Strategic Action Areas
Strategic Action Area 1: Prepare Students for Success at Western and Beyond
| 1.1 | Raise awareness of academic norms and expectations (the hidden curriculum), especially among first-year students |
| 1.2 | Promote existing resources |
| 1.3 | Engage students who would benefit from additional support |
| 1.4 | Promote career/professional education in support of lifelong learning |
| 1.5 | Help equity-deserving students successfully navigate the transitions throughout their journey at Western, from undergraduate to graduate programs to the work environment |
Strategic Action Area 2: Transform Programs Relevant to Students, Society, and Industry
| 2.1 | Embed Indigenous knowledge systems and relational approaches alongside equity, diversity, inclusion, decolonization, accessibility and anti-racism principles in undergraduate and graduate education |
| 2.2 | Guarantee all undergraduate students opportunities for experiential learning |
| 2.3 | Reduce or eliminate barriers to uptake of experiential learning, particularly for equity deserving students |
| 2.4 | Develop more experiential learning opportunities, including land-based learning and Indigenous-led opportunities |
| 2.5 | Critically assess the impact of GenAI across disciplines on learning outcomes |
| 2.6 | Expand the current essay requirement to a communications intensive (CI) requirement to distinguish Western and strengthen alignment with Western Degree Outcomes and EDIDA priorities |
| 2.7 | Recognize knowledge justice as a core academic value of our programs, learning outcomes, and assessments |
Strategic Action Area 3: Reimagine Assessment
| 3.1 | Embed accessibility and universal design for learning (UDL) in assessments to support all students, including those with academic considerations and accommodations |
| 3.2 | Support strategies for assessment at scale of critical thinking, teamwork, and communication skills |
| 3.3 | Support no/low stakes assessment and feedback practices to encourage student curiosity and engagement in learning |
| 3.4 | Support assessment integrity through technology, teaching methods, and infrastructure |
| 3.5 | Support transparency on use of Generative AI in courses, assessments, and other academic activities |
| 3.6 | Support grading standards and the value of the Western degree |
Strategic Action Area 4: Teaching Excellence
| 4.1 | Advance teaching priorities in the Faculties |
| 4.2 | Orient faculty to the teaching culture at Western and in their disciplines |
| 4.3 | Prepare and support faculty to incorporate EDIDA more fully into the classroom to enhance the learning experience of students |
| 4.4 | Build university-wide culture that values EDIDA in teaching and learning at the level of policy and governance |
| 4.5 | Create resources to increase opportunities to receive feedback on teaching and to demonstrate teaching quality |
| 4.6 | Create new awards to recognize teaching excellence |
| 4.7 | Develop processes and resources to reduce teaching-related administrative workload |
Strategic Action Area 5: Advancing Graduate Student Success: Support, Development, Innovation
| Supervisor/Student Relationships | |
| 5.1 | Increase supervisor and student awareness of responsibilities and relationship building |
| 5.2 | Develop more support and recognition for supervisor excellence |
| Professional Development | |
| 5.3 | Integrate professional development opportunities into graduate program curricula |
| 5.4 | Develop a co-curricular strategy to support graduate students |
| Flexible Pathways | |
| 5.5 | Encourage program level assessments of the barriers and opportunities to create more pathways through graduate school |
| 5.6 | Develop doctoral options for practicing professionals and laddering options into graduate education |
