Open to Question: Listen to the podcasts
At a bustling university with almost 46,000 students and thousands of employees, it can be daunting to stay abreast of the sheer volume of initiatives, projects and achievements. The Open to Question discussion series aims to facilitate the challenge by making Concordia experts and leaders available for a lunchtime discussion.
Entering its second year, the series is building on last year’s success. An initiative of University Communications Services, Open to Question invites Concordians to listen to a short presentation on a particular topic and then pose questions.
Gathered below are all the podcasts from the Open to Question sessions, to date.
Living and working in Quebec with little or no French skills can be daunting, but help is now available thanks to a new initiative called Oui Can Help! This program offers 100 bursaries as well as other resources to those interested in learning French. The Open to Question event held on November 1 gave a brief presentation about Oui Can Help!, and was followed by an open forum for discussion and questions from the audience.
Listen to the podcast from November 1, 2011:
Chief Administrative Officer Kevin Little gave two brief presentations (one at Loyola, and the other at the Sir George Williams Campus) about the new PERFORM centre, which is a state-of-the-art facility that combines research, education and community engagement in the areas of physical activity, rehabilitation, nutrition and lifestyle change:
Listen to the podcast from October 5, 2011:
Director of the David O’Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise, Paul Shrivastava, kicked off the second season of Open to Question with a brief presentation on the Sustainable Investment Professional Certification (SIPC) program.
Listen to the podcast from September 28, 2011:
Art historian Clarence Epstein gave a talk on the evolution of Concordia’s public art collection: Public Art at Concordia: Where the University Meets the City.
Listen to the podcast from April 28, 2011:
Download the visual presentation.
A working group led by Vice-Provost, Teaching and Learning, Ollivier Dyens has been examining the issue of course evaluations at Concordia University.
The group proposes using the Short Form developed by the non-profit IDEA Center at Kansas State University, along with a series of additional measures to better assess the complex process of teaching.
Dyens invited Steve Benton, Senior Researcher at the IDEA Center, to address the Concordians.
Listen to the podcast from March 24:
Download the visual presentation.
Provost David Graham hosted the three Open to Question sessions (February 10 and 17, and March 4) to discuss the draft Academic plan. Read more.
Listen to the podcast from March 4:
Listen to the podcast from February 10:
Listen to the podcast from February 17:
Download the draft academic plan.
The second season of the Open to Question series opened with two sessions dedicated to the issue of Academic Integrity: The Challenges of the Digital Age.
Arts and Science Code Administrator and Political Science Associate Professor Csaba Nikolenyi and Vice-Provost, Teaching and Learning Ollivier Dyens discussed how Concordia tackles these issues.
Listen to the podcast from the session on January 31, held at Loyola:
Download this podcast (<--Right click and "Save Link As").
Listen to the podcast from the first session on January 27:
Download this podcast (<--Right click and "Save Link As").
Download the visual presentation.
Read more about the first season of Open to Question.
- November 22 - "University Rankings" with Bradley Tucker, Director of the Institutional Planning Office:
Download this podcast (<--Right click and "Save Link As").
Download the visual presentation.
- November 5 - "Interdisciplinarity, Multidisciplinarity, Permeability: Why, Who, How?" with Brian Lewis, and professors Amy Poteete, Rae Staseson and Adrian Tsang:
Download this podcast (<--Right click and "Save Link As").
- October 20 - “The Open Access Initiative at Concordia: What Exactly Is It?” with Gerald Beasley, University Librarian:
Download this podcast (<--Right click and "Save Link As").
Download the visual presentation.
- October 6 - "Financing Quebec universities: the basics and more" with Chief Financial Officer Patrick Kelley:
Download this podcast (<--Right click and "Save Link As").
Download the visual presentation.
- September 27 - "Knowledge Factory, Innovation Engine, or Community of Scholars? (Re)defining Our Role in Today's Society" with Provost David Graham:
Download this podcast (<--Right click and "Save Link As").
Download the visual presentation.
- September 17 - Former President Judith Woodsworth launched the first in the series: