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The Teaching and Learning Centre supports and empowers faculty to enhance the academic experience at UOIT through excellence in teaching practices and engaging learning activities.
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Volume 7, Issue 3
University of Trinidad and Tobago’s Dev Manohar-Maharaj Visits UOIT
Earlier this term, Dev Manohar-Maharaj, Vice President, Information Technology Services at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) made a visit to UOIT. You might be surprised to learn that, despite the geographic distance between the two universities, UTT and UOIT share a number of similarities.
Mr. Manohar-Maharaj works closely with members of the Teaching and Learning Centre and program leaders at UTT’s twelve campus locations and additional locations. Members of the Teaching and Learning Centre (TLC) at UOIT had the pleasure of spending some time with Mr. Manohar-Maharaj during his week-long visit to Oshawa.
On the last morning of his stay, Matthew Stranach and Bridgette Atkins of the TLC at UOIT sat down with Mr. Manohar-Maharaj for a brief interview for this issue of Speaking of Learning. It was a good opportunity to learn about some of the parallels between UTT and UOIT and to gain insight from a visitor’s perspective of our university. Below is a summary of the conversation.
How did you find out about the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT)?
Manohar-Maharaj: In all honestly, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology came to our attention through our own International Office. So, we have our own International Office and Business Development Centre and they were looking around for other partners and I’m not sure exactly how they found UOIT but they were convinced that UOIT was a good match with the University of Trinidad and Tobago. It seemed from their analysis that UOIT was about the same age (we’re around eleven to twelve years old) and we’re both heavily technology dependent… When they looked at UOIT, they felt that there were really good parallels.
In April of 2015, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the two universities. Both universities signed this memorandum with the intention of collaborating, with the intention of maybe doing exchanges, research projects, and all the rest. My visit is, in fact, the culmination of that. It was actually supposed to take place in September of last year but that, unfortunately, did not happen at that time so I have instead come up in the middle of winter.
Mr. Manohar-Maharaj has experienced Canadian winters before and joked that he knew what to expect when he travelled to Ontario in late January.
What are some of the technology tools or applications that are currently being used in classrooms at your university?
Manohar-Maharaj: We have subscriptions to Coursera and to Khan Academy. That type of online content is something that we’ve had for a few years now. Now, I cannot tell you the extent to which the lecturers themselves are making use of it. What I can tell you is the feedback I have initially indicates that Coursera has extremely good content but it’s very varied. Some of it is very good. Some of it is very ordinary… You may find a hundred learning videos on a particular topic but they’re not all created equal; so, like it or not, just subscribing to those services does not guarantee you a quality of education… Somebody will still have to weed through what’s on these sites and actually say ‘Well, I would recommend, relative to the curriculum, that you look at these specific things because the lecturer in these videos is covering the topic in a very good manner.’
Manohar-Maharaj also spoke to the use of platforms such as Zoom, Vidyo and Skype, particularly for remote lecturing and distance education.
Can you speak to any online course offerings at UTT?
Manohar-Maharaj: We already do a fair amount of remote learning. For example, our Masters in Health Administration program has lecturers who sit in Philadelphia and New Jersey and the students, in effect, attend their classes in one of our classrooms but the lecturers are of course abroad. Now, that has been done on ad hoc type of basis.
Similarly, we are a twin island state. So, for the students in our island of Tobago, which is a lot smaller, if they need certain types of training, the lecturer generally tends to use Skype because we cannot necessarily fly over to Tobago for ten students, let’s say, on a regular basis. They have developed their own mechanisms for teaching the students remotely. That’s not, however, an ideal situation. Obviously Skype has its limitations. It is not something that was created for the purposes of a large group being lectured to but it is as good as they can get right now.
In the case of the lecturers out of New Jersey and Philadelphia, we’re using Vidyo which is a sort of cloud-based service as well as Zoom, which is a little better but it’s really created multipoint access. Those have worked out better but they, of course, require the room to be set up with a certain amount of AV equipment.
You recently sat in on a session of the Certificate in University Teaching program for faculty, sessional instructors and staff at UOIT on the topic of ‘Technology and Teaching.’ Did you notice similarities between some of the experiences shared by participants in that session and Faculty members at your own institution?
Manohar-Maharaj: Yes, in fact I felt right at home, I have to say…It was very much the same fears about well, you know, ‘I’m not really an expert at this but I am trying my best and, you know, I kind of like it…’ You find that the early adopters on our end are very similar.
What I saw in that certificate classroom was a great focus group of people that can be used obviously to help convince others of their peers that ‘Yes, this is something that I have used successfully in my class… why don’t you try it?’
The faculty, sessional instructors and staff in that session of the Certificate in University Teaching were active in sharing examples of tools and strategies they had employed in their classes. In the session Mr. Manohar-Maharaj observed, participants demonstrated or described their use of a number of tech tools they have found to be useful in their teaching practices including Socrative, Adobe Connect, Google Docs and TurningPoint.
What have been some of the highlights of your visit to UOIT?
Manohar-Maharaj: There have been so many. Where does one start? I think, from the very first day, meeting with Bob (Bailey) and Michael (Owen), you could see that there was that overlap…Even at the top level, you could tell that we related. Both institutions clearly had very similar issues, very similar objectives, very similar experiences. I would say UTT could benefit greatly from what UOIT has done.
Manohar-Maharaj spoke to the example of the laptop program and how this model served the campus well and is evolving over time. He also addressed how he believes a laptop program can be beneficial in certain programs that require students to have access to specific software or devices, while a bring-your-own-device model could work well in other programs that do not require students to have a standard set of software or a specific device. He also commented on what he has learned about the gaming program at UOIT and how he can use some of these takeaways to address gaming-related requests at UTT.
Is there anything else you would like to share with members of the teaching community at UOIT?
Manohar-Maharaj: I think one thing I would like to let them know is that I believe they are doing very, very good work… Having sat in on at least one class and spoken to a number of different professors and lecturers in different disciplines, I was really impressed with where UOIT is. I believe that it is doing the right things. I believe it is [taking] the correct steps in terms of looking at where the market is heading and it is not hidebound; it is trying to change with the market. I believe these are very good signs of the kind of institution that will one day be considered a premier institution in the world. Therefore, I think UOIT, even though it’s very young, is already showing signs of being one of those institutions that will be here for probably hundreds of years.
Manohar-Maharaj spoke to at least one visit by a UOIT student to an incubator facility at UTT that is already being planned and of the potential for UTT students to complete some of their studies here at UOIT in the future.
The Teaching and Learning Centre looks forward to seeing how this new partnership transpires in the coming years.
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Interesting Facts about UTT
The following facts about UTT have been shared by Mr. Manohar-Maharaj:
UTT is a partnership of the Trinidad and Tobago Government, the private sector and international centres of excellence. It was formed in 2004 as a private, non-profit entity in order to revolutionize tertiary-level education in Trinidad and Tobago in support of the national development thrust towards achieving a more developed nation status.
UTT’s objectives are to carry out state-of-the-art academic programmes (including development activities in areas of strategic interest to Trinidad and Tobago) within an education system that must respond to global trends in technology developments and the knowledge society.
UTT has the only Fashion Program in the Caribbean
UTT has the only Animation Program in the English-speaking Caribbean
UTT was the first university in Trinidad and Tobago to launch a business incubator programme, uSTART
UTT recently launched Trinidad and Tobago’s first free online education platform, KnowledgeTT
UTT has 100+ international students representing 20 countries
More information about the University of Trinidad and Tobago can be found on their site: https://u.tt/
This month’s content brought to you by:
Bridgette Atkins, Educational Developer
Matthew Stranach, Educational Developer |
