Structuring and developing land acknowledgement eLearning modules
Highlights
- Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) and Yorkville University educational developers wanted to create more opportunities for guest speakers and post-secondary professors to personalize their land acknowledgements.
- They needed clear messaging and storytelling about positionality that was conducive to professional development and met their deadline.
- Result: The educational developers received a professional draft that they used to create a 30-minute pilot mandatory training for all new faculty at Yorkville University and the Toronto Film School.
Before: The challenge
Land acknowledgements are encouraged of post-secondary professors and guest speakers who come for events and classes at higher education institutions. The institution often provides the statement. But what if professors and guest speakers want to personalize land acknowledgements by including their own critical reflection?
Educational developers and instructional designers have the tools to address this challenge. What they’re often missing is the time, resources and persuasive language to ensure continuity in messaging and language.
“At the time, I was quite busy and couldn’t be as present in the process as I had hoped.” – Renee Ferguson, former Educational Developer at TMU
The challenge: How can Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) and Yorkville educational developers ensure that their messages and stories about land acknowledgements and positionality are clear, well structured and concise?
During: The solution
Over this past summer in 2024, I began working with two educational developers: One from Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) and another from Yorkville University/Toronto Film School. Their mission was to create an initial draft of eLearning modules that would eventually be placed into an eLearning authoring tool. They were on a tight deadline, so I was on an even tighter one. We set milestones and check-in points as well as discussed the general overview of information that needed to go into the modules. Other than that, I was free to come up with a flow of information, assessment ideas, reflection questions and resources.
“From our very first conversation, I knew I could trust Jean completely to bring my vision to life and handle the project seamlessly from start to finish.” – Renee Ferguson, former Educational Developer at TMU
Handy background knowledge
My background in teaching, facilitation and education research came in handy here. I used this insight to structure and design the modules throughout the project. So, the educational developers could on other pressing matters regarding the release and promotion of these modules.
I got to work. Research, writing and editing were my main activities each day. I researched other post-secondary institutions and their approaches to land acknowledgements in relation to positionality. I read the resources the two educational developers provided to me. As well, I used them along with my insights to write and structure the modules. When the draft was in a good place, I presented it one last time and then handed the whole thing over.
After: The results
As a result of my work, the land acknowledgement and positionality draft was successfully passed on to the TMU CELT x Yorkville University team. They used this draft to create a 30-minute mandatory training for all new faculty, which is currently being piloted.
“Jean is warm, professional, creative and dependable — the exact kind of person you want to work with. She brought smart, thoughtful ideas to the table on a complex issue and executed everything with such care and precision. If I ever have the chance to work with her again, I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment.” – Renee Ferguson, former Educational Developer at TMU
Reflection
Copywriting for different purposes, such as eLearning in this case, is more than just choosing the right words, voice or tone. It’s also about creating a logical structure and including relevant information in formats that support their learning needs. Everything starts with the call to action: What do you want people to do or say, by the end of the module(s)? And what can I write to lead them there?
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