Today — Wednesday, Oct. 7 — is the third annual UWin Day, the unofficial birthday of UWin Proud, the University’s spirit program.

To celebrate UWinDay, the UWin Proud spirit program is offering DailyNews readers a chance to say goodbye to cold coffee with an Ember Temperature Control Mug by testing their UWindsor knowledge.

All respondents who correctly answer eight questions about the University of Windsor will be entered into the draw to win the grand prize. Try your luck here.

In addition to the trivia, all staff and faculty are encouraged to take a picture today wearing Lancer gear with the hashtag #WindsorWednesday, tagging @UWinStudentExp, for their chance to win six months of Spotify premium.

Don’t have any Lancer gear? Tune into the Windsor Wednesday show today at noon to hear a special discount code for the Campus Bookstore.

To see all of the events and activities happening on UWin Day, visit uwindsor.ca/studentexperience/proud.

The transition to a primarily online learning environment has presented an opportunity for UWindsor instructors and students alike to evaluate and reinvent their teaching and learning spaces to suit a new set of expectations.

Instructors delivering courses they’ve developed for a face-to-face environment have taken advantage of this opportunity to design their Fall 2020 and Winter 2021 courses with the internet as a tool for learning.

These experiences are as varied as the content being taught, and some instructors have found the process enlightening. Taking their teaching beyond some of the limitations of the classroom opens them to the possibilities for student engagement that the digital teaching space provides.

A new series of videos, produced through the Office of Open Learning, aims to highlight the experiences of some UWindsor instructors, staff, and students as an example of how this new delivery model is being used as an inspiring opportunity.

“We’ve seen a really impressive uptake in our Foundations of Teaching Online virtual workshops. Instructors who have taught their courses for a long time, others who are new to the material they’re teaching along with the medium they’re teaching it on,” says Nick Baker, director of Open Learning. “What we’ve seen is some really innovative and inspiring new ways of teaching emerge. And the enthusiasm of the instructors that comes along with that is something we think it’s important to share.”

The video series, Insights into Learning Online, will continue to grow on the Office of Open Learning’s YouTube channel.

Currently featured is professor Heather Hartley of the Department of Communications, Media & Film. Prof. Hartley has adapted two courses for Fall 2020, and focused on solving the challenges of students new to the University, and designing her courses to include interactions to keep students interested in the material, and feel like they’re part of a community of learners.

Her key advice: “Don’t judge yourself if you don’t get it right away. Be kind to yourself, and to others around you. Getting that knowledge is important.”

Do you want to share your experience with online teaching & learning? Get in touch with Shreyas Tambe, media specialist with the Office of Open Learning, who is looking forward to featuring a diverse and exciting collection of success stories working through the transition to mostly online semesters.

The WE-Spark Health Institute is hosting its first virtual Think Tank via Zoom from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9.

 “Our Think Tanks provide unique opportunities for researchers, stakeholders, and students to meet and discuss potential research collaborations,” said executive director Lisa Porter. “We’re looking forward to our first virtual Think Tank that will bring people together for an exciting interdisciplinary event.”

The event will begin with an overview of three projects, followed by breakout sessions:

• Kitty Huang and Laura D'Alimonte, Windsor Regional Hospital: Rehab for Radiation Oncology Patients
• Hali Sitarz, St. Clair College: Poverty: What can we do to empathize, understand and assist?
• Meaghan Wunder, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry - Windsor Campus: The temporal dynamics of physical activity on quality of life and survival in high-grade glioma

The outcomes will focus on moving each project forward and building collaborations across Windsor-Essex.

Find more information and a link to register on the institute’s website.

Students and faculty members from Windsor Law have launched a week of activity in support of a protest against a housing development planned on disputed territory south of Caledonia.

Occupying the site under the banner “the 1492 Land Back Lane Land Defenders,” demonstrators have been arrested and served with an injunction to leave.

A statement from the 1492 Land Back Lane Windsor Law Coalition calls for action in solidarity leading up to Oct. 9.

“Our goal is to do our part to shine a light on the injustices occurring against Haudenosaunee land defenders on Six Nations territory who are fighting to protect their lands for future generations,” the statement reads in part.

Organizers plan online and in-person actions aimed at raising awareness of the ongoing violence and injustices committed against Indigenous peoples. Learn more on the group’s Facebook page.

The public is invited to witness the beginning of a journey by artist Alex McKay’s (BFA 1990) sculpture Treaty Canoe on Wednesday, Oct. 7. The work will be portaged starting at 9 a.m. from the large Canadian flag in Dieppe Park towards the Ontario Superior Court of Justice building adjacent to Charles Clark Square, where speakers will address attendees.

Val Kuri, vice-president of the Shkawbewisag Student Law Society, urges supporters to dress warmly, wear masks, and respect social distancing rules.

Sociology professor Renu Persaud’s efforts to decrease her students’ stress is winning attention off campus.

Windsor Star reporter Dave Battagello wrote a story published Oct. 1 that note Dr. Persaud has assigned 20 per cent of the final grade in her class “Understanding Social Life” for improving personal mental health.

“Persaud requires students to keep journals and at least once a week document and assess their meditation or other self-care strategies,” Battagello writes. “She will collect the journals at the end of the semester and evaluate each student’s actions.”

Read the entire article on the Star’s website.

Moira McQueen, executive director of the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute, will deliver a public lecture online at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8, in acknowledgement of her receipt of the Christian Culture Gold Medal from Assumption University.

The institute conducts research and education in bioethics from a Roman Catholic perspective. Dr. McQueen has taught moral theology at St. Michael’s Graduate Faculty of Theology in the University of Toronto since 1994.

Assumption University has bestowed the Christian Culture Gold Medal each year since 1941 on an “outstanding exponent of Christian ideals.” It depicts a human hand holding a mustard plant with the Latin inscription “Simile est regnum caelorum grano sinapis” or “the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.”

McQueen’s lecture is available for viewing on the Assumption University website.