Members of York University's Cross-Campus Capstone Classroom (C4) team were awarded the 2023 D2L Innovation Award in Teaching and Learning from the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE), which recognizes post-secondary collaborative teams for their innovative approaches to promoting student-centered teaching and learning.
C4, launched in 2019, enables students to work on real-world challenges with social impact, promoting team-based collaboration, advanced research and design, critical and strategic thinking, and more.
The award was bestowed on those associated with C4’s innovative approach to pan-university interdisciplinary experiential education, including:
- Danielle Robinson, co-founder and academic co-lead of C4, as well as associate professor in the Department of Dance;
- Franz Newland, co-founder and co-lead of C4, as well as associate professor of Space Engineering;
- Rachelle Campigotto, classroom coordinator assistant for C4 and contract faculty in the Faculty of Education;
- Dana Craig, Libraries liaison for C4 and director of student learning and academic success in the Libraries;
- Danielle Dobney, team culture strategist of C4 and assistant professor in Kinesiology and the Athletic Therapy Certificate program;
- Andrea Kalmin, curriculum lead, classroom coordinator for C4 and adjunct faculty in the Department of Social Science;
- Alice Kim, scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) research lead for C4 and interim assistant program head for Psychology at the University of Guelph-Humber; and
- Natasha May, Teaching Commons liaison for C4 and educational developer in York's Teaching Commons.
The D2L Innovation Award is an international recognition, open to applicants from all countries. It evaluates and rewards innovations in pedagogical approaches, teaching methods, course design, curriculum development, assessment methods, and more. It is named after D2L, a cloud-based learning analytics platform.
Award recipients are invited to a retreat held the day of the pre-conference at STLHE’s Annual Conference. This retreat includes a facilitated session, lunch, and a social and learning excursion focused on innovation. At the conference they will be recognized at the Conference Awards Ceremony and receive a certificate in recognition of their work.