The Humber College Council (HCC) held its third meeting of the 2018/2019 academic year on Thursday, December 6, 2018 at the North Campus. To ensure that the Humber community is informed of upcoming events, new initiatives and important issues, College Council reports the highlights of its monthly meetings. For more information or to provide feedback on these highlights, please contact marie.kyrinis@humber.ca. We apologize for the delay in posting the highlights.
ACADEMIC CALENDAR UPDATE
Barb Riach, Registrar and Gina Antonacci, Associate Vice President, Academic outlined the 2019/2020 academic calendar.
Based on a lengthy consultation process with students, staff and faculty, Humber will be moving to a 7-1-7 model for course delivery starting in Fall 2019. This standardized approach of 7 weeks of study followed by 1 reading week, followed by another 7 weeks of study is used by many other post-secondary institutions. Moving forward, each of the 3 semesters offered will follow the 7-1-7 model.
A formal communications plan with be released shortly to students, industry partners and other Humber stakeholders. It should be noted that there are some specialized programs that will not follow this model.
STRATEGIC ENROLMENT MANAGEMENT (SEM)
Barb Riach, Registrar and Gina Antonacci, Associate Vice President, Academic presented on the most recent SEM activities at Humber.
Humber’s Strategic Enrolment Management committee is responsible for the co-ordination of Humber efforts to collect institutional enrolment planning elements into one consolidated effort. The SEM Committee, and its subcommittees, respond to the ever-changing prospective student pool and align Humber enrolment activities to Strategic Plan priorities. Below are updates from the SEM subcommittees.
Government Funding - SEM actively reviews and responds to issues like the new government funding formula. It reviewed how the formula will work within our program development plans, current mix of programs and current demands by industry. SEM then created a process to ensure program reviews are completed in a timely fashion to address any funding changes. Briefly, the current government funding formula is based on a weighted-funding unit criterion, instead of head count.
Marketing, Recruitment and Conversion Action Plan Update (MRC) - The MRC committee executed a research study to review the Full-Time printed calendar, Viewbook and the online program pages for format and relevancy. Certain recommendations, based on this research, will be implemented in the 2020/2021 recruitment materials. A central, domestic marketing plan that addresses the needs of the academic schools is going to be developed with increased focus on pathways, transfers and Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR).
Student Success and Retention Action Plan Update (SSR) – The SSR committee continues to focus on retention and engagement for specific credentials, at-risk students and overall campus-specific activities. An action plan for the next four years is being developed, within the context of the new funding formula.
THE LEARNING PORTAL, OERs, AND HUMBER’S DIGITAL LEARNING PLAN
Caleb Domsey, Librarian, Lisa DiBarbora, Librarian Co-ordinator and Theresa Steger, Director, Digital Curriculum presented the latest in digital resources for Humber students.
There is a significant province-wide movement happening in postsecondary education to produce cross-curriculum resources and to share them openly with students. Open Education Resources (OERs) help achieve this goal. The main pillars of this movement relate to skills that apply to all programs that are used by all students, which include helping with development of study, research, writing, and digital citizenship. College Council Highlights – December 6, 2018
The Learning Portal brings together the shared resources of the Ontario Colleges to create online learning support for all our students. It was originally built to support OntarioLearn students, but has since grown to support any student at any Ontario college and beyond! The Learning Portal features a Faculty Toolkit, which includes content on course readings, quizzes and assignments, accessibility, indigenous inclusion, and mental health harm reduction.
The Open Educational Resources (OER) Toolkit provides information and tools to help instructors and library staff to understand, engage with, and sustain OER in their work and practice. Open Educational Resources provide equal access to resources at no cost to students. A great example of OERs in practice is the eCampusOntario Open Textbook Library, a collection of free post-secondary textbooks with reviews from educators across the country. Another source to help offset textbook costs for students is for faculty to use the resources found at Humber Libraries when building curriculum. The library can create course specific article and book links called “Reading Pages” that can be directly uploaded into Blackboard. For further information email copyright@humber.ca.
HUMBER COLLEGE COUNCIL FUNDRAISER - ERNESTINE’S WOMEN’S SHELTER
The Humber College community generously donated gifts and swag for the College Council fundraiser. As a result, Council raised $715 for Ernestine’s Shelter. In addition, Council donated nonperishable items, clothing, toiletry products, and other useful items.
INTERNATIONALIZATION STRATEGY
Andrew Ness, Dean, International presented an overview of the Humber’s Internationalization strategy.
There are 500,000 international students in Canada, from elementary to postsecondary schools. In 2018, Humber College had 6,000 international students.
Internationalization plays a large part in meeting Humber’s enrolment goals. The department also has a supporting role in the current Strategic Plan. There is a commitment to creating a global-ready community of students, faculty and staff through provision of diverse, global perspectives and opportunities. After extensive consultation with the Humber community, stakeholders and students, the 2018-2023 Internationalization Strategy 2.0 was developed. This enhanced strategy builds upon Humber’s international history with a focus on engagement and providing leadership in international initiatives.
The next meeting of the College Council was held on Thursday, January 10, 2019 at the Lakeshore Campus, Room A170. For highlights, supporting materials, and an online feedback forum, please visit: humber.ca/wearehumber/committees/college-council.