The University Of Manitoba Is Investing Money To Upgrade It’s Students’ Learning Experience

To upgrade its students’ learning experience, the University of Manitoba (UM) is investing more than fifty million dollars in retrofitting its old classrooms. Moreover, the university is improving and upgrading the classroom’s infrastructure and giving the teachers the latest equipment and technology. 

The University of Manitoba is upgrading its buildings and investing this money to maintain the efficiency and modernity of its classrooms and to fulfil the pillars of the University of Manitoba’s interim strategic plan. Acknowledging that the UM strategic plan envisions the bold goals of the University of Manitoba, including “Inspiring Minds through innovative and quality teaching,” is a fundamental principle to the University of Manitoba. 

This upgrade focuses on “improving the functionality of the classroom” and giving students a more accessible and efficient way to access digital content. This new elevation is an “educational approach” to blend face-to-face teaching with digital content, allowing the students to interact with the material inside and outside the classroom. 

“Every time there is a classroom renovation, there is input from faculty in the department. There’s always an effort that’s made to understand how faculty are teaching in that space, what is/isn’t working currently, and what the needs are. We’ve seen needs change a lot over the last few years. There was a lot of change happening pre-pandemic. Then during and since the return to face-to-face teaching, there’s been a real acceleration of change in how people are teaching, how faculty are thinking about student engagement and using technology in their work. So classrooms are having to adapt to those needs,” said Mark Meagher, educational developer for the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning and sessional instructor in the Faculty of Architecture. He’s also a participant in the renovation plan after being interviewed about the up-gradation. 

The positive effects of this change have been seen immediately by some professors. Josiane Kroll, a learning technologies trainer at CATL, said: “The adoption of technology in the classroom has changed how I teach and students learn. We are connected 24 hours per day, seven days per week, through online platforms; students feel more engaged in the class when I use technologies to explain the content and collect feedback. I use several technologies to teach my classes, making students more connected, engaged, and motivated to learn.”

This new renovation is sure to improve the students’ learning experience. It is a studied and very organized change that has helped the family of the University of Manitoba; this includes teachers, students, and all the others involved. The renovation is just the start of the many great things the University of Manitoba planned. 

Sources:

https://news.umanitoba.ca/upgrading-the-learning-experience/

https://umanitoba.ca/strategic-plan

– Halla Alhamed, U Multicultural

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of U Multicultural.