You are invited to the upcoming Current Research in Engineering, Science, & Technology (CREST) Virtual Meeting. See the following link for more information. Please note events from August 4th to 7th have different Zoom link registration!
We are in the process of planning Welcome Week 2020! Reach out to gsavpint@mcmaster.ca if you have specific suggestions. Caroline would love to hear your ideas or you can join our Social Trips and Events Committee by emailing macgsa@mcmaster.ca to indicate your interest.
You need the HSR bus! The GSA heard you loud and clear! We cannot yet update on the final price of the HSR pass for the upcoming year and to rectify the time lost during COVID-19 pandemic. We can tell you that we are working on a lower rate for Fall 2020 and those eligible for the bus pass in the 2020-2021 academic year, we want to assure you that you will have access to a new tile on MOSAIC in advance of August 22, 2020, which is the last day the current bus pass expires. If you have any questions, please reach out directly to macgsa@mcmaster.ca to get help with this.
We are excited to have The Phoenix Crafthouse & Grill reopen. The Health & Safety on campus is top of mind as we operate in these challenging times. If you are already on campus for graduate work, please join us on the patio, or consider take out options. As always, The Phoenix is also open to the larger community – the hours of operation are currently Tuesday to Saturday 11:30am-7:30pm. Scan the barcode above to check out the re-opening video! |
In partner with Monica’s weekly Thriving Thursdays GradLife sessions at Western University, she will be using her regularly scheduled session time to discuss professional development opportunities with graduate students as it relates to the student-supervisor context including: how to manage expectations, take on professional development opportunities outside of the student-supervisor context, and thrive as a graduate student.
Moderator: Charlotte Nau
Monica Munaretto is the Manager of Graduate Student Life with Western Student Experience. Throughout her career she has held various positions in student services with graduate and undergraduate students, and through her PhD research she has developed a deep interest in graduate student success. Currently a doctoral student at the University of Toronto, she has also completed two Masters degrees – M.A. (UBC) and M.Ed (OISE/Toronto). She is exploring how doctoral students develop their career plans and the impact of the experience on their academic progress.
This workshop will focus on the various aspects of navigating supervisor/supervisee and departmental relationships. The core themes of discussion will include self-advocacy, discrimination, and community building both within and outside of home departments. We will discuss the nuances of each theme while also providing tips and resources for attendees to take away!
We invite you to ask questions and engage in this free flowing dialogue!
Moderator: Sonia Varma
Ladan Mowlid is a Student Affairs professional who is currently the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Education Coordinator with Western University’s Student Experience Team. Ladan holds a Master of Education in Higher Educational Leadership from Mercer University and is currently pursuing her PhD in Higher Education at the University of Toronto. She was the first Canadian Alumna of the NASPA Undergraduate Fellowship program and has presented at conferences including the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators and the Somali Studies in Canada Colloquium.
Ladan is also a co-founder of Somali Scholars which is a non-profit organization that supports first generation Somali-Canadian youth with achieving student success through mentorship and programming. She is deeply passionate about using education to empower historically marginalized students while simultaneously supporting them with navigating the institutional barriers of higher education.
She is excited to be a part of this workshop and looks forward to the fruitful discussions to come!
Join us for a seminar on the specific issues we face in grad school, and ways to handle them. Sign up here for this session on TODAY at 3-4pm!
In collaboration with Waterloo and Western University, we are hosting a Student Supervisor Relationships! In this workshop, Dr. Natalia Lapshina will cover the research findings from her doctoral student-supervisor study, discuss some real examples of student-supervisor relationships, as well as strategies for improving these relationships, and finish with a Q&A section for all attendees!
Facilitator Information: Dr. Natalia Lapshina completed her doctoral program in Psychology at Western in 2015. Her research interests cover several areas including: experiences of trauma, abuse and discrimination at work; mental health and resilience; supervisory relationships. Throughout her employment at Western, she has mentored and supervised a number of graduate students. Their stories motivated a research project on doctoral student-supervisor relationships that was conducted at Western in collaboration with SOGS.
It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of Dr. Frederick Morfaw; a friend, colleague, and alumni of the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact (HEI) at McMaster. Prior to coming to McMaster, Frederick was a Cameroonian obstetrician. Frederick joined the HEI community in 2017 to pursue his Ph.D. in Health Research Methodology under the supervision of Dr. Lehana Thabane. In 2017-2019, he was a member of the African Caribbean Graduate Students’ Association (ACGSA) and several met him at our events.
Following the completion of his Ph.D. in the summer of 2019, Frederick worked as a Research Fellow in Perinatal Clinical Epidemiology with McMaster’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He will be missed by many members of the ACGSA that knew him to be a kind, generous, and gracious soul. As well as, an exemplary student, that completed his Ph.D. in record time and mentored and helped many others.
Our deepest condolences to Frederick’s wife, Laura, and their three lovely children: Vanessa, Prince Henry, and Ricka. Please consider visiting the fundraiser for Frederick by HEI on their GoFundMe page and contribute towards raising money for Frederick’s family.
Written by friend and President of the African-Caribbean Graduate Student Association (ACGSA), Tafadzwa Machipisa.
At the GSA, we have made a contribution of $500 to the GoFundMe in fundraising efforts for Frederick’s family.
Submit your photos to our two categories for a chance to win gift card prizes this summer, and be highlighted on SciGSA newsletters and social media! Our categories are: “What’s your Sci?”, including any research, analysis, or fieldwork; and “Summer Livin'” with any home activities (ex. baking/cooking, gardening, summer adventures…etc.).
Deadline: Monday, July 13th at 5pm to scigsa@mcmaster.ca
We are actively working on the best agreement for graduate students using HSR in the 2020-2021 school year given COVID-19 pandemic and the change in day-to-day usage of the bus. If you would like to provide feedback ahead of our meeting with HSR next week on behalf of all the graduate students at McMaster University, please fill out this survey. We hope to capture all of your feedback in that survey to best inform the conversation, which is still ongoing.
Your GSA
Here are 14 quick tips to make online teaching better, from an expert in online learning.
1. Record your lectures – don’t stream them
If students are unwell or are struggling with internet access, they will miss a live streamed lecture. Record videos instead and send them to your students so that they can watch in their own time.
2. Show your face
Research has shown that lecture videos that show instructors’ faces are more effective than simple narrated slideshows. Intersperse your slides with video of yourself.
3. Keep videos short
Videos longer than 15 minutes can cause issues of slow downloading and learner distraction. If you have more to say, record two or three short videos.
4. Test out slides
Make sure you test slides on a smartphone before shooting your lectures so all text is readable on small screens. Font sizes, colours, template designs and screen ratios can be double-checked.
5. Use existing resources …
It is unrealistic to expect that you, on your own, will produce a semester’s worth of high quality videos. You can use pre-developed resources available online and provide students with clickable links.
6. … and make sure they’re open access
Using open resources helps prevent access problems for students. If any of your suggested resources are not accessible, you will receive an inbox full of student emails and eventually waste all your time troubleshooting. Spending a few extra minutes carefully searching for fully open access materials will save you a headache later.
7. Give specific instructions
When you suggest online media which runs for longer than 15 minutes, students will be put off watching. Instead, suggest the exact parts they need (eg 13:35 to 16:28) as this can even make students more curious. When you provide more than two resources, label them in the order you want students to approach them. Simple numbering, based on the level of difficulty or importance of each resource item, can be of great help for your students.
8. Provide interactive activities
Most learning management systems, such as Moodle, Edmodo and Blackboard, include a range of functions to create interactive learning activities such as quizzes. Step-by-step guides to creating them are widely available online. Use them.
9. Set reasonable expectations
When you create quizzes, you should make sure all questions can be answered by referring to the given learning resources. When you ask students to write a summary of lecture videos, you should make it clear that this is not a serious report. Making this as a mandatory assignment but a low-stakes task will produce the best outcomes and responses from students. A set of 15 quiz questions or a 300-word limit will be sufficient to engage students for 30 minutes.
10. Use auto-checking to measure attendance
If you tell students that their attendance will be measured by their participation in a quiz, it will increase compliance. However, you won’t have time to check them all, so use the automatic checking and grading features on the learning management systems.
11. Use group communication carefully
Group communication shouldn’t be used for direct teaching. Instead, set up “virtual office hours” on a video conferencing tool like Zoom. Simply log in at the appointed time and wait for students. Focus on providing social support and checking if any issues need to be addressed immediately. This can be a great way to collect student feedback on your online teaching as well. Make meetings optional and be relaxed. No need to be frustrated when no one shows up: students are still happy to know that this option is available.
12. Let students take control
You can set up online group spaces for small groups of students and ask them to support and consult with one another before sending emails to you directly. You can post a couple of questions to help students break the ice and start conversation. Encourage students to use the communication tools they prefer. Some groups will click well and some will not, but this little tip can make students feel socially supported and reduce your inbox traffic.
13. Don’t hide your feelings
Online teachers’ emotional openness is a great instructional strategy. Tell your students that it is your first time teaching online and you are learning while teaching. Explicitly ask them to help you, reassuring them that you will do your very best to support their learning as well. They will be sympathetic since they share the same emotions, and you will be set up for success.
14. Repeat
Online students do not like frequent changes in their learning style. They are happy to repeat the same structure and activities. Once you find a teaching style working for you, feel free to repeat it each week until you are back in your classroom.
Author – Kyungmee Lee
Lecturer in Technology Enhanced Learning, Lancaster University