Members of York University’s Cross-Campus Capstone Classroom (C4) team were awarded the 2023 D2L Innovation Award in Teaching and Learning from the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE), which recognizes post-secondary collaborative teams for their innovative approaches to promoting student-centered teaching and learning.
C4, launched in 2019, emphasizes student work with real-world challenges with social impact, promoting team-based collaboration, advanced research and design, critical and strategic thinking, and more.
The award was bestowed on those associated with C4’s innovative approach to pan-university interdisciplinary experiential education, including:
- Danielle Robinson, co-founder and executive director of C4, as well as associate professor in the Department of Dance;
- Franz Newland, co-founder and co-curriculum lead of C4, as well as assistant professor and undergraduate program director for Space Engineering;
- Rachelle Campigotto, classroom coordinator assistant for C4 and contract faculty in the Faculty of Education;
- Dana Craig, Libraries liaison of C4 and director of student learning and academic success;
- Danielle Dobney, associate director of C4 and assistant professor in Kinesiology and the Athletic Therapy Certificate program;
- Andrea Kalmin, York Capstone Network professor liaison and adjunct faculty member in the Department of Social Science;
- Alice Kim, scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) research lead and instructor; and
- Natasha May, Teaching Commons liaison for C4 and educational developer in York’s Teaching Commons.
The D2L Innovation Award is an international recognition, open to applicants from all countries. It evaluates and rewards innovations in pedagogical approaches, teaching methods, course design, curriculum development, assessment methods, and more. It is named after D2L, a cloud-based learning analytics platform.
Award recipients are invited to a retreat held the day of the pre-conference at STLHE’s Annual Conference. This retreat includes a facilitated session, lunch, and a social and learning excursion focused on innovation. At the conference they will be recognized at the Conference Awards Ceremony and receive a certificate in recognition of their work.