Best practices in curriculum design and planning
Dr. Bruce Mackh
Problem-Finder Who Solves Solvable Problems // Vice Provost of Accreditation & Assessment
February 22nd 2022 - United States
Revolutionizing Curriculum Design: Creativity, Design Thinking, and Student-Centered Learning"
In this enlightening video, join Bruce, an esteemed educator and visionary, as he unveils the transformative power of best practices in curriculum design and planning. Delve into a world where creativity, design thinking, and a student-centered approach revolutionize the learning experience, propelling both educators and students toward unprecedented success.
Join Bruce on this transformative journey into the heart of curriculum design and planning. Unearth the dynamic fusion of creativity, design thinking, and student-centered learning, shaping a brighter future for educators, students, and institutions alike. Reach out, connect, and embark on a path of innovation and excellence.
Unleashing Creativity and Design:
Discover how Bruce ignites the spark of creativity in curriculum design. He challenges traditional lecture-based instruction by integrating design thinking principles. Explore the dynamic interplay between creativity and instructional content, fostering an engaging and enriched learning environment.What is Creativity?
Embark on a journey into the heart of creativity, as Bruce reveals its essence: generating novel ideas, exploring alternative teaching methods, and inspiring students to think beyond the ordinary. Uncover the pivotal role creativity plays in reshaping instructional content, captivating students, and enhancing their learning journey.Navigating Design Thinking:
Unlock the five stages of design thinking: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. Bruce unravels the power of empathizing with students, crafting an educational experience tailored to their needs. Dive into ideation, where creativity blossoms, and innovation flourishes. Witness how prototyping and testing refine curricular elements, paving the way for an enhanced and impactful learning adventure.Backward Design Process:
Bruce introduces the groundbreaking backward design process, a compass for curriculum creation. Start with crystal-clear outcomes and objectives, steering the learning journey towards a destination of mastery. Uncover the pivotal role of assessments, instructional plans, and learning materials in crafting a comprehensive educational roadmap.Embracing Engaged Learning:
Explore Bruce's dynamic strategies for engaged learning, shifting from the traditional sage-on-the-stage model to interactive experiences. Dive into turn-and-talk, think-to-pair-share, and role-playing case studies. Immerse yourself in the excitement of escape room activities, fostering collaboration and critical thinking.Enigmatology: A Puzzle of Innovation:
Embrace the spirit of enigmatology—a realm of puzzling puzzles that sparks innovation. Witness Bruce's tireless pursuit of knowledge and fresh perspectives, a testament to his dedication to transforming education. Discover how each piece of the puzzle contributes to a dynamic and evolving learning experience.Cultivating a Culture of Care:
Immerse yourself in the culture of care, where students, educators, colleagues, and institutions are nurtured. Bruce emphasizes the significance of caring for oneself, fostering empathetic connections, and advocating for student success. Uncover the art of mentorship, embracing diversity, and fostering a culture that supports and uplifts all.Unveiling The Big Six:
Discover the six transformative factors that kindle student engagement and success. Bruce illuminates the power of passionate educators, mentorship, meaningful projects, internships, extracurricular activities, and co-curricular involvement. Witness the ripple effect of these factors, propelling students towards academic excellence.Crafting Intentional Course Design:
Immerse yourself in the world of intentional course design—a realm where learning management systems become a canvas of creativity. Bruce shares the mastery of course design, and optimizing learning materials, assessments, and resources. Witness the seamless fusion of online, hybrid, and face-to-face modalities, seamlessly adapting to diverse student needs.Embracing Dimensions of Diversity:
Delve into the tapestry of diversity, where each student's individuality and identity are celebrated. Bruce emphasizes the importance of understanding students' varied backgrounds and experiences, and catering to their unique needs. Explore strategies that bridge the gap and create inclusive learning environments.Join Bruce on this transformative journey into the heart of curriculum design and planning. Unearth the dynamic fusion of creativity, design thinking, and student-centered learning, shaping a brighter future for educators, students, and institutions alike. Reach out, connect, and embark on a path of innovation and excellence.
Speakers Info
Dr. Bruce Mackh Vice Provost of Assessment and Chief Accreditation Officer at Wright State University
Bruce Mackh is an esteemed academic administrator and educational leader in higher education, renowned for his multifaceted expertise. With a career marked by visionary leadership, problem-solving prowess, and a deep commitment to the advancement of higher education, Bruce has made a lasting impact on the institutions he has served.
Session Script: Best practices in curriculum design and planning
Introduction
Hello, I'm so honoured to be here with you and to share this presentation. So my name is Bruce Mac. And I'm the author of higher education by designing best practices for teaching and learning, and curricular planning and instruction. So I'd like to get going with you today.
Creativity and design
So creativity and design, I try and make certain that what I do when I'm creating a classroom, designing a class that I'm using creativity and design. I use design thinking quite a lot. And we all are aware, of our standard lecture modality where we stand in front of our students up at the podium in the front of the class, and we're delivering our instruction. But, lecture still has its place. But is it the best way to just deliver our instruction? You know, I've studied this a long time, and I just don't think so, lecture still has its place. But we want to employ creativity and the principles of design to provide students with a better learning experience.
What is Creativity?
So I think about creativity and design all the time, what is creativity and design? So of course, generating new ideas, alternative teaching modalities, other possibilities, finding unique and novel solutions to problems and you know, inspiring creative thinking, and your students. Creativity is finding new ways to present instructional content that engage students and enhance their learning experience. So we all when I talk about design thinking,
What is Design Thinking?
I always want to refer to the five stages of design thinking, of course, we have to empathize, define ideate, prototype and test. So the first thing we want to do is try and place ourselves in the shoes of the students as much as we possibly can. With empathy, we want to make sure that we're thinking about their experience, we want to create an experience for them, and we want to define what it is that we want them to learn.
And of course, we're going to ideate here's where creativity comes into play. And we want to make sure that what we're doing is we're just thinking about every possibility, write it all down, we might not all use it all. Nevertheless, you know, write every creative solution down or every creative idea down for your, your curriculum, and your pedagogy. And I'm telling you, sometimes you'll just be surprised at what you do use prototype. Well, now, this can be a problem, but it can also be a solution. Sometimes what we're going to do is we're going to prototype our course, with our first group of students. Normally what I do is ideate. And I, iterate, and I recreate my course, maybe three or four times with my students. So I try and provide the best learning experience as I'm ideating, and as I'm prototyping, and as I'm iterating.
Of course, this is all also involved, we're involving testing here with our students as well. So think about these five stages empathy, and empathize, define ideate, prototype, and test.
And of course, we're going to ideate here's where creativity comes into play. And we want to make sure that what we're doing is we're just thinking about every possibility, write it all down, we might not all use it all. Nevertheless, you know, write every creative solution down or every creative idea down for your, your curriculum, and your pedagogy. And I'm telling you, sometimes you'll just be surprised at what you do use prototype. Well, now, this can be a problem, but it can also be a solution. Sometimes what we're going to do is we're going to prototype our course, with our first group of students. Normally what I do is ideate. And I, iterate, and I recreate my course, maybe three or four times with my students. So I try and provide the best learning experience as I'm ideating, and as I'm prototyping, and as I'm iterating.
Of course, this is all also involved, we're involving testing here with our students as well. So think about these five stages empathy, and empathize, define ideate, prototype, and test.
The backward design process
Alright, I also use backward design whenever I'm creating a course.
I start with my outcomes, what I want my students to walk out of my course having learned.
Objectives, of course, those objectives lead to outcomes, what do we want our students to learn?
Assessments. I design my assessments so that I can make sure that my students are learning that I can see that they are they have achieved knowledge that I am the interface between knowledge and their learning and that this has been successful.
And of course, an instructional plan is exceptionally important. You know, it's almost like a map. We don't normally just get in our cars and wander, we normally have a destination in mind. So, I have an instructional plan.
And of course, any materials that I might need for my courses, whether it's books or paper, or even in art and design, whether it's paint or anything else. So make sure that they have the materials that they need.
I start with my outcomes, what I want my students to walk out of my course having learned.
Objectives, of course, those objectives lead to outcomes, what do we want our students to learn?
Assessments. I design my assessments so that I can make sure that my students are learning that I can see that they are they have achieved knowledge that I am the interface between knowledge and their learning and that this has been successful.
And of course, an instructional plan is exceptionally important. You know, it's almost like a map. We don't normally just get in our cars and wander, we normally have a destination in mind. So, I have an instructional plan.
And of course, any materials that I might need for my courses, whether it's books or paper, or even in art and design, whether it's paint or anything else. So make sure that they have the materials that they need.
Learning centered model
So we often hear about how curriculum and pedagogy have been faculty cantered for a long time. Now we're subject matter experts. And of course, you know, we've studied our subjects, you know, intensely and for a good long time, and we think we know what it is that we want to teach. But sometimes, you know, we have to meet our students where they are, you know, our students come to us from varied backgrounds and experiences and levels of education. If, and
if we can think about our students as, and maybe become a little bit more student-centered, but to balance that out to be learning-centred, so that there's the instructor, the student in the course subject and the materials that they need to learn in our discipline, and we teach our disciplines, we teach our students, our disciplines, I should say, you know, that's a much more effective way and model for teaching.
if we can think about our students as, and maybe become a little bit more student-centered, but to balance that out to be learning-centred, so that there's the instructor, the student in the course subject and the materials that they need to learn in our discipline, and we teach our disciplines, we teach our students, our disciplines, I should say, you know, that's a much more effective way and model for teaching.
Objectives and outcomes
So objectives and outcomes. So again, with backward design, I begin with the outcomes, what students must know, and by the end of the end of the class, enter the program. Objectives, we that lead to the outcome. So we want to highly define those as well. And do the outcomes and objectives aligned with each other?
You know, sometimes we'll set objectives and outcomes, and they don't align? Well, they shouldn't they should align with each other, the one should lead to the other. And, of course, do they meet university requirements or degree requirements, we want to make certain that our objectives and our outcomes do meet those requirements.
You know, sometimes we'll set objectives and outcomes, and they don't align? Well, they shouldn't they should align with each other, the one should lead to the other. And, of course, do they meet university requirements or degree requirements, we want to make certain that our objectives and our outcomes do meet those requirements.
Assessment
Assessment? Well, you know, we do live in a society or a culture of a system of assessment. But assessment doesn't have to be the biggest problem. There can be solutions in there. So what we want to do, of course, is, are we want to design assessments so that we know our students have achieved the objectives and outcomes of the course. Okay, there are several choices, we can choose.
There's a norm-referenced assessment, which I'm not a very big fan of, there's a criterion-referenced assessment, which I am a big fan of, because if we communicate the criteria by which the students are going to be assessed, then they have a better opportunity to rise to the challenges of learning and succeed. There's a formative assessment. Of course, this is very important if we want to check for learning, or summative assessment, which is grades. And, you know, there's a lot of debate going on about grades these days. Nevertheless, we still have a summative assessment with us. So we're going to go ahead and use them. But if we use them with formative assessment, and criterion-referenced assessment, why, you know, we'll, we'll make sure that our students are successful, or we'll see that there are opportunities for us to change our course. Of course, I'm a big fan of rubrics, checklists, surveys, quizzes, exams, and writing assignments, I kind of shrink my exams a little bit, because I would like to employ a little bit or more quizzes so that I can check for learning along the way. And if there's something that I need to go back and teach, you know, quizzes are a good opportunity for us to do that.
And, of course, we want to assess by the end for higher order thinking skills, so we again, want to make sure that we've taught the objectives that lead to the outcomes for student learning.
There's a norm-referenced assessment, which I'm not a very big fan of, there's a criterion-referenced assessment, which I am a big fan of, because if we communicate the criteria by which the students are going to be assessed, then they have a better opportunity to rise to the challenges of learning and succeed. There's a formative assessment. Of course, this is very important if we want to check for learning, or summative assessment, which is grades. And, you know, there's a lot of debate going on about grades these days. Nevertheless, we still have a summative assessment with us. So we're going to go ahead and use them. But if we use them with formative assessment, and criterion-referenced assessment, why, you know, we'll, we'll make sure that our students are successful, or we'll see that there are opportunities for us to change our course. Of course, I'm a big fan of rubrics, checklists, surveys, quizzes, exams, and writing assignments, I kind of shrink my exams a little bit, because I would like to employ a little bit or more quizzes so that I can check for learning along the way. And if there's something that I need to go back and teach, you know, quizzes are a good opportunity for us to do that.
And, of course, we want to assess by the end for higher order thinking skills, so we again, want to make sure that we've taught the objectives that lead to the outcomes for student learning.
Planning instruction
So planning instruction, of course, planning assessments, how students will show that they have learned that's a very important stage planning, learning activities that prepare students for success on the assessments. Now, you know, a lot of people will say, well, Bruce, isn't that teaching towards the test, is teaching towards the objectives. And every exam, every quiz ought to support the objectives and outcomes, right?
So, it's not teaching toward the test, but it is teaching to ensure that we have the outcomes that we need by the end of the class. So your job as an educator is to plot that course, again. When we buy an airplane ticket, we know where that airplane is going. We know the trip that we're on, and where the end of the destination that we're on. So plot that course, make sure that your students know where they're going and where you expect, teach about the outcomes, teach about the objectives, and make sure that you also teach them about the rubrics that are going to apply to them. And you want to teach, you know, why these quizzes and why this grading criterion is important as well.
So, it's not teaching toward the test, but it is teaching to ensure that we have the outcomes that we need by the end of the class. So your job as an educator is to plot that course, again. When we buy an airplane ticket, we know where that airplane is going. We know the trip that we're on, and where the end of the destination that we're on. So plot that course, make sure that your students know where they're going and where you expect, teach about the outcomes, teach about the objectives, and make sure that you also teach them about the rubrics that are going to apply to them. And you want to teach, you know, why these quizzes and why this grading criterion is important as well.
Engaged learning
So engaged learning, again, you know, the sage on the stage where we are the professor up at the front of the classroom, and we're, you know, we're behind that podium, you know, and we're just delivering instruction to a passive audience.
We don't want to do that anymore. We know that engaged learning, where we walk through, talk through and drive through, or I do, we do, and you do, and engage in learning activities, and help students retain knowledge, help them learn. So, turn and talk, think to pair share creative activities. To teach critical thinking skills, I use an escape room, we play a game. It's an activity where we students have to work with one another. In a group, they have to collaborate and they have to determine a solution so that they can get out of the escape room. It's been a lot of fun. Of course, there are role-playing case studies. I love case studies. And Jigsaw activities, there are all sorts of things that you can do here. And of course, what we want to do is make sure that students have other engaging learning activities too, like internships, and externships, and Co-Op opportunities, study abroad. If we ever get past this pandemic, I can't wait to travel abroad with my students and help them all learn about other cultures and people.
So make sure that you that you're infusing a lot of engaged learning opportunities and activities into your curriculum, it's a very creative, and highly designed way to ensure that learning takes place.
We don't want to do that anymore. We know that engaged learning, where we walk through, talk through and drive through, or I do, we do, and you do, and engage in learning activities, and help students retain knowledge, help them learn. So, turn and talk, think to pair share creative activities. To teach critical thinking skills, I use an escape room, we play a game. It's an activity where we students have to work with one another. In a group, they have to collaborate and they have to determine a solution so that they can get out of the escape room. It's been a lot of fun. Of course, there are role-playing case studies. I love case studies. And Jigsaw activities, there are all sorts of things that you can do here. And of course, what we want to do is make sure that students have other engaging learning activities too, like internships, and externships, and Co-Op opportunities, study abroad. If we ever get past this pandemic, I can't wait to travel abroad with my students and help them all learn about other cultures and people.
So make sure that you that you're infusing a lot of engaged learning opportunities and activities into your curriculum, it's a very creative, and highly designed way to ensure that learning takes place.
Dimensions of diversity
Okay, of course, you know, we have to worry about dimensions of diversity. And, you know, we, we are in a, an age where our students are different these days, they displayed dimensions of diversity, they may come from, you know, financially challenged backgrounds, we want to make sure that we meet our students where they are, you know, many students are not college ready these days. So we have to make sure that we, as educators, and as institutions are student ready so that when they get here, we need to teach them, you know, how to college, and we need to teach them how to be successful in their classes, and we need to teach them how to avoid issues that might land them in in trouble, we have to do all of those things.
And we have to take into account that their individuality and their identity are exceptionally important to them. So it needs to be important to us.
And we have to take into account that their individuality and their identity are exceptionally important to them. So it needs to be important to us.
Teaching
So teaching, you have to be prepared, many faculty, and I'm an administrator. And so I review teaching and learning for many faculty, many faculty are prepared only on time. And I know that course design is an exceptionally laborious activity. And it takes a lot of time. But the better prepared that you are, and the more teaching resources and curricular resources that you've developed and you've placed on your learning management system, this frees you up to be more creative in your classroom, you can chase down a rabbit hole if that's what you need to do. Because of this, all of your learning materials are prepared. So be prepared, be intentional, of course, you want to make sure that you're intentional about your teaching.
Every student needs to learn intentionally, and they're here intending to learn. So we need to make sure you know that we engage our students that we you know, we have that intention, right, provide, you know, feedback, be kind, LBNT+ means, like best next time plus. And so when somebody turns something into me, I tell them what I liked about it first, like I like this best. And then next time, what I'd like to see is this. And then plus, what I do is I make sure that I provide them with resources so that they can look at those resources. And then they can take those resources and incorporate them into their project, or their paper, or their insight, their assignment. So this recognizes success. It suggests improvement.
And you also make kind of a personal connection with your students. So, that helps you build rapport, create community, demonstrate care for students, and of course, be positive. So like best next time plus, really helps with kindness helps build rapport.
Every student needs to learn intentionally, and they're here intending to learn. So we need to make sure you know that we engage our students that we you know, we have that intention, right, provide, you know, feedback, be kind, LBNT+ means, like best next time plus. And so when somebody turns something into me, I tell them what I liked about it first, like I like this best. And then next time, what I'd like to see is this. And then plus, what I do is I make sure that I provide them with resources so that they can look at those resources. And then they can take those resources and incorporate them into their project, or their paper, or their insight, their assignment. So this recognizes success. It suggests improvement.
And you also make kind of a personal connection with your students. So, that helps you build rapport, create community, demonstrate care for students, and of course, be positive. So like best next time plus, really helps with kindness helps build rapport.
Pivoting your instruction
So I've written another book called pivoting your instruction, I wrote this in response to the pandemic. And this also has a lot of creativity infused in it.
Design methods
So there are design methods. Of course, there's instructional design, there's user experience design, there's a learning experience, design. And of course, there's design thinking, there's a lot of design, and it takes a little while to learn about it. But once you get it down, let me tell you something, it empowers your instruction.
Intentional course design
So intentional course design, of course, we want to make sure that we use the principles of comprehensive instructional design, which asks faculty to build all of their courses in the learning management system, regardless of the modality with the end, they're going to deliver their instruction. If you have all of your learning resources, all your curricular resources, and you've got everything your lectures are recorded, your assignments are built into your learning management system, and your grading is built into your learning management system. And, you know, one of the advantages of learning management systems these days is that we can go ahead and do auto-grading, which cuts down on our time and provides us more opportunity for teaching rather than just all the grading that we have to do. So if you get all of this stuff into your learning management system, whether you're online, asynchronous, online synchronous, whether you're in a hybrid hybridized classroom where you meet with your students one on one Once a week, but maybe they interface with the instructional resources online, whether you're face to face, but you use your learning management system to supplement your instruction and you park all of your instruction materials on there.
Having all of your instructional materials on the learning management system is super important. Now, again, it takes a lot of time and effort, honestly, for me, and I've been doing this for years now, it takes me somewhere about 25 to 30 hours to build a course online. And that's just one course. And if I'm teaching two or three courses, you have to do the math, but, you know, it can take a good long time. Nevertheless, it does empower you to teach your students and it gives you the opportunities, again, to engage with your students separate from the course material, because it's all there. And it's highly designed out. Also, when everything is prepared in advance on the learning management system, we can avoid those Apollo 13 moments, you know, like we faced in the spring of 2020, Houston, we've got a problem.
And then of course, what we have to do is address that problem. If we've addressed it upfront, and it's highly designed, well, we can go ahead and make changes along the way. Or if there's a situation that presents itself to us, we want to go ahead and embrace those opportunities. But we've got all of our resources there.
Having all of your instructional materials on the learning management system is super important. Now, again, it takes a lot of time and effort, honestly, for me, and I've been doing this for years now, it takes me somewhere about 25 to 30 hours to build a course online. And that's just one course. And if I'm teaching two or three courses, you have to do the math, but, you know, it can take a good long time. Nevertheless, it does empower you to teach your students and it gives you the opportunities, again, to engage with your students separate from the course material, because it's all there. And it's highly designed out. Also, when everything is prepared in advance on the learning management system, we can avoid those Apollo 13 moments, you know, like we faced in the spring of 2020, Houston, we've got a problem.
And then of course, what we have to do is address that problem. If we've addressed it upfront, and it's highly designed, well, we can go ahead and make changes along the way. Or if there's a situation that presents itself to us, we want to go ahead and embrace those opportunities. But we've got all of our resources there.
Models of instructional delivery
Alright, of course, there are, I've just talked about a lot of the models of instructional delivery, there's fully online and asynchronous to face-to-face and everything in between, including flipped classrooms and, and these things that they're calling high flex these days.
Now, I have to admit, I'm not a very big fan of high flex, as it was originally designed, I think it's a much better model, where you have assistants in your classroom as we have here on this on this recording, where I have folks in the background, who are helping me record it and I can deliver the lecture these days, I think it's falling on professors to do it all by themselves, and takes a great deal of skill and practice to do that. So although I'm not a big fan of it, it's certainly there. But you can see that there are a lot of different modalities with which you can engage. And again, if you have all of your curricula online, if it's in your learning management system, you can engage in all of you can even switch between those modalities if you need to.
Now, I have to admit, I'm not a very big fan of high flex, as it was originally designed, I think it's a much better model, where you have assistants in your classroom as we have here on this on this recording, where I have folks in the background, who are helping me record it and I can deliver the lecture these days, I think it's falling on professors to do it all by themselves, and takes a great deal of skill and practice to do that. So although I'm not a big fan of it, it's certainly there. But you can see that there are a lot of different modalities with which you can engage. And again, if you have all of your curricula online, if it's in your learning management system, you can engage in all of you can even switch between those modalities if you need to.
The Big Six
came up with these, these factors that cause students to be engaged and more successful. So here they are, professors who made students feel excited about learning, professors who cared about students as people, a mentor, a mentoring is very important, a mentor who engage with students. I mean, that's, besides advising, and sometimes faculty do advice. We want to make there, make sure that we understand that there's a distinction between advising and mentoring.
And, you know, professors who make students feel excited about learning and professors who cared about students as people is how we then enter, the mentoring realm. So of course, beyond that, the opportunity to work on a long-term project. These days, we're seeing that students are taking multi-semester classes where they can continue, their undergraduate research, which is very important. Again, we want to use design thinking and creativity in these activities. Taking part in an internship or a job where students could apply what they're learning in the classroom. Internships are a little hard these days with the pandemic. Nevertheless, we can still do some of these things online.
Or what we're doing is we're considering a one-hour internship where even where a student has a job, and lots of students have jobs these days, that they're engaging in internship activities in their job, okay, and of course, being extremely active in extracurricular activities is important, or co-curricular activities, as we're talking about these days for students is very important. But some of them, you know, if they, some of the research suggests that they participate in 10 activities, and 10 activities, other extracurricular activities, like if they go to a concert or a play, or they go to a lecture, a public lecture, or if they, they participate in a club or another student organization, this is this causes students to persist, retain, complete, and of course, that makes us all a great deal more successful.
And, you know, professors who make students feel excited about learning and professors who cared about students as people is how we then enter, the mentoring realm. So of course, beyond that, the opportunity to work on a long-term project. These days, we're seeing that students are taking multi-semester classes where they can continue, their undergraduate research, which is very important. Again, we want to use design thinking and creativity in these activities. Taking part in an internship or a job where students could apply what they're learning in the classroom. Internships are a little hard these days with the pandemic. Nevertheless, we can still do some of these things online.
Or what we're doing is we're considering a one-hour internship where even where a student has a job, and lots of students have jobs these days, that they're engaging in internship activities in their job, okay, and of course, being extremely active in extracurricular activities is important, or co-curricular activities, as we're talking about these days for students is very important. But some of them, you know, if they, some of the research suggests that they participate in 10 activities, and 10 activities, other extracurricular activities, like if they go to a concert or a play, or they go to a lecture, a public lecture, or if they, they participate in a club or another student organization, this is this causes students to persist, retain, complete, and of course, that makes us all a great deal more successful.
Culture of care
Also, I want to talk about a culture of care. You know, if you think about Maslow's has been around for a good long time. And we think about, you know, the lower level of Maslow's and how that plays out in our lives every day. But I want to tell you I want to talk about the culture of care. You know, we need to care for ourselves. We need to make sure that we're okay. You know, we need to take care and make sure that our own mental health is cared for that, you know that there is a work-life balance that we are, you know, we are caring for ourselves, we, of course, we want to care for our colleagues, you know, sometimes this is very important, we need to listen to our colleagues, we need to care for them, sometimes just listening to our colleagues and, and, and giving them you know, our ear so that we can just hear them out is very important these days. Of course, we want to care for our students, you know, it's essential that we care for our students, we're not here just for ourselves, we want to make sure that we care for students. Without students, we wouldn't have institutions of higher learning.
And then, of course, we want to care for our institutions of higher learning. You know, people don't sometimes care for their institutions of higher learning, yet, they're the institutions that provide us with our employment, with the mission, vision, and values, we need to make sure that we're aware of all of them, and that we make sure that we're, we're supporting them, and that we're involved in our institutions and, and, and helping our even our administrators, I'm an administrator, I love it. When my faculty and my, staff helped me. But you know, this culture of care, we just need to make sure that we're caring for everyone. And you know, everybody had a university and everybody at an institution of higher learning, everybody's important from the groundskeeper through to the President, and everyone in between, and we need to care for them. And of course, we need to care for ourselves.
Enigmatology
So think about all of this as enigmatology, I love enigmatology. And what is that? enigmatology is the theory and study of puzzling puzzles. We have to search for those pieces wherever they exist, constantly looking for things that we can bring into our classrooms, for the benefit of our students, that also benefits our colleagues, colleagues, that also benefits our institutions, when you just search for those pieces, and put them all together, if we put them all together. And sometimes we can change those pieces out. It's okay. You know, as we learn new things, we can bring those pieces into the puzzle, the puzzle is, should be ever-expanding, right? Of course, we want to use the design process, we want to use the design thinking process and creativity because we want to iterate ideate, and redesign.
And if we do that, we do that for ourselves. We do that for our professions, we do that for our disciplines, we do that for our students, we do that for our colleagues, we do that for our institutions. So, we will deliver an excellent opportunity and education to everybody.
So, let's communicate, I always give out my email address, and I wanted to give it out to you all. And believe it or not, I spend hours at night before I go to bed, emailing people and I just be I'd be happy to hear from you. If you have any questions. You know, I also do a lot of zoom sessions and things like that it'd be marvellous to communicate with you all. It might take me a while to get back to you. I'm so sorry. Nevertheless, I hope that we can communicate and we can connect. Thank you so very much
And if we do that, we do that for ourselves. We do that for our professions, we do that for our disciplines, we do that for our students, we do that for our colleagues, we do that for our institutions. So, we will deliver an excellent opportunity and education to everybody.
So, let's communicate, I always give out my email address, and I wanted to give it out to you all. And believe it or not, I spend hours at night before I go to bed, emailing people and I just be I'd be happy to hear from you. If you have any questions. You know, I also do a lot of zoom sessions and things like that it'd be marvellous to communicate with you all. It might take me a while to get back to you. I'm so sorry. Nevertheless, I hope that we can communicate and we can connect. Thank you so very much
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