Entente Canada-Quebec (ECQ) Grants Awarded to Dawson Faculty
In August, the Minister of Higher Education announced a total of $512,076 in Entente Canada-Quebec (ECQ) grants for Dawson, from the 2021-22 call for projects launched last March. Here is a list of the Dawson projects that were funded:
Creative collective for change / Le Collectif créatif pour le changement (Patricia Romano and Kim Simard)
This para-academic initiative spanning the 2021-22 and 2022-23 academic year focuses on providing students and faculty with an inclusive space to engage in pressing social problems. Students will have opportunities to reflect on the complexities of these issues, while collaborating on artistic projects that promote constructive social change. By engaging with issues that directly affect them, the project aims to have a positive impact on students in terms of their retention, academic success and psychological well-being. For faculty from across the college, this project will encourage the development of new strategies to tackle difficult social problems more effectively in the classroom and opportunities to connect their course with innovative artistic co-curricular activities.
Implementing the interprofessional education (IPE) approach to Cégep medical technology programs / Implantation de l’approche de formation interprofessionnelle dans les programmes médicaux des cégeps (Tim Miller)
For many years, Interprofessional Education (IPE) has been growing in importance to advance health professional education. The goal of this two-year initiative is to use the IPE approach to create, develop and implement overlapping medical exercises within the seven medical technology and health programs at Dawson so that students can learn with, from and about each other. The project consists of three phases: (1) taking an inventory of the existing artefacts available across the disciplines. Once the inventory is complete, the team will then organize the documentation of the additional artefacts required to complete cases; (2) creating common medical cases where all disciplines will collaborate to design the tailored content needed; and (3) implementing the cases across the 7 disciplines through branching scenarios, in-person simulation, a one-day workshop, and various in-class activities.
Establishing HyFlex pedagogy to improve educational outcomes / Mise en place de la pédagogie commodale (HyFlex) pour améliorer les résultats scolaires (Selma Hamdani)
The HyFlex pedagogical model allows students to seamlessly shift between attending class in person, joining in synchronously online or asynchronously at a later time. The objectives of this one-year project are to: (1) examine and understand the pedagogy surrounding HyFlex design and how it can be implemented at Dawson College; (2) determine the circumstances under which a HyFlex model would be beneficial for students; (3) create HyFlex Psychology courses that will test the parameters of this model; (4) design a classroom that supports HyFlex teaching and learning; and (5) create a compilation of strategies, activities and classroom-use protocol that can be used by any teacher in any discipline.
Exploring AR City : Phase II – Notre ville en réalité virtuelle : Phase II (Reisa Levine)
Augmented Reality is an educational tool that can engage students with learning materials in innovative ways and can be created for mobile devices without the need of additional headsets, making them easily accessible in a class context. This two-year initiative (21-22 + 22-23) builds on ECQ 2020-21 Phase I, which was to produce a basic app with at least 2 AR experiences depicting story vignettes of historical and cultural landmarks around the Dawson College neighbourhood. In Phase II, students will continue to work with faculty and media professionals in developing the app and creating new AR vignettes. Emphasis will be on bringing the apps into the classroom, helping faculty integrate them into their courses and assessing the pedagogical benefits.
The Entente Canada – Québec stems from the law on official languages that promotes the two official languages, French and English. Negotiated and signed by Patrimoine canadien and Quebec’s Ministry of Education, the Entente supports minority language instruction and second language instruction. Within Quebec’s higher education sector, grants are awarded through an annual call for proposals open to colleges (cegeps) and universities. Dawson College faculty and staff who have projects that meet the criteria for the grant are eligible to apply.
For more information consult:
- The Entente Canada – Québec website
- The Internal Coordinator, Louise Paul, lpaul@dawsoncollege.qc.ca
