University of Toronto's Teaching and Learning Symposium
Signal to Noise: Tuning In to What Matters in Teaching
May 13 and 14, 2026
TLS2026 was hosted by the Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation in partnership with the Education Technology Office (ETO) in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering and the Desautels Centre for Innovative Thinking at the Rotman School of Management.
A special thank you to President Melanie Woodin and Susan McCahan, Vice-Provost, Teaching and Learning who provided open (and closing) remarks to TLS. To Christopher Eisgruber, President of Princeton University, and Professor Charlie Keil who opened the Symposium with Mixed signals: A conversation on building productive dialogue in the classroom. To Professors Jennifer Campbell, Andy Dicks, Karen Reid, Maria Assif, and Jennifer Murdock who shared their experiences in Teaching Excellence Unplugged with the President's Teaching Academy. To colleagues who facilitated and participated in Special Sessions; Esther Simmonds-MacAdam (What's Cooking in the AI Kitchen?), Julia Allworth and Irene Sullivan (Neurodivergent at University: A Documentary Short Pre-Screening), recipients of the Cheryl Regehr Early Career Teaching Award and the TATP CI Teaching Excellence Award, and Anna Limanni and Inga Breede of the ETO who facilitated our closing activity The Encore. And last, but definitely not least, everyone who presented and participated at this year's symposium.
We are grateful for the support and assistance of U of T's Learning Space Management team, the Office of the Vice-Provost, Teaching and Learning (who also celebrated teaching excellence with teaching awards and grants ribbons), the Academic Research and Collaborative Technologies web development team, and Leticia Yakabi, Executive Coordinator at the Desautels Centre for Integrative Thinking.
And finally – many thanks to all of you! Your thoughtful contributions and meaningful engagement are what drive the success of this event.
We would like to acknowledge and thank the following:
TLS2026 Organizing Committee
Kathleen Olmstead
Derek Wilson
Alli Diskin
Anna Limanni
Inga Breede
Shenae Collins
Allison Van Beek
TLS2026 Proposal Reviewers
Adriana Grimaldi
Alex Logue
Alicja Wigglesworth
Alli Diskin
Andrea Williams
Anna Limanni
Christine Wong
Chris Eaton
Cora McCloy
Cristina D'Amico
Derek Hunt
Derek Wilson
Devon Stolz
Erin Macnab
Erin Vearncombe
Fiona Rawle
Inga Breede
Kathleen Olmstead
Joel Rodgers
Jordan Holmes
Julie Hannaford
Kathleen Ogden
Laura Mckinley
Mackenzie Blanchett
Maher Elshakankiri
Maria Assif
Marko Piljevic
Maryam Shafiei
Michal Kasprzak
Naomi Levy-Strumpf
Navroop Gill
Nicole Birch-Bayley
Samantha Chang
Shannon Black
Sharon Switzer-Mcintyre
Shone Joos
Sun Ooi
Tingting Zhu
Yuxin Tu
Volunteers (concurrent session hosts, navigators, registration support)
Mackenzie Blanchett
Inga Breede
Samantha Chang
Cristina D'Amico
Alli Diskin
Emily Heinecke
Jordan Holmes
Derek Hunt
Anh Huynh
Alexandra Jotevski Borges
Mike Kasprzak
Caleb Labbe Phelan
Anna Limanni
Cora McCloy
Bridgid McNulty
Anna Olowianczyk
Marko Piljevic
Maryam Shafiei
Victoria Sheldon
Devon Stolz