I am delighted to announce that Dr. Dawn Macaulay will be Humber’s new Dean of Innovative Learning.

In this role, Dawn will provide leadership in the Centre for Innovative Learning (CIL) to the Digital Learning, Teaching and Learning and Flexible Learning teams to foster excellence in teaching and learning practices at Humber. Dawn will also work closely in the CIL with the Dean of Program Planning, Development and Renewal, the Dean of Research and Innovation and the Dean of Continuous Professional Learning to co-create a learning innovation ecosystem that supports every aspect of how we teach and learn across our programs.

Dawn brings a strong understanding of Humber’s strategic vision and learners’ changing needs to her new role. Dawn has deep experience in interdisciplinary approaches and working with cross-college teams to achieve common goals and support student success.

Dawn is currently leading a project to develop collaborative programming across all three partner institutions in the Global Polytechnic Alliance. She is also co-chair of the Strategic Enrolment Management Pathways Committee and the Degree Breadth Committee, where she has been instrumental in enhancing Humber’s processes in support of current and prospective students.

Dawn holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of British Columbia. Since joining Humber originally in 2008, Dawn has been a Liberal Studies faculty member, Program Coordinator and Associate Dean. Her work within Liberal Studies has supported almost all of the colleges’ programs and has seen her collaborate with many colleagues across the academic division, Registrar’s Office and student services. 

In 2019, Dawn took on an interim role, providing leadership to the Teaching and Learning and Digital Learning teams. Dawn reviewed a number of key structures and programs and implemented new approaches to enhance supports to Humber's faculty.

Dawn will begin her new role on May 31, 2021 and will report to me.

Please join me in congratulating Dawn on her new role!

Vera Beletzan
Senior Dean, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences & Innovative Learning

The Prix d’Excellence is an annual awards program of The Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE) that recognizes outstanding achievements in overall institutional advancement, including alumni affairs, public affairs, advancement communications, marketing, development, advancement services, and donor stewardship.

Humber is proud and honoured to receive two awards this year, the Gold Prix d’Excellence in Best Special Event for “Virtual Convocation” and the Bronze Prix d’Excellence in Best Advancement Services Initiative for “Implementation of Blackbaud Award Management.”

These awards highlight collaborative, cross-departmental efforts at the college that positively impact students, alumni, staff, faculty, and advancement initiatives.

Premier Ford announced a three-step provincial reopening plan today that will gradually allow outdoor and indoor activities to resume over the months of June, July and August.

The plan, titled Roadmap to Reopen, outlines three steps to easing public health measures, guided by the following principles:

• Step One An initial focus on resuming outdoor activities with smaller crowds where the risk of transmission is lower, and permitting retail with restrictions. This includes allowing outdoor gatherings of up to 10 people, outdoor dining with up to four people per table and non-essential retail at 15 per cent capacity.
• Step Two Further expanding outdoor activities and resuming limited indoor services with small numbers of people where face coverings are worn. This includes outdoor gatherings of up to 25 people, outdoor sports and leagues, personal care services where face coverings can be worn and with capacity limits, as well as indoor religious services, rites or ceremony gatherings at 15 per cent capacity.
• Step Three Expanding access to indoor settings, with restrictions, including where there are larger numbers of people and where face coverings can’t always be worn. This includes indoor sports and recreational fitness; indoor dining, museums, art galleries and libraries, and casinos and bingo halls, with capacity limits.

Some outdoor amenities, such as golf courses and tennis courts, will be allowed to reopen on May 22 at 12:01 a.m.

It is anticipated the province will enter Step One around the week of June 14.

Each provincewide stage will last at least 21 days to evaluate any impacts on key public health and health system indicators. The three-step plan is tied to vaccination rates and other key health system indicators. Physical distancing, capacity limits and masking will continue for each stage.

The full release can be found here.

Enhancing Institutional EDI Knowledge of Disability and Academic Accessibility:

Accessible Learning Services Best Practice Considerations - Note-Taking Supports

• Some students experience disability-related barriers around taking notes during class.
• In order to facilitate access to notes, some students registered with Accessible Learning may be utilizing notetaking support through a service called Note Taking Express, which is coordinated through Peer Assisted Learning Services. Students using this service are required to sign an agreement indicating they will only share the recording with Note Taking Express staff and acknowledging other conditions to keep accountability while utilizing this service. 
• Deaf and Hard of Hearing students may have a Computerized Notetaker (CNT) present in class to record lecture notes in order for the student to be able to focus and participate in the lecture. 
• While faculty are not legally mandated to post their lecture slides/summaries/video recordings on Blackboard/CourseLink for all students, students with disabilities, in particular, may require access to such materials as an accommodation especially in circumstances where a CNT is needed.
• A helpful way to encourage participation, some faculty assign all students into small “note-taking groups” where each week they arrange for one group to collectively take and share their notes on Blackboard/Courselink for the whole class. This supports students with disabilities and other students with diverse needs, which may impact taking notes during class in real-time. 

The National Deaf Center has an excellent resource guide for faculty supporting learners who are deaf and hard of hearing.

Visit our ALS Information for Faculty website to learn more about note-taking supports for students.

Please email us at accessible-learning@humber.ca with suggestions for key accessibility-related topics that you would like us to address through the Communiqué.