User:Jstopo/Instructional skills workshop

The Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) is a 24 hour workshop focused on the development of instructional skills for teachers in higher education. The workshop is led by facilitators, who facilitate a series of topical sessions and short practice lessons followed by three forms of feedback (written, oral, and video). The ISW is supported and maintained by the Instructional Skills Workshop Advisory Committee.

History and Growth
The Instructional Skills Workshop was initially developed in British Columbia in 1978/79 by Douglas Kerr at Vancouver Community College as commissioned by Diane Morrison on behalf of the BC Ministry of Advanced Education. The ISW was initially intended to provide new instructors with basic instructional skills, though the scope of the workshop was soon expanded to include both new and experienced instructors. Since its inception, the ISW has come to be offered at a number of different educational and private institutions (see list below).

Elements of the Instructional Skills Workshop
The Instructional Skills Workshop has a flexible structure, and is delivered differently across different institutions, with local variations in scheduling (three- or four-day models), content, and overall approach. Nevertheless, there are a number of elements that are common to all ISWs.
 * 24 hours long
 * Peer-based - The Instructional Skills Workshop is a peer-based model. Workshop facilitators are present primarily to help their peers learn from their own experiences, and are not present as instructional experts.
 * Three mini-lesson cycles - The mini-lesson cycle is the heart of the ISW. Each mini-lesson cycle is organized around a 10 minute lesson delivered by one of the participants (the instructor) to the other participants (the learners). After the lesson, the instructor has some time to reflect on their experience with the facilitator, followed by receiving written and guided oral feedback from the learners in that lesson. Each participant will be an instructor three times in an ISW, and when not acting as an instructor, will be a learner in the lessons delivered by the other participants.
 * Three forms of feedback - Participants in an ISW will get written, oral, and video feedback of each lesson they deliver.
 * Focused on Lesson Basics - Participants are encouraged to teach lessons structured according to the BOPPPS lesson plan format, which includes a Bridge to engage learners, a set of learning objectives to specify the learning intention, a pre-test to gauge existing learner knowledge, participatory learning, where learners are engaged in active learning, post assessment, where learning is demonstrated by the learners, and a summary, which reviews the key points of the lesson.

List of Post-Secondary Institutions offering the ISW
Below is a list of some of the institutions in Canada that currently offer the Instructional Skills Workshop.

British Columbia

 * Camosun College
 * Douglas College
 * Kwantlen Polytechnic University
 * Simon Frasier University
 * Thompson Rivers University
 * University of British Columbia - Faculty
 * University of British Columbia - Graduate Students
 * University of the Frasier Valley
 * University of Northern British Columbia

Alberta

 * Bow Valley College
 * Lethbridge College
 * University of Calgary

Ontario

 * Brock University
 * Georgian College
 * McMaster University
 * Ryerson University
 * University of Western Ontario
 * University of Windsor