In this Issue

Hello << Test First Name >> << Test Last Name >>,

What's happening in the world of FASE EdTech this month? Spring has finally sprung and so has the new ETO website! The new branded site is now live and we’d like to share some highlights of the re-design (see Tip 01). While it may look different, the website will continue to highlight the work we do and how we support FASE faculty, such as sharing what we’ve learned at recent U of T events (see Tip 02) and best practices for building practical asynchronous case studies (see Tip 03).

What's happening over the next few months? We recently hosted a kick-off meeting for the next Mining Industry Management Program (MIMP) course: Construction & Development (C&D). The session was an opportunity to introduce the ETO team to the C&D instructors and discuss how we will be collaborating together, from planning to publishing their online modules. Over the next couple of months, the ETO will start to meet with each C&D instructor to record a scratch track of their presentation before we head into the design phase.

If you do one thing after reading this newsletter, make sure to catch up on the latest updates on Quercus and other Academic Toolbox tools. (see Tip 04).

1. Explore the new ETO website

We are thrilled to announce that the new ETO website is now live! We've spent months migrating hundreds of blog posts (we had a LOT of content; a special thanks to Irina Belaya, Cheryl Heeyeon Lee, and the ETO’s work study students, Favour Nwanna and Saanvi Prasanth who assisted with this), a handful of internal brainstorming sessions, multiple design iterations, and numerous hours of link testing. We didn’t do this alone and we’d like to thank FASE Strategic Communications and IT departments for their support, time and expertise.

We hope you’ll take a few minutes to explore the new site (we’re particularly proud of the ETO Services page). We’ve kept the site structure the same to maintain a familiar experience for our returning visitors, but have updated it with a fresh new look (fun fact: the ETO’s old website was developed in 2014). The new platform still allows us the flexibility to customize the layout of content and add that special ETO flair such as custom illustrations (created by Cheryl), while ensuring accessibility features like proper colour contrast and that we’re visually aligned with other departments in FASE.

2. Read what we learned from the Celebration of Teaching Showcase 2025

On April 8th, 2025, Yun and Maggie attended the Centre of Teaching and Learning (CTL) Celebration of Teaching Showcase, which took place in the brand-new Sam Ibrahim Building in the University of Toronto, Scarborough Campus (UTSC).

In the blog, Lessons learned from The Centre of Teaching and Learning Celebration of Teaching Showcase 2025, they each share a few key takeaways from the showcase and highlight a common theme among the speakers: instructors want to enhance the student experience by respecting students’ lives and collaborating to create authentic learning opportunities.

3. Discover some best practices for building practical asynchronous case studies

In her new blog post, Building Interactive Case Studies in Asynchronous Professional Development Courses, Maggie shares some best practices for designing case studies in asynchronous learning environments.

Faculty questions of the week

Each week we answer a real question that we've received about Quercus and other Academic Toolbox tools, keeping the questions timely and relevant to you. You can select on the question to read the full inquiry and response or see all previous faculty questions of the week.

Read the faculty questions of the week

How can I assign a quiz/survey to different course groups? (April 24, 2025)
I set up a survey in Quercus Quizzes. How can I assign it to 6 different groups, since each group needs a specific (but different) timeframe to complete it?

How can I change the group membership mid-course without affecting anyone's work? (April 17, 2025)
I have a conflict with group members in a Quercus group. One assignment has been submitted but not graded. How can I move this student from one group to another?

Worthwhile clicks from the Web

Looking for something to read/watch/listen to? Each month we round up things that we've interacted with that we think are worth sharing:

• Are universities indispensable?| The Educationalist From the blog post: “What started like a really scary prospect, made me aware of what I value most in the university environment and therefore what I would like to preserve and enhance.”

• Teaching for more equitable outcomes: The missing ingredient | The Science of Learning From the blog post: “Each of these three approaches — CRP [Culturally Relevant Pedagogy], SEL [Social-Emotional Learning], and UDL[Universal Design for Learning] — brings something valuable to the table. They push educators to think about motivation, cultural relevance, emotional intelligence, identity, self-awareness, safety, accommodations, and inclusion. All of these are important. But there’s a noticeable gap. None of them focus directly on one crucial element: actual academic learning.”

• Happy birthday, YouTube | The Globe & Mail From the article: “Over the past two decades, YouTube has fundamentally changed how the world views and views itself. The internet’s most popular video-sharing site democratized screen time and has been the venue for the invention of a multitude of new genres.”

ETO’s Point of View

A picture is worth a thousand words, or at least whatever we can fit in the description! Here are a few photos taken by the ETO team during the past month:

Deer sighting during a lunch walk

(Marisa Curmi)

Cherry blossoms at Robarts Library

(Yun Wu)

Paper parasols in a sushi restaurant (Inga Breede)

Lemon creme pie of the month (Allison Van Beek)

Canadian pride in Jack Astor’s (James Zhan)