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4.3.1 AmplifyingSupport: A Low-Stakes Infographic Activity to Help Students Navigate SocialSupports and Connect Emotional Topics to Community Resources Odilia Yim, AssistantProfessor, Teaching Stream, Psychology, FAS Amplifyingthe Signal: Connection, Engagement, and Civil Discourse Inundergraduate courses that address sensitive and emotionally-chargedinterpersonal topics, students often struggle to distinguish the core learning“signal” from the emotional and cognitive “noise” these themes can evoke. Thissession shares insights from implementing a new low-stakes “Community ResourcesInfographic” activity designed to help students translate abstract courseconcepts into real, actionable forms of support. In theactivity, students in an upper-level undergraduate course select a courseconcept from one of the weekly themes related to [...]

NicoleBirch-Bayley, Educational Developer, Career Exploration & Education                     Kelci Archibald, Lead Coordinator, Career Education, Career Exploration& Education                Amplifyingthe Signal: Connection, Engagement, and Civil Discourse     Postsecondarystudents are asked to make sense of both their academic learning and careerfutures in environments saturated with competing priorities. In careereducation, noise often takes the form of grim labour‑market statistics, anxieties about AI,climate change, and skills gaps, and prescriptive narratives emphasizingoutcomes over process. Academic learning is similarly noisy with performancepressures, unclear expectations, and accelerated timelines that leave littlespace to connect learning across contexts. When career and academic learningremain siloed, students are left to navigate complexity in both domains [...]

ChristopherEaton, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Institute for Scholarship inUniversity Pedagogy (ISUP), UTM                                                   Claire Gouveia, PhD candidate, OISE Sheliza Ibrahim, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, ISUP, UTM Kathleen Scheaffer, Librarian, UTM Joanna Szurmak, Librarian, UTM Michelle Troberg, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, DLS, UTM Findingthe Frequency: Clarity, Purpose, and What Matters Most    As learners,we have experienced moments in which we tuned into a previously difficultconcept as it resolved into a clear and resonant signal. Such moments took usfrom a noisy liminal state into a place of conceptual clarity. As instructors,many of us are trying to help our own students pass those “threshold” [...]

SafiehMoghaddam, Associate Professor, Language Studies, Centre for Teaching andLearning Dina Soliman, Educational Developer, Digital Pedagogies                                                     Filteringthe Noise: Tools, Trends, and Tensions         Generative AIcan introduce “noise” into assessment: polished text that masks learning,unclear authorship, overconfident claims supported by weak or fabricatedevidence, and tasks that inadvertently reward fluency over intended learningoutcomes. This interactive workshop supports instructors in redesigning oneexisting assignment so the “signal” (reasoning, evidence use, anddecision-making) becomes visible and assessable, whether or not students useGenAI. The sessionopens with a brief “noise map” activity: participants identify where GenAI mostinterferes with assignment effectiveness (e.g., product-over-process, unclearcontribution, unverifiable claims, misalignment with outcomes, equity/hiddenadvantages). Results are [...]

5.4.1 Backto the 90s: Investigating Engagement, Interaction, and Thinking in a ScreenlessFirst-Year Writing Class Mustafa Siddiqui,Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Institute for the Study of UniversityPedagogy, UTM SustainingResonance: Lessons, Insights, and Impact Earlier thisterm, I conducted a first-year writing class a bit differently—I wentscreenless. The two sections I taught for three hours each did not use anytechnology. This meant there were no slides, no laptops, and no phones, and Icalled it a “Back-to-the-90s Class.” As an instructor, I relied on handouts,boardwork, and hard copies of books; meanwhile, students engaged throughannotation, reflection, and small-group exercises. Special accommodations werealso made for students registered with [...]

5.5.1 Beyond the Literature Review:Modernizing Scientific Writing Assignments Naijin Li, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Human Biology Program, FAS SustainingResonance: Lessons, Insights, and Impact This sessionshowcases a novel scientific manuscript assignment that has been developed foran advanced undergraduate neuroscience course. The assignment replacestraditional literature reviews with an authentic simulation of the researchprocess whereby students formulate a focused neurobiological question, designan experimental pipeline, analyze three provided datasets based on coreneuroscience methodologies, and communicate their findings in a professionalmanuscript format. Students also complete structured peer reviews that mirrorscholarly publishing practices. Since the assignment requires students toengage in authentic research reasoning rather than produce summaries, [...]