Pedagogy without Borders: New Frontiers of Teaching and Technology

Virtual High School (VHS) is a year-round, asynchronous online, private school inspected by the Ontario Ministry of Education (BSID #665681) that offers Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) credits to thousands of students around the world each year. It offers students the opportunity and flexibility to take a single credit, multiple credits, or their entire OSSD. The origins of VHS date back to the 1990s, when owner and principal, Stephen Baker wanted to supplement classroom learning with an online component. Initially these courses were mainly text based, however over the years, as technology and the internet developed, the school has grown and evolved to meet the needs of the student. Currently, VHS provides a full classroom environment with students learning through written text, videos, visual media, and interactive elements. However, the misconception of online education being a text-based classroom has not changed. 
One of the statements VHS often hears when people first discover the school is “Oh, so you are just a digital textbook.” The idea of asynchronous online education as a virtual textbook is a misconception that we try to break with every course we create, and we are continually trying to find new ways of improving the way we teach so that we are more than just a “textbook”. 

In-person education involves elements like instant feedback, demonstrations, assessment as learning, and lesson engagement, which are all things that are more challenging in an asynchronous online classroom. To try to achieve these same elements VHS uses interactive elements, media assets, and features of our preferred learning management system (LMS). We have explored how we can use interactive elements to allow students to conduct self-assessments of their understanding as well as provide instantaneous feedback that is linked directly to the course content. We have included more videos demonstrating skills but making sure to limit these to three-minute in length. These videos are also supported by written content. We have also considered how we can use our interactives and multimedia to present information in a more diverse way, engaging students, chunking information, and providing study resources. 

These features have been incorporated into our most recent courses. We continually monitor these courses and us feedback from students, parents, and teachers to determine the success of each strategy as students’ progress through these courses. Some of the main takeaways from this are that when students have smaller chunks of text, more videos, and more interactivity, they are more engaged and more successful as independent learners in an asynchronous online environment. This has changed our course development to create smaller, more concise courses that work towards very explicit assessments. The aim to move beyond the stigma of “just being a textbook” has created an understanding that to support the evolution of the student and their learning needs, we must also continually evolve, adapting how we teach, develop lessons, and how we apply our resources, to continue to meet students’ needs.

For years, educators have recognized the benefits of hands-on learning, successfully integrating active learning opportunities into physical classrooms. However, creating similar experiences in an online learning environment presents unique challenges. How can educators effectively engage students in hands-on learning when teaching through an asynchronous digital medium?
Virtual High School is a year-round, asynchronous online, private school inspected by the Ontario Ministry of Education (BSID #665681) that offers Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) credits to thousands of students around the world each year. It offers students the opportunity and flexibility to take a single credit, multiple credits, or their entire OSSD. The origins of VHS date back to the 1990s, when owner and principal, Stephen Baker wanted to supplement classroom learning with an online component. Over the years the school has grown and evolved to meet the needs of the student. Currently, VHS provides a full classroom environment with students learning through written text, videos, visual media, and interactive elements.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the demand for quality online education and reinforced VHS’s commitment to refining our approach to online teaching to meet the needs of the modern-day student. Over the last year we have been exploring how we can meet this need through creating active learning opportunities to develop a hands-on learning environment for our students. To achieve this, we have taken a project-based approach to learning in three of our newest courses: Mathematics of Data Management grade 12 course (MDM4U), Building the Entrepreneurial Mind-Set grade 9 business course (BEM1O), and our Green Industries and the Skilled Trades grade 10 technology course (THJ2O), with the outcomes of each course informing the development of the next.  To help support the project-based approach and teach many hands-on skills in an online environment, we have incorporated the use of videos, media, and interactive elements. 

As we have approached each new course, we have considered the feedback we have received from both our students and our teachers. Key learnings to date include only presenting small sections of the projects at key points throughout the course. This has been successful in making sure the students are working on the projects throughout the duration of the course and allows for ongoing meaningful feedback. Additionally, we ensure the theoretical information presented is far more focused to tailor all lessons directly to the projects. Finally, we strive to use media and interactive elements to promote positive student engagement.
Project based learning and its use in developing a hands-on learning environment for an asynchronous online classroom is something that we are continuing to develop. We will continue to monitor our existing project-based courses and use this information to inform our ongoing evolution.

As the theme and description of this conference suggests, technology has transformed educational opportunities and allowed us to transcend pedagogical borders in new ways, but have you thought about how technology also allows chances to cross national boundaries while participating in a virtual classroom from the comfort of our own home?  This session will provide a tour of a new developing Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) course in Comparative Criminology that features an international partnership between Trent University and Swansea University.  

Built on the pedagogical approach of COIL as a form of virtual exchange, this presentation will help to demonstrate how technology allows us to create new opportunities for students to engage in international experiences without some of the barriers of traditional exchange programs. Throughout this presentation, the benefits of COIL virtual exchange opportunities for students, faculty and institutions will be highlighted, showing how this is an emerging and growing approach to internationalizing education. While benefits of COIL abound, consideration will also be given to some of the obstacles or challenges that educators and institutions should bear in mind when entering COIL partnerships. In providing an overview of our COIL initiative, we hope to inspire you to think about what boundaries you may want to transcend with new future international COIL exchange opportunities.

As Indigenous Peoples face significant health inequities driven by systemic racism in healthcare systems. Addressing these biases through education is critical for fostering empathy and cultural humility in future healthcare providers. This abstract explores the development and implementation of an immersive virtual reality (VR) simulation aimed at depicting the racism experienced by Indigenous Peoples within healthcare settings.
 
The VR experience transports nursing students into two realistic scenarios, where they witness or experience microaggressions, discrimination, and inequitable treatment directed toward Indigenous patients. This immersive simulation encourages students to reflect on how bias and prejudice affect patient care and outcomes. The project utilizes Indigenous voices and collaborators to ensure authenticity and cultural sensitivity, adhering to ethical guidelines in storytelling.
 
Preliminary findings suggest that students who participated in the VR simulation reported increased awareness of their own biases and a deeper understanding of the unique challenges faced by Indigenous patients. Many students demonstrated a shift toward greater empathy and cultural humility, essential attributes for providing compassionate, equitable care.
 
This abstract discusses the VR design process, the role of Indigenous partnerships in creating culturally accurate representations, and the evaluation of the simulation’s effectiveness in nursing education. This innovative approach can significantly impact how nursing students understand and confront racism, ultimately contributing to better health outcomes for Indigenous communities.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing open pedagogy, transforming how educational resources are created, personalized, and distributed (Ossiannilsson et al., 2024). This session explores the transformative role of AI in Open Educational Resources (OERs), emphasizing ethical considerations and the importance of inclusivity. It investigates how AI tools can enhance OER development, support personalized learning, and expand accessibility, ultimately promoting equitable educational practices.

The session highlights how AI can contribute to content creation, such as automating the generation of learning materials and offering real-time language translations, making educational content accessible to a broader audience. AI also plays a key role in personalized learning, tailoring content to meet diverse learning styles and needs while supporting Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles that prioritize flexibility and inclusivity in education.

However, with the integration of AI in education comes the responsibility to address ethical challenges. Algorithmic bias, data privacy concerns, transparency, and inequality in representation remain significant hurdles. This session will explore how bias can influence AI-driven content and ways to ensure greater fairness in educational material generation. Transparency and accountability are crucial to maintaining trust in AI-powered tools, and the session will propose strategies for educators and developers to enhance ethical practices.

A focus will also be placed on strategies for ethical AI use, including bias mitigation techniques, inclusive design principles, and the use of open licensing models that encourage collaboration and adaptation. The session will emphasize the importance of global collaboration in AI-driven OER development, showcasing how diverse content creation can lead to richer educational experiences for all learners.

Key tools and technologies currently supporting ethical AI integration in OERs will be reviewed, offering participants a clearer understanding of platforms that prioritize inclusivity and responsible content development. These tools demonstrate how AI can be harnessed to create scalable, high-quality educational resources that meet diverse learner needs while upholding ethical standards.

The presentation will conclude by reflecting on the future expectations of AI in open pedagogy, exploring emerging trends and the ongoing challenges that must be addressed to ensure responsible AI implementation. Key areas for future development include enhancing algorithmic fairness, improving data privacy measures, and fostering greater educator involvement in AI tool development and evaluation.

Overall, this session aims to inspire educational stakeholders to leverage AI tools responsibly and inclusively, empowering them to create OERs that reflect diverse perspectives and learning needs while upholding the highest standards of equity and ethical practice.

Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique® (IFAT®) provides opportunities for students to answer a multiple-choice question till the correct answer is revealed. This process is claimed to promote self-learning while testing, less test anxiety and provide teachers with partial knowledge recognition. Scratch cards-based IFAT® was developed by Epstein and made available to the teaching community through a commercial channel. Despite several advantages, the application of IFAT cards for a final exam of a typical first year physics course requires several manual hours. To ease this tedious process, we have developed software for automatic grading of final exams conducted using scratch card-based IFAT®. This involves scanning all the IFAT cards and developing a pattern recognition software to automatically grade a scratch card-based IFAT ® exam.  

The fundamental principle in our design for automated IFAT ® grading software was to develop an application with features such as fast, efficient, accurate, reliable, scalable, platform agnostic, fulfilling user defined goals, and being intuitive and easy to learn. Java programming language and the Open CV image processing library were chosen to build the software. The architectural design patterns were implemented through the model-view-controller (MVC) design pattern. The MVC pattern also enables effective use of data abstraction and encapsulation, two of the core object-oriented principles. To achieve the accuracy and scalability functional goals, a purpose-built algorithm was constructed to perform the main image processing task of the application. Through various image processing techniques and careful pixel data analysis, the constructed algorithm was capable of detecting (i) scratched, (ii) unscratched and (iii) varying degrees of partially scratched boxes with high accuracy to create a logical representation of the IFAT card. The application also makes use of image registration to properly align the IFAT cards in preparation for pixel analysis. The software in its current form, is being tested for accuracy. Previous measurements demonstrated the capability of high degree of accuracy (> 99%).

Davian Todd ¹, Sergei Chernitsyn ¹, Jun Haong ¹, Ruth Nwankwo ¹, Sindhuja Suresh ² , Omar Alam ¹, Balaji Subramanian^2
1Department of Computer Science, ²Department of Physics and Astronomy,  Trent University, 1600 West Bank Drive, Peterborough, ON, K9J 7B8 CANADA.

ePortfolio practices and technologies have enjoyed increased notoriety through the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to be offered (sometimes incorrectly) as a potential solution to mitigating risks of student use of AI. Regardless of their feasibility for academic integrity, ePortfolio practices and instructional design can help us in redefining the purpose and pedagogies relevant to higher education in an AI-driven world (Lodge et al, 2023).

ePortfolios are however not without their challenges in implementation. Arguably, they are challenging because they require dramatic shifts from educators and support teams – philosophically, pedagogically, technologically, ethically, and logistically/administratively. They often require a whole of program and teaching team approach to see impactful results (Watson, Kuh, Rhodes, Penny Light, & Chen, 2016), the logistics of which can be a challenge in the often siloed and reactive world of higher education. The technologies involved may also place barriers in the way – whether through overly complex design, or insufficient functionality. 

Drawing on literature and my own experience as a learning designer, I plan to highlight these challenges as a launching point to discuss practical strategies for scalable, sustainable and systemic ePortfolio implementation. I will discuss the ways in which we need to consider ePortfolios as entangled pedagogy (Fawns, 2022). I will then share examples of reflection activities and templates using tools such as H5P as a low-barrier to entry point for ePortfolio practices. I will also share some approaches to learning design and partnership that may work at programmatic and systemic levels - needed not just for successful ePortfolio implementation, but for robust assessment and holistic student experience.

Following years of advancement, Generative Artificial Intelligence (Ai) came out in fall 2022 as a disruptive force in the post-secondary education sector. Students, professors, and administrators were immediately faced with questions around appropriate use in teaching and learning with the initial focus being on academic integrity. Since then, we have been grappling with these and broader questions around the use of Ai in PSE. How, when and where should Ai be used in teaching and learning? How can we use it ethically and effectively in research and administrative tasks? From the initial polarity in perspectives and the cautious stance on the part of institutions, things have thawed into more of a pragmatic orientation towards Ai use.  In this talk we will share our response at Trent, discussing our strategy and process as well as challenges and early insights gained from consultation with students, faculty and staff. Links will be provided to a survey tool we used to gather data on practices and attitudes towards AI use in teaching, learning and administrative roles.

When teaching went online in 2020, the opportunity came up to redesign the core, first year undergraduate course in the Trent Social Work Program as a full ‘bells and whistles’ online course in collaboration with colleagues at Trent Online. In addition to a suite of asynchronous online Modules, an additional tool was created for the course that aimed to engaging students in the course in accessible, creative, flexible, and social ways while they learned online. This tool, named “The Community Center” was a stand-alone website built with the goals of reducing the isolation, disengagement, and confusion that both online and first-time undergraduate students often feel. The site included a range of ungraded, optional opportunities for engagement, such as discussion boards, a drop-in video meeting with student peers, the virtual office hours of the instructor and TAs, file sharing, and academic skills resources, and its design was deeply informed by scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) around fostering a community of learners. However, the site was not a success; engagement with the site was low and decreased annually over the past 6 years, despite ongoing efforts to adapt or further develop its elements.
Based in the notion that 'failures' can be as instructive as successes, we seek to understand why students did not use The Community Center as expected, why something built on key SoTL principles and praised by colleagues did not produce anticipated benefits, and how students' identities and approaches to learning may have impacted their use and experience of the tool. In this presentation, we’ll discuss the tool, the ways students appeared to respond to it, and our preliminary ideas about why it didn’t work as expected. We’ll discuss the survey we are in the midst of using to collect data from student about their experiences of The Community Centre in its recent, final offering, and query whether the needs, interests, and learning approaches of first year undergraduate students in large survey courses are well attended to in current SoTL and Educational Technology discussions.

The Civics of Technology project aims to empower educators and students to critically inquire into the effects of technologies on their individual and collective lives. In this session, you'll learn more about how we approach this work through conducting research, developing curricula, and hosting professional development. For more information about Civics of Technology, visit our website at https://www.civicsoftechnology.org/