encouraging deep learning strategies will be more effective for student learning.

This paper details an inquiry-based project, and how the technical report writing and disciplinary thinking components of it were incorporated into the weekly activities of a traditional engineering dynamics class. With the development of an appropriate problem, the project structure could be incorporated into any class. Techniques for marking engineering reports without significantly increasing instructor workload are also discussed.

The purpose of this study was to find out how students visualize three-dimensional statics problems from twodimensional diagrams early in a first-year engineering course. Think-alouds were conducted where students were asked to describe magnitudes and directions of various forces acting in a three-dimensional space. An unanticipated result was that students solved for components and direction cosines of forces, rather than directly answering the questions. Students had the most trouble visualizing points and vectors that were behind the plane of the page.

Background Heel-pad stiffness is an important parameter in clinical assessments of the lower limb and is usually quantified by the slope of the force–deformation curve. However, the data produced is affected by the geometry of the heel, thus making inferences about tissue behaviour difficult. Method With the use of finite element analysis the aim of this study is to explore the possibility of expressing heel-pad stiffness in terms of stress–strain data. An axisymmetric, non-linear and time-dependent representation of the heel was created. The material model, incorporating non-linearity and viscoelasticity, was based on a series of experiments involving healthy, cadaveric specimens and loading at different loading rates (0, 175 and 350 mm/s). The conditions of an in vivo study were then replicated and stress–strain data of the model were compared. Good agreement was achieved (error 0.2). Probe diameter, loading rate and heel-pad thickness were then varied and heel-pad stiffness, expressed in terms of both force–deformation and stress–strain characteristics, reported. Findings In terms of the force–deformation characteristics, thin heels are consistently stiffer than thick heels. In terms of stress–strain characteristics, thicker heels are stiffer than thin heels using small probes whereas thinner heels are stiffer than thick heels using large probes. It was possible to predict stress–strain data of the heel-pad that are least-dependent of heel-pad thickness using large probes and slow-rising loads. Interpretation It is suggested that stress–strain curves derived from large probes under slow loads would provide the most robust and standardized measure of heel-pad stiffness.

Quality teaching and how to assess and award it, continue to be an area of scholarship and debate in higher education. While the literature demonstrates that assessment should be multifaceted, operationalizing this is no easy task. To gain insight into how teaching excellence is defined in Canadian higher education, this empirical study collected and analysed the criteria, evidence, and standards for institutional teaching awards from 89 institutions and 204 award programs across Canada. The majority of awards included criteria such as specific characteristics of teaching performance and student-centredness; while activities that had impact outside an individual’s teaching practice were also prevalent, including campus leadership, scholarship of teaching and learning, and contributions to curriculum. Lists of potential sources of evidence were heavily weighted towards student perceptions and artefacts from instructors’ teaching. Recommendations for individuals and institutions wanting to foster excellence in teaching are offered along with suggestions for future research.