The MacPherson Institute plays an active role in strategic initiatives that directly enhance teaching and learning—both within the Institute and across McMaster University. This work is made possible through strong partnerships that are essential to the success of teaching and learning activities campus-wide.
Over the past year, the MacPherson Institute collaborated closely with the Office of the Vice-Provost, Teaching and Learning to identify opportunities within the Partnered in Teaching and Learning Strategy—aligned with Priority 2: Teaching and Learning in the President’s Institutional Priorities and Strategic Framework—where the MacPherson Institute’s leadership and support could make a meaningful impact. The MacPherson Institute’s contributions to these objectives and activities are outlined and linked to more details below.
Partnered in Teaching and Learning Strategy
Objectives |
Activities |
MacPherson Institute Contributions |
| Partnered and Interdisciplinary Learning | Implement and evaluate an expanded Student Curriculum Consultants program to better support all phases of curriculum development. | Student Curriculum Consultant Program
|
| Develop specific anti-racist resources and supports for Institutional Quality Assurance Process reviews and new program development. | EDIA Toolkits
|
|
| Embed elements of diverse perspectives and expansive ways of knowing within key programming areas. Review and revise existing modules within the MacPherson Institute’s Learning Catalogue and identify new related modules for development. | Learning Catalogue Enhancements
|
|
| Build on Students as Partners Community Forum pilot to identify new opportunities for collaboration, knowledge exchange, and student-centred innovation across institutions.
|
Students as Partners Community Forum | |
| Pilot and evaluate the impact of a six-episode Student Partners podcast that highlights topics at the intersections of EDI in student-instructor partnerships. | The Student Partners Podcast | |
| Inclusive and Scholarly Teaching | Develop and align existing programming that will enable and encourage the dissemination of scholarship on teaching and learning (particularly for teaching stream faculty). | Teaching Stream Faculty Supports
|
| Support a pedagogically reflexive approach to writing and assessing teaching portfolios. | Teaching Portfolios
The MacPherson Institute supported workshops on writing and assessing pedagogical portfolios with an emphasis on illustrating professional growth. This two-part initiative was connected to funding from a PTL grant and contributes to the MacPherson Institute’s broader goal of supporting instructors in developing and evaluating teaching portfolios and related practices. |
|
| Active and Flexible Learning Spaces | Contribute to the development of an accessible hybrid classroom pilot. | Hybrid and Flexible Classrooms
|
| Launch the Online Learning Fellows Program to support the development of online courses across campus. | Online Learning Course Development
|
|
| Implement recommendations from the Video Platform Review (2023) related to MacVideo. These include an institutional RFP process, reviewing MacVideo yearly for accessibility, implementing new features and building on the MacVideo Knowledgebase. | Video Platform Review
|
|
| Participate in the Accessibility Fellowship Program and disseminate findings centred around the most impactful UDL practices students have experienced at McMaster.
|
Accessibility Fellowship Program | |
| Continue to contribute to and facilitate the Journey Mapping Process as part of the broader STEER/R project. Identify ways the MacPherson Institute can respond to recommendations and next steps related to emerging priorities in accessibility. | STEER/R Project Support
|
|
| Supporting Holistic & Personalized Student Experience | Develop Graduate Supervision Pedagogy online module and provide support for the School of Graduate Studies on the development of other resources related to Graduate Supervision for Faculty and Graduate Students. | Graduate Excellence Mentorship and Supervision Initiative |
| Organize the Innovations in Education Conference in 2024 considering the ways in which educators and institutions foster student belonging and inclusion in a variety of ways. | Innovations in Education Conference
|
Institutional Priorities – Operational Excellence |
||
| Integrated Planning | Invest in professional development of administrative staff across the campus to ensure that the organizational design facilitates high quality service delivery. | PowerAutomate Staff Training
In March 2025, the MacPherson Institute hosted a full-day workshop for a group of its own staff. This pilot project focused on developing automated flows using Microsoft PowerAutomate. The goal of this workshop was to build capacity and to streamline a number of processes. 5 automations were developed successfully, staff developed new skills that they could put into practice and brainstormed new opportunities to streamline activities. |
| Transformative IT Structure | Invest in strong data integrations and automation tools to create ‘delightful’ technologies and world-class experiences for students, faculty and staff.
|
Power Automate Process Improvement
As part of the March 2025 pilot to develop automated flows, the MacPherson Institute leveraged the Microsoft PowerAutomate platform to find efficiencies in 5 departmental processes.
|
|
Institutional Priorities – Research and Scholarship |
||
| Collaboration and Partnership | Capitalize on reputation, talent, and capacity of centres and institutes to develop innovative international partnerships and academic exchanges. | Visiting Scholars and Knowledge Exchange |