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An augmented/virtual reality revolution is just beginning, says Faculty of Science professor

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Chemistry Professor Kyle Belozerov uses virtual reality (VR) in his classroom. In this insightful Q-and-A, he considers the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in understanding the complexities of our modern world.

Kyle Belozerov, an assistant professor of chemistry (teaching stream) and trained biochemist, sees the world through a futuristic lens. He has had a passion for teaching ever since he taught his first class in 2013. Today, he teaches first- and second-year chemistry and biology in the Faculty of Science, and says that having a knowledge of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is crucial for understanding today’s complex world.

“Being knowledgeable about the natural world and STEM is extremely important in our time, especially for understanding medicines like vaccines,” he said. “As society progresses, it becomes more important to be educated in STEM disciplines.” Given Belozerov’s use of virtual reality technology in his classroom, “Innovatus” asked for his insights on the future of teaching and learning.

Kyle Belozerov

Q: How has teaching changed since you entered the profession?

Belozerov: It’s changed quite a bit! I started 10 years ago and have seen a huge shift towards educational technology and online learning. It has exploded in the last decade, and it has been accelerated, of course, by the pandemic. In 2010, you had a typical classroom with a chalkboard, a PowerPoint and a slide projector. You would sometimes have recorded lectures and interactive technology (clickers). Now you have all of that integrated into a course. Technology has become an integral part of education. The VR headset is going to be the new cell phone, integrated into every classroom.

Q: Will technology allow more flexibility to accommodate different learning styles?

Belozerov: In the subjects I teach, there is a lot of imagination required on the student’s part. Not every student can easily imagine and manipulate complex objects in their mind. It takes time to develop that skill. VR gives them an opportunity to learn how to imagine things, even when away from the technology. With VR, you can rotate an object, stretch it, shrink it. This teaches students how to translate a 2D image into a 3D model in their mind. Technology also accommodates shy students. With highly customizable avatars in VR, students may be more comfortable interacting with peers and professors. Pedagogical and psychological research shows that VR technology allows for greater inclusivity and accessibility.

Q: Is technology (such as VR) the driver of change?

Belozerov: Technology has proven to be a potent driver of change in our everyday activities, social interactions and more. We have seen a social media revolution in the last 10 to 15 years. Cellphones have had a big impact on our everyday life. VR is probably going to be the next phase. Augmented reality (AR) devices turn physical objects around us into interactive information objects. A student can look at a building and instantly find out everything they want to know about that building. What is its purpose? How was it built? What materials were used? This information is easily accessible with AR. 

Students in Kyle Belozerov's chemistry class participate in a virtual reality exercise
Students in Kyle Belozerov’s chemistry class at York University participate in a virtual reality exercise

Q: Do students want more agency? Will they direct their own learning more?

Belozerov: We’re not at that stage where the student has the capacity to create their own experiences of VR and AR. We’re only witnessing the beginning of an AR and VR revolution. Every experience in my classroom is well structured and the student follows a pre-designed path in a lesson or project. As they become more familiar with AR/VR technology, they will gain more agency with their learning. I imagine that 10 to 15 years from now, there could be virtual reality universities or completely virtual professional programs.

Q: As the world becomes increasingly more complex, do you think that interdisciplinary courses will become more common with educational technology?

Belozerov: I am a firm believer that VR will allow certain interactions or intersections between different disciplines. The possibilities are limitless with VR: combining physics with music, zoology with arts, STEM with humanities… All these experiences, if they materialize, will be unique, exciting and engaging for students, and beyond anything our traditional classroom offers.

Q: Do you expect courses to become more individualized in terms of deliverables, assessment, etc.?

Belozerov: That would be fantastic, to tailor every course or program of study to the needs of each student. This will be driven by advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms. I envision tailored educational programs becoming more widely available to students. You could have a flexible mode of delivery with a fixed course. A student might be able to choose between different delivery models (AR, VR, in-person or online).

Q: How do we balance our need for connection and our need for flexibility with technology?

Belozerov: I think it’s universally acknowledged that the rise of social media has led to some reduction in interpersonal connectivity in real life. I think this can be overcome with better technology. We’re witnessing the beginning of online technologies and how they shape human interactions. Since we’ve seen some negative aspects, we shouldn’t just look at those as inevitable, but instead learn from the negatives and leverage the proven benefits of technology to enhance human interactions.

Q: How do you picture a class session in 2040?

Belozerov: I think that it will be a hybrid physical and virtual meeting, seamlessly connecting participants. I imagine about 20 students in a classroom and 30 in a virtual space. All students would wear an AR/VR device to be in the same virtual space and have unlimited access to audio-visual and textual information. This classroom will have resources available at students’ fingertips. It will be more learner-centred and cross-disciplinary, allowing students from different disciplines to engage in discussions. Students from different countries and cultures will be able to share diverse perspectives with their peers, providing a vibrant inter-cultural learning environment for all. Today’s hyflex classroom is the first generation of this ideal, allowing students who are physically separated to feel that they’re in the same classroom. In the second or third generation of this remote classroom, you would need a VR space. The VR revolution is upon us; it’s here.

Technology opens new doors, says humanities professor

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Donald Ipperciel, a philosophy professor and former principal of Glendon Campus, has 26 years of experience in the classroom. He is also fascinated by the changing technology available to educators, including the benefits to teaching that are associated with artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

“Teaching is the best way to fully master your own area of expertise,” said Ipperciel, “and being around students is the most energizing and fun part of the job.” He shared his thoughts about the future of teaching and learning with “Innovatus.”

Donald Ipperciel
Donald Ipperciel

Q: How has teaching changed since you entered the profession?

Ipperciel: When I began teaching, everything was very much old school with chalk and blackboards, and, since academics had no real training in teaching, the way you taught was the way you had been taught. I became an early adopter in putting course material on the web and, now, I’m at the point where I do everything online – nothing uses a tree. Even readings are PDFs. I can’t imagine not being able to use an interactive whiteboard that’s media-rich. I can grab visuals that would have been so complicated to display 15 years ago. I also use an online attendance tool in eClass that allows students to grab a QR code to indicate their attendance, so there is no time wasted taking attendance.  Everything seems more efficient.

I am also experimenting with new technologies. I have an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant to answer all the logistical/procedural questions about my class, such as when assignments are due. The AI assistant can answer those questions so I can focus on meaningful interaction. I am also experimenting with virtual reality (VR). Next semester, I hope to teach a course about technology and its impact on society, and the VR module will take place using VR headsets in a VR room.

Q: Is technology the driver of change?

Ipperciel: Pedagogy remains the driver, but you can experience new things through technology. Technology has to make sense from a pedagogical point of view. The main questions to ask are, “How do we determine which technology to adopt?” and “How should we apply it?” We’ll all need to be more conversant with educational principles in order to decide.

Q: Will technology allow more flexibility to accommodate different learning styles?

Ipperciel: Three principles guide me in designing a course: universality, personalization and making it active/experiential. Following the first principle, I try, among other things, to build a class using universal design for learning (UDL), and it’s so much easier to do with technology. We can more easily accommodate different interests, needs and learning styles.

Q: Do we lose something when we don’t meet face-to-face?

Ipperciel: For me, the future of learning is not online. It will be a niche area for those who can’t attend class, which is about 20 per cent of the market. It will always be second best. Learning is a profoundly human experience, and you get that best face-to-face. The future is hybrid.

Q: Will interdisciplinary courses become more common with advances in educational technology?

Ipperciel: The future of teaching is also in the teams that will build courses. The level of course complexity is increasing, technology is multiplying, and information is more available. You can’t be an expert in everything. There are new interdisciplinary avenues to explore. I envision first-year courses being created by a team that includes the professor as subject specialist; a project manager; other subject matter experts; an instructional designer to look at user/interface design; educational developers to look at course structure, pedagogies and learning outcomes; a learning technologist to consider tools and platforms; a graphic designer; and a programmer. How great would courses be if the whole first-year program was designed by this team?

Q: Do you expect courses to become more individualized in terms of deliverables, assessment, etc.?

Ipperciel: Students have different backgrounds and interests, so I certainly give leeway in choosing essay topics. In the future, personalization will go much further with the help of adaptive learning. It will start with a questionnaire to set a baseline and determine where students are weaker and stronger. From that information, personalized courses will be created for individual students.

You can also use AI to further personalize courses using analytics, but that isn’t easily done without the team mentioned earlier. Personalized learning is all about self-paced progression and providing different paths for each student according to their needs and interests, while ensuring they reach the same learning objectives.

Q: With regard to assessment, what matters?

Ipperciel: I started thinking about this during COVID and the failure of e-proctoring. The answer I came up with is pedagogical: no mid-term or final exams but many more points of evaluation. I give weekly online quizzes that students must take before class, and technology makes that easy.

What really counts, however, is discussion. For each class discussion there is a presenter who highlights the main ideas and asks questions. The presenters are peer-rated using a rubric, and the discussion group must submit a summary of the discussion and receive a group grade. Technology makes it easy. There are also some additional assignments.

My goal is for them to be able to discuss the topics in an intelligent way, looking at all possible angles and justifying their thinking. It’s not only about writing.

Q: How do we prepare students for careers of the future that may not even exist yet?

Ipperciel: There are fundamentals that students will always need in the future, and they can enhance those with skills that will change over time. They will always require communications skills, collaborative skills, leadership skills and analytical skills, including the ability to think critically and consider different points of view. And creativity will never go out of style. As for special skills, they’ll have to decide individually about the specialized skills they’ll need for their chosen careers.

OsgoodePD earns award for innovation in teaching and learning

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Osgoode Professional Development (OsgoodePD) has been recognized for its innovative execution in converting a historically in-person, skills-based, learn-by-doing program into an online format.  

The annual Intensive Trial Advocacy Workshop (ITAW) earned the Award of Outstanding Achievement in the Technology category for the 2021 Association of Continuing Legal Education’s (ACLEA’s) Best Awards. ACLEA is the international association for continuing education devoted to improving the performance of continuing legal education (CLE) professionals around the world.

The award recognized innovation in teaching and learning applied to the OsgoodePD program during the pandemic, when the 41st annual ITAW was reimagined in a virtual format.

Osgoode Professional Development (OsgoodePD)’s Annual Intensive Trial Advocacy Workshop (ITAW) won the Award of Outstanding Achievement in the Technology category for the 2021 Association for Continuing Legal Education (ACLEA)’s Best Award
Osgoode Professional Development’s annual Intensive Trial Advocacy Workshop won an award for its innovative approach to teaching and learning

ITAW is a six-day learn-by-doing trial advocacy program that brings together a group of more than 100 instructors and guest speakers, all active members of the bench and bar and trained in teaching oral advocacy. When the in-person event was cancelled due to the pandemic, the OsgoodePD team embraced the opportunity to bring it to the many litigators who depend on the program in a virtual format.

Ensuring the design of the program kept ITAW’s core elements, the program transitioned to online in only a few months, requiring the team to leverage its resources in new and creative ways. OsgoodePD staff and faculty had to be trained in online learning and the use of technological platforms, and equipment had to be repurposed so that ITAW could be run remotely.

Offering the program with a blend of asynchronous elements gave participants the flexibility to learn at their own pace, in any space. The online format also increased accessibility to those outside of Toronto, and made this a viable program for sole practitioners and smaller firms.

ITAW participants gained invaluable experience in the practicalities of trial advocacy, and were able to practise their trial advocacy skills on digital platforms that have taken on increased importance during the pandemic. In this sense, the program prepared participants to be effective advocates in the new world of digital trial advocacy. Furthermore, participants received an electronic portfolio of their performances to allow them to further review and reflect on their skills development post-program.

“This was an excellent course that will certainly have an impact on my practice. I cannot recommend it enough,” said program participant Dianne Jozefacki, Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie LLP. “You receive invaluable feedback on performing direct and cross-examinations and opening and closing statements, which are key skills that all lawyers who want to be oral advocates must master. I know that I will be a better lawyer for taking this course.”

Learning from this, OsgoodePD has used this innovation to transition other interactive CLE programs online, optimizing the use of digital platforms like Zoom to deliver skills-based CLE in an effective and engaging way.

Due to the success of the online ITAW, the 2021 the program was considerably scaled up and sold out with an extensive wait-list.

“ITAW is a valuable course for new and senior calls alike,” said participant Samira Ahmed, justice for children and youth. “The faculty, lectures and on-your-feet learning will leave you with new confidence and strategies for successful trial advocacy.”

York University’s OsgoodePD offers a broad and flexible range of interdisciplinary graduate-level and continuing education legal programs to professionals with and without law degrees.

Hyflex pilot tests seamless remote participation in courses

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The future of higher education is blended and will enable learning anytime, anywhere. Hyflex is an emerging model that will help York University continue along a path towards equity and access for students regardless of their location.

By Elaine Smith, special contributor

As Canada begins to look beyond the pandemic, educators have been pondering what shape education will take at universities. One option is a hyflex model of course delivery, which is being tested in a pilot program at York University this fall. Hyflex courses combine in-class and online instruction delivered concurrently, says Peter Wolf, a consultant working on the project with Professor Will Gage, associate vice-president (AVP) of teaching and learning.

“We are considering the long term,” said Wolf. “We can’t replace all our classrooms to ensure that they are equipped for hyflex delivery, so we want to identify for whom, how and when this approach works best.”

Gage strongly believes that “the future of higher education is blended and will enable learning anytime, anywhere. Hyflex is an emerging model that will help us continue along a path towards equity and access for students regardless of their location,” he said.

One of the 31 classrooms at the Keele Campus that have been retrofitted to allow for the blended classroom experience made possible through the hyflex model of course delivery
One of the 31 classrooms at the Keele Campus that have been retrofitted to allow for the blended classroom experience, made possible through the hyflex model of course delivery

“All universities are looking at it, but it is perfectly aligned with York’s ethos of access, equality, inclusion and social justice. It is well aligned with where our university is continuing to go.”

There are currently 31 classrooms on the Keele Campus and 15 on the Glendon Campus that are retrofitted – with more to come – to allow remote students to seamlessly participate in courses delivered on campus. The technology installed in the classrooms ensures the two-way engagement of participants.

The pilot, which is focusing on a subset of those locations, has welcomed instructors who are scheduled to teach in those classrooms to take part and 15 of them from a variety of disciplines have signed on. They recently underwent a hyflex training session led by Aladin Alaily, director of client support services for University Information Technology (UIT), to familiarize them with the technology and the opportunities provided by this mode of course delivery.

The pilot, said Wolf, is “intended to make this mode of delivery viable and sustainable for ongoing use.” It will also provide the hyflex team, which includes Frankie Billingsley, associate registrar and director, student records and scheduling for the Office of the University Registrar; Karthiga Gowrishanger, program director, teaching and learning strategic initiatives, Office of the AVP Teaching and Learning; and Patrick Thibaudeau, director, IT innovation and academic technologies, UIT, with the opportunity to investigate hyflex course delivery in a scholarly manner to disseminate lessons learned about classroom technologies, digital technologies and educational strategies.

Given the complexities in the start of the fall semester due to the pandemic, there was no time to match technologically equipped classrooms to the 200 instructors who expressed interest in hyflex delivery, although that is something the team will work to make possible after the pilot. Nor did the students in these classrooms explicitly register for a hyflex class; they could choose to participate remotely as an option or continue to attend the in-person class as they would any other. In the future, it should be possible to promote hyflex courses in advance.

“Our intention is to identify where concurrent delivery can work in the educational setting,” said Wolf. “This is not designed to be a pandemic response; it is about finding educational value in providing equitable, concurrent experiences for the students.

“For example, it can also allow classes to engage in globally networked learning more easily, teaming up with similar classes abroad on projects, or to have guest lecturers from elsewhere participate online.”

One of the 15 classrooms at the Glendon Campus retrofitted to accommodate the hyflex model of course delivery
One of the 15 classrooms at the Glendon Campus retrofitted to accommodate the hyflex model of course delivery

Nonetheless, the pandemic has illustrated the value of flexible modes of course delivery, as Neil Orlowsky, PhD, realized. Orlowsky, a practicum facilitator seconded to the Faculty of Education from the York Region District School Board, will be using hyflex technology for his course, Teaching Family Studies in the Intermediate-Senior Divisions.

“To be honest, I signed up for the program for two reasons,” Orlowsky said. “The first is being led and driven by the uncertainly of teaching during a pandemic and how we can ensure our safety, as well as the students’ safety. This was coupled with the fact that our students are now global, meaning that given the pandemic, some have opted to continue schooling from home, which is either in Canada or abroad. The second reason was my passion for technology and a drive to keep up with how the world is changing, how technology is shifting the way we educate and the role of technology in accessibility.”

Wolf notes that hyflex learning won’t immediately become ubiquitous because it is not viable nor desirable to equip all classrooms with the infrastructure. However, the pilot will help illustrate how to make it more accessible for a larger number of classes. He and the team also surveyed the faculty involved prior to the start of the semester and will do so again once their courses conclude to learn as much as they can about the experience in order to improve it. Faculty will also provide biweekly feedback and meet with the team halfway through the pilot. In turn, the team will offer tips and suggestions for improving the class experience.

“Our ultimate goal,” said Gage, “is to create equivalent experiences for students regardless of their learning location and provide them with more opportunities to engage with their education.”