Meet the 2023-24 Learning and Teaching Grant Recipients

The project aims to develop instructional resources and guidelines for using chat GPT in creative coding applications in higher education. Led by Finlay Braithwaite, Dr. Kristopher Alexander, and Stuart Duncan, a team of students and connected stakeholders will collect input and develop resources that cover practical processes, ethical issues, and considerations of AItechnology implementation in creative coding contexts within the RTA School of Media. The impact on student learning and faculty teaching practices will be evaluated and assessed. The project also includes opportunities for student engagement, partnerships with other schools, faculties, institutions, an online repository, a conference/workshop, and a plan for sustainable use of resources. The project will help educate the academic community on the potential of AI technology in the classroom and its ethical implications.

Finlay Braithwaite earned his Master of Design (MDes) in Digital Futures at OCAD University in 2019 and is currently working towards a PhD in The Creative School’s Media and Design Innovation program at Toronto Metropolitan University. Finlay holds a Bachelor of Applied Arts degree in Radio and Television Arts from Toronto Metropolitan University.

The overarching theme of Finlay’s research is the exploration of relationships of time and space in audio media production contexts. His PhD work examines the impacts of variable speed media playback on audio experience, manifesting in the design of embodied and intelligent interfaces for variable speed media playback. Finlay’s masters thesis, 2020 Sound, developed a system to automatically align moving microphone sources. His practice-based research explores the potential for new spatial audio experiences in the context of the emerging ubiquity of head-tracking consumer earbuds.

Finlay Braithwaite is a producer of audio media in television, film, podcasting, radio, interactive, and installation contexts. Finlay restored, designed, and mixed the soundtrack for I Met the Walrus, a short animated film that was nominated for an Academy award, won an Emmy, and was exhibited at the Guggenheim in New York City. As sound supervisor, Finlay was responsible for the entirety of sound for Hugh Gibson’s feature documentary The Stairs, winner of Canada’s largest art prize, the Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Film (2016). His 12.2 surround sound design and mix for Alex Lazarovich’s 360-degree film/installation 6000 Worldviews is part of the permanent collection at the Royal Alberta Museum. Finlay designed and implemented audio for the interactive experience Night of the Living Dead VR, a recreation and tribute to the environment and ephemera of the original zombie classic.

In a live context, Finlay has mixed thousands of hours of live television including the Marilyn Denis Show and The Social. His sound design and mixing is heard in hundreds of commercial advertising campaigns. Finlay is a founding member and currently sits on the board of directors at Victory Social Club, a collaborative community of creative professionals in downtown Toronto.

Hand-in-hand with his research and professional practice, Finlay has taught media production at the university level since 2006, recently winning The Creative School Dean’s Teaching Award (CUPE) in 2021. His focus is audio production curriculum, teaching classes at introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels. In addition, Finlay leads a range of general production and project development courses including the supervision of final-year RTA practicum thesis projects.

Experientially Cultivating Skills to Advance Equity, Diversity, and Inclusions in Classrooms Through Simulations

This project develops new live actor simulations on issues related to equity, diversity, and inclusion specifically focusing on microaggressions. These simulations offer students and faculty the opportunity to engage in conversations that are crucial to the advancement of equity and inclusion but are often insufficiently addressed in the classroom. Working with TMU’s Live Actor Simulation team, this project will incorporate a range of student perspectives into the simulations. The aim is to create sustainable teaching materials that will enable instructors in any discipline to incorporate realistic, experiential learning opportunities that contribute to safe and inclusive classroom environments for a diverse student population.

Dr. Ellen Choi is an Assistant Professor in HRM/OB in the Ted Rogers School of Management. Dr. Choi is an organizational psychologist with training in the fields of Social Psychology and Organizational Behaviour. She received her PhD from the Ivey School of Business in 2017, and her MSc from the London School of Economics in 2012. Her research interests revolve around workplace wellbeing and mental health. In particular she studies the effects of mindfulness training on stress, attention, emotion regulation, errors, authenticity, resilience, and performance under pressure. Dr. Choi teaches in the area of organizational behaviour on topics such as leadership, training and development, motivation, and decision-making.

Prior to graduate school, Ellen traded in commercial real estate for 8 years with CBRE. She is also a yoga instructor, executive meditation coach, and delivers mindfulness workshops and keynote addresses to corporate audiences.

The discipline of psychology has caused harm to Indigenous Peoples in Canada. In response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report, the Canadian Psychological Association

(CPA) has urged all psychology programs to improve “Indigenous cultural literacy.” The Psychology department does not currently offer any courses focusing on the impact of colonialism on Indigenous Peoples or psychology. 

This project proposes to: 

• conduct a scoping review of content related to Indigenous cultural literacy (general and psychology-specific)
• use the information to propose a course in Critical Perspectives on Colonialism in Psychological Research, Teaching, and Practice
• and hire an Indigenous consultant(s) to inform course creation.

Dr. Choma is the Director of the Social and Political Psychology (SPP) Lab at TMU. Her research is primarily interested in tolerance and intolerance, including ideological beliefs such as authoritarianism and left-right ideology, prejudice and discrimination, including sexism and Islamophobia, and prejudice reduction. Currently, she holds a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Research Grant (2015-2020). This research is investigating the relation between ideological beliefs and threat perception. She also holds a Ministry of Research and Innovation Early Researcher Award (MRI-ERA) grant (2016-2021). With this grant, Dr. Choma is investigating the roles of fear and humour in Islamophobia. Becky is an Associate Editor at the Journal of Applied Social Psychology.

Dr. Choma completed her SSHRC-funded PhD in social psychology from Brock University in 2008. From 2008 to 2010 she completed a SSHRC-funded postdoctoral fellowship at York University and Wilfrid Laurier University. Before joining Ryerson in 2013, she was an assistant professor in the School of Psychology at Plymouth University in the UK from 2010 to 2013. At TMU, she primarily teaches History and Theory of Psychology and Prejudice and Discrimination courses.

This proposal includes the development of two community-engaged experiential learning experiences for undergraduate criminology students rooted in an anti-carceral and abolitionist theoretical framework. The Virtual Jail Visiting Program is a tablet-based visiting program to a county jail in Binghamton, in Upstate New York. Students conduct virtual visits with incarcerated people at the incarcerated person’s request. The second is the Migrant Detention Review Observation project. In partnership with the Migrant Detainee Support Coalition (MIDESUCO), students will observe Migrant Detention Review proceedings in Toronto, currently held virtually by the Immigrant Review Board of Canada. The requested funding will support the implementation of the projects, as well as the development of a collaborative evaluation process.

Dr. Stephanie Latty is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology. She received her Ph.D from the University of Toronto in the Collaborative Women and Gender Studies Program in the Department of Social Justice Education. Stephanie’s areas of expertise include Black feminisms, critical race theory, anti-Blackness, carcerality, gendered violence, and abolition. Her current research examines the media and legal discourses surrounding Black women and girls who have experienced strip-searching and other forms of state violence in Canada. Prior to higher education, Stephanie worked in the mental health field in front line, community education and policy capacities.

The goal of this project is to support the development of TMU assignment Guru, a GPT-3 powered app that will break assignments down into steps and project the amount of time required for each step, and to assess the ability of an AI-driven assignment planner to improve student performance and decrease academic misconduct.

Chris MacDonald is an associate professor, writer, speaker and consultant on ethics. MacDonald has been at the Ted Rogers School of Management since August 2012. His expertise in the field of ethics has led to him receiving a number of awards over the years, including being named one of the “100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics,” for the past four years by Ethisphere magazine. MacDonald has also been recognized as one of the “Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behaviour” by Trust Across America in 2011 and 2012. A philosopher by training, MacDonald is also the creator and co-editor of the Business Ethics Journal Review and the author of the highly-regarded Business Ethics Blog. MacDonald has a strong commitment to leadership studies, as demonstrated by his continued development of programs that enable students to become leaders, including an “Ethical Reasoning” module that is now taught to all LAW 122 students. MacDonald’s drive to succeed inspires staff, faculty and students throughout the Ted Rogers School of Management every day.

Dr. Nancy Walton is the Associate Dean, Student Affairs in the Yeates School of Graduate Studies, and an Associate Professor in the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing, at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). At TMU since 2003, she has previously served as Director of the School of Nursing, as Director of eLearning, and as the Chair of the TMU Research Ethics Board. In 2016-17 she was seconded to the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities as Special Advisor to the Deputy Minister.

Dr. Walton also serves as the Chair of the Women's College Hospital Research Ethics Board and Deputy Chair of the Health Canada and Public Health Agency of Canada’s Research Ethics Board.

Dr. Walton has a PhD in Nursing with completion of the Collaborative Program in Bioethics from the University of Toronto (2003) and an undergraduate degree in nursing science from Toronto Metropolitan University (1992). She has published and presented on priority setting and decision-making in cardiac surgery, ethical considerations of internet-based research, research ethics board composition, and ethical and legal considerations in research on children and adolescents and most recently on ethical issues arising in the Ebola virus disease outbreak as well as the ethical concerns and opportunities of new mobile technologies. She was a co-investigator for the CIHR Team Grant-funded project CCORT 2 (Canadian Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Team 2) and co-investigator for the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care-funded project on Variations in Revascularization Practices in Ontario. As a PI, her areas of research and interest are the experiences of parenting children with disabilities, the ethical considerations in the use of technologies and innovations in healthcare and moral courage.

Dr. Walton was a longstanding member with expertise in ethics on the Research Ethics Board at the Hospital for Sick Children, a founding member of the Research Ethics Board at the Ontario College of Art and Design University, a scientific member of the REB at Women's College Hospital and she remains an ad hoc member of the TMU REB. She was a previous member of the National Council on Ethics in Human Research (NCEHR) and is a member of both CAREB (Canadian Association of Research Ethics Boards) and PRIMR (Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research). In 2016, she received the Distinguished Service Award from the Canadian Association of Research Ethics Boards (CAREB).

She is the Canadian author of the textbook, “Ethics and Issues in Contemporary Nursing” (3rd edition) and is the co-editor of the textbook, “Leading and Managing in Nursing” (2019).

Design Thinking Experience is a dual-credit experiential learning course where current TMU students work collaboratively with high school students from equity-deserving groups across the

GTA to help make our university a more accessible and desirable place to learn and grow. All high school students will receive a university course credit for completing the course as well as

a credit towards their high school diploma. This initiative is designed to mitigate many of the most commonly reported barriers to university and expose students to an educational path that they might not have felt was available to them.

Michael strives to help people be more effective decision makers. His research combines principles from Psychology and Economics to explore how people make decisions, and what causes them to make poor choices. His research findings have led him to devote his personal and professional life to help people understand how drive states subconsciously influence decision-making and predispose people to irrational behaviour. Michael is a PhD student at the University of Glasgow, the Indigenous Advisor at the Ted Rogers School of Management and Assistant Professor in the Entrepreneurship & Strategy Department at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Michael is also committed to making education accessible to underserved and often neglected segments of the population. For over a decade, he has been working to afford student inmates access to courses by breaking down barriers to education and finding creative solutions to institutional concerns. In his current role as Indigenous Advisor, Michael is actively involved in overseeing and supporting reconciliation priorities across campus and tasked with leading the development of protocols and processes that will increase access to postsecondary education for Indigenous students. 

The pressbook text for CLD307 Children’s Thinking and Learning will enable the major redevelopment of content to be put into action in form; i.e. the shift from colonial universalism to

dialogic, relativistic and interactive engagement. There are three core components of this shift: the digital format that is accessible financially and to diverse users; the interactivity of the textbook that integrates student voices directly into the text; the integration of links embedded in the text to non-western sources (e.g., international curricula, academic and community-based

publications) combined with immediate interactive features to engage students in reflection and application.

Dr. Kathleen Peets' training has been largely multidisciplinary, with a background in linguistics (BA, York University) developmental psychology and education within a cross-cultural model (EdM, EdD, Harvard University). As a result, their work is focused on the development of language and its relationship to early literacy, and is rooted in both sociocultural and social interactionist theoretical frameworks. Their work is in collaboration with many people in the Toronto Metropolitan University community and beyond, and is fueled very much by the contributions of many undergraduate and graduate student research assistants. For the last several years they have been collaborating with a community partner based in Canada and Nigeria, Early Childhood Development Initiative, led by Patrica Falope (leading policy innovation in Nigeria and a graduate of our Master’s program).

Currently, Dr. Peets and Ms. Falope are engaged in data analysis for their SSHRC-funded project looking at the implementation of play-based learning in collaboration with local educators in Nigeria. Their work integrates children’s, teachers’ and parents’ perspectives as they look at aspects of language, literacy and cognitive development through play-based curricula. Next steps in this program of research are to bring insights gained from Nigerian perspectives and findings to the West African diaspora here in Toronto, and gain their perspectives on current practices in early learning for their children.

The relationship between digitized learning, collaborative studies, and the implementation of autonomy-based technology was highlighted during the emergency remote learning period of the pandemic. As an educator, it is vital to consider how these learning techniques can be administered post-pandemic to engender an empowered and progressive learning experience for each student. The proposed delivery of course content for FFD 300 adopts a Flipped Classroom Approach, which prioritizes engaging students in pre-recorded video tutorial demonstrations that they can complete at their own pace and time. Students would be given opportunities to collaborate with their peers in live video and chat-based forums to apply their learning and establish a sense of community-oriented learning.

Caron Phinney is a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University’s undergraduate fashion program, with a major in fashion design and a minor in production. She received an MA in the History of Decorative Arts and Design from Brighton University, UK. Caron’s fashion design career consists of 15 years of industry experience specializing in bridal design and 10 years of teaching students how to adapt 3D body scanning, computer-aided pattern making, and Gerber technology to become technically proficient and socially conscious designers.

The goal of this project is to improve the problem-solving skills of STEM majors in physics courses for future engineers and scientists by leveraging a research-based pedagogical practice: retrieval practice. The objectives are:

• Develop problem-solving materials based on retrieval practice.
• Implement these materials in three physics courses and prepare teaching assistants to facilitate learning using these materials.
• Assess the impact of these interventions on success in the course as well as attitudes and approaches to problem-solving.

As part of the faculty's research direction in science pedagogy, Dr. Carina Rebello is part of the Department of Physics as an expert in physics pedagogy. Before coming to TMU, She was at Purdue University where she served as an Assistant Professor of Practice and continues to serve as adjunct faculty and to hold National Science Foundation (NSF) research grants.

This proposed project will transform THF470: Black Creative Practices into a digital course delivered via a Top Hat digital textbook. The digital textbook will be structured into 12 modules that feature video content, reading materials, built-in theoretical discussion, and real-time analytics. This digital course will be delivered in a hybrid format, with synchronous in-person tutorial sessions. This proposed grant will support hiring a research assistant to write a thorough review of the literature related to digitizing Black Studies courses, assist in the development of modular-format content, and to help support creating video content, writing quizzes, and discussion questions.

In 2023, Dr. Cheryl was promoted to Associate Professor in Performance at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). She joined the School as Assistant Professor in 2022. She was previously faculty in Creative Industries (2018-2021). She is the author of Uncle: Race, Nostalgia, and the Politics of Loyalty (2021) and Beauty in a Box: Detangling the Roots of Canada’s Black Beauty Culture (2019), (external link)  Dr. Thompson is currently director of The Laboratory for Black Creativity (The LBC), which extends the pedagogy of THF470: Black Creative Practices, an open elective course that unpacks Black creative origins, forms, and styles. The LBC aims to be an incubator for research, conversations, and events on music, dance, theatre, festivals, fashion, media, and the visual arts. The goal is to create space for Black creatives, scholars, artists, musicians, actors and directors, dancers and choreographers at The Creative School.

In 2021, Dr. Thompson was a recipient of an Ontario Early Researcher Award (2021-26) titled, “Mapping Ontario’s Black Archives Through Storytelling,” this project aims to catalogue Ontario’s Black archival collections, and through ethnographic interviews with the province’s creative community, collect stories about the collections that will culminate with a public exhibition curated by Dr. Thompson and her research team. In addition to publishing in academic journals, magazines, and newspapers, Dr. Thompson has also appeared on numerous podcasts and media platforms in Canada and internationally. Dr. Thompson holds a PhD in Communication Studies from McGill University. She previously held a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Theatre, Drama & Performance Studies, and the University of Toronto Mississauga’s Department of English & Drama. In 2021, Dr. Thompson was named to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists.

Through experiential learning and hands-on experimentation, students will learn just how difficult it is to “go viral”. Students will learn first hand how startups initiate seed stage sales with minimum resources. Students will run lean experiments and draw insights from the data generated. Students will learn that establishing a strong reliable low cost sales channel is the key to meaningful new venture growth. Students will be exposed to a variety of Go to Market channels, learning how to generate insights from each experiment. Critical thinking outcomes will be emphasized through reflection and journaling.

Dr. Sean Wise (external link)  is an expert on startups & venture capital. He uses this expertise in his various roles a university professor, bestselling author, international business speaker, and partner at TMU Futures, a seed stage venture capital fund and technology accelerator.

Dr. Wise has mentored hundreds of technology-focused startups, collectively these companies have raised more than $2.1 Billion in capital. Dr. Wise studied economics and engineering at Carleton University. He earned his MBA and Law degrees from the University of Ottawa and received his PhD in Business from the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow. Dr. Wise has published five books and more than two dozen peer-reviewed research papers and case studies of high-growth startups.

Dr. Wise has been an entrepreneur himself since the age of 13. He has founded five startups to date, with his most recent selling for millions in July, 2018.

Dr. Wise spent five seasons as a consultant for CBC,  (external link) on the mega hit venture reality show Dragons' Den,  (external link)  before moving in front of the camera as the host of the Naked Entrepreneur  (external link) which airs on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

In 2018, Dr. Wise became a featured weekly columnist for Inc.com. Since that time he has written more than 100 articles that have been read by more than 500,000 people. Dr. Wise is the Executive Director (and founder) of Ryerson’s Startup School, which over 5 years has delivered more than 60 free seminars, keynotes and working sessions for entrepreneurs in Toronto.

Dr. Wise has been called the Dr. Phil of Entrepreneurship and in 2014, he was named Entrepreneurial Mentor of the Year by Startup Canada.