Stumbling Blocks and Stepping Stones is a monthly series put on by the Douglas Educational Support Community (DESC) that celebrates the struggles and successes experienced by instructors as they teach online, and will also help faculty members connect with their peers from within and across departments.

The DESC team is composed of multiple faculty members from each academic division, Learning Designers from Academic Technology Services (ATS), learning resources including the Library and Learning Centre, Accessibility Services and a resource person from the Training Group, with the objective of creating faculty centric learning and collaboration spaces to help share best practices for teaching online and give course delivery guidance when needed. Moderated by DESC, this event is structured around 3 short faculty presentations and an optional 30-minute discussion time. Developed under the philosophy of professional development through collegial sharing, we hope that the experience of others will help faculty to find community, creativity, and the strength to explore new opportunities.

Here are the recordings from past Stumbling Blocks and Stepping Stone sessions. Click on the image for each session to view the recording. Note: Videos are listed in order of newest to oldest.

February 26, 2024 – Accommodation Requests and Faculty Readiness

Our presenters were: 

  • Sarah Mellett (HS – Psychiatric Nursing)
  • Cathy Mills (S&T – Sports Science)
  • Kari Gustafson (ACS – Disability and Community Studies)

November 14, 2023 – AI in the Classroom

May 23, 2023 – Transitioning to Blackboard Ultra

  • Speaker 1: Elizabeth McCausland, LLPA, English
  • Speaker 2: Nathan Hall, Educational Technology and Pedagogy Coordinator
  • Speaker 3: Cathy Mills, S&T, Sports Science

March 21, 2023 – Embracing Discomfort​

  • Speaker 1: Kimberley Sutherland, LLPA, Modern Languages
  • Speaker 2: Kelley Young, ACS, Disability and Community Studies
  • Speaker 3: Carling Beninger, HSS, History

February 14, 2023 – The Brave New World of ChatGPT​

  • Speaker 1: David Wright, English
    • Teaching perspective
  • Speaker 2: Alicia Arding, Library
    • Copyright and academic integrity perspective
  • Speaker 3: Jason Dadswell, CEIT
    • IT perspective

AI/ChatGPT resources including those shared in the chat during the meeting.

November 5, 2021 – Educational Media

  • Speaker 1: Cathy Mills, Sport Science
    • Student recorded videos
  • Speaker 2: Kevin Staley, Math Upgrading
    • Using Open Broadcaster Software
  • Speaker 3: Tanya Haye, Communications
    • Short recorded videos for students and recorded video feedback

October 7, 2021 – Academic Integrity

  • Speaker 1: Colleen Pawlychka, Criminology
    • Introducing students to academic integrity
  • Speaker 2: David Wright, English
    • Course workload
  • Speaker 3: Richard Wong, Accounting
    • Integrity pledge and calculated formulas in Blackboard tests

August 24, 2021 – Return to the classroom

  • Speaker 1: Cathy Mills, Sport Science
    • Using Blackboard with your in-person classes
  • Speaker 2: Jenn Barker, Biology
    • Using recorded videos for the flipped classroom
  • Speaker 3: Nathan Hall, ELLA
    • Accessibility tools

July 15, 2021 – Communicating Expectations

  • Speaker 1: Nicole Vittoz, Psychology
    • Setting expectations
  • Speaker 2: Gail Edwards, History
    • Respectful learning
  • Speaker 3: Kimberly Bontinen, BSN Nursing
    • Communicating expectations for simulations

June 17, 2021 – Providing Student Feedback

  • Speaker 1: Jason Bourget, English
    • The problem with participation grades
  • Speaker 2: Laurie Beckwith, Anthropology
    • Audio recording for feedback
  • Speaker 3: Rachael Newton, Business
    • Peer reviews

Mar. 18, 2021 – How to engage your students

  • Speaker 1: Kimberly Jang, Marketing
    • Collaboration Tools
  • Speaker 2: David Wright, English
    • Asynchronous engagement
  • Speaker 3: Graham Rodwell, Psychology
    • Virtual spaces

Feb. 4, 2021 – Alternative forms of online assessment

  • Speaker 1:Nicole Vittoz, Psychology
    • Problem-based learning and gamification
  • Speaker 2: Rosilyn Teng, Economics
    • Blackboard tests
  • Speaker 3: Shannon Cox, Marketing
    • Podcasts

Dec. 3, 2020 – Lessons Learned from Fall 2020

  • Speaker 1: Laura Dane, Psychology
    • Using Qualtrics with groups
  • Speaker 2: Elliot Rossiter, Philosophy
    • Creating authentic videos
  • Speaker 3: Greg Gibson, Chemistry
    • Moving to online

Nov. 5, 2020 – Assessment Strategies

  • Speaker 1: Sally Mennill, History
    • Humanizing assessment
  • Speaker 2: Hyoshin Kim and Catherine Price, Communications
    • Film project
  • Speaker 3: Jenn Barker, Biology
    • Solutions for online exams

Oct. 1, 2020 – Engaging your students in an online course

  • Speaker 1: Will Gunter, Physics
    • Moving to online
  • Speaker 2: Nathan Hall, ELLA
    • Kaltura Quizzes
  • Speaker 3: Rini Sumartojo, Geography
    • Setting up your Blackboard course