Learning for impact strategic plan: 2025-2030

Teach for impact

Concordia commits to offer relevant, flexible, hands-on, innovative programs that prepare learners for the challenges they currently face and those to come. These programs will help learners build the necessary knowledge and skills to succeed, including developing a curiosity to learn and the agency needed to act in the world with integrity.

Teaching in these programs will rely on evidence-based practices that aim for high student engagement as a key strategy for learning and retention. Where appropriate, interdisciplinary co-teaching will be promoted since problem-solving requires input from various locations.

Concordia commits to advancing its efforts to decolonize its curriculum and adopt inclusive pedagogies. Recognizing that knowledge and creativity come from diverse experiences and ways of being, the university aims to lead change and address global issues through this lens. Partnerships in learning with community groups, industry, and Indigenous communities are essential. Concordia will engage learners as partners in co-creating knowledge to foster agency and ensure deep learning.

Five-year goals:

• Classes respect the diversity of our learners and encourage their sense of belonging and well-being through inclusive teaching methods, including decolonization and Indigenization. 
• Reimagine the structures, curricular pathways and delivery modes we use to better engage students and prepare them for the shifting demands of work, study, and citizenship.
• Using high-impact teaching practices, we encourage curiosity, agency, resiliency, and other key skills in our learners so that they are equipped to face the world’s challenges.
• All programs offer effective, engaging, and experiential learning experiences using a variety of techniques.
• We build more partnerships in learning across the faculties, with industry, community groups, and other higher education institutions.

Learner well-being and success

Learners come to Concordia with a wealth of experiences, knowledges, and skills. Learning for Impact happens when we create an environment where all learners can have these talents recognized and have new ones emerge. An environment encouraging learner success deepens connections to Concordia by fostering respect and meaningful relationships with their educators, peers, and other members of the university community.

An environment prioritizing well-being pays attention to individual learners offering a rich and inclusive set of learning experiences. Concordia’s success as an institution is only secured when our learners succeed in the ways that are important to them.

Five-year goals:

• Learners feel welcomed and receive timely academic support so that they get the help they need when they need it.
• Processes and program structures that are unduly complex and delay learners completing their degrees are significantly reduced.
• Learners have access to more mentorship opportunities as both mentors and mentees to grow their leadership skills.
• Greater adoption of inclusive teaching practices and diverse knowledge in the curriculum to prepare learners for a complex world.
• Learners will leave Concordia able to translate their knowledge, skills and experiences to new environments, so they feel confident and hopeful about their futures.

Value teaching

Learning for impact requires a deep commitment to the continual professional development of our teaching faculty and staff. Investment in our teaching is an investment in our learners and their futures.

Five-year goals:

• Teaching excellence and career investment in teaching are prioritized through effective, evidence-based programming co-developed by the CTL and the faculties.
• Teaching excellence is a well-defined path to tenure and promotion.
• We celebrate our in-house teaching excellence by mobilizing faculty expertise to promote pedagogical and curricular innovation.
• Scholarship on teaching and learning is better supported so that we can showcase our teaching excellence.
• Build more opportunities for faculty camaraderie to support a culture of teaching excellence and well-being.

Promote human-centred systems

Concordia is a big, complex place with many moving parts. It can be hard for each part to be in sync with others, sometimes leading to processes that feel inefficient, complex, opaque, and impersonal.

When processes are designed with people first – rather than institutional imperatives – efficiency, transparency, and accountability become hallmarks of institutional culture. Efficient processes allow individuals to focus their energies and talents in places where they can make the most impact.

As much as possible, processes should be transparent so that individuals following them understand why they are necessary. If issues arise, being accountable means addressing them in a timely way to build trust and respect within our institution. Committing to and acting on an ethos of continually improving our processes humanizes our institution and enhances opportunities for belonging.

Five-year goals:

• Track and resolve identified issues through regular community feedback to enhance teaching processes, services, and spaces.
• Establish mechanisms for data sharing to make strategic improvements that will enhance learner outcomes.
• Streamline procedures for faculty to initiate and manage co-teaching arrangements.
• Create an efficient, transparent curriculum revision system that empowers departments to implement innovative changes.
• Develop clear guidelines and simplified procedures for evaluating and adopting new educational technologies.