In the May edition of Edubytes, our guest editors are members of the Celebrate Learning Week team who planned and facilitated sessions during this week-long celebration of teaching and learning.
Sponsored by the Provosts and Vice-President Academic from UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan, the 16th annual Celebrate Learning Week was hosted on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Syilx Okanagan Nation and the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) People.
This year’s event gathered 1,000 attendees across 32 events on both campuses, hosted by more than 60 presenters and facilitators. The focus of this year’s Celebrate Learning Week was “Collective Growth: Cultivating Meaningful Change” to showcase ways in which UBC Faculty, Staff and Students are planting the seeds of change through for lasting impacts in teaching and learning.
In this Edubytes edition, we have provided summaries on centrally planned sessions that took place during Celebrate Learning Week, along with resources and recordings of sessions that you can view. We encourage you to visit the Celebrate Learning Week website for additional information about the full program of events that took place during the week, as well as look at the Celebrate Learning Week 2024 Resource Page where you can find additional resources from the sessions.
UBCV Keynote – Designing for Justice: On Navigating Change as a Critical Pedagogue – Rajiv Jhangiani
Dr. Rajiv Jhangiani, Vice Provost Teaching and Learning at Brock University, focused his keynote on critical pedagogical approaches to educational technology, from pandemic pedagogy to AI. Dr. Jhangiani pointed to the challenges many faculty, students, and staff faced in rapidly moving courses to a remote format during the Covid-19 pandemic, and how concerns about academic misconduct led some institutions to use surveillance technologies such as online invigilation tools that have had inequitable student impacts. A few years later, another significant change to teaching and learning has emerged with AI tools becoming more ubiquitous, and concerns about academic integrity are once again leading to attempts at a technological solution in the form of AI detectors—which, Jhangiani argued, have issues with reliability and bias. He concluded the talk with an emphasis on the importance of ethical, caring, and just approaches to education and learning technology, including ensuring alignment with decolonization, reconciliation, EDI, and anti-racist priorities.
UBCO Keynote – Learning in a Time of Abundance – Dave Cormier
UBC Okanagan Closing Keynote David Cormier spoke about learning in a time of information abundance. Cormier started with an overview of how learning has changed – from information scarcity (one person holding knowledge, for example) to information abundance which reflects our current environment – information available within seconds. The advent of AI has impacted the thinking process of students, which has changed the way students learn and at the same time our world is becoming more complex. After a quick overview of the changing landscape of learning over the last several hundred years, Cormier gave three small steps to cultivate meaningful change: engage students, rethink assessments and model three literacies in our teaching: humility, informed trust and learning with our values.
Teaching Snapshots
At this multi-access event, seven faculty members at UBC Okanagan’s campus came together to present quick lightning talks about either an effective teaching practice, a novel use-case for GenAI in the classroom, or decolonization and reconciliation practices. These lightning talks sparked great conversations! Topics included the use of interactive course syllabi, indigenous ways of knowing case studies, and course-specific AI chatbots. The event was well-attended, well-appreciated, and will become an annual part of Celebrate Learning Week! (Passcode to access the recording: ryP#^b8y)
Student Panel – Students as Catalysts for Change in Teaching and Learning
Five undergraduate students from UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan shared how they contributed to meaningful change in teaching and learning. Their projects ranged from course redesign and accessibility advocacy to science communication and research on inclusive pedagogies. Each student worked in close partnership with faculty to enhance the student learning experience. In reflecting on their journeys, panelists described how these opportunities deepened their confidence, shaped their identities as learners and leaders, and revealed the care and commitment educators bring to their teaching.
Faculty Panel – Cross Faculty Collaborations: Innovations for Cultivating Growth
At Celebrate Learning Week, five UBC faculty members shared heartfelt insights into what collaboration and community mean in teaching and learning. For many, community isn’t just a concept — it’s a relationship built on reciprocity, trust, and shared growth.
The panel featured Richard Arias-Hernandez (School of Information), JP Catungal (Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice), Christine D’Onofrio (Visual Arts and Bachelor of Media Studies), Melissa Jacques (English and Cultural Studies; Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies), and Jenna Usprech (School of Biomedical Engineering). Together, they highlighted projects born from institutional gaps, where students and community partners became co-creators of knowledge.
From interdisciplinary seminars to partnerships with Elders, the work challenged traditional roles and reimagined what learning could look like. But the journey isn’t easy. Faculty spoke candidly about the emotional labour, resource constraints, and burnout that can come with sustaining collaborative work. Still, the rewards are clear: deeper connections, meaningful learning, and students who see their work matter beyond the classroom. The message was clear collaboration isn’t just about structure or strategy. It’s about people, care, and the courage to engage in the “heart work” that makes learning truly transformative.
TLEF and ALT2040 Showcase
The Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund (TLEF, established at UBC Vancouver in 1991) and Aspire-2040 Learning Transformations Fund (ALT-2040, established as the ALT Fund in 2015 at UBC Okanagan) provide funding to enhance UBC students’ learning experiences, improve curriculum, and advance research-informed teaching practices at UBC and beyond. The 2025 TLEF and ALT-2040 Showcase brought teams of faculty, students, and staff from UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan together to learn from one another and share outcomes and lessons learned from a diverse range of innovative teaching and learning projects taking place across the UBC community. 26 project teams took part in the two-hour Showcase event, and another eight projects prepared posters that are part of the Virtual Showcase of the event. You can view all of the project posters by visiting the 2025 TLEF and ALT-2040 Virtual Showcase Archive.
Leadership Panel – Connecting Within and Across Campuses: Fostering Collaborations that Support Meaningful Change
University teaching and learning leaders from UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan discussed effective collaboration strategies across campuses and faculties. Panelists Simon Bates (Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President, Teaching and Learning, UBCV), Jackie Denison (Associate Provost, Teaching and Learning, UBCO), Laurie McNeill (Associate Dean, Students, Faculty of Arts, UBCV), and Jackie Stewart (Associate Dean Academic, Faculty of Science, UBCV) emphasized that meaningful change requires building trust through transparency and consistent engagement. They highlighted the importance of focusing on shared goals, maintaining clear communication, and respecting campus differences. Leaders stressed the need for humility when initiatives don’t succeed and courage to make decisions in complex situations. The panel also addressed intentionally supporting diverse leadership and creating transparent mentorship pathways to develop future leaders, noting that while this collaborative work requires significant time and effort, it ultimately builds momentum and cultivates institutional growth.
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