Module 5: PME 810 Electronic Journal

Tuesday November 17: Reaching out to the CCUBC Curriculum Task Force Chair
Today, my focus was on preparing for the online CCUBC Annual Meeting which begins
on Thursday. I have been asked by the CCUBC and oCUBE executive to speak about
my experiences with SAGES, upcoming curriculum redesign project, and the work I am
doing in biology education research. I am looking forward to this opportunity but am
particularly excited to hear their thoughts and learn from the experience of more
seasoned biology chairs. I have been told that the presentations are informal and
provide the opportunity for CCUBC to discuss questions and share ideas.
In preparation for the meeting, I emailed the CCUBC member who had chaired the
Biology Curriculum Task Force to start a conversation on their experience with
curriculum redesign in their department. I have reproduced my email to this CCUBC
member below (I have removed the person’s name to keep their identity confidential, as
per one of the expectations of CCUBC – due to the nature of their work, they ask that
any identifying information be removed from any reports of conversations and/or
meetings).
Wednesday November 18: Reply from the CCUBC Curriculum Task Force Chair
and meeting with oCUBE executive
I was happy to receive a reply from the CCUBC Curriculum Task Force Chair the next
day. I have pasted their reply below:

I quickly wrote back and thanked them for their reply, and their willingness to meet with
me.
I also received an email from the oCUBE executive asking if we could briefly chat over
Zoom. We connected again this afternoon, so that they could share a few more oCUBE
initiatives they would like me to highlight to the CCUBC executive the following day. Our
15-minute initial meeting quickly extended into an hour meeting. I am really enjoying
getting to know what oCUBE is planning for their December unconference and I am
looking forward to attending and participating.

Thursday November 19: First day of CCUBC online Annual Meeting

The meeting started at 11:30 this morning, with an introduction from the Chair of
CCUBC. The first session was dedicated to discussing best practices for online
teaching and learning. I really enjoyed hearing from other chairs how they formed
communities of practice within their departments and informal mentoring networks to
support their instructors as they faced a rapid shift to emergency remote learning. What
impressed me the most about this session is how open everyone was. Not only were
participants freely sharing what had succeeded, but they also shared what did not. The
atmosphere was friendly, relaxed, and supportive. I quickly lost my initial nervousness
about being a new member and a new chair. I was given 10 minutes to describe my
department’s initiatives, but also the SAGES program I moved to my current institution.
Attendees showed a lot of interest, and I got 5 personal messages through Zoom for a
link to my SAGES website for further information and for any materials that could be
shared to help them implement similar programs.
The next session was focused on helping faculty members apply for NSERC grants.
The last session of the day was dedicated to undergraduate paper award and graduate
student research prize presentations.
I had mistakenly thought that the social was this afternoon; instead, it will be held
tomorrow! I quickly messaged the CCUBC Curriculum Task Force Chair over personal
message in Zoom, and we rescheduled our meeting to tomorrow during the social.

Friday November 20: Second day of CCUBC online Annual Meeting

Today’s meeting also started at 11:30 AM. The sessions were amazing!
In the first session, the attendees were split into breakout rooms so that we could
discuss the strategies that were being used to maintain academic integrity with online
evaluations. I found it quite fascinating to hear the other members’ experiences and
perspectives. What really interested me as well is the different lenses they were using to
describe the experience and how these lenses could potentially be tied to their
conceptions of curriculum and educational philosophies. It is difficult to say without
knowing each participant better whether they ascribe to a certain conception of
curriculum over another. However, what stood out to me were some participants’
emotional reactions to academic integrity. Those that appeared to be the most
frustrated with academic integrity also spoke of the course content as being highly
valued, as something that lapses when academic integrity disrespected. These
conversations quickly led to participants sharing their views on the purpose of
assessments. With the knowledge that I had acquired from this course, I felt not only
more comfortable sharing my perspective, but also more confident engaging others who
did not agree. I shared with the participants in my breakout room that the roles of
assessments will quickly change depending on the curricular framework adopted in a
course, and the educational philosophies that underlie these decisions. I was able to
engage my peers in a discussion of assessment of learning, as learning, and for
learning. I also described how I had made use of backwards design in my large-
enrollment courses to decide which type of assessment would best suit the learning
outcomes, and how I implemented them. Although I could tell not everyone agreed, I did
see those that did not listen intently. I was comfortable sharing the educational
philosophies that guide my teaching practice because I had become more aware of the
reasons that underlie the decisions I made. I also made a point of mentioning that you
can adopt different conceptions of curriculum and different educational philosophies
within the same course, program, etc. I could see that many, like me, had not thought
this possible. It was a rich discussion, and I really look forward to chatting with these
colleagues further.
The next session was dedicated to the integration of EDI+ into a biology department,
and this was followed by the business meeting. The virtual social (happy hour) followed
the business meeting. I was able to meet the CCUBC Curriculum Task Force Chair in a
private breakout room, and we chatted for well over an hour. It was so good to be able
to discuss the concerns and questions I had about implementing a curriculum redesign
project in a safe environment and obtain feedback on my plans. The chair offered to
share with me the materials they used to introduce the curriculum redesign project to
their department, as well as their final report. I promptly took them up on that offer! They
also shared with me the following resources:
• Website for the Center for Curriculum Redesign: https://curriculumredesign.org/. I
had never heard about this group. Their website contains freely downloadable
competencies/subcompetencies framework, along with extensive reading
materials on the process.
• They also provided me with a link to a paper describing the curriculum redesign
process of an advanced evolutionary biology course at the University of Toronto:
deBraga, M., Boyd, C., & Abdulnour, S. (2015). Using the principles of SoTL to
redesign an advanced evolutionary biology course. Teaching and Learning
Inquiry, 3(1), 15-29.
I really enjoyed our conversation and look forward to contacting them again.

Sunday November 21: Reviewing shared materials

This morning, I received the materials the CCUBC Curriculum Task Force Chair had
agreed to share with me. They are so helpful! Their worksheet templates will provide
such a great starting point as I create a team to help me with the project in my
department. I am very thankful for this course and this assignment – I really do not think
I would have had the courage to approach this individual without them!