Part of a series introducing the multi-faceted Assessment Services team.

The External Exams subunit of Assessment Services coordinates, hosts, and invigilates certification exams, regulatory exams, business exams, and provides services to students studying at other educational institutions and business organizations across Canada and internationally.

Our external exams specialist is Susan Kleppe, who has worked at the College for 20 years in this area, when it was under the auspices of School of Continuing Education. Since seamlessly integrating into the wider Assessment Services unit, Susan has become a deeply valued member of the new, amalgamated unit at Manitou a bi Bii daziigae.

Other posts in the series

• Exam Accommodations: Removing Disability-Related Obstacles to Performance
• Assessment Services: Who We Are

Submitted by Piers Smettem, Assessment Specialist

Introducing the Exam Accommodations Team

Exam Accommodations at Red River College Polytechnic work closely with Student Support Services to provide students with documented disabilities the opportunity to accurately demonstrate how well they have mastered course material by removing disability-related obstacles to performance.

Exam accommodations are highly individualized and are determined according to the nature of the student’s disability, course objectives, and learning outcomes. Exam accommodations include, but are not limited to, reduced distraction exam environments, extended time, oral exams, scribes, and the use of assistive technology to support exam taking.

Learn more

Visit the Exam Accommodations page to learn more about exam accommodations as well as the eligibility requirements and processes to receive accommodations. On this page, you’ll also find additional resources available for students and faculty.

You can also come visit us at the Notre Dame Campus in room D110, or in Manitou a bi Bii Daziigae, room E440.

More in this series

This is the second in a series of posts introducing Assessment Services. The previous installment of this series is available here: Admissions, Diagnostic and Placement Testing Team.

Written by Melissa Coyle, Academic Assessment Services Supervisor

Services and Supports to Ensure College and Career Readiness

Assessment Services, a subdivision of Library and Academic Services, creates and administers entrance and diagnostic academic testing for College programs to help students determine their overall academic readiness for their program and desired career. They also work with students to help them prepare for College by determining and improving their academic readiness.

This department recently developed from offering admissions and diagnostic testing to incorporating language placement testing, external examinations, distance examinations, and accommodated exams.

In this series of posts, we would like to introduce our multi-faceted team to you, beginning with Admissions, Diagnostic and Placement Testing.

The Admissions, Diagnostic and Placement Testing Team

We organize, develop and facilitate admissions testing for a select range of program areas (Health Sciences, Community Services, AME, and international students) and for any application that is missing an academic transcript. We also offer diagnostic testing in collaboration with SIE for Intro to Trades, Compass Skills, and College Transition programs, in addition to offering diagnostic assessments to the Ndinawe organization that supports at-risk youth in Winnipeg. We are also responsible for organizing language placement tests for the Language Training Centre.

Applicants who need to take an admissions assessment as part of their application should visit our resources at our Admissions and Diagnostics website. Here students will find out about helpful resources and preparatory supports that we offer, including pre-program workshops for Community Services led by Yaw, and a tutor-led Degrees of Reading Power workshop.

Stay tuned for the next post in this series, where we’ll introduce you to our Exam Accommodations team.

Written by Piers Smettem, Assessment Specialist

This week we are highlighting “The Teaching Professor” A weekly, online newsletter dedicated to helping college faculty improve students’ learning.

Library and Academic Services (LAS) offers many avenues of support to faculty at RRC Polytech. Among those is our subscription to The Teaching Professor; an online, weekly, newsletter aimed at those teaching in higher education.

The Teaching Professor has been lauded for its succinct articles that make the connection between theory and practice in the scholarship of teaching and learning. It covers a wide range of topics such as course development, student engagement, academic integrity, online and blended learning, and professional growth.

Here are some reasons to check it out

The Twenty Minute Mentor is a monthly feature of a 20-minute video program. Check in each month to see what the topic is!

This months 20-Minute Mentor is How Can I Optimize Announcements to Help Online Students Navigate My Class? presented by Nathan Pritts, PhD, professor and lead faculty at the University of Arizona Global Campus.

For Those Who Teach is the long-running weekly column from Maryellen Weimer, the publication’s founding editor and its lead writer from 1987 to 2022.

Resources

The Library Team has taken the time to pull resources from “The Teaching Professor” in three potential areas of interest for faculty.

Please check them out and take time to get to know “The Teaching Professor”.

1. Preparing For Return to Class

At this time of year, everyone is looking forward to the slower pace of summer days! When the time comes for you to start preparing for your return to the classroom, The Teaching Professor can help with some icebreakers for the first week of classes and with setting the tone of your classroom:

How to Welcome Students to an Online Class

Creating Connections: Team-Building Activities for the Online Classroom

Transforming Classroom Culture

Bringing Authentic Humor into the Classroom

2. Academic Integrity

Academic dishonesty in the 21^st century is so different than the days of looking over a fellow student’s shoulder for the answer. The Teaching Professor has many articles addressing this, here are just a few:

How to Keep Your Students’ Work off Study Sites

Cheating: Can We Be Doing More to Promote Academic Integrity?

A More Optimistic Way to Teach Academic Integrity: Standing with Honor on the Shoulders of Giants

Activities that Promote Awareness of What is and Isn’t Cheating

3. Life Long Learning

For educators, lifelong learning is so important. Developing your skills and knowledge after your formal education ends keeps your teaching fresh, allows you to reflect on what you’re currently doing, and gives you new ideas to strengthen your classroom connections. Here are a few articles to get you started:

Energize Your Teaching by Playing to Your Strengths

Why it’s so Hard to Change the Way We Teach

What Ted Lasso Taught Me About my First Semester of Teaching

Pandemic Lessons: Connect More and Hustle Less

Defining and Denouncing Student Shaming: A Teacher’s Reflection

Don’t Forget to Sign Up!

 The above links are just a small sampling of what can be found in The Teaching Professor. To sign up for weekly article summaries please click here to sign up Teaching Professor Email Update Service.

Written by Erin Edwards, Resource Management Technician