Today's Tea(ching) Break is an easy to read infographic about online course quality indicators. If you want more details and are interested in reading the paper, here it is.  A Cross-Institutional Study of Instructional Characteristics and Student Outcomes: Are Quality Indicators of Online Courses Able to Predict Student Success?

To all users of the UPEI Researcher Portal,

Please be advised that some of the online forms in the UPEI Researcher Portal will be updated on Jan 7th, 2022.  Forms created prior to Jan 7, 2022, using the older versions of the forms will be processed as usual.  However, after Jan 7, 2022, all forms must be submitted using the new, most current version.  The titles of all revised forms will include “rev Jan 2022”.   The titles of the older form versions will include “DO NOT USE”.

After Jan 7, 2022, submission of newly created forms using the older versions will not be accepted.

The following forms will be revised to correct minor errors, improve clarity, and in some cases, modify information requests. 

The following newly revised Application Forms include (**NEW** added Sponsor Deadline field):

• Research Funding Admin Approvals Form for GRANTS (rev Jan 2022) 

The following newly revised Event Forms include (**NEW** location provided for Chair and Dean signatures upon exporting the form):

• Research Account Modification Form (rev Jan 2022)
• Agreement Approval Request Forms - Type One -(rev Jan 2022)
• Funding Approvals form: Subsequent to CDA, NDA, MOU, MTA - (rev Jan 2022)

The following new Events Form will be added to the system:

• Mitacs Agreement Approval – This form should be used when submitting the partner contract for a previously submitted and awarded Mitacs grant and allow, if applicable, a request for release of student stipend.

Details on the access and usage of the UPEI Researcher Portal are found at: https://www.upei.ca/research-services/forms. Please contact Research Services at researcherportal@upei.ca or 902-620-5104 for any questions.

The weekly COVID-19 Testing Clinics for partially and non-vaccinated faculty, staff, and students will resume on January 7th, 2022.  The clinics will be run out of the McMillan Room at the W.A. Murphy Building for the month of January from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. 

Please note:  These clinics are not meant for people with symptoms - if you believe you might have symptoms of COVID-19, including the Omicron variant, you will require a molecular test that is not provided at UPEI.  Please visit a Health PEI Testing Clinic:  https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en/information/health-and-wellness/covid-19-testing-in-pei.

IT Systems and Services is preparing virtual student computer lab applications for the Winter 2022 Semester. We kindly ask that all Faculty and/or lab facilitators who require access to virtual lab applications for their courses please submit their requests via the form provided on the myUPEI portal.

Please complete this form if you are facilitating a course in the upcoming Winter 2022 Semester and your students will require virtual lab access to complete their course.

Please note that any virtual lab access previously provided for courses will be removed by January 30, 2021. If your students still require access during the Winter 2022 semester, please re-submit the above form.

In some specialized cases there may be costs and approvals associated with provisioning virtual labs, and in these cases ITSS will contact you to discuss next steps.

To all users of the UPEI Researcher Portal,

Please be advised that some of the online forms in the UPEI Researcher Portal will be updated on Jan 7th, 2022.  Forms created prior to Jan 7, 2022, using the older versions of the forms will be processed as usual.  However, after Jan 7, 2022, all forms must be submitted using the new, most current version.  The titles of all revised forms will include “rev Jan 2022”.   The titles of the older form versions will include “DO NOT USE”.

After Jan 7, 2022, submission of newly created forms using the older versions will not be accepted.

The following forms will be revised to correct minor errors, improve clarity, and in some cases, modify information requests. 

The following newly revised Application Forms include (**NEW** added Sponsor Deadline field):

• Research Funding Admin Approvals Form for GRANTS (rev Jan 2022) 

The following newly revised Event Forms include (**NEW** location provided for Chair and Dean signatures upon exporting the form):

• Research Account Modification Form (rev Jan 2022)
• Agreement Approval Request Forms - Type One -(rev Jan 2022)
• Funding Approvals form: Subsequent to CDA, NDA, MOU, MTA - (rev Jan 2022)

The following new Events Form will be added to the system:

• Mitacs Agreement Approval – This form should be used when submitting the partner contract for a previously submitted and awarded Mitacs grant and allow, if applicable, a request for release of student stipend.

Details on the access and usage of the UPEI Researcher Portal are found at: https://www.upei.ca/research-services/forms. Please contact Research Services at researcherportal@upei.ca or 902-620-5104 for any questions.

Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ) 2022

The annual call for applications for the Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ) program is open. 

For CSJ 2022, the Government has committed to create 100,000 CSJ jobs for youth to help ensure that the program remains responsive to the employment needs of youth and employers. In 2022, CSJ is returning to its regular parameters and will offer quality jobs over the summer months.

Applicants are able to seek funding to hire youth (people aged 15-30 years) between April 25, 2022 and September 3, 2022. Work placements must be full-time (30-40 hours per week) quality jobs with a minimum duration of six weeks and a maximum of 16 weeks.

Approved public and private sector employers will be eligible to receive a wage subsidy reimbursement of up to 50% of the provincial or territorial minimum hourly wage.

For additional information and application information for this program please click here.

To apply for this program you will need to contact Michelle Massiah, Human Resources, mmassiah@upei.ca . The closing date for applications is January 20, 2022.

If you are planning on visiting the UPEI Health and Wellness Centre and have been out of the province, you are required to have already self-isolated and had a negative test for COVID-19 on day 4 of your return to PEI (you will need to indicate whether you had a molecular (PCR) test or rapid antigen test). 

You will not be seen unless you have isolated and had a negative test result on day 4 following your trip. Thank you for your patience as we work hard to reduce the transmission of the Omicron variant/COVID-19 virus.

The UPEI Health and Wellness Centre is located on 2nd Floor North, W. A. Murphy Student Centre and is open from 8:30 am–4:00 pm, Monday to Friday (closed daily from 12:00–1:00 pm for lunch). Contact healthcentre@upei.ca or 902-566-0616 for more info.

If you are working on a syllabus and want a quicker way to find class meeting dates than scanning through a calendar, check out this useful tool that can help save some time. You have to watch for holidays and break week though!   

The E-Learning Office and the Teaching and Learning Centre want to know what your most urgent needs are so that we can identify priorities for support — Do you need technical or pedagogical support? Do any of our existing resources meet your needs? Taking 1-2 minutes to complete this survey will help ensure you get support to help make the first weeks of the Winter 2022 semester a success for both you and your students.

Starting in January 2022, science students at UPEI can register for a new 21-credit minor in biotechnology and two new associated courses, BIOT 1020: Field Studies in Biotechnology on PEI and BIOT 2020: Case Studies in Biotechnology.

The Faculty of Science has developed the new minor in partnership with the Canadian Alliance for Skills and Training in Life Sciences (CASTL) in response to new career opportunities for science and technology in the biotechnology sector on PEI.

The new minor combines the academic and laboratory components of students’ science degree program with hands-on skills development, and it complements existing programs on campus. Through industry-supported work-integrated learning placements embedded in all new UPEI biotechnology courses, students will gain experience and industry connections to kickstart a career in biosciences and biotechnology.

The new courses will give students an introduction to the biotechnology in local industry. BIOT 2020: Case Studies in Biotechnology is an online course where students will examine and solve research problems drawn from national and local biotechnology industry. BIOT 1020: Field Studies in Biotechnology on PEI involves field visits to local biotechnology industries. Both courses are open to all science students, and prerequisites are not required.

For more information, please contact Dr. Maria Kilfoil, associate professor, Departments of Physics and Chemistry, at mlkilfoil@upei.ca.

The weekly COVID-19 Testing Clinics for partially and non-vaccinated faculty, staff, and students will resume on January 7th, 2022.  The clinics will be run out of the McMillan Room at the W.A. Murphy Building for the month of January from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. 

Please note:  These clinics are not meant for people with symptoms - if you believe you might have symptoms of COVID-19, including the Omicron variant, you will require a molecular test that is not provided at UPEI.  Please visit a Health PEI Testing Clinic:  https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en/information/health-and-wellness/covid-19-testing-in-pei.

UPEI’s Department of Athletics and Recreation offers some great programming to faculty and staff—and even better—at a discounted rate!

• Specialty fitness classes include barre, gentle yoga, mat pilates, and yoga strength and flexibility, to name a few. Each session includes 12 classes. The cost for UPEI faculty and staff is $25 (plus HST) per person.

To register, go to recreation.upei.ca, click on UPEI Login, and sign in with your UPEI email address and password. After signing in, click on the Fitness Programming icon and follow the prompts. If you have any questions about fitness programming registrations, please contact Angela Marchbank at amarchbank@upei.ca.

If you are planning on visiting the UPEI Health and Wellness Centre and have been out of the province, you are required to have already self-isolated and had a negative test for COVID-19 on day 4 of your return to PEI (you will need to indicate whether you had a molecular (PCR) test or rapid antigen test). 

You will not be seen unless you have isolated and had a negative test result on day 4 following your trip. Thank you for your patience as we work hard to reduce the transmission of the Omicron variant/COVID-19 virus.

The UPEI Health and Wellness Centre is located on 2nd Floor North, W. A. Murphy Student Centre and is open from 8:30 am–4:00 pm, Monday to Friday (closed daily from 12:00–1:00 pm for lunch). Contact healthcentre@upei.ca or 902-566-0616 for more info.

The E-Learning Office and the Teaching and Learning Centre want to know what your most urgent needs are so that we can identify priorities for support — Do you need technical or pedagogical support? Do any of our existing resources meet your needs? Taking 1-2 minutes to complete this survey will help ensure you get support to help make the first weeks of the Winter 2022 semester a success for both you and your students.

The weekly COVID-19 Testing Clinics for partially and non-vaccinated faculty, staff, and students will resume on January 7th, 2022.  The clinics will be run out of the McMillan Room at the W.A. Murphy Building for the month of January from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. 

Please note:  These clinics are not meant for people with symptoms - if you believe you might have symptoms of COVID-19, including the Omicron variant, you will require a molecular test that is not provided at UPEI.  Please visit a Health PEI Testing Clinic:  https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en/information/health-and-wellness/covid-19-testing-in-pei.

IT Systems and Services is preparing virtual student computer lab applications for the Winter 2022 Semester. We kindly ask that all Faculty and/or lab facilitators who require access to virtual lab applications for their courses please submit their requests via the form provided on the myUPEI portal.

Please complete this form if you are facilitating a course in the upcoming Winter 2022 Semester and your students will require virtual lab access to complete their course.

Please note that any virtual lab access previously provided for courses will be removed by January 30, 2021. If your students still require access during the Winter 2022 semester, please re-submit the above form.

In some specialized cases there may be costs and approvals associated with provisioning virtual labs, and in these cases ITSS will contact you to discuss next steps.

Yoga Instructor Pam Harris will guide you through a 45-minute class offering meditation and gentle yoga stretches. The meditation segment of the class creates more calm, inner peace, and balance that benefits both your emotional well-being and overall health 

Thursdays 12:10–12:55 pm

January 13 - February 17

March 3 - April 7

The class is FREE and for UPEI employees only, provided by the Healthy Campus Committee and supported by the UPEI Employee Wellness Strategy. You do not need to have a sports centre membership in order to take this class. Staff/Faculty can only register for one of the sessions above per semester.     

Registration and to check if spots available be follow instructions below.

UPEI FACULTY/STAFF: Please sign in using your UPEI email address and password at our new portal: recreation.upei.ca. Then click on the Fitness Programs Icon. In the drop-down menu on the left, click on Campus Staff/Faculty Wellness programs. Sign up information is at that site.  Ensure you also click on January - April 2022 Semester.

Beat the New Years Resolution rush and sign up for small group training now.   Small Group Training is a fun and effective way to reach your fitness goals by training in a group of six under the guidance of a certified personal trainer.    We have a variety of options (once/week, two times/week, three times/week) at a great price for UPEI staff/faculty   $50 + hst  for 1 session (12 classes), regular price is $135 + hst.    If you have any questions, please contact Angela Marchbank at amarchbank@upei.ca

For more details visit https://www.upei.ca/ar/fitness-classes

To register for small group training please log into our new online registration site.

UPEI faculty, staff, and students: 

• You can sign in using your UPEI email address and password at our new portal, recreation.upei.ca. 
• After signing in click on the Fitness Programming icon and following prompts.         

The E-Learning Office and the Teaching and Learning Centre want to know what your most urgent needs are so that we can identify priorities for support — Do you need technical or pedagogical support? Do any of our existing resources meet your needs? Taking 1-2 minutes to complete this survey will help ensure you get support to help make the first weeks of the Winter 2022 semester a success for both you and your students.

Starting in January 2022, science students at UPEI can register for a new 21-credit minor in biotechnology and two new associated courses, BIOT 1020: Field Studies in Biotechnology on PEI and BIOT 2020: Case Studies in Biotechnology.

The Faculty of Science has developed the new minor in partnership with the Canadian Alliance for Skills and Training in Life Sciences (CASTL) in response to new career opportunities for science and technology in the biotechnology sector on PEI.

The new minor combines the academic and laboratory components of students’ science degree program with hands-on skills development, and it complements existing programs on campus. Through industry-supported work-integrated learning placements embedded in all new UPEI biotechnology courses, students will gain experience and industry connections to kickstart a career in biosciences and biotechnology.

The new courses will give students an introduction to the biotechnology in local industry. BIOT 2020: Case Studies in Biotechnology is an online course where students will examine and solve research problems drawn from national and local biotechnology industry. BIOT 1020: Field Studies in Biotechnology on PEI involves field visits to local biotechnology industries. Both courses are open to all science students, and prerequisites are not required.

For more information, please contact Dr. Maria Kilfoil, associate professor, Departments of Physics and Chemistry, at mlkilfoil@upei.ca.