Redefining the undergraduate learning experience in Creative Writing
June 7, 2022
Before the start of the project, Sara Graefe, lecturer in Playwriting and Screenwriting in the School of Creative Writing, was teaching a three-hour course every Friday afternoon in a large lecture hall. “I would usually have a lecture on a topic, then we would often screen short films in class, do some writing exercises, then a bit more lecture,” she remembers. However, Sara admits that the time and format of her course did not resonate well. “Students hated the three hours at the end of a long week; I hated the three hours. It was really a challenge to keep students engaged.”
Sheryda Warrener, lecturer in Poetry in the School of Creative Writing, found herself in a similar position. For one of her courses, she used to teach twice a week in a lecture hall. “We would have a slideshow during the lecture. Sometimes we would do some writing prompts or other activities, but that was it.” Beyond the delivery method, it was the course dynamic in relation to her topic that Sheryda found challenging. “Some students would go all semester without speaking to anyone else in the class. It felt a little antithetical to what poetry is, which is forging connections with people and expressing yourself. I feel like the lecture is quite passive as a form, and that it didn’t really fit my content – or the discipline – at all.”
Fortunately, in 2018 the School of Creative Writing received a three-year Large TLEF Transformation grant to support the renewal of its Minor Program curriculum by redesigning 11 courses to each consist of a completely hybrid learning format. The purpose of the project was to increase student engagement and learning flexibility.
Learn more about the Large TLEF Transformation funding: Special call for hybrid and multi-access course redesign projects
- Teaching and Learning
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