Week of April 27, 2022

Faculty Updates

UG Computing Labs Announcements
Labs Software Request
The UG lab systems will be refreshed shortly with a bare system of Windows, Office and Chrome/Edge browsers. As only what is requested will be installed, any additional software required must be communicated in this request form* and sent to forestry.ithelp@ubc.ca.

*Note: Hybrid mode represents if the course is remote or mixed remote/in person

Anyone teaching summer courses in May-August should contact forestry.ithelp@ubc.ca immediately with your software needs. Please complete the form and send it by June 1, 2022, for the upcoming 2022/23 courses.

New requests that involve a cost will be sent to the Associate Dean, Academic and the Dean for approval while Open-Source software requests will be reviewed for indemnity and conflict issues before they are added. Software versions will be what is available as of June 1. As such, please ensure that your office machine version matches that of the UG labs. Expect the versions in the UG labs to stay static for the entire year unless there is a bug or a cyber risk issue. OS and Office and web browsers are excluded since these are immediately updated when updates appear.

Hybrid teaching is still limited to 7 machines. Attempts to increase this number will be investigated this summer, TBA. FSC 1404 will be available for remote access (21 seats) only during this summer.

Trimble software is known to conflict with Remsoft Woodstock. Trimble will be restricted to FSC 1404/6 labs and Remsoft Woodstock is restricted to the FSC 2942 lab. The vendors informed that the software cannot co-exist and they will not fix the issue.

Requests can be rejected if there are compatibility issues that we are unable to resolve.

Summer Renovations
(1) FSC 1406 is out of service until renovations are completed.
(2) FSC 1404 is for remote use only until FSC 1406 renovations are completed.
(3) FSC 2942 is not impacted, open for in-person use only.

IT One Page Updates
Need help navigating different technologies with Forestry IT and UBC IT? Check out our recently updated IT One Pager.  

Events, Meetings & Workshops

Alternative Assessment Strategies to Help Students Stop Worrying about Grades and Focus on Learning Instead

Date & Time: May 5 (Thursday) 12:00 – 13:30
Location: CWAP 2916 or Zoom

Getting students to focus on learning instead of grades seems like a daunting and insurmountable task. But who can blame them? Our systems, structures, and policies are all centred around grades and the fallacies of their inherent “fairness”. In this interactive session, we will share our experiences of how we refocused students’ attention on rich, high-quality feedback instead of grades. Examples from a biology laboratory course, a science writing seminar course, and data science lecture-based courses will be presented. We will also discuss the challenges and opportunities of the various approaches and facilitate a discussion on how we can start working on broader structural changes to recenter higher education on learning, rather than grades.

 

Click here for more information and here to register for the workshop.

 

How to Put Together a Winning Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund (TLEF) Application

Date & Time: May 19 (Thursday) 11:00 – 12:30
Location: Zoom

Jeff Miller, TLEF Program Director & Senior Associate Director, CTLT, and three Forestry speakers, Dr. Shannon Hagerman, Dr. Peter Marshall, and Dr. Simon Ellis, who have profound knowledge and experience in the Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund (TLEF) will share their insights in this workshop to help our Forestry instructors better understand the scope and criteria of TLEF grants as well as identify synergies across the faculty to enhance our chances for success.

Workshop structure:
(1) What is the TLEF program
(2) Successful examples from Forestry
(3) Tips for preparing a winning proposal (panel discussion)
(4) Open discussion and brainstorming for ideas and synergies within Forestry

 Register for the workshop here.

Funding

Apply to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Seed (SoTL) Program
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Seed Program provides graduate research assistants, collegial collaborations, and complementary project funding for faculty interested in exploring and understanding the impact of their pedagogical choices.All members of the UBC community are invited to apply but priority will be given to faculty members who teach at the undergraduate level, and who have not had an active Seed project in the last 12 months.The deadline to apply is May 27, 2022. Click here to learn more.Sustainability Education Grants
Addressing issues on climate change, biodiversity loss, and food and water inequality require transformative perspectives and new innovative approaches. Sustainability Education Grants provide funding for UBC faculty to design sustainability courses and programs (or update a current one) that use applied, experiential and/or interdisciplinary approaches to learning. Interested in supporting advancements in climate, biodiversity, resilient communities, and the circular economy? Click here for more information and apply by May 16, 2022. 

Final Grade Submission
A gentle reminder for all instructors to submit final student grades to the Faculty Service Centre (FSC) after posting the grades on Canvas. All final student grades must be submitted to FSC either:
(1) 7 business days following the examination date OR
(2) 5 days following examination dates written on the last 2 days of the examination period.

Please refer to the FSC User Guide for information on uploading grades (p. 16-24) and other features of FSC. Additionally, please refer to LT Hub’s Uploading Canvas Grades to FSC Guide for instructions on downloading the Canvas gradebook (.csv file), reformatting and then uploading it to FSC.

SEI Reports
2021W2 Student Experience of Instruction (SEI) reports release can be expected around mid-May.