Academic accommodation supports for Winter Session 2024/25
May 1, 2024
Dear faculty and instructors,
On April 4, we wrote to you to communicate academic accommodation supports for Summer Session 2024. We are now in a position to share our approach for Winter Session 2024/25.
Based on what we heard from deans, associate deans and instructors of large first-year courses, there is interest and willingness across faculties to move to a more access-centred teaching and learning environment, but more time is needed to do so. We need to ensure there are adequate central accommodation supports during this transition, as well as discipline-specific assessment and course design resources for faculty and instructors.
As such, Executive Council has approved funding to allow for the additional, temporary supports for accommodated assessments through the Centre for Accessible Learning and Office of the Registrar and Enrolment Management to continue for Winter Session 2024/25, similar to what was offered in 2023/24. We have updated the accommodated assessments web page to reflect Winter Session supports. The web page also includes resources for faculty and instructors—including testimonials from your peers sharing their experiences with and strategies for incorporating universal design for learning principles into their courses and inclusive assessment design—and we will add more resources as they become available. We will also share information about a community of practice for accessible and inclusive course and assessment design.
Importantly, we will work with deans and other leaders to monitor our collective progress towards creating a more access-centred campus and reducing our reliance on these additional temporary academic accommodation supports, with regular status updates provided on the web page.
As well, we understand that it will be important for us to bring students alongside us in this process, including by communicating expectations and clarifying supports. Over the coming months, we will look for ways to engage students, and to support faculty and instructors as they engage with their students.
Information on related initiatives is also available on the web page, such as the midterm pilot report and recommendations from the Joint Working Group on Student Accommodations and Faculty Workload, which the Provost received in April and will respond to in the coming months. We will work with leaders and instructors to explore and implement various strategies, recognizing that we all have a role to play. Thank you to all faculty and instructors who continue to explore and adopt pedagogical approaches that support our diverse community of students.
This is an ongoing initiative, and we will continue to communicate with you throughout the academic year through email and our accommodated assessments web page.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Adjin-Tettey, Associate Vice-President Academic Programs
Jim Dunsdon, Associate Vice-President Student Affairs