Resources
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The Centre for Learning & Teaching (CLT) leads, supports and disseminates educational research that enables reflective, evidence-based teaching practice, enhances student experience and drives pedagogical innovation within OCAD U and the wider art and design education sector.
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Educational Research & Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), an established, international field of scholarly inquiry and practice-based research, aims to enhance the post-secondary educational experience and advance the practice of teaching by grounding it in evidence of improved student learning. As part of our mandate, the CLT undertakes SoTL projects with a special interest in art and design education. We support and collaborate with our faculty in the development of SoTL projects, leading to conference presentations, publications and externally funded research projects.
Professional Affiliations
CLT staff are active contributors to national and provincial associations in their fields of scholarship and practice, including the Canadian Writing Centres Association (CWCA), the Council of Ontario Educational Developers (COED), the Ontario Universities Council on e-Learning (OUCEL), Learning Specialists Association of Canada (LSAC), the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE), and Teachers of English as a Second Language Association of Ontario (TESL Ontario).
To learn more about SoTL or to collaborate with the CLT on pedagogical research, please email us at CLT@ocadu.ca.
Research Projects and Collaborations
The CLT team develops research-informed teaching and learning resources and undertakes scholarly research in diverse areas such as writing pedagogy, applied linguistics, critical disability studies and art and design education. You can explore some of these below.
Current projects
2025-2026
PLaiSHOP: A Participatory Playshop Towards Critical AI Literacy
Co-PIs: Emilie Brancato, Lori Riva, Adam Tindale
This research aims to develop and produce a toolkit to playfully and critically engage post-secondary art and design educators and students with Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI). Supported by an OCAD University Research Seed Grant.
Transformative Access Unconference (TAU)
Maria Belén Ordóñez and Laura Thrasher
May 2025 – OCAD University, Toronto, Canada.
A knowledge-creation research project focused on accessibility, disability, and pedagogy supported by an OCAD University Research Seed Grant and led by Maria Belén Ordóñez (Assistant Professor, Faculty of Arts and Science) and Laura Thrasher (Educational Developer, Teaching Support & Accessible Pedagogies, CLT). The project culminated with a two-day event held at OCAD U on May 22 & 26, 2025.
Generative AI as Threat/Opportunity? Critical AI Literacy in the Fine Arts Classroom
Emilie Brancato and Lori Riva
February 2024 – Fine Arts Department, University of Waterloo.
In this talk and interactive activity using Generative AI tools (Chat GPT/Dall-E), Brancato and Riva (OCAD University) suggested cocreation of critical AI literacy as an effective strategy to navigate both the ethical challenges and creative possibilities of GAI.
Navigating Generative AI in Art and Design Education: Policy, Pedagogy and Creative Practice
Emilie Brancato, Lori Riva, Adam Tindale
November 2023 – The Association of Independent Colleges of Art & Design (AICAD), Art Academy of Cincinatti.
Through examination of the critical affordances, creative explorations and ethical challenges generative AI (GAI) presents, this cross-disciplinary panel advocated for critical yet creative responses to GAI within decolonial and anti-racist frameworks.
Generative AI and Anti-Racist Writing and Language-Teaching Pedagogies
Emilie Brancato
May 2023 – Canadian Association for the Study of Discourse and Writing (CASDW), Congress of the Humanities & Social Sciences, Toronto, Canada.
As part of roundtable: “This was (not) written by AI: On the panic, power, and possibilities of twenty-first century text generation.”
Decolonizing English for art and design: Pushing against regimes of normativity through a transcultural approach.
Shahriar Mirshahidi, Emilie Brancato
May 2023 – Paper presented at Canadian Association for Applied Linguistics (CAAL) Conference, Congress of the Humanities & Social Sciences, Toronto, Canada
Disrupting normative logics: Reading student experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic through critical disability studies and anti-colonial theory.
Lex Bourgoyne, Cary DiPietro, Susan Ferguson and Fady Shanouda
May 2022 – Paper presented at the Canadian Sociological Association (CSA) Annual Meeting. Virtual Event
Destabilizing disciplinarity through the creative disciplines: Towards a disruptive writing pedagogy and practice.
Susan Ferguson, Emilie Brancato, and Stephanie Dayes
May 2019 – Roundtable session at the meeting of the Canadian Writing Centres Association (CWCA), Emily Carr University of Art and Design Education, Vancouver, British Columbia.
Educational research at the intersection of art and design: A site-specific panel session at OCAD University in downtown Toronto
Emilie Brancato, Cary DiPietro, Susan Ferguson, Travis Freeman, David Griffin, Lynne Heller, Dorie Millerson, Marie Josee Therrien
April 2019 – Site-specific Presidential Session at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, Toronto, Ontario
Writing as making: Positioning a WAC initiative to bridge academic discourse and studio learning
Cary DiPietro, Susan Ferguson, Roderick Grant
May 2017 - Paper presentation at the Canadian Association for Studies in Discourse and Writing (CASDW) Annual Conference, Toronto, Ontario
A Tale of Collaboration in Workshop Development and Delivery
Rebecca Diederichs
May 2015 – Exchange Session presented at the Learning Specialists Association Conference (LSAC) Conference, Guelph, Ontario.
Below are examples of our open access teaching and learning resources for students and faculty. For more information about our resources, please contact us at clt@ocadu.ca.
Teaching Art & Design Online: A Toolkit for Faculty
(Last updated January 2024)
This toolkit contains eleven resources to support faculty with incorporating digital pedagogies into online and hybrid course delivery and assessment.
Arriving at Indigenous Knowledges: Decolonial Approaches for English Language Learners (Online course)
Published by: Phoebe Wang, Michelle Majeed, Natasha Holmes
eCampus Ontario: Virtual Learning Strategy (VLS) collection. Original Publish Date: February 28, 2022 (V.03 – October 2023)
This four-part asynchronous online course is designed for domestic and international English Language Learning (ELL) students entering or currently enrolled in post-secondary studies. It introduces a history of Canada and Turtle Island through Indigenous knowledges and concepts. Learn from recorded interviews and presentations from Indigenous knowledge keepers, writers, artists, designers, and creators. The course also provides vocabulary, reading, writing, speaking, and listening strategies to support students as they continue to develop their academic English fluency.
Caption edited for website with Bing Co-pilot. This course can be accessed through the eCampusOntario website. All current OCAD University students can access the course via Canvas Cloud. Inquiries can be directed to clt@ocadu.ca.