A new online video profiling Memorial’s Teaching and Learning Community (TLC) is being launched today. The video is intended to profile the diversity within the university’s TLC, which includes all students, educators, staff and alumni.

In September 2012 a new teaching and learning community website was launched, featuring videos of six of the seven concepts captured during the university’s Teaching and Learning Framework consultative process – engagement, support, inclusive, committed to discovery, outcomes-oriented and responsive.

“It was always our intention to do a larger video at the end to tie all of those concepts together and provide a picture of what the Teaching and Learning Community represents,” said Dr. Doreen Neville, co-lead for the development of the Teaching and Learning Framework, with Mr. Albert Johnson, associate director, Distance Education, Learning and Teaching Support.

“The sense of community is so pervasive here in Newfoundland and Labrador – building community is what we do,” she continued. “This theme was echoed throughout the consultation sessions that helped inform the university’s Teaching and Learning Framework – it became very evident that the university is a community within a community.”            

Mr. Johnson noted he was impressed by how eager the participants were to join the conversation, throughout the consultations.  

“We started each session by asking the group to pair off and share their most inspirational teaching and/or learning moment, and the enthusiastic engagement that followed was always inspiring in itself,” he said.

To keep the momentum of the consultations going, all members of the TLC are encouraged to join the conversation online, through the website, Facebook page and YouTube channel.

The new video features groups from across the university’s varied community, prompting viewers to “join the conversation” about teaching and learning. Each group conveys the invitation in a different way. For example, the cheerleaders for Memorial’s Sea-hawks varsity teams use a cheer to urge community members to join the conversation while the MUN Festival Choir sings the invitation.

The video will be shared on the TLC Facebook page and other Memorial University group pages and websites. A large number of community members are featured in the videos and will be encouraged to tag themselves and share the video on their own Facebook pages.

In addition to spreading awareness, the video is part of a larger campaign to increase online engagement through social media tools.

Last fall a Facebook photo contest prompted community members to submit photos of their favourite learning spaces and rituals. They were encouraged to tag themselves and share the link on their personal pages. The two photos with the most “likes” received an iPad mini.

“Social media allows us to reach a broader audience and makes it quick and easy for people to share their own experiences and inspirational teaching and learning stories,” Dr. Neville said. These stories remind us all about how important it is to incorporate the concepts captured within the TLC lens to teaching and learning activities at Memorial University.”

All members of Memorial’s TLC, including students, educators, staff and alumni, are encouraged to look for themselves in the video and join the conversation about teaching and learning at Memorial.

The video can be seen at www.mun.ca/teachingandlearning, www.youtube.com/munteachinglearning or www.facebook.com/MemorialTLC.

For further information, please contact Heidi Wicks, communications co-ordinator, Memorial University, at wicksh@mun.ca.