The Technology and Education Seminar and Showcase (TESS) Conference has been eCampusOntario’s annual flagship event since 2015. The theme for this year – "Reinventing Education for a Resilient Future" – give a space to explore fresh pedagogical ideas, share practical solutions, and rethink how education can better support learners.
The entire ETO team attended TESS 2025 as we hope to learn and stay up to date on innovative teaching and learning practices. Beyond the sessions, it was also a great opportunity to connect with colleagues, exchange ideas, and learn new perspectives.
Key points we'll take with us
Each of us took away a bunch of inspiring insights that we are excited to share – and even more excited to bring into our work. Expand the accordion items to see our key takeaways:
Speakers: Terry Greene, Senior eLearning Designer, Trent University; Dr. Jess Mitchell, Senior Manager, Research & Design, OCAD University
Reflection by: Inga Breede
Session highlight: Podcasting is a medium that, when used properly, can create a safe space to hear from voices we don't get to hear from often. Terry Greene is the host of the podcast series, "Gettin' Air - The Open Pedagogy Podcast". His session focused on best practices for podcast recording and during the session he demonstrated the steps by recording a live interview with a guest, Dr. Jess Mitchell. A bonus moment was when my colleague, Maggie, went up to ask a question!
Key takeaways: This session resonated with me, both in my role supporting faculty with integrating media into their teaching and as a producer of the MADE for U of T podcast.
Podcasting can be used to share or support course content, or as an alternative method for student assessment, or in my case, interviewing subject-matter-experts on topics of interest to the MADE community of practice.
Factors such as recording in a quiet place and using good quality equipment and software are the first things to consider before recording. For interviews, it's helpful to use open-ended prompts to encourage a flow in conversation. And once the podcast is published, it's important to include transcripts to make the content more accessible.
Want to learn more?
The interview with Dr. Jess Mitchell was made into a podcast episode which is now available to access: Jess at TESS
In an earlier episode of MADE, we hear from Professor Lori Beckstead: MADE for U of T | Ep. 07 | Lori Beckstead on using podcasting for teaching and scholarship.
Reflection by: Maggie Laidlaw
Session highlight: In this live recording of the Gettin Air podcast, Terry Greene and Dr. Jess Mitchell used a template for creating an educational podcast for your class or as an activity for students. In the talk they talked about the importance of creating brave spaces. As Dr. Mitchell described it, brave spaces challenge the idea of safe spaces, stating that it is impossible to create a space where everyone feels safe, instead we should focus on creating spaces where students feel brave to share their own selves. Greene and Dr. Mitchell suggested some radical ways to restructure your course and consider ungrading. When asked about restructuring in certified programs like engineering Dr. Mitchell suggested that engineers should still be able to understand the technical topics, but there is room in these courses to add or restructure assignments so that important skills like communication and collaboration is emphasized.
Key takeaways: When building out modules for the Mining Industry Management Program (MIMP), I plan on reflecting on how our modules do or don't promote the ability for all students to be brave. I will consider how activities and reflections take into account previous experience and personal knowledge.
More information: If you are interested in developing a podcast in your course or restructuring your assignments to foster brave spaces reach out to the ETO or CTSI.
Speakers: Dr. Nidhi Sachdeva, Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
Reflection by: Anna Limanni
Session highlight: In this session, Dr. Sachdeva reviewed the core argument in The Memory Paradox: Why Our Brains Need Knowledge in an Age of AI (Oakley et al., 2025): as AI handles more of our thinking and memory functions, we gain efficiency but risk losing the cognitive engagement and struggle that is necessary for deep learning. Dr. Sachdeva suggested that AI use should be repositioned from "doing the thinking for students" to "scaffolding the thinking." For instance, rather than letting AI generate answers, learners might tentatively attempt a task first, then use AI to critique or refine their work.
A key takeaway from this session for me is the notion that struggle matters for learning: the absence of effortful retrieval and error correction often leads to shallow understanding and the illusion of knowledge. To quote Dr. Sachdeva: "ease is a poor proxy for mastery."
Key takeaways: I’m interested in exploring an AI tutor introduced by Dr. Sachdeva, called Genda. Dr. Sachdeva gave an example of how this tool could be used to scaffold thinking, rather than give answers. She showed how Genda could be used in an Explain-It-to-Me assignment where the learner first explains a course concept to Genda in their own words. Then, through roughly 12 iterations, Genda prompts the learner to elaborate and refine their explanation until clarity is reached and the assignment is marked complete. This model positions AI as a thinking partner and I’m curious to explore how it could be used in different types of assignments.
Reflection by: Marisa Curmi
Session highlight: One key point that stood out from this session was the discussion around the reversal of the Flynn Effect and how this shift is connected to increased cognitive offloading through internet and AI use. Dr. Sachdeva emphasized that when we rely too heavily on external tools, our cognitive capacities can weaken over time, highlighting the importance of mental effort and active engagement as essential components of strong, meaningful learning.
Key takeaways: The session ended with a call to protect effortful understanding and to use AI in ways that amplify teaching rather than replace the learning process itself. I plan to take this message forward by being intentional with my AI usage, leveraging it to enhance my thinking, reflection, and problem solving, rather than allowing it to replace those cognitive efforts.
Reflection by: James Zhan
Session highlight: Encountering difficulties is an essential part of learning and acquiring new skills that stay with you long term. However, the advancement of technology, especially AI, has been removing a lot of that difficulties in the learning process – asking AI to summarize course readings, improve writing, brainstorm ideas etc. It has resulted in the reverse Flynn effect, which indicates the declining IQ levels.
Key takeaways: As someone who’s extremely skeptical of AI use in learning and education, this session resonated with me and reaffirmed my stance. That said, since AI will continue to be used in learning and education regardless of how I feel, it’s important for me to stay informed on the latest developments in AI, particularly in relation to higher education. The session emphasized that, when used appropriately, AI can enhance the learning experience, and that’s a topic I should read further into.
Want to learn more?
- Read the article cited in Dr. Sachdeva's session: Oakley, B., Johnston, M., Chen, K.-Z., Jung, E., & Sejnowski, T. (2025). The Memory Paradox: Why Our Brains Need Knowledge in an Age of AI. In The Artificial Intelligence Revolution: Challenges and Opportunities (Springer Nature, forthcoming).
- Read Dr. Sachdeva's substack: Science of Learning substack
- Discover further details about the reversal of the Flynn effect featured in Marisa's and James' session highlights!
Speakers: Rachel Burger, Educational Development & Instructional Designer; Reginald Hodge, Senior Education and User Experience (UX) Designer; Samuel Rajaratnam, Educational Technology Assistant (Course Development team, Office of Professional Development & Educational Scholarship at Queen’s University)
Reflection by: Cheryl Lee
Session highlight: The team shared their process for ensuring that online modules they produce are accessible. For the interactive modules that were created using Articulate’s Storyline, they created a ‘companion guide’ – a word document with the same content as the interactive module, but provides much smoother experience for those using screen readers.
They also discussed common challenges when designing with screen readers in mind, such as being cognizant of the reading order while also making sure the change in design doesn’t affect the learners that are not using screen readers either - as an example, we're often used to having the page numbers at the bottom of the screen, but for screen readers, it is necessary to have it read first to allow easy navigation, so they had to change the hierarchy of reading order.
Key takeaways: In our work, we also value accessibility and promote Universal Design for Learning (UDL). It was validating to see that others were practising the same. The Queen’s University team also shared that while the companion guides were originally developed to provide an alternative way to access the information and content, the learners that don’t use the screen readers have also reported that it was a great resource to have as a study-aid. I also reflected on some of our past projects and plan to scope for updates that would be beneficial.
Speakers: Iris Elliott, Research and Foresight Associate, eCampusOntario; Graeme Cannon, Research and Foresight Associate, eCampusOntario; Elisa Arnold, Research and Foresight Associate, eCampusOntario
Reflection by: Yun Wu
Session highlight: This session was a workshop where attendees were split into small groups of 4–6 people for discussion. Each group was given some OBJECT cards (e.g., transcript, co-op, data mining, buildings, advertisement) and some FUTURE cards (i.e., a "climate solved" future, a “human machine synergy” future). We needed to pick a few OBJECT cards, and one FUTURE card, then discuss the given questions, such as what roles those objects might play in that future.
Our group chose the "human machine synergy" future, which imagines a world where machines drive the economy, humans no longer need to work, and higher education is no longer tied to the labour market.
One highlight from our discussion was about the object "co-op". Since humans wouldn’t need to work for income, co-op programs could become something people pursue purely based on their interests or hobbies, allowing them to spend their lives contributing to what they are interested in without being constrained by the labour market.
We also talked about what might replace money in such a society, and many of us thought data could become the new currency, with data mining becoming the way humans "earn".
Key takeaways: What resonated with me from this workshop is how it prompted us to think about what teaching and learning really mean in a future where technology replaces humans in many areas, such as the labour market. It may sound a bit unrealistic and far from our current lives, since we often emphasize that technology should be a tool to support human capabilities.
As working in the EdTech role, we have valued how technology can support learning. the activity gave me a glimpse of another possibility: how technology can transform this experience - not only changing the ways we think and receive knowledge, but also reshaping the purpose and meaning of learning.
Explore more: Check out the facilitation guide for this card game if you are interested: The Things from the Future of Higher Education, AI Edition
Note: TESS 2025 conference recordings are now available on YouTube: View the videos here.