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Hyflex pilot tests seamless remote participation in courses

An image of a women using a laptop to video conference with another woman

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.”

Team tasked with reimagining course delivery

Student working at home having a video conference with colleagues

A small, multidisciplinary team has been hard at work exploring new ways to enhance online courses and the experiences of instructors, students and administrative staff. They’ve developed an innovative course design concept known as the perpetual course model.

By Elaine Smith, special contributor

Mary Helen Armour, an associate professor for the Division of Natural Science, has always had an interest in trying new things, which led her to explore online teaching long before remote course delivery became a pandemic necessity. Her dissatisfaction with the way it was being done led her to Will Gage, York University’s associate vice-president of teaching and learning, and the opportunity to test an incipient perpetual course model.

“Regular classes have benefits, but online teaching always interested me because of accessibility issues,” Armour said. “I know a number of people who couldn’t afford to go away to school and didn’t live near enough to a university to commute. As technology gets better, you can create online courses that offer an equally effective learning experience, if not the same, as in-person classes.”

Five years ago, Gage’s own interest in course availability and accessibility prompted him to put together a team to rethink course delivery with an emphasis on creating a model that could adapt to and integrate emerging technology.

From left: Will Gage, associate vice-president teaching and learning; Michelle Sengara, PhD, a consulting educational expert; and Kelly Parke, a technology consultant
From left: Will Gage, associate vice-president teaching and learning; Michelle Sengara, PhD, a consulting educational expert; and Kelly Parke, a technology consultant

Michelle Sengara, a consulting educational expert, leads this small team for strategic course innovation, and together they have been focused on the problem of providing high-quality education online ever since. Gage asked the team to consider both the students’ and instructors’ experiences while also streamlining the administrative staff’s experiences within one design for what a course of the future might look like. This innovative course design is now called the perpetual course model.

They spent a year learning about the problem, conducting design sprints and developing the proof of concept to describe what the experience might look like. They followed that by getting buy-in for the approach and drumming up interest within the York community. For the past three years, they have been testing this perpetual course model, using the feedback and insights generated from mixed methods of research to refine – and design. This year, an expanded prototyping process was offered to a set of five instructors with the help of Category 2 funding – focusing on academic innovation projects – from the Academic Innovation Fund.

“Current models of education, across age levels and/or subject areas, tend to centre on knowledge acquisition, but the work being done now is to recentre the educational experience on skill acquisition in order to mobilize those knowledge assets in more innovative and meaningful ways,” Sengara said. “This work needs to be integrated at both the high-school level – in order to adequately prepare students for an active and participatory postsecondary environment – and at the level of professional development, supporting instructors in the design, development and delivery of high-quality, skills-based programs.

“What we are developing is not a prescription; it encompasses principles and values for teaching at York, but the team works with every instructor to personalize the learning experience for their students given their specific subject matter,” Sengara added.

The model aims to provide students with skills in knowledge acquisition, knowledge agility, autonomy and professionalism, and interaction and collaboration, while inspiring creativity. Each course’s curriculum determines the knowledge they’ll need to acquire, but the model offers alternatives in how that information is delivered and assessed to promote the student’s mastery of both the subject matter and the aforementioned skills.

Ideally, the perpetual course model would allow students to register and begin a course whenever it was convenient for them, with staff always available, said Sengara, “allowing them to work their way through self-paced learning modules, but with tangible support. It’s not something we can realize just yet because registration processes are traditionally tied to government funding and come with strict credit and time/space restrictions. However, our goal is that every course would have one perpetual section.”

Armour was the first faculty member to test this flexible model and it required her to rethink the full-year course Earth and Its Atmosphere, change the structure and rethink the order of the content. She made it modular and incorporated videos, breaking the four course themes into subtopics. This is her fourth year participating in the perpetual course model experiment and she has refined her approach and content each year, learning from her mistakes and student feedback.

“The first year, I made everything due at the end of the course, which is open to students from all years, and the procrastination was horrible,” she said. “I realized that they aren’t that disciplined, so I reinstated due dates within the themes, but made them submission windows as opposed to hard cut-off points.”

Since students can work at their own pace, “as an instructor, you have to be ready to answer questions about anything at any time, since students work ahead. You need to teach the course a time or two before you become comfortable with the process,” said Armour.

“For students who are organized, it’s a really good option. However, I had to make my own boundaries clear to them, in terms of when I’m available to answer questions and when I’m not. Artificial intelligence (AI) may be able to take over some of that work.”

That’s where Kelly Parke, a technology consultant and another member of the team, enters the picture.

“We are considering how technology can assist faculty to make their jobs better and allow for more one-on-one interaction,” Parke said. “When you don’t spend time with students, you lose connection. How can we build courses so artificial intelligence can help us understand the students a bit better and know early on when they’re having problems so we can intervene?”

He envisions that AI could allow the course to be responsive to each student’s learning style, allowing faculty to determine when a crisis is approaching and taking preventive action.

“University Information Technology wanted to build better integration with AI technologies, so we built the infrastructure internally,” he said. “We’re working with key research partners so we can prepare data for classification and analysis and allow AI to assist us in helping our students.”

“Ultimately, we should be able to customize each course to be like personal instruction, training AI using rubrics and samples to mark and grade like each individual faculty member would.”

York’s new director of IT innovation and academic technologies is on board with the experimentation being done by the perpetual course model team and partners such as IBM. They all believe the future looks bright.

“We have support in building a community of practice to help disseminate what we learn,” Sengara said. “This year, we have five courses being taught using the perpetual course model and we meet monthly. In innovation, you need to help people along and troubleshoot throughout the process.”

Armour believes that students “need to learn to deal with online courses; they are another skill for life and they may need to upgrade their credentials.”

The perpetual course model is working toward making high-quality learning opportunities available online in a way that is most beneficial to everyone involved, pandemic or not.

York University’s Teaching Commons is always evolving

Image shows fall trees in brilliant reds and golds. The trees line the campus walk on the Keele campus.

Instructional needs of faculty, course directors and teaching assistants at York University are constantly changing and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought this into sharp focus. The University’s Teaching Commons has responded by rethinking and expanding their support, workshops and courses.

By Elaine Smith, special contributor

Geneviève Maheux-Pelletier
Geneviève Maheux-Pelletier

As the instructional needs of faculty, course directors and teaching assistants at York University change, the staff at the Teaching Commons adjust the workshops and services they provide accordingly.

“With the pandemic, we’ve had to really expand and extend the kinds of offerings we’ve traditionally had at the Teaching Commons,” said Geneviève Maheux-Pelletier, the Teaching Commons’ director. “Beyond merely pivoting to online delivery of services, we’ve had to rethink and expand our support.”

As course delivery moved online, the Teaching Commons staff attempted to “meet the instructors wherever they were,” said Maheux-Pelletier, whether that meant providing an introduction to using Zoom or answering questions about engaging students remotely. The Going Remote website had more than 30,000 page views from September 2020 to August 2021.

One thing that remained constant was access to the Teaching Commons’ educational developers.

“We continued our virtual office hours from 10 a.m. to noon so people could come with questions and we could provide just-in-time support,” she said.

In addition, the Teaching Commons has continued to offer its popular certificate courses, workshops and seminars. Courses are generally asynchronous and allow faculty, course directors and teaching assistants to use the eClass environment to work at their own pace. They can be taken individually or bundled into a certificate such as the Certificate of Proficiency for Teaching in eLearning. Two new courses were added to the certificate’s lineup this this summer: Beyond eClass: Interactive Pedagogies Using Zoom, H5P and More; and Caring to Teach: Supporting Student Transitions Between Teaching and Learning Environments.

“One of the positives coming out of the pandemic has been an interest in compassionate teaching and a heightened sense of the difficulties and hardships students experience and what it might mean to care for them in an online environment.”

Educational developer Natasha May co-created Caring to Teach, a four-module course that focuses on the pedagogy of care.

“This course was inspired by our postdoctoral visitors, Brandon Wooldridge and Ameera Ali, who were very eager, so it got things moving,” said May. “We met weekly during the winter to brainstorm ideas and also discussed it during our team meetings.

“The course connects Brandon’s research into the pedagogy of care from an instructor’s perspective and Ameera’s research into transitioning between learning environments with student well-being as the focus.”

May said that the first module explores what it means to incorporate a pedagogy of care into your courses, while the second looks at transitioning to remote learning and back and its impact on students. The next two modules focus on flexibility and what faculty can do to disaster-proof their courses, making the transition easier. The final module focuses on the faculty member’s own professional development and next steps.

Participants were able to take the course synchronously or asynchronously, with opportunities for weekly synchronous discussions and breakout rooms. There were 27 participants in the program, 21 of whom completed all the modules.

“I got all kinds of great ideas from the class and I hope we provided them with some support,” said May.

Additionally, the Teaching Commons also added the Active Learning Playground to its portfolio this summer. Educational developer Robin Sutherland-Harris led the development of the playground, comprising five one-and-a-half-hour sessions.

“It’s an idea that came up during a workshop series, said Sutherland-Harris. “Everything has been so unsettled and it seemed unclear what the fall would look like, so we wanted to support a flexible approach to teaching to keep everyone active and engaged. One way of responding to the uncertainty was to prioritize a conversation about implementing active learning strategies in the classroom.”

Each playground session explored one or more active learning strategies that faculty could use in various contexts (e.g. blended, face-to-face, online) and the ways they could be adapted to whatever the pandemic required. The program had 82 participants this summer.

“We’d talk about the strategies, such as six thinking hats or escape rooms, and have people use them in the session,” said Sutherland-Harris. “Then, we’d discuss their experiences of each activity and what challenges they envisioned in incorporating it into their courses. It was a fun and exploratory way of engaging with the uncertainty around teaching.”

This fall, the Teaching Commons team will be back on campus five days a week and will use their courses to experiment with two new classrooms that are equipped for collaborative learning and hyflex delivery (enabling remote participants to join the in-person session using Zoom and cutting-edge hardware).

“We’ll see how faculty in those classes respond to these modes as learners,” said Maheux-Pelletier. “It will also give them the ability to understand the learner’s point of view.”

Depending on the pandemic landscape this fall, “we’ll be as flexible and as thorough as possible in delivering our programming and in documenting results so we can see where the interest is and look toward the winter semester.”

Try these 30-minute sessions to reduce stress

A person in meditation pose

A few simple practices that take 30 minutes can help to reduce stress and boost energy will be taught during the Fall 2021 Stress Busting Series at York University.

Offering “30 minutes of magical practices,” the series runs over 10 weeks beginning Sept. 27 and features qigong, mindfulness meditation and Capacitar wellness.

Faculty of Health Professor Harvey Skinner will teach how these practices can empower us to care for our health and well-being, with sessions open to everyone at York and running from 12 to 12:30 p.m. Each session will follow with a Q-and-A, which is optional for participants.

For Fall 2021, the program includes:

  • Qigong (Mondays and Thursdays) –  a typical 30-minute session involves breath work, energizing movements, purging exercises, flowing movements and meditation. These sessions run Sept. 27 to Dec. 2.
  • Mindfulness Meditation (Tuesdays) – a typical 30-minute session involves mindfulness of breath, awareness of body sensations, loving kindness and self-compassion practices, and RAIN meditation for strong emotions. These sessions run Sept. 28 to Nov. 30.
  • Capacitar Healing Practices (Wednesdays) – a typical 30-minute session involves meditation and mindfulness, finger holds and other body holds for managing emotions, t’ai chi/qigong movements, emotional freedom technique and acupressure points. These sessions run Sept. 29 to Dec. 1.

These programs are offered for free to the York University community. Details about the series and registration are available from the Stress Busting website or by contacting Skinner directly by email at harvey.skinner@yorku.ca.

Skinner is a professor of psychology and global health and was founding dean (2006-16) of the Faculty of Health. His daily wellness routine includes: qigong energy and movement practices, mindfulness meditation and body work exercises.

Hellenic Heritage Foundation donation will highlight experiences of Greek diaspora in Canada

HHF President with York University President as they unveil a poster at gift announcement event on September 22

The funding will expand the existing physical archive and establish a digital archive of images, documents, video and other assets that are related to Greek Canadian history.

When Christopher Grafos entered the Graduate Program in History at York University, he encountered the same problem time and time again.

“When I spoke to Greek Canadians about their immigration experiences and their time in Canada, they would often tell me that they had thrown out a lot of the materials that would help researchers examine their history,” says Grafos, who completed his PhD in 2016. “It was such a tragedy for me to learn that we were in danger of allowing these experiences to fade away without preserving them through images, videos, newsletters, and other materials that brings this history to life.”

Together with his then-supervisor, Professor Sakis Gekas, HHF Chair in Modern Greek History, Grafos founded the Greek Canadian History Project in 2012. As the archives grew, so did the need to catalogue, digitize, present and preserve these materials, and to help Greek Canadians tell their stories through recorded oral histories and other methods.

On Sept. 22, the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies announced an important $1.4-million gift from the Hellenic Heritage Foundation (HHF) that will help York preserve, catalogue, digitize and teach these histories.

In recognition of this new gift, the Greek Canadian History Project will receive a new name; starting Sept. 27, the project will be known as The Hellenic Heritage Foundation Greek Canadian Archives.

Above: From left, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Dean JJ McMurtry; Hellenic Heritage Foundation President Tony Lourakis; York University President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda L. Lenton; and, Acting Vice-President Advancement E. Louise Spencer
Above: From left, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Dean JJ McMurtry; Hellenic Heritage Foundation President Tony Lourakis; York University President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda L. Lenton; and, Acting Vice-President Advancement E. Louise Spencer

“This support from our partners at HHF will allow us to add resources that will expand the archives and increase our capacity to engage with our community’s past and present,” says Gekas. “In collaboration with the Clara Thomas Archives, York libraries and community partners, our intention is to digitize a lot of the paper material that we already hold and will acquire in the future for preservation and dissemination purposes, primarily in research and teaching. For example, historical material such as photographs and films, but also written records like old newspaper articles, which would otherwise be destroyed without preservation.”

This gift from HHF will help expand the existing physical archive and establish a digital archive to be housed at York University. As well, the funding will provide a framework for the study of Greek diaspora around the world.

“Focusing on the experiences of average Greek Canadians has tremendous importance,” says Grafos, who is currently the project’s director. “That’s because during the early days of the project, almost everyone said that they never saw themselves as important enough to preserve their story in an archive.”

“York University is profoundly grateful for its longstanding partnership with the Hellenic Heritage Foundation,” said Rhonda Lenton, president and vice-chancellor. “For more than two decades, the Hellenic Heritage Foundation has been a generous supporter of the University and the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. Today’s landmark $1.4-million contribution will serve to expand the newly renamed Hellenic Heritage Foundation Greek Canadian Archives, providing indispensable resources for scholars and researchers exploring the immigrant experience in Canada.”

The partnership between HHF and York University started in 2000, when the Foundation made a landmark contribution to create the Hellenic Heritage Foundation Chair in Modern Greek History, an endowed chair position currently held by Prof. Gekas. 

“The establishment of the HHF Chair in Modern Greek History was a visionary act,” says JJ McMurtry, dean of LA&PS. “Under Prof. Gekas’ exceptional leadership, the Chair has opened up new lines of inquiry, which have led to important new academic activity focusing both on Modern Greece, and on Greece’s many intersections with modern Canada.”

For HHF President Tony Lourakis, the most exciting part of the Foundation’s investment is the long-term and infinite possibilities that will come from expanding the archives.

“Investing in the HHF Greek Canadian Archives represents the foundation of what we hope to achieve,” says Lourakis. “The archives will be public and available for people to study. They’ll be able to learn about Greek Canadian history in a way that they might not experience from other public historical records. And in turn, we can engage with the public in a more familiar and intimate way than we might have otherwise.”

For Grafos, the recognition that this investment from HHF brings validates the importance of the archives.

“With this recognition, we hope to collect even more materials and more stories about the Greek immigrant experience in Canada,” he says. “It’s time to let community members tell their own stories.”

Wildfire and flood disasters are causing ‘climate migration’ within Canada. Click here for more York U in the news

An op-ed by York University Professor Yvonne Su was published in the Conversation Sept. 20. Read full story.

Would electoral reform have propelled the People’s Party of Canada into Parliament?
York University Professor Dennis Pilon was quoted in the Toronto Star Sept. 21. Read full story.

‘Waste of money’: Canadians lament C$612 million election that changed little
York University Professor Sheila Colla was quoted in Reuters Sept. 21. Read full story.

Parents, students, teachers call for end to ‘hybrid’ classes in Toronto public schools
York University postdoctoral researcher Beyhan Farhadi was quoted in CBC News Sept. 21. Read full story.

Analysis: Tory blue ‘political machine’ reasserts its grip north of York Region
York University Visiting Professor Michael Johns was quoted on NewmarketToday.ca Sept. 21. Read full story.

$600m squandered? ‘that’s money that was going to be spent, whether the election took place now or in a year.’
York University Visiting Professor Michael Johns was quoted on barrie360.com Sept. 21. Read full story.

‘I am humbled, proud and privileged’: Majid Jowhari holds Richmond Hill for Liberals after tight race
York University Professor Dennis Pilon was quoted in the Richmond Hill Liberal Sept. 21. Read full story.Read full story.

NFP names new associate general counsel for Canadian operations
Osgoode Hall Law School alumna Lesley Munk was profiled in Insurance Business Canada Sept. 21. Read full story.

This desert valley is home to 500 bee species, a world record
York University Professor Laurence Packer was mentioned in the National Geographic Sept. 21. Read full story.

Sven Spengemann holds Mississauga-Lakeshore riding
York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School was mentioned in the Toronto Star Sept. 21. Read full story.

ICBC announces MBA EduConnect 2021: Registrations open
York University was mentioned in BW Education Sept. 22. Read full story.

Baird Sampson Neuert designs new bioclimatic building
York University was mentioned in Construction Canada Sept. 21. Read full story.

Opinion: Don’t give up on Afghanistan’s women athletes
York University was mentioned in Reuters Sept. 21. Read full story.

Next Scholars’ Hub @ Home looks at equity and inclusion in online classrooms

child wearing headphones and looking at laptop screen

The Sept. 29 edition of the Scholars’ Hub @ Home speaker series features Associate Professor Sarah Barrett from York University’s Faculty of Education with a discussion titled “The key to equity and inclusion in online classrooms: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Headshot of York University Associate Professor Sarah Barrett
Sarah Barrett

Equity was one of the first casualties of change when schools closed in March 2020 and teachers and students were suddenly physically separated from each other. This talk will describe the experiences of Ontario teachers and the students facing disproportionate academic, psychological and social consequences. These findings can inform how to best create equitable and inclusive classrooms online.  

Brought to you by York University’s Office of Alumni Engagement, the Scholars’ Hub @ Home speaker series features discussions on a broad range of topics, with engaging lectures from some of York’s best and brightest minds. Students, alumni and all members of the community are invited to attend. All sessions take place at noon via Zoom.

Events are held in partnership with Vaughan Public Libraries, Markham Public Library and Aurora Public Library.

To register for this event, visit bit.ly/39nrqKj.

Updated vaccination guidelines for Ontario

Featured illustration of the novel coronavirus

La version française suit la version anglaise.

Dear York Community, 

On Sept. 14, the Ministry of Health released updated COVID-19 Guidance for Individuals Vaccinated outside of Ontario/Canada to align with Public Health Agency of Canada’s (PHAC) COVID-19 recommendations for individuals who are living, working or studying in Canada and who have received a non-Health Canada approved vaccine.   

The guidance states that in Ontario, an individual is considered fully vaccinated if they have received:  

  • The full series of a Health Canada-approved COVID-19 vaccine and any combination of such vaccines; 
  • One or two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine that is not authorized by Health Canada, followed by one dose of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine authorized by Health Canada; or  
  • Three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine that is not authorized by Health Canada; and 
  • It has been at least 14 days since their final dose of their COVID-19 vaccine.  

What This Means  

  1. If you are considered fully vaccinated as described above, no further vaccination is required at this time. Please ensure you upload your proof of vaccination to YU Screen as soon as possible. 
  2. If you are not considered fully vaccinated as described above, we encourage you to get your remaining dose or doses as soon as you are eligible and to upload your proof of vaccination to YU Screen.   

All York community members who are coming to campus for classes or in-person activities must be fully vaccinated with the full series of an accepted COVID-19 vaccine or combination of vaccines and must upload proof of vaccination to YU Screen in order to continue accessing York’s campuses in person by October 18, 2021. York will directly communicate with the full community about the date by which those requiring a third dose will be required to provide proof of their third dose. 

If you have received one or two doses of a COVID vaccine that is not yet approved by Health Canada, please review the guidelines from the Ministry of Health to determine your remaining course of vaccination. 

Key Dates 

  • Sept. 21-23, 28-30: vaccine clinics are running at the Aviva Centre on Keele Campus. You do not need an appointment and will be required to show one piece of identification. Those working or studying on the Glendon Campus can also continue accessing walk-in clinics available through Sunnybrook Hospital.  
  • Sept. 22: Ontario will require proof of vaccination to access certain businesses and services including indoor dining and other indoor public settings. Get more information about Ontario’s vaccine passport. 
  • Oct. 18: All community members are required to provide proof of vaccination through YU Screen. 

If you have questions about York’svaccine policy, please see the Proof of Vaccination FAQs and Mandatory COVID-19 Testing FAQs on the Better Together site. Thank you for continuing to keep York’s campuses safe and I hope you will join us later today at our next Town Hall. 

Sincerely, 
Parissa Safai
Special Advisor to the President for Academic Continuity Planning & COVID-19 Response

Nouvelles directives de vaccination pour l’Ontario

Chers membres de la communauté de York, 

Le 14 septembre, le ministère de la Santé a publié une mise à jour du Document d’orientation sur la COVID-19 à l’intention des personnes vaccinées à l’extérieur de l’Ontario et du Canada afin de s’aligner sur les recommandations liées à la COVID-19 de l’Agence de la santé publique du Canada (ASPC) pour les personnes vaccinées avec des vaccins non autorisés par Santé Canada qui vivent, travaillent ou étudient au Canada.    

Selon ces directives, en Ontario, une personne est considérée comme entièrement vaccinée si :  

  • elle a reçu une série complète de vaccins contre la COVID-19 approuvés par Santé Canada et une combinaison de tels vaccins; 
  • elle a reçu une ou deux doses d’un vaccin contre la COVID-19 qui n’est pas autorisé par Santé Canada, suivi d’une dose d’un vaccin contre la COVID-19 à ARNm autorisé par Santé Canada; ou  
  • elle a reçu trois doses d’un vaccin contre la COVID-19 qui n’est pas autorisé par Santé Canada; et 
  • il s’est écoulé au moins 14 jours depuis la dernière dose du vaccin contre la COVID-19.  

Ce que cela signifie : 

  1. Si vous répondez aux critères de vaccination complète mentionnés ci-dessus, aucune autre vaccination n’est nécessaire pour le moment. Veuillez télécharger votre preuve de vaccination dans YU Dépistage le plus rapidement possible. 
  2. Si vous ne répondez pas aux critères de vaccination complète mentionnés ci-dessus, nous vous encourageons à recevoir la ou les doses restantes dès que vous êtes admissible et à télécharger votre preuve de vaccination dans l’outil YU Dépistage.   

Tous les membres de la communauté de York qui viennent sur le campus pour des classes ou des activités en personne doivent être entièrement vaccinés avec une série complète de vaccins ou la combinaison de vaccins COVID-19; ils doivent télécharger leur preuve de vaccination dans YU Dépistage pour pouvoir continuer à accéder aux campus de York en personne après le 18 octobre 2021. York communiquera directement à toute la communauté la date à laquelle les personnes nécessitant une troisième dose devront fournir la preuve de leur troisième dose. 

Si vous avez reçu une ou deux doses d’un vaccin contre la COVID-19 qui n’a pas encore été approuvé par Santé Canada, veuillez consulter les directives du ministère de la Santé pour déterminer le reste de votre programme de vaccination. 

Dates importantes 

  • Du 21 au 23 septembre et du 28 au 30 septembre : Les cliniques de vaccination continuent au Centre Aviva sur le campus Keele. Vous n’avez pas besoin de prendre rendez-vous et vous devrez présenter une pièce d’identité. Les personnes qui travaillent ou étudient sur le campus Glendon peuvent également continuer à accéder aux cliniques sans rendez-vous offertes par l’hôpital Sunnybrook.  
  • 22 septembre : L’Ontario exigera une preuve de vaccination pour accéder à certaines entreprises et certains services, notamment les salles de restaurants intérieures et d’autres lieux publics intérieurs. Obtenez plus d’information sur le passeport vaccinal de l’Ontario.     
  • 18 octobre : Tous les membres de la communauté doivent fournir une preuve de vaccination avec YU Dépistage. 

Si vous avez des questions au sujet de la politique de vaccination de York, veuillez lire la FAQ sur la preuve de vaccination et la FAQ sur les tests obligatoires de dépistage de la COVID-19 sur le site Better Together. Je vous remercie de contribuer à la sécurité des campus de York et j’espère que vous vous joindrez à nous pour la conversation communautaire d’aujourd’hui. 

Sincères salutations,
Parissa Safai,
conseillère spéciale de la présidente pour la planification de la continuité académique et la réponse à la COVID-19

 

Here’s how to get your story in the new YFile

An image of a woman with a laptop that shows the YFile website

Last week, YFile marked a major milestone with the launch of its new website, archives and email newsletter that combine a modern design, improved functionality and enhanced user experience.

The project to overhaul the publication was undertaken with a community-first approach, with the goal of prioritizing the needs and requests of the York University community and YFile readers.

As part of this project, the YFile team has introduced several new resources to help community members share their important York stories through YFile.

Online story submission form

The updated YFile website features a new online story submission form to make it easier than ever to share ideas, stories and information with the YFile team. The online story submission form is accessible from the YFile homepage, the About YFile page and directly, using this link.

Designed and adapted from the previous downloadable story form, the new online story submission form allows content creators and community members to upload and send all of the information the YFile team requires for story development. In addition to filling out basic information – such as relevant dates and story description – this new form also encourages community members to consider how the story relates to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), which will amplify York’s leadership in SDG-related teaching, partnerships and campus practices.

Further to that, York communications staff and content creators now have the option of requesting up to five different tags for their story, which helps individual units meet their own digital-based goals and benchmarks. (See YFile’s Tagging Conventions and Master Tag List for more.)

Users of the online story submission form will be able to upload one document and up to three images. This new process will help to ensure balanced coverage of stories in YFile, and will save time and make the submission process more transparent.

Please bookmark the online story submission form and start using it today.

YFile User Manual

The YFile team recognizes there are many aspects to consider when requesting coverage in the publication – whether for a story, an ad, an event or a special issue. To help guide the York community through some of the commonly asked questions, YFile has published a brand-new resource called the YFile User Manual. It is accessible from the About YFile page and directly, from this link.

In addition to following the York University Writing Style Guide, YFile has its own unique set of rules and conventions for writing and publication. Outlined in the YFile User Manual are details for items such as deadlines, image requirements, embargoes, publication schedule, event coverage and much more.

The YFile User Manual is now available; please bookmark it and start using it today.