Georgian College scores top marks in provincial audit on teaching and learning
Over the past 40 years, Georgian College has evolved into a hub for post-secondary education in central Ontario by understanding and meeting the needs of its students and area employers.
Georgian College recently assessed its commitment to providing students with quality learning opportunities and teaching excellence by taking part in its first Program Quality Assurance Process Audit (PQAPA).
A team of accredited auditors from the Ontario College Quality Assurance Service visited Georgian campuses and reviewed a self-study.
Georgian received the highest possible marks in all six areas scored – five individual criteria and one overall rating. No college scored higher. The executive summary is available at http://www.ocqas.org/pdf/georgian_executive_summary_2010.pdf.
The provincial audit team commended Georgian for “living the quality assurance and continuous improvement processes as these are clearly embedded in the culture and day-to-day activities.”
In particular, the College received commendations in six areas:
- How it organized the audit and self-study;
- The senior management team’s commitment to quality;
- The Centre for Teaching and Learning as a “key vehicle” for supporting quality initiatives;
- Georgian’s faculty performance review process;
- Library Commons, the Learning Centres and Write On!; and,
- Internal and external partnerships.
“The results of the audit show that Georgian consistently provides quality educational experiences to a diverse student population,” says Janice Priest, Dean, Centre for Teaching and Learning and Liberal Arts and Chair of the PQAPA team.
“The self-study offered an excellent opportunity to engage our staff and faculty members in discussion around quality in teaching and learning as a key priority of the College.”
The PQAPA is a provincial standard for college post-secondary program quality assurance. It supports the responsibility of each college to manage the quality of its own programs and is intended to review the existing quality assurance practices in place at each college.
Georgian College program receives praise from provincial quality audit team
Child and Youth Worker, a three-year advanced diploma program at Georgian College’s Orillia Campus, provides students with the knowledge and skills to support children and youth with social, emotional and behavioural challenges.
Georgian College instructors interviewed by the province’s Program Quality Assurance Process Audit team talked about all aspects of the program, from its development to how they ensure student success.
“We continually observe issues and trends occurring in child and youth work and listen to our stakeholders, which include students and community partners/potential employers, to ensure the program turns out graduates capable of assuming work in the demanding field,” says Kathleen Cameron, program co-ordinator.
They also elaborated on the deeper meaning behind establishing the CYW program.
“In addition to being instructors in the program, we have a deep connection to child and youth work and are committed to helping our students succeed,” says Cameron.
“There are so many examples of how our faculty members put their heart and soul into providing students with quality learning experiences, it’s hard to pick just one. We have a special affinity for youth and truly want our students to have a positive, enriching experience.”
Instructors’ enthusiasm for their work affects students as well. They regularly give back to their community and participate in a number of activities throughout the year, including organizing the College’s annual participation in Night in the Cold to raise awareness of poverty and homelessness in central Ontario.
Students in the first graduating class have done well for themselves – many of them were snatched up by local employers before they graduated.
When the Child and Youth Worker program was first established, instructors and program co-ordinators hoped to have enough students to fill one intake.
In fact, there were so many interested applicants, the College added a second section. Demand continued and in January 2008 the program established a January intake.
This fall there will be approximately 225 students in the program.
Learning Centres key to student success at Georgian College
Teaching and learning is defined as Georgian College’s core business.
This is evident in the College’s many student services, including the Learning Centres. The Learning Centres provide academic support to students in their area of study. Services are offered in the form of tutorials, in-class workshops and one-on-one tutoring sessions.
“The goal of the Learning Centres is to promote student achievement and retention, develop independent lifelong learners and support innovation in teaching and learning through the integration of learning strategy and peer tutoring services,” says Christina Meredith, Co-ordinator for Learning Strategy and Peer Services.
The Learning Centres provide both college and University Partnership Centre students with access to a variety of learning strategy and peer tutoring services to help them with writing, math and study skills, and more. These include Write On!, Math Help Centre, the Knowledge Hubs and peer mentors.
The Library Commons also offers Click On, which helps students with computer skills related to course assignments, and Dell E-Learning, which are available to both part-time and full-time students for help with computer applications. Students also have access to learning strategists.
Electrical Engineering student Mike Galvin says, “I wouldn’t be on the Dean’s List if it wasn’t for the Learning Centres. The tools the Learning Centres provided me with include organization, confidence and support.”
Another student says that support from a Georgian learning strategist helped her take her 58 per cent average to 81 per cent.
Georgian College Centre for Teaching and Learning teaches quality for teachers
The Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) is essential to providing quality services to all students of Georgian College.
“The CTL mandate is to ensure a consistency of processes at all campuses of the College,” says Janice Priest, Dean, Centre for Teaching and Learning and Liberal Arts.
“We ensure that our program development and program reviews have the same rigorous quality assurance process built in to ensure excellent planning and delivery of all our courses.”
The CTL facilitates academic professional development with an emphasis on the quality of students’ learning experiences and support for those experiences both in and outside classrooms. Emphasis is on internal and external professional development. This leads to improved student learning through improved teaching and learning practices, systems, and support.
All full-time faculty members have initial contact with the CTL, as they take an academic development program. Part-time faculty members also have this option and all teachers are encouraged to attend a variety of workshops throughout their Georgian career, says Priest.
“The workshops cover a wide range of topics,” says Priest, some of the most popular “including instructional skills, Blackboard, curriculum development, how to create an assignment to avoid plagiarism and using new technologies.”
The CTL has a number of specialty areas designed to assist faculty, such as consultants for individual or group support, technology support, instructional designers and curriculum coaches.
The Centre, based at the Barrie Campus, can also provide or source many teaching resources. Faculty at other campuses benefit from the Workshop on Wheels program, which brings professionals and resources on-site. The faculty also benefits from a substantial website which offers them everything from course planning and setting up a classroom to reports and publications.
Sometimes faculty members arrive at the CTL with a simple question, says Priest, and sometimes they come in with complicated issues and feel overwhelmed. The CTL staff is there to assist them with both confidence and technical issues.
Adon Irani, for example, often helps teachers struggling with technology. He has helped many of them not only in understanding technology, but in facilitating its smooth integration into the classroom.
“Our faculty members are wonderful, but technology isn’t always a strong suit for many of them. There’s a lot of anxiety surrounding technology’s use in the classroom. They often want to use a technology, but need ideas as how to use it best, and that’s where I come in as a support person,” Irani explains.
Today’s instructors utilize an endless variety of technical tools such as the components of Microsoft Office, Blackboard, Remark, Respondus, blogs and journals, wikis, audio MP3 and online videos.
Irani works one-on-one with teachers to help them understand how the technology works, when it is useful and when it is not. He helps them anticipate issues that may arise and how to deal with them. He also explains how various technologies can complement each other and how to use them together.
The combined efforts of everyone in the CTL ensure faculty members are powerfully equipped, says Priest, which translates into students being on the receiving end of the best teaching methods possible.
Georgian President says Green Employer honour and quality audit are key highlights of academic year
While summer signals the end of another school year for many students, here at Georgian College, as soon as one semester ends, another begins.
Many students and faculty will be in class on our seven campuses throughout July and August, whether in full-time programs or part-time Continuing Education courses.
However, summer does mean the year-end for Georgian’s Board of Governors, and an opportune time to look back at the many highlights of the past 12 months.
This year, our full-time enrolment surpassed 10,000 students. We were able to announce major expansions of facilities and programs on several campuses. We launched Vision 2015, our new strategic plan for the next five years. And Georgian was named one of Canada’s Greenest Employers.
One achievement of the past year that I am most proud of is the result of Georgian’s quality audit.
Like many large employers, we practise continuous quality improvement. The Program Quality Assurance Process Audit is a provincial standard for college post-secondary programs. All 24 Ontario colleges undergo this independent quality audit.
When Georgian’s audit was completed earlier this academic year, we received the highest possible marks in all six areas scored – five individual criteria and one overall rating. No college has ever scored higher.
The audit was conducted by a team of accredited auditors who visited our campuses. They measured, among other things, our academic policies, the way we deliver our programs to students, and the resources we commit to supporting student success.
While the overall results were excellent, it was the auditors’ comments that really stood out to me. They wrote, “Georgian College is to be commended on living the quality assurance and continuous improvement processes, as these are clearly imbedded in their culture and reflected in their day-to-day activities.”
The auditors lauded our staff members as, “genuinely and consistently engaged in supporting student success. The culture of the College reflects a consistent commitment to quality.”
Georgian’s Centre for Teaching and Learning, cited for special commendation by the auditors, provides one clear example of this commitment.
The Centre is built on the simple but profound philosophy that creating highly skilled and knowledgeable graduates requires highly skilled teachers.
To that end, the Centre is devoted to teaching and learning excellence. It provides workshops, mentoring, help with technology and curriculum, and many other supports. Whether a faculty member is a brand-new hire, or has taught for 30 years, the Centre helps to ensure they can keep up-to-date on the latest teaching methods, to provide the best possible experience and outcomes for students.
The quality auditors also recognized Georgian’s Learning Centres for students.
If students are having trouble in a particular area, staff members in this Centre are here to help. They provide assistance with writing, computer, math or study skills. For many students, the extra help has meant the difference between dropping out and succeeding in their program. One student recently credited this Centre with helping to take her 58 per cent average to a much improved 81 per cent.
As one of Ontario’s fastest-growing post-secondary institutions, maintaining and even building on our level of quality at Georgian is an ongoing goal. After all, this is all about continuous quality improvement. We make the commitment in our new strategic plan, in which student access and success, and extraordinary teaching and learning are key priorities.
Our students and their parents know they can come to Georgian for a true quality education. We continue to work hard to keep up our quality assurance grades because our students and community expect nothing less from us.
Brian Tamblyn, President and CEO, Georgian College
