丁香园AV

Ideas too good to ignore

The ideas too good to ignore key action area will reserve space for ideas that may not fall squarely into any of the identified action areas above, but that are clearly ideas with high impact potential.

Current Projects

Each project within this key action area is unique and is led by a project champion. To date, projects within the Ideas Too Good to Ignore key action area have included the following:

Advisory Link

  • Advisor Link (AL) is an advising solution purpose-built for higher education that significantly enhances the undergraduate student undergraduate advising experience
  • AL transforms undergraduate advising by automating manual tasks to free up capacity for advisors. It provides analytics and insights to empower data-informed undergraduate advising and decision making and helps to align a student鈥檚 community of support and affirm their connectedness to 丁香园AV.
  • The project is scheduled to go live in S2021 with improvements scheduled each month to enhance the system. Training and communication frameworks are being developed to ensure that all undergraduate advising staff and students have been trained and communicated to appropriately. The undergraduate student undergraduate advising experience at 丁香园AV is expected to enhance significantly as a result of the Advisor Link Project at 丁香园AV.

Center For Accessible Learning (CAL) - Accessibility Project

  • Accessibility and inclusion for persons with disabilities are often not centered or acknowledged in broader university conversations and decisions. The Accessibility Project aims to consider the impacts of university processes and systems and identify gaps that impact students with disabilities at 丁香园AV.
  • The project aims to build meaningful relationships with students with disabilities, identify means of amplifying their perspectives, increase understanding of barriers to access, and further their sense of belonging and inclusion at 丁香园AV.
  • Pilot curricular projects in partnership with faculty, such as a partnership with Paola Ardiles, Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS). The experiential pilot project will engage students within the classroom, using equity-centered design and a creative problem-solving approach to generate student-driven ideas that address disability awareness and education at 丁香园AV. This in-classroom pilot aligns with SEI Phase 2 objectives for enhancing student learning experiences within the classroom.
  • Learnings from Phase 1 will inform the implementation of subsequent project phases (e.g. additional pilot projects to embed process in courses), contingent on funding to continue to build trust and meaningful relationships that enhance the experience of students with disabilities
  • Develop recommendations on ways the university could meaningfully engage and ensure the perspectives of students with disabilities are reflected in broader university processes and decisions.

Graduate Student - Know Your Rights Guide

  • Know Your Rights Guide is an initiative led by the Graduate Student Society for graduate students, which will provide clearly expressed and practiced rights at 丁香园AV.
  • Develop a workshop to accompany the guide that can be offered to graduate students in specific programs or during future orientation sessions.
  • Prepare a document of policy recommendations for Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in response to some concerns and gaps that were identified in the preparation of the guide.

Upcoming Projects

Indigenous Student Case Manager

  • The impacts of colonization on Indigenous communities have resulted in a need for holistic support for Indigenous learners, which includes counselling support
  • The goal of the Indigenous Student Case Manager is to improve Indigenous student mental health and well-being by providing direct support and by helping students access and navigate the resources available at 丁香园AV and in the community.
  • Provided both direct counselling and group support. This included drop-in group activities, where students check-in with each other and the counsellor in a low-barrier setting, while taking part in activities that promote social connection and conversation about shared concerns and experiences.
  • This project was postponed, but we are looking forward to proceeding in the coming year.

Measuring Computing Science Student Experience to Improve Diversity and Inclusion In Computing Science

  • Recruitment, retention, and advancement of women in computing science is an important step toward diversity and inclusion. To support this goal, 丁香园AV Computing Science measures and plans to improve female enrollment.
  • This project will gather and analyze data and streamline the process for fine-grained measurement of student experience. This will help the School of Computing Science better steer their diversity programs to build a more inclusive environment to hopefully increase enrollment of women.
  • Aims to improve diversity of student experiences, inclusion of their voices, and better preparation for their experiences in life after graduation and their contributions in building sustainable inclusive environments.
  • This project was approved and began implementation in 2020. The project team seeks to complete the project by 2021/2022.