NEW ECOLOGY OF LEARNING
What is NEL?
The NEL is one of the cornerstones of OCAD’s Strategic Plan. It entails both a structural and a conceptual shift in OCAD’s undergraduate curriculum. Foundational to that shift are six themes or fundamental principles that are emblematic of the way students in the early part of the 21st century engage with the world around them. All graduates of OCAD must have some knowledge of or experience with all of them and, ideally, indepth engagement with at least one of them.
These six themes/fundamental principles are:
- Interdisciplinarity
- New Technology
- Sustainability
- Diversity
- Wellness
- Contemporary Ethics
At the heart of the NEL is a philosophy of values-based education that should result in holistic thinking: truly an ecology that creates chains of meaning from often isolated threads.
Developing the Six Areas
How will these six themes/principles be manifested in the undergraduate experience? A working group has been formed for each of the six areas to consider appropriate responses, such as:
- In the curriculum:
- Courses
- Case studies or embedded projects
- Interdisciplinary Minors
- Interdisciplinary Majors
- Beyond the curriculum:
- Art & Design practices
- Teaching, learning, and research resources
- Extracurricular activities: students
- Community engagement: continuing education, conferences, etc.
- Spatially: building design/redesign
- Learning communities
- Governance
- In research:
- Undergraduate
- Graduate
- Partnered:
- Industry partners
- Non-profit organizations
- Government ministries and agencies
Degree Level Expectations and Learning Matrix
A further dimension of NEL is the creation of a Learning Matrix that builds on the UPRAC Degree Level Expectations and incorporates OCAD-specific learning capacities (outcomes/objectives/competencies) in the following general categories:
- Depth and Breadth of Knowledge
- Knowledge of Methodologies
- Application of Knowledge
- Communication Skills
- Awareness of Limits of Knowledge
- Autonomy and Professional Capacity
All programs will go through an exercise of mapping curriculum against the Learning Matrix.
For further information please contact Rachelle Dickenson at rdickenson@ocad.ca.
Last Modified:19/02/2010 9:08:27 AM
