As the term draws towards the end, general term fatigue can be a cause for student disengagement. It becomes difficult at this stage for instructors to distinguish between burnout and academic difficulty. This session will help instructors identify ways to support and motivate students through term end. It is intended help align to the University policy around tests, exams, and assignments and also help your students better prepared for the final weeks.

Content:

•   Designing end-of-term feedback
•   Consolidating and reflecting on course outcomes
•   Managing instructor workload/burnout

The First Four Weeks (FFWs) are considered crucial for students’ academic successes. This is a window where academic difficulties for students usually emerge. The first grades are back and attendance patterns emerge. This is a good time for some early interventions with your struggling students. This session will cover strategies to identify early warning signs and strategies to support your students to reach a higher academic potential.

Content:

• ·         Recognizing warning signs
• ·         Ways to initiate difficult conversations with students
• ·         Normalizing help services
• ·         Classroom strategies

Tenure, promotion, and renewal dossiers are won or lost long before the submission deadline. This is in the evidence you did or didn't save, the reflections you did or didn't write down, and the criteria you did or didn't understand until it was too late. 

This session is a high-level launch point for faculty preparing a 2027 dossier: what a dossier actually needs to argue (not just contain), how to start a low-effort ongoing evidence file now instead of reconstructing one under deadline pressure next year, and where to find the Teaching Commons’ fuller suite of resources – including in-depth guides on teaching statements, evidence tracking, and case-specific calibration for merit, renewal, promotion, and tenure. 

The intent is that you leave this session knowing exactly what to do next and where to go for support at each step. No prior dossier experience is assumed. This session is ideal for anyone anticipating applying for PTR in 2027 and who wants a strong dossier with the least possible last-minute scramble.

Save the Date:  Teaching and Learning Week 2026  - Student Engagement in the Age of AI    

More info to come

Audience: Instructional staff

Description: This workshop will take a deeper dive into some of the tools introduced in the essentials workshop and introduce course tools that promote collaboration, aid in grading and feedback, and monitor student progress. Topics will include creating groups and associating them with the assignment and discussion tools; creating rubrics, grading students with rubrics, and exploring user progress to learn how students progress through and interact with online courses. 

It is recommended that participants have attended the mycourselink/D2L Essentials Skills Workshop or watched the recording of the Essentials Skills workshop before attending this workshop.

This workshop will be delivered through Zoom and will be recorded. The Zoom join link will be provided to registrants before the event.

Audience: Instructional staff

Description: This session will provide an overview of the learning environment and how to use the various tools in mycourselink/D2L to effectively structure your online site to simplify class management and enrich course experiences for students.

This workshop will be delivered through Zoom and will be recorded. The Zoom join link will be provided to registrants before the event.

The 2026 Summer Teaching Institute is a four-day professional learning experience designed to support educators in developing practical, evidence-informed approaches to teaching in higher education.

This year’s Institute will run using a flipped classroom model. Participants will work through the online Teaching and Learning in Higher Education modules asynchronously in myCourselink/D2L at times that fit their schedules. Daily live sessions on Zoom will focus on collaborative discussion, reflection, problem-solving, and applied activities connected to the module content.

The live sessions are intended to create opportunities for participants to:

• Discuss teaching challenges and ideas with colleagues
• Engage in active learning activities
• Reflect on their own disciplinary and teaching contexts
• Explore practical strategies that can be applied directly to their courses and classrooms 
• Build a supportive interdisciplinary teaching community

Formal Recognition

A. Participants who do both of the following will receive professional development badges for their work:

• Complete any of the required Teaching and Learning in Higher Education modules
• Attend the Summer Teaching Institute live sessions for any of the modules they complete

B. Participants who do both of the following will receive the Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Certificate:

• Complete all required Teaching and Learning in Higher Education modules
• Attend all Summer Teaching Institute live sessions

Additional details regarding Zoom access, myCourselink/D2L access, and preparation information will be shared with registered participants before the start of the Institute.

Audience: Instructional staff

Description:

This session will provide an overview of the learning environment and how to use the various tools in mycourselink/D2L to effectively structure your online site to simplify class management and enrich course experiences for students. 

This workshop will be delivered through Zoom and will be recorded.  The Zoom join link will be provided to registrants before the event.

Are you looking for new ways to transform your assignments into engaging, real-world learning opportunities? This workshop introduces the principles of action learning and open pedagogy, two approaches that shift students from passive recipients of knowledge to active creators and problem-solvers. Faculty will explore how to design assignments that foster creativity, collaboration, and public impact while aligning with equity-focused, experiential, and authentic assessment practices. Through examples across disciplines, participants will consider strategies for rethinking assessment design, integrating open educational practices, and enhancing student engagement in meaningful ways.

By the end of this workshop, participants should be able to:

• Analyze examples of creative, student-centered assignments that use action learning and open pedagogy principles across different disciplines.

• Consider at least one assignment idea that incorporates action learning or open pedagogy to promote authentic, collaborative, and publicly impactful learning.

Lakehead University faculty are invited to an informal Tea & Conversation gathering with Joseph Duncan, Indigenous Curriculum Specialist, to connect and engage in relaxed discussion. Cinnamon Cedar Tea and Blueberry Bannock will be provided on Wednesday, February 18^th, from 10:00 am-12:00.

Why join?

• Meet the Indigenous Curriculum Specialist and learn how he can support Indigenous teaching and learning initiatives in your classrooms.
• Relationship-building, co-creating support and connections.
• Learn about support for Indigenization, decolonization, and reconciliation in teaching and learning.
• Share ideas, questions, and needs related to: Faculty workshops and professional learning.
• Course and program curriculum development
• Navigating Indigenous content in the classroom
• Land-based, experiential, and community-engaged learning
• Help shape future faculty requested workshops and training

What to expect

• Open, informal conversation, creating and bridging Indigenous pedagogy in classes.
• A welcoming, relationship building space for Instructors to network and understand ways of knowing using indigenous land-based pedagogy.

Date: Wednesday, February 18, 2026

Time: 10:00 am-12:00 pm

Location: Chancellor Paterson Library, Thunder Bay Campus,

5^th floor, Teaching commons Department boardroom 5014C