The University of British Columbia (University of British Columbia), home to both campus-wide and Faculty-specific teaching and learning centres, hosts numerous initiatives targeting the improvement of student learning and the student experience. This includes the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative (Faculty of Science, launched in 2007) and the Flexible Learning Initiative (University of British Columbia wide, launched in 2013). In fall 2014, University of British Columbia ran a campus-wide survey on teaching practices with the following goals: a) Establishing baseline information of teaching practices and attitudes among faculty, b) Measuring the impact of existing teaching and learning initiatives such as those mentioned above, and c) Recognizing the conditions leading to change in practices and attitudes around teaching (Borrego & Henderson, 2014). This survey was a modified version of a tool used to investigate the teaching climate at University of British Columbia in 2008. Over 1000 faculty with teaching responsibilities across 10 Faculties responded to the 2014 survey. In this session we will discuss the comments and insights shared by participants around the following issues: the biggest challenges for teaching; changes that could be made at University of British Columbia to help faculty teach more effectively; and factors that have improved their teaching. In this session we will be sharing our methodology and preliminary results on the main challenges and enablers of effective teaching practice at this large research-intensive institution. We will also discuss with the audience connections to existing research (Ambrose, Bridges, DiPietro, Lovett, & Norman, 2010; Kuh, Kinzie, Schuh, & Whitt, 2005) and the connections and implications of our findings for their institutional contexts.
Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., & Norman, M. K. (2010). How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Borrego, M., & Henderson, C. (2014). Increasing the use of evidence-based teaching in STEM higher education: A comparison of eight change strategies. Journal of Engineering Education, 103(2), 220–252. doi:10.1002/jee.20040.
Kuh, G. D., Kinzie, J., Schuh, J. H., & Whitt, E. J. (2005). Student success in college: Creating conditions that matter. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Speakers 
Associate Director, Curriculum and Course Services, University of British Columbia
Interested in program (degree, major, minor) level support (new program development, program evaluation, program renewal) and researching intersections between faculty beliefs and teaching practices.
Senior Advisor, Teaching and Learning | Academic Director, Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology., University of British Columbia
STLHE conference co-chair | Professor of Teaching in Physics and Astronomy at UBC, currently designing a new intro course for first year Physics students.
