The 2025 LDDI Summer Institute was held July 15 – 17 at UBC Vancouver.
This free three-day event showcased and celebrated emerging approaches to teaching and learning. This year’s theme — Mobilizing Knowledge around Sustainability, Accessibility, and Learning Analytics — highlighted the creative and impactful ways that educators, staff and students are critically integrating these areas into their practice.
Hosted by Learning Design and Digital Innovation (LDDI) with support from the Edith Lando Virtual Learning Centre (ELVLC), the Summer Institute featured interactive workshop sessions, thought-provoking panel discussions and guided presentations from experts in the field. Each day was an opportunity to connect with colleagues, engage with new ideas and celebrate progress in designing more inclusive, data-informed and sustainable learning experiences.
This event was open to UBC faculty, staff, students and educators in K–12 and higher education.
Presentations and Resources
Gifts from Nature — Sharing Our Eco Stories
Dr. Sandra Scott
In this hands-on workshop, Dr. Sandra Scott shared stories about unique local ecosystems and species, including Southern Resident orcas, Big Eyed Skate and Red Rock crabs. She invited participants to share reflections on encounters with marine life and modeled activities educators can use to engage students in learning about the natural world. To conclude, Dr. Scott guided participants through a heartfelt exploration and storytelling exercise using “gifts” from her natural collection.
Model-ing with Land and Language
Alisa Paul & Leanne Joe
During this session, Alisa Paul and Leanne Joe offered participants an opportunity to reflect on their relationship to the land and languages that connect them to their ancestors. Alisa and Leanne shared a story rooted in Indigenous ways of life on the land through the educational journey and experience of Senóqw’iye – Leanne Joe. They guided participants on a reflective walk through UBC Vancouver Campus, encouraging them to consider the connections between land, language and identity, and how they might bring those perspectives to sustainability work within education.
Transforming Climate Education Through a Novel Framework of Climate Kind Pedagogy
Dr. Kshamta Hunter
During this session, Dr. Kshamta Hunter shared her work on Climate Kind Pedagogy, an interdisciplinary framework for climate education that advances learning through a values-based and justice-informed lens. Dr. Hunter guided participants through a discussion of the foundational values essential for a climate-kind classroom: kindness, trust, justice, resilience, equity, interconnections, and relationships. She also facilitated activities to help participants frame and better understand their own values in relation to climate justice and education.
Learn more about Climate Kind Pedagogy
Who is Responsible for Accessibility?
Student Panel with Hazel Ryan-Sheehan, Rayna Friar, Samantha Sinanan & Sarah Grace Friesen
In this panel, students shared their lived experiences with accessibility — what’s working, what’s missing, and what they wish faculty, staff, students, and institutions knew. This conversation invited deep listening, reflection and a commitment to more student-centered accessibility work. The panelists facilitated a rich discussion about how we can improve accessibility in education and advance equity in teaching and learning.
Access Is Essential: Straightforward Ways to Make Course Materials Inclusive
Dr. Erika Fundelius
This presentation offered quick and simple ways to begin thinking about accessibility across all elements of instruction. Dr. Fundelius highlighted practical ideas participants could use to work towards meaningful inclusion via accessibility. In particular, the presentation focused on techniques to improve accessibility for materials (such as documents, PDFs, slides and media) uploaded to Learning Management Systems such as Canvas, BlackBoard and Moodle. Click/tap to download an accessible version of this presentation, or download the slides using the button below.
Universal Design for Learning Fellows Panel: Reflections and Learnings
Dr. Laurie Ford, Dr. Sofia Noori & Dr. Surita Jhangiani
This panel showcased how Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles can be put into practice in higher education to remove barriers and create meaningful access for all learners. The panelists shared reflections from real-world accessibility projects they developed as part of the UDL Fellows program. They also discussed their creative strategies and lessons learned during their projects as they worked to design more flexible, inclusive learning environments. Dr. Noori is a member of the 2025 UDL Fellows Cohort, and Dr. Ford and Dr. Jhangiani were members of the 2024 UDL Fellows Cohort. Read their UDL Stories to learn more.
What Should We Expect from Learning Analytics?
Dr. Philip Winne
Learning analytics are getting lots of buzz. Is optimism justified? Grounded in an evolving model of self-regulated learning, Dr. Winne’s presentation offered perspectives on four big issues: What are learning analytics? What kinds of data and analyses generate learning analytics for self-regulating learners? Why should we expect learning analytics will help learners progressively improve how and what they learn? What near-future technologies facilitate creating and distributing learning analytics?
Learning Analytics in Action: Empowering Educators with Data for Equitable Learning
Dr. Sonya Woloshen
This interactive session explored Learning Analytics (LA) from a practitioner’s perspective. Drawing on experience as a former secondary teacher and current Learning Design Manager, Dr. Woloshen presented research-backed strategies for utilizing data to inform instruction and student learning. Participants critically examined LA through an anti-oppressive lens, ensuring considerations of equity and student agency were central. The session covered methods for generating insights from diverse data sources, including those where formal analytics are absent, and discussed the evolving role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within LA for ethical, impactful application.
Unpacking Learning Analytics: Ethical Implications and Considerations
Rachel Moylan
Learning Analytics are built into many Learning Management Systems (e.g., Google Classroom, Canvas) as default settings; yet, many educators are not aware of how these systems work, what they measure, how they make decisions, or the definitions of “learning” they create. This workshop focused on strategies for building teachers’ professional digital competence in relation to Learning Analytics with an emphasis on ethical implications and considerations. Workshop participants were be guided through a series of reflective questions to pose to themselves, their colleagues, and their students when considering the role of Learning Analytics in their professional practice.
If you would like to request resources from this presentation, please email Rachel Moylan directly.
Event Schedule
(click/tap on name to view schedule):
Distinguished Speakers and Presenters
(click/tap on name to see bio):
Before joining UBC I was a classroom teacher and also worked as a marine educator and park naturalist. These experiences prompted me to pursue a MA and PhD in Science and Environmental Education. I teach elementary science methods as well as courses in communications, environmental learning, and research methods. I enjoy working with Teacher Candidates and undergraduate science students in my role as Faculty Advisor with the Teacher Education Office. My research focuses on elementary science, environmental education, and teacher education. I view myself as a naturalist, scientist, and educator of, for, and in the environment; I am a passionate advocate for learning experiences that nurture our sense of wonder for the human and more than human world.
I am dedicated to science and environmental education, and elementary science is my home. My goal is for students to become confident, knowledgeable, and excited about teaching science. The Having of Wonderful Ideas in both theory and practice is linked through inquiry, doing, collaborating, wondering, reflecting, remembering, and taking action. My dialogical approach emphasizes hands on direct experiences, long-term engagement, and in-depth observation, conversation, and reflection. My course curricula and pedagogies are informed by scholarly and professional literature exploring inquiry, slow pedagogy, ethical caring, constructivism, Storywork, Indigenous ways and decolonizing perspectives, and place as EcoPedagogy.
Dr. Surita Jhangiani is the David Lam Chair in Multicultural Education. As holder of this chair, she aims to leverage open pedagogical principles to advance critical multicultural education. Surita is an Associate Professor of Teaching in the Faculty of Education, an advocate of OER, and the recipient of two Open Educational Resource Champion awards from the University of British Columbia. Dr. Jhangiani’s is currently involved in projects related to open pedagogy, alternative grading, and belonging as it relates to learning and teaching.
Dr. Sonya Woloshen (Elle / She / Her) has 15+ years of experience in education, including K-12, French Immersion, and roles with the Ministry of Education. She holds a BA in French and Art History, a BEd in French Education, and an MA and PhD in Educational Technology and Learning Design from Simon Fraser University. Her research focuses on Learning Analytics and Artificial Intelligence and she is dedicated to creating anti-oppressive learning environments. Sonya is the new Learning Design Program Manager in the Teacher Education Program at the University of British Columbia’s Vancouver campus, helping learners and faculty integrate digital literacies and competencies into their pedagogical practices.
Alisa is a teacher educator in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia, where she is the Cohort Coordinator of the Education for Sustainability teacher education cohort. Alisa Paul is working on her PhD in Learning Environments. She completed her M.Ed in 2019 at SFU in Ecological Education and worked in teacher education at SFU. She hopes to continue to explore how learning environments are connected to narrative and place and support the process of teacher development.
(Senóqw’iye) Leanne Joe is an Indigenous Curriculum Developer — she is Stó:lō Xwelmexw from Sts’ailes, with lineage in Mathxwí, q̓ic̓əy̓ , and Skwah First Nations. She lives in Ch’iyaqtel with her husband Les and their family. She is a proud learner and sharer of Stó:lō cultural ways including language and land practices. Leanne’s passion is in sharing language and culture as it connects to curriculum through land-based learning. Leanne also received the British Columbia Teacher's Federation Maxwell A. Cameron Memorial Award in 2022 as a student in the UFV Secondary Teacher Education program. Leanne has completed a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction for Ecological Education at Simon Fraser University and is a current PhD student at UBC.
Dr. Kshamta Hunter is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education and the manager of Transformative Learning & Student Engagement at the University of British Columbia. Her research aims to design responsive and relevant integrative curriculum and pedagogical approaches for the 21st century, through understanding the development of competencies for innovation toward sustainability. Dr. Hunter has developed a novel Climate Kind Pedagogy framework to advance climate education, through a values-based and justice-informed lens. She is an associate editor for the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. She is a member of first External Advisory Committee for Canada’s 2030 Agenda and recipient of the 2023 President’s Service Award for Excellence.
Hazel Ryan Sheehan is the Program Manager for Elementary & Middle Years in UBC's Teacher Education Office. She is also a PhD Candidate in Special Education in ECPS. With almost 20 years' experience in inclusive education, her research focuses on social and disability justice-informed practices, creating need-supportive and accessible environments to promote equity and success for all.
Samantha Sinanan is a teacher candidate in the second cohort of the Rural and Remote Education Program (RRED). She is also an academic librarian, having worked on various accessibility initiatives both in online libraries and in general website accessibility for clients including the Paralympics. Since September 2024, she has been working on the RRED's Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund (TLEF) project, in collaboration with the Learning Design and Digital Innovation Office (LDDI) to make course content more inclusive, accessible and responsive to the needs of diverse learners. Samantha brings empathy and flexibility to her work, striving to create safe, inclusive and engaging learning experiences.
Rayna (They/them) is a second-generation immigrant with roots in Malaysia and South India. They are a UBC student living and learning on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sʔəl̀ilwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations. Rayna is currently pursuing a degree in Cognitive Systems and minoring in ACAM. Over the past few years, they have been worked with the Disability United Collective on campus (DUC) and with the Centre for Accessibility as a UDL facilitator, giving input on making education more accessible to disabled folks. When not in school, Rayna can be found working on a variety of unfinished knitting and crochet projects or taking naps.
Sarah Grace Friesen, she/her, is a district behaviour specialist in Surrey, working with students whose maladaptive coping strategies are challenging to interpret. She has two Master’s degrees, one in English and one in Special Education, and graduated with a B.Ed. from UBC in 2008. Sarah Grace identifies as Autistic, trans, and disabled. Her current passions involve supporting teachers and students who share the intersectionality of these two identities, as well as investigating ways to bring the neurodiversity paradigm into schools to strengthen inclusion.
Erika Fundelius is an assistant professor in the Blindness and Visual Impairments program at UBC. As a career educator and experienced member of interdisciplinary school and hospital teams she brings a unique experience to the need for accessibility across services through the population she continues to serve.
Dr. Laurie Ford is the Director of Early Childhood Education in the UBC Faculty of Education.
Before coming to K’emk’emeláy̓ (Vancouver), Dr. Noori taught classes ranging from K–12, college courses, undergraduate classes, and professional teacher training courses across the Greater Tkarón:to (Toronto) Area. She received the prestigious President’s University-Wide Teaching Award at York University in 2021.
Dr. Noori’s research and writing focuses on how refugee youth navigate schooling systems in Canada, in the aftermath of living in civil unrest or war, migration, transitory states, refugee camps and resettlement. Her work is informed by postcolonial theory and developmental psychology. She is working with educators from across the country to develop resources, materials and strategies to help meet the academic and psychosocial needs of newcomer students from war zones.
Before retiring in 2023 as Distinguished Simon Fraser University Professor of Education, Phil Winne was a 2-term Tier 1 Canada Research Chair and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Canadian Psychological Association. Phil's scholarship blends research on self-regulated learning, metacognition and learning analytics. He also led a team developing software technologies to support learners and gather big data for learning science. Honors include the Lifetime Achievement Award (Division 15-Educational Psychology, APA), the Robbie Case Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to educational psychology in Canada, the Barry J. Zimmerman Award for exceptional theoretical and empirical research on studying and self-regulated learning, and the Mentorship Award for a member of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education who supports and encourages graduate students in education as a mentor of educational research.
Rachel Moylan is a PhD Candidate, Public Scholar, and instructor in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia. Her research is centred on human-technology relationships in the context of teacher education with an emphasis on the role of algorithmic systems in teaching and learning. She is especially concerned with the ways educational technologies, learning analytics and artificial intelligence are often uncritically accepted and integrated into educational systems. Rachel holds a Master of Information from Dalhousie University and a Master of Arts from New York University. She has taught secondary school in New York City; Austin, Texas; Manokotak, Alaska; and Budapest, Hungary.
Location
UBC Vancouver Campus - Room 1007, Neville Scarfe Building, 2125 Main Mall, Vancouver BC