Report Number 49 Of The Academic Affairs Committee
FEBRUARY 9, 2023
To the Campus Council,
University of Toronto Mississauga
Your Committee reports that it held a meeting on February 9, 2023 at 3:10 p.m. in Room 3130, W.G. Davis Building.
Present:
Sanja Hinic-Frlog (Vice-Chair, in the Chair), Alexandra Gillespie (Vice-President & Principal), Amrita Daniere (Interim Vice-Principal, Academic & Dean), Tracey Bowen (Vice-Dean, Teaching & Learning), Varouj Aivazian, Barend Beekhuizen, Asma Behery, Andreas Bendlin, Randy Besco, Brett Beston, Ilia Binder, Mahmoud Bitar, Elizabeth Blake, Laura Brown, Jill Caskey, Craig Chambers, Rosa Ciantar, Ruth Childs, Michael deBraga, Margarida Duarte, Jacob Gallagher-Ross, Philip Goodman, Monika Havelka, Shelley Hawrychuk, Tanjim Hossain, Shashi Kant, Danielle McLean, Asif Mohammed, Lorretta Neebar, Michael Nixon, Andreas Park, Christoph Richter, Adriano Senatore, Jumi Shin, Jaimal Thind, Soo Min Toh, Jonathan Weisberg, Ron Wener, Weiguo Zhang
Non-Voting Assessors:
Yen Du (Manager, Academic Programs, Reviews & Quality Assurance), Mark Overton (Dean of Student Affairs), Ajay Rao (Vice-Dean Graduate & Postdoctoral Affairs)
Regrets:
Salvatore Bancheri, Osama Abdalla, Steven Bernstein, Uday Dhingra, Nawal Faisal, Tracey Galloway, Sarah Hillewaert, Rayan Hobeika, Anoosha Keshav, Tong Lam, Ciska Luwawu, Kent Moore, Andrea Olive, Esteban Parra, Leigh Revers, Marleen Rozemond, Lindsay Schoenbohm, Hana Tariq, Sarah Sharma, Meghan Sutherland, Laura Taylor, Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi
In Attendance: Lawrence Switzky (English & Drama); Payam Zahedi (Office of the VP Research)
Secretariat:
Cindy Ferencz-Hammond
- Chair’s Remarks
The Chair welcomed members and guests to the meeting and reminded members about the ongoing governance elections for UTM governance bodies. She encouraged those eligible to participate in voting, with a reminder that voting would be open until Friday, February 17, 2023.
- Discover Research
The Chair invited Payam Zahedi, Director of the UTM Office of Vice-Principal Research to present.
During his presentation, Mr. Zahedi talked about the upcoming launch of Discover Research, a tri-campus solution to better leverage data systems to more easily find information about faculty expertise and to help faculty keep track of the work that they do in various formats. Discover Research was a public facing website that displayed information about faculty, and faculty could choose how much information to share and whether to make their portfolio public. Faculty members could also add information such as whether they were available to speak to the media or talk to industry contacts or collaborate on projects. He noted that the data could then be used for CVs, reports and CCV, which was being implemented soon. He encouraged faculty members to review their profiles and to contact either the UTM VP Research Office or Maya Collum, who was the Project Manager, Research Analytics in the Office of the Vice-President, Research & Innovation for further questions or help with the platform.
A member noted that it would be helpful for the platform, including the value it offered, to be presented at various faculty meetings to encourage participation. In further discussion and in response to a member’s question about how success would be measured, Mr. Zahedi noted that Discover Research would allow for updated faculty profiles that could then allow for more accurate data to be generated.
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Major Modification: New Freestanding Minor in Game Studies, UTM
At the invitation of the Chair, Professor Tracey Bowen, Vice-Dean, Teaching and Learning noted how pleased she was that this proposal was coming forward and called on Professor Larry Switzky, from the Department of English & Drama, to provide details on the proposal.
Professor Switzky noted that he was pleased to introduce a new Freestanding Minor in Game Studies, from the department of English & Drama. He noted that the proposed Minor would build on existing strengths in faculty scholarship and expanded course offerings in Game Studies from the Department. He explained that the minor responded to the prevalence of games as pedagogical instruments and subjects of critical inquiry at UTM, as demonstrated in specific courses as well as the Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre’s (RGASC) “game-enhanced learning. Students in the minor would take courses in the history of theory, practice tabletop role-playing in digital game design and will have experience with simple game engines and complete assignments with one of the most extensive archives of games available. The program also built on a recent acquisition by the UTM Library’s of Syd Bolton collection, which comprised almost one thousand video games, hundreds of consoles, and systems along with periodicals, and is the largest collection of its kind in Canada. He noted that the minor was a truly interdisciplinary collaboration, and the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology had many highly relevant courses in game design, which the proposed program would draw upon. In addition, the Departments of Sociology, Mathematical & Computational Sciences, and Visual Studies at UTM either currently made use of game-enhanced learning strategies or had indicated their intention to develop courses in digital gaming.
Professor Switzy also noted that the proposed program aligned with the Department’s Academic Plan to promote creativity and innovation in its programs as well as with two priorities in the 2021 UTM Strategic Framework (Enable Impactful Discovery in Student and Faculty Research and Inspire Academic Creativity for Student Success.)
During discussion, the following points were made:
- That the program was an academic program and focused on history and theoretical analysis but because of the nature of the medium, a substantial amount of design was included.
- The path after graduation for somebody who completed this minor could include many possible options, including pursuing related graduate work; the Greater Toronto Area was a hub for game development and possible entry points for careers.
- There was a lot of interest in the program internationally, because the program was unique within this framework in that it had a focus on conceptual understanding, apart from game mechanics.
- From a recruitment and admissions perspective, this kind of innovation and modernization of academic programs was very attractive to students and was anticipated to be a draw.
- Future plans may included a Major program and experiential learning opportunities, such as co-op placements.
- Skills developed through this minor in storytelling would have a positive effect on career building skills.
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Members enthusiastically supported the proposal.
On motion duly made, seconded, and carried,
YOUR COMMITTEE RESOLVED,
THAT the new freestanding Minor in Game Studies, in the department of English & Drama, as detailed in the proposal dated February 1, 2023, be approved effective September 1, 2023.
- Minor Modification: Graduate Curriculum Changes, UTM
At the invitation of the Chair, Professor Bowen described the proposed graduate curriculum changes. Professor Bowen referred members to the detailed documentation provided and highlighted some of the courses being proposed. They included proposals to allow instructors to shift their course delivery modes intentionally and permanently to either online or hybrid. IMI2003H (Project Management: Practice & Tools) and MMI1050H (Negotiations) would shift to an online format. Additional changes included two new courses: IMI1002H – Social Entrepreneurship: Global Alternative to Neo-Liberal Economics, and MMI2000H – Innovation Management by Design, which would support the Master of Management & Innovation Program as its first elective course option. The final proposal was a course title change from the Master of Biotechnology Program.
In response to a member’s question about what supports would be available for hybrid course delivery, Professor Bowen explained that in the courses proposed here, some components would be in person and some components online, so that it was a mix of both; there was a process in place that ensured that there was support provided.
On motion duly made, seconded, and carried,
YOUR COMMITTEE RESOLVED,
THAT the graduate curriculum changes in the Institute for Management and Innovation (IMI), as detailed in the proposal dated November 23, 2022, be approved effective September 1, 2023. - Reports of the Presidential Assessors
There were two reports for the attention of members.
Professor Daniere, Interim Vice-Principal Academic & Dean, talked about resources available to faculty for generative artificial intelligence systems. She shared with members various resources, such as policies and a frequently asked questions website developed by the Office of the Vice-President & Provost that provided guidelines on the topic. She also pointed to academic integrity resources, best practices, and guidance, which were recently communicated to faculty by her Office.
In recent communications, faculty were reminded about scaffolding of assignments, and designing assignment questions specific to the learning outcomes of the course, which was best practice and provided fewer opportunities to use either pre packaged materials or sources like ChatGPT. Faculty were reminded that it might be important to explicitly warn students that using AI tools, such as ChatGPT, was explicitly forbidden. Professor Daniere noted that it was not going to be possible, no matter how rapidly tools were developed to detect all instances of these new and emerging technologies. It was also communicated that given that classes had already started, the value or the nature of an assignment could not be unilaterally altered in the middle of a course, unless certain procedures were followed. She noted that in future, instructors might want their students to engage explicitly and critically with such AI systems. She also noted that her office recognized that the UTM Academic Integrity unit would bear the increased burden because of these technologies.
She shared with members a link to a YouTube video of a workshop that was held on the effects of AI Writing Tools on Humanities and Social Sciences Pedagogy. The RGASC Educational Developers were also available to support assignment, test, and exam design through one-on-one consultation.
The second report was provided by Professor Ajay Rao, Vice-Dean Graduate & Postdoctoral Affairs. He spoke about some exciting projects from his unit. He announced the full funding using UTM resources for 30 international Ph.D. students admitted over the next three years. These would be students that would be enrolled in Arts and Science programs, with the stipulation that they do a significant part of their research at UTM. UTM would provide a $5000 top up for most programs depending on the funding of the standard funding package in the programs. Professor Rao then discussed collaborative research in the Humanities and Interpretive Social Sciences at UTM. He listed some initiatives that were already underway and would have affiliated graduate students, such as the Critical Digital Humanities Initiative, The Global Past, Black Research Network, Indigenous Research Network, and the Centre for South Asian Critical Humanities.
Professor Rao also highlighted the annual allotment for nominations based on funding commitments of UTM departments and the related nominations process, which was similar to the Connaught International Ph.D. scholarship. He noted that a successful nomination resulted in an additional international spot for the tri-campus graduate program and showed the range of participating graduate units for 2023.
UTM was excited to be introducing its own Ph.D. program in the coming years. The planned program was a new Ph.D. in Media, Technology & Culture (MTC). It would be a tri-campus program housed in a new graduate unit within the ICCIT. The program stemmed from an existing focus and concentration in the Ph.D. offered by the Faculty of Information, which was planned to be closed with the launch of MTC. This would be UTM’s first research-based graduate program.
CONSENT AGENDA
On motion duly moved, seconded, and carried
YOUR COMMITTEE APPROVED
THAT the consent agenda be adopted and that Item 6, the Report of the Previous Meeting, be approved.
- Report of the Previous Meeting, Report number 48, January 11, 2023.
- Business Arising from the Report of the Previous Meeting
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Date of Next Meeting – March 23, 2023, at 3:10 p.m.
The Chair reminded members that the next meeting of the Committee was scheduled for March 23, 2023, at 3:10 p.m.
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Other Business
There was no other business.
The meeting adjourned at 4:09 p.m.
February 16, 2023