Higher education in Ontario, across Canada, and around the world is a hotbed of innovation focused on expanding and improving learning opportunities and increasing success for students through online, blended and technology-enhanced learning.
Since 2011, Contact North | Contact Nord interviewed over 200 innovators at colleges and universities to learn about their online teaching and learning initiatives, specifically the inspiration and motivation for their innovation, its design and delivery, benefits, challenges and potential for further application.
The Pockets of Innovation Series on Contact North | Contact Nord’s teachonline.ca portal showcases more than 200 ground-breaking projects focused on:
- transforming the teaching and learning experience;
- increasing excellence and student success;
- enhancing engagement and flexibility;
- providing training and support for students, faculty and instructors; and
- benefiting from the multiple opportunities offered by collaboration and new technologies.
The Pockets of Innovation Series includes initiatives from public colleges and public universities in Ontario, as well as higher education institutions in other provinces of Canada, including British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Québec and countries around the world: Costa Rica; Denmark; France; Germany; Iceland; Ireland; Israel; Italy; the Netherlands; Norway; Scotland; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; United Kingdom; and United States.
Pockets of Innovation are grouped in three geographic categories – Ontario, Cross Canada and International. Each one shares three essential characteristics:
- They represent a new approach;
- They directly support students; and
- The developers are prepared to share their innovations, the challenges they encountered and what they learned with colleagues in Ontario and around the world.
220 Pockets of Innovation in Online Learning from Ontario, Cross Canada and Around the World
A broad-ranging publication draws together all 220 Pockets of Innovation from 2011 to May 2019. Organized under nine themes, this compilation shows how the initiatives described in the Pockets of Innovation Series present examples of good practice in all aspects of online teaching, learning and organizational planning:
- Educational Design, Courses and Resources
- Diversity in Blended Learning
- Student Access, Engagement and Flexibility
- Supporting Student Success Online
- OER and MOOCs
- Options for Online Assessment
- Faculty Development and Support
- Models of Collaboration
- Organizational Planning for Online Learning
You can download our interactive, searchable PDF version of 220 Pockets of Innovation in Online Learning. Click here to download and share with your colleagues.
