Impact Story: Neal McInness

Neal works with CTSI’s Teaching, Learning and Technology team as a part of the Divisional Liaison Program. This program connects educational technology professionals with the goal of providing additional support at the departmental and Divisional levels. Neal and the TLT team worked together to link pedagogical theory and best practices around accessible design for Faculty of Nursing ed tech resources, including developing and designing a workshop that addressed these issues.

Q: You worked with CTSI teaching, learning and technology team members to develop and deliver a workshop. Can you describe that experience?
The experience was a valuable one and very collaborative. We had multiple planning sessions and good discussions to generate ideas and fine tune the structure and expected outcomes of the workshop.

It was a great benefit to draw on the expertise of the team at CTSI to complement our own local insights.

There was an initial consultation where I approached CTSI with a topic and a structure. This was followed by two additional meetings bringing together the presentation, which was co-authored using online tools, namely Word and PowerPoint.

The workshop was then delivered in a hybrid format as a training opportunity for faculty members here at Nursing. The presentation was also made available as a local resource in a recorded format after the workshop.

Q: What has been the impact of working with the Divisional Liaison Program with your own work providing support?
We’ve appreciated having a divisional liaison as having a direct point of contact within CTSI has increased the opportunity for collaboration and knowledge sharing. In addition, for more complex support needs or more expansive operational/pedagogical questions having the direct contact is a helpful escalation point to carry on further discussion outside of the typical service request ticketing system.

Q: Your work goes beyond providing technical support. How does being a part of an ed tech and teaching and learning community help with this work?
The collaboration and information sharing is so important. Also, the generosity with which people share their expertise and experiences is a specific strength of this community in particular. The compounding effects that are enabled at a local level include: Increased opportunities for innovation, collaboration, experimentation, and capacity building.

In addition, the shared resources, scalable (and sustainable) applications, collaborative training opportunities, and pedagogical insights from across the community certainly reduce some of the friction points when working locally at the intersection of technology and pedagogy.

Q: What advice would you give to a new instructor? What do you wish someone said to you?
It can be overwhelming when looking at what is available from our teaching and learning technology toolbox. The discussions, consultations, and information sharing that take place are the best way to set yourself up for success and build lasting partnerships in delivering high quality teaching and learning experiences no matter your role.

As such, I would tell a new instructor to ask plenty of questions and seek out what support is available from a consultative standpoint. Documentation and self-service resources (though they are great) only go so far when you are working in a new context. We have the capacity locally for consultative discussion and collaboration that will lead to better outcomes even if it seems like a larger initial investment of time.