• COVID-19
• CA close
• English close
• VIUSpace close
• COVID-19 close

A sense of belonging is a fundamental human need, especially important for first-year undergraduates since it is directly related to their overall success and experience with the institution they attend (Ahn & Davis, 2020; Freeman et al., 2007; Tinto, 2017). This need drives individuals to seek mutually beneficial relationships (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Over, 2016; Taormina & Gao, 2013), underscoring the need for ongoing, positive interactions between the students and their instructors—and the university as a whole—as well as between the students themselves (Tinto, 2017). For the 2020-2021 school year, however, first-year students at traditional universities in Canada faced a new and unexpected reality: an online-only experience—along with restricted in-person contact in general—due to policies enforced by the Canadian government in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic (CBC, 2020; CDC, 2020; Government of Canada, 2020). At the University of British Columbia (UBC), specifically, on-campus activities and related events were cancelled, limited, or offered solely online, the requirement to live locally was removed—removing the dormitory or shared housing experience for most students—and all courses (except a select few within visual arts, music, and theatre) were delivered online (UBC Service Desk, personal communication, April 4, 2022). This combination of restricted in-person contact and digital course delivery highlights the importance of understanding the students’ need for belonging—specifically, whether and how it is met in the online-only context—as well as the roles played by the communicative tools involved.

This research examined the function and value of a coalition in identifying and mobilizing novel solutions to health organizations across Canada in an environment of forced disruption (i.e., COVID-19). More specifically, the study used a naturalistic inquiry methodology to understand the process of how the Canadian Health Leadership Network (CHLNet) coalition responded to the need to integrate e-Learning—an unfamiliar delivery practice for leadership development—into leadership development for its member partners and was hastened by the pandemic. The CHLNet case study results suggested that the coalition was a valuable setting upon which to identify and mobilize knowledge across Canada, despite the many challenges the pandemic brought. Further, the findings suggested that for CHLNet, key process elements contributed to their success that included using an adaptive leadership approach, taking advantage of an opportunity, selecting the right people to work on the project, actively managing the project, and allowing iterative journey processes that mirrored those of design thinking to emerge. Out of this study came three recommendations that address gaps in knowledge and suggest new lines of inquiry, namely: to look for patterns of successful project initiatives in coalitions; to explore a possible correlation between design thinking and coalition project initiatives; and to study the mindset, motivation, and empowerment of coalition project members. Overall, this study illustrated the significant value a coalition could have on identifying and mobilizing divergent practice knowledge on a national scale during a chaotic time of forced disruption across health organizations.

Fully online Elementary learners face significant challenges in connecting and engaging meaningfully with other learners, their teachers, and with digitally presented and asynchronous content and instructional materials. Even though they often come to Distributed Learning (DL) programs in order to address specific and highly individual learning needs that are not being met in traditional group school settings, online students still desire and benefit from opportunities to participate and share in synchronous learning opportunities which motivate and engage in meaningful and personalized ways. The current COVID-19 situation as well as parent and student experiences with Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) have only heightened the need to find more connecting and supportive learning environments. This Process Paper utilizes current research and technologies to address the Critical Challenge Question, “How can a synchronous, gamified, and narrative-based Humanities course be designed to promote meaningful connection and engagement for fully online Grade 6 students?” A comprehensive Literature Review and application of Connectivist and Constructivist learning theory has contributed to the creation of a student website which blends synchronous and asynchronous elements. Through a narrative and gamified structure encompassing the use of points trackers, badges, and student-choice experiences, this Major Project is designed to meaningfully connect learners to their teacher and each other. Students engaging in personalized and interest-based learning opportunities while working together with their peers will experience a greater sense of connection, motivating and helping them to feel personally invested in their learning community. https://viurrspace.ca/bitstream/handle/10613/25214/Standbridge.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y

This thesis, “Enhancing Capacity of the Coalition of African, Caribbean, and Black Nurses (CACBN) to Support Black Nurses in British Columbia to Achieve Greater Psychological Health in the Workplace” utilizes the methodological frameworks of the Action Research Engagement model, Black Feminist Thought and Intersectionality, Participatory Action Research and Appreciative Inquiry to answer the following question: How can the CACBN support Black nurses to achieve greater psychological health in the workplace? The African, Caribbean, and Black nurse participants were predominantly from CACBNs membership, held various nursing designations, and came from different practice environments. Data collection methods included a survey, interviews, and reflective journaling. Several sub-themes emerged from five overarching themes: Relational Connection: “Fitting In”, Factors that Contribute to Safety in the Workplace, System Level Supports Needed from Health Care Organizations, CACBN Supports for ACBNs, and Impacts of COVID-19 on ACBNs. Study recommendations for health organizations include developing workplace anti-racism policies and providing career supports and leadership opportunities, while recommendations for CACBN include providing anti-Black racism education to health authorities and schools, offering mentorship, and creating safe spaces for dialogue.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused me to reflect on how my home economics grade 8 to 12 pedagogy changed during crisis. In addition, the quarantine period from March to June of 2020 created an immersion in rapid adaptation of food practices during a time of socio-economic disruption. This multidisciplinary approach to resilience research explored autoethnographic narratives of personal identity and transformation with regard to food systems during crisis using an ecofeminist lens, in addition to writing as inquiry comprised of a selection of themed Twitter comments about quarantine baking intended to explore the relationship between cooking and socioecological resilience. A growing sense of connection to nature through food and finding my place in the feminist movement emerged through reflective practice and reflexive responses to bake from the public domain that I discovered. Finally, I reflect on how these insights fed my teaching practice to become more aligned with the values of environmental education and the caring ethic of feminism.

In response to the severity and tenacious nature of COVID-19, the United Nations (UN) identified the cessation of intensive animal agriculture as one of three foci necessary to prevent another pandemic as well as to bring human society and the planet back on a healthful course. Animal health, human health, and environmental health were deemed to be the three critical factors, and the UN stressed that all three need to be addressed collaboratively as an integrated whole. The Farmed Animal Advocacy Movement (FAAM or Movement), is a social justice movement working on behalf of farmed animals used for food. Currently, the majority of the work undertaken in Canada and the United States to combat intensive animal agriculture is undertaken by women. Numerous measures, however, assert that the FAAM is failing. A core cause is the troubled state of many FAAM organizations, and the impact this is having on the women employed as vocational animal activists. This qualitative approach to research sought to explore the experiences and recommendations of these women through their stories as a means to deepen the understanding of the FAAM’s organizational practices, and suggest tools for sustainability. A reflexive thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with 33 FAAM vocational activists was conducted. Ubiquitously, the interviews revealed a pervasive culture of oppressive ‘isms’, including racism and sexism, as well as significant illegal employment-based activities. Participants were also queried as to their suggested recommendations in regard to employment and organizational practices. One significant result of these recommendations was the creation of a proposed, practical, reasonable, and abundantly actionable checklist of practices, that, if implemented, may be instrumental in assuring a positive, highly engaging, highly ethical and more sustainable work culture able to perform the essential labour of protecting animals, and by extension, supporting the proposal by the UN to protect society from another pandemic.

For decades, the Canadian news media industry has been eroded by a myriad of factors including media conglomeration, the changing digital landscape, and declining advertising revenue—a situation which has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This research examines six community news organizations across the western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia who are using new journalism practices and revenue models to serve their communities as a response to the ongoing crisis narrative currently surrounding the Canadian media industry. Through an action research appreciative inquiry methodology, this research focuses on what is working well for these organizations to create new regionally based knowledge regarding the keys to their current success, to future sustainability, and to potential replicability. In addition, the data is analyzed through Carlson’s metajournalistic discourse framework to uncover in what ways these journalists are challenging or changing the discourse surrounding local news production in their communities and in the wider industry. It concludes there are several foundational blocks other community news publishers can build upon to help create healthy and diverse media ecosystems, and while readers are showing support for these news organizations, the wider industry could be doing more to legitimize their organizations and metajournalisitc discourses.

Schools are not immune to crises. Whether it be earthquakes, wildfires, shootings, or global pandemics, schools will always be required to react quickly and efficiently to crises (Liou, 2015, p. 248). One large component of this reaction is communication. Therefore, school leaders need to be prepared to communicate quickly, efficiently, and effectively both internally and with the broader community during times of crisis. The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 created an exceptional urgency for schools to practice and refine their crisis communication as they dealt with the ongoing pandemic (Government of Canada, 2022). In British Columbia, the pandemic caused a state of emergency that has lasted nearly a year and a half (Lawson et al., 2021). During this time, schools went through many different situations of crisis, including short-term emergencies and long-term sustained stress. Schools also needed to react quickly to changing government guidelines, community exposures and public health directives (BC Ministry of Health, 2021). The purpose of this study is to examine the opportunities and challenges that arose as school leaders attempted to develop best practices, processes and procedures that amounted to effective communication during an unprecedented international health emergency.

Building equitable, accessible and affordable campuses through Co-operatives. Webinars discussing co-operatives, what they are and how they could make for more equitable and accessible campus communities. Co-op webinar 1. This video is part of the first webinar in the webinar series on "COVID-19 Response: Building Higher Learning Resilience in the Face of Epidemics". Webinar occurred on February 24th, 2021.

Conference paper: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition. Conference dates: June 26 - 29, 2022. Location: Minneapolis, MN. © 2022 American Society for Engineering Education. This paper was originally published as: Dick, B. (2022). Long-term impact of COVID-19 on the first-year engineering experience at a mid-sized teaching focused university [Paper presentation]. 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. https://peer.asee.org/41352 This paper discusses the COVID-19 adaptions made within the first-year engineering design curriculum, and reflects on their impact fulfilling the required learning outcomes, mitigating student mental health issues, and addressing academic misconduct. It will further articulate the adaptations that are planned to be continued within the first-year experience as students return for face-to-face instruction. The impact of these changes will continue to be studied over the coming academic year. https://viurrspace.ca/bitstream/handle/10613/26179/DickASEE2022.pdf?sequence=3