This course is graded primarily via contract. You will set the terms upon which you wish to be evaluated by selecting from the list of potential assignments for your portfolio, and you will self-evaluate your learning over the course of the term. The final project will be to submit a portfolio that demonstrates your use of a range of tools and your understanding of the pedagogical and ethical underpinnings of these tools. Your portfolio will be presented as a WordPress site.
Please see the description at the end of this page for GenAI use in assignments.
Please submit your assignments in the PIDP 2025 – Technology for Teaching and Learning at TRU Moodle course (link opens in a new tab).
| Self-evaluation of learning x2: | 20% |
| Teaching Philosophy: | 20% |
| Course portfolio: | 60% |
Self-evaluation of Learning: Over the course of the semester, you will be asked twice to reflect on your own learning. This can be in the form of a short written reflection (500 words or less), a brief video (2-3 minutes maximum), or another creative mode of roughly equivalent length. Alongside your self-evaluation, you will assign yourself a numerical grade out of ten for your attendance, participation, engagement, and professional development.
Teaching Philosophy: A key goal of this course is to develop your sense of how technology becomes a meaningful part of your practice. To that end, you will write a Teaching Philosophy suitable for use in job applications, performance reviews, and tenure and promotion applications. Such a document is typically 1-2 pages and takes a narrative approach, articulating:
- Your understanding of teaching and learning.
- How you approach the task of teaching.
- Justification for your approach.
For the purposes of this course, your teaching philosophy should reflect specifically on how you use (or plan to use) technology in your practice. The teaching philosophy will be evaluated on four criteria worth five marks each: articulation of your purpose; clarity of examples; depth of reflection; style. Feedback will be provided and rewrites permitted.
- Take a look at Jamie’s Teaching Philosophy (Draft)
- Take a look at Melanie’s Teaching Philosophy (Draft)
- Take a look at Hilary’s Teaching Philosophy (Draft)
Course Portfolio:
Your course portfolio is a way of demonstrating your learning over the course of the term. In our first class meeting, we will go over the use of WordPress and get you on your way with your portfolio, but the content you choose to include is entirely up to you. Select as many of the following assignments as you like to total 60 points. Please note: you may have other technologies you wish to explore, or you may be exposed to other tools via TRU workshops over the term. If you have another idea for an assignment, please propose it to us via email and suggest a reasonable points value. We’re eager to see you create portfolios relevant to your own interests.
TRU has starter ePortfolio templates which include prompts and exercises, that serve to guide the you in reflective practice and to help you develop a cohesive end product. These templates are also complete with technical instructions embedded within so you can make them your own! Check them out at: https://wordpresstemplates.trubox.ca/. You are able to clone one by clicking the “Request a Site” button at: https://trubox.ca/!
Below, we’ve integrated some resources to help you get started. We will discuss additional supports and resources in class.
- 5 points: Customize your portfolio.
- Resource: WordPress Video Tutorials
- 5 points: Build out a set of questions in Slido that you could use in your classroom.
- Resource: Email LT&I at learningtech@tru.ca requesting a slido event to be created for you. This gives you more features than a free, basic slido account.
- Resource: Slido Help Center
- 10 points: Response post (500 words) or video (3 minutes) on why you want to teach with technology (or why you took this course).
- 10 points: Response post (500 words) or video (3 minutes) on your decision making process when choosing a technology to use in your context.
- 10 points: Response post (500 words) or video (3 minutes) on how you will ensure you are using technology accessibly.
- 10 points: Response post (500 words) or video (3 minutes) on your quality of failure (reflecting on your unsuccessful experiments/failed attempts within the course and what you have learned/how you have grown from these experiences).
- 10 points: Create one or a series of H5P learning objects that could be used in your class to review a key concept with students.
- Resource: H5P Tutorials for Authors
- 10 points: Create a Pressbook to use in one of your classes (e.g., adopting or adapting an existing open educational resource, creating a new resource, or creating a framework for an open pedagogy project/co-creation with students)
- Resource: Pressbooks User Guide
- Resource: Pressbooks Video Tutorial Series
- 10 points: Create a screencast to teach a skill or concept in one of your courses
- Resource: Screencasting
- 10 points: Reorganize or modify your Moodle course shell to integrate learner-centered organizational strategies. Briefly document the changes or decisions made.
- 20 points: Build your own WordPress class website that you could use next semester (you can use a template to get yourself started, but the content should reflect your own course content).
- Resource: WordPress Video Tutorials
- 20 points: Build a Twine game to teach a concept in your course area.
- Resource: Twine Reference Guide
- 20 points: Build a PowerPoint slide deck for one of your classes that applies design principles. Briefly document the changes or decisions made.
- Resource: Multimedia Design Guide
GenAI Use in Assignments
Since this is a course about technology and teaching and learning, you may use generative AI tools (e.g. Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) as a collaborator to assist with drafting and composing content but we expect you to remain a critical evaluator of the outputs to preserve your own voice. This is especially true for the self-evaluations of learning where your voice and perspective is important since the intent is to reflect on your experimentation with technologies (good or bad), how they might be useful in your context, if you’ve decided against a tool and why, etc.
For your portfolio, there is more room for creativity and exploration with GenAI. If you choose to do so, we expect you to verify the accuracy of the AI-generated content and take accountability for its use in your work that you are submitting. This means briefly disclosing how GenAI was used in your assignment by describing what tool(s) were used, for what purpose, and a brief reflection on the resulting outcome. The intent is to use these tools to support your learning while maintaining integrity and transparency.
Overall, the goal is to provide opportunity for exploration with emerging technologies in a safe space while maintaining integrity and transparency. Using GenAI to complete entire assignments or fabricate sources is not allowed.
Please connect with your facilitators for any questions or to clarify expectations.