TORONTO, March 20, 2012 - With over 50,000 students, teaching and learning is fundamental to what York University is all about. Both inside and outside of the classroom, students benefit from creative and dedicated York faculty members who make students their first priority.
Over the past year, our emphasis on teaching and learning has been further enhanced through the start-up of the Academic Innovation Fund (AIF). Created as an institutional catalyst for teaching and learning innovation, the AIF focusses on eLearning, experiential education and first year student experience. The success of thirty-nine AIF funded projects, representing an investment of $2.5M, will be featured and celebrated at a May 9 event at York to dovetail with the Council of Ontario Universities’ Back to Class initiative. York’s event will help to highlight best practices in teaching and learning as well as student transition activities aimed at enhancing student success.
York’s Academic Innovation Fund was established in 2010 by Patrick Monahan, vice-president academic & provost of York, who recognized the importance of building excellence in teaching and learning across the university. After a year of implementation, the AIF has become a flagship example of how to inspire and support transformational change and academic excellence.
The May 9 Teaching and Learning Innovation Celebration will be an action-packed day filled with dynamic presentations to showcase the extraordinary work of our faculty, staff and students. The all-day event will demonstrate how each project has contributed to developing sustainable and replicable systems in eLearning and experiential education, and the enhancement and coordination of new student transition. The May 9 event is a celebration of York’s tremendous success over the past year and will feature:
- Building systems for engaged learning through technology
- From the classroom to the community: fostering engaged learning through experiential education
- From silos to seamlessness: enhancing new student transition to York
For more information: see http://aifprojects.yorku.ca/
York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto – Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 55,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 240,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 10 faculties and 28 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.
Media Contact:
Melissa Hughes, Media Relations, York University, 416-736-2100 ext. 22097, mehughes@yorku.ca
