The Storytellers
The Storytellers
Jennifer Walinga
Jennifer shared her experience as a MALT student and how being part of a learning community was such an impactful piece of her learning experience at Royal Roads. She engaged the audience by asking us to comment on what defines a successful learning community. Jennifer continued her story by sharing how the School of Communication and Culture has fostered learning communities in a research course.
Eva Malisius
Eva intrigued the audience with her description of how she asked students to design and create an Mozilla Popcorn Maker video as an introductory assignment. The challenge was to respond to a series of questions, related to Conflict management and to introduce oneself to the rest of the cohort. The results? Students may have struggled with the technology (at times) but their community was stronger as a result. They entered residency with a solid cohort foundation and continue to talk about the Mozilla Popcorn Maker assignment.
Derek Masselink
Derek shared his experience as an Associate Faculty member at Royal Roads. As he described his course and the learning community that is established throughout the duration of the course, and beyond, it was clear a key success factor of the learning community
model is SUPPORT. Support for his students, to know that they do not struggle alone, that in fact he is there to support and guide them through their learning journey. Derek also stressed the need for support as he develops his course. He articulated
that his course can not be "canned" for the next iteration, but rather it requires updating and attention. This support is critical for his continued innovation and for the innovation of the students.