Building Community Across Campuses: Preparing to Teach a Multi-Campus (Distributed Learning) Course

Multi-campus instruction (MCI), also known as distributed learning, is a course format that involves a single instructor in a classroom at one location (the “local” cohort) synchronously teaching “local” and “remote” cohorts of students situated at other campuses. Students in the “remote” cohorts attend through Information and Communications Technology (ICT) such as video conferencing equipment. MCI courses can bring together communities that are geospatially apart, and distributed learning programs (or courses) are becoming more popular around the world. They create educational possibilities to students in remote communities without requiring those students to relocate. Challenges related to successfully administering courses in this format are often underestimated. Many see this format as simply teaching to a video camera along with a room full of students. Common challenges related to building community and maintaining equity often occur with commensurate impacts on student experience. Delivering a course in this format for the first time can be daunting. Resources are available, but can be difficult to find, with some tools being challenging to implement in a local context. This workshop will provide participants with an introduction to planning and administering MCI courses.

Facilitators: 

• Casey Keulen, Assistant Professor of Teaching, Department of Materials Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science
• Christoph Sielmann, Assistant Professor of Teaching, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science
• Elly Park, Assistant Professor of Teaching, Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, UBC