Description
During the 1970s, as community colleges and institutes in the Canadian province of BritishColumbia matured, many recognized the need to provide support for instructors who had
considerable professional experience and training, but no teaching credential. To address this
need, Diane Morrison (then the Ministry of Advanced Education’s coordinator of professional
development programs) contracted with Douglas Kerr (a consultant then employed at
Vancouver Community College) to design and pilot a program to enhance the instructional skills
of these instructors. The program was to be brief and to provide the basic instructional skills
required in the post-secondary environment.
This initiative led to the development of the Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) in 1978/79. The
ISW was initially intended for new instructors. However, during the development phase, early
participants (who already held instructional roles) found themselves engaged in a meaningful
reflective process. They recommended offering the ISW to both new and experienced
instructors. They believed the format of the workshop was flexible enough to accommodate
those from the wide range of disciplines and experience levels in the post-secondary network
across the province.
In its first decade, the ISW became a component of faculty development programs in colleges
and institutes across Canada and the United States. In 1992, the ISW program was introduced
at the University of British Columbia— initially for teaching assistants, but soon for faculty,
sessional instructors, and other graduate students as well. Since then, the ISW has been offered
at a number of universities and colleges in Canada and the United States, as well as at learning
institutions around the world. The ISW also provides facilitation and training opportunities in
workplace settings, including health care, provincial and municipal government departments,
business and industry, first responder agencies
| Period | 11 Feb 2025 → 13 Feb 2025 |
|---|---|
| Event type | Workshop |