Page 2 - FP Newsletter October 2020

F O U N D A T I O N P R O G R A M O C T O B E R 2 0 2 0

DEPUTY DIRECTOR'S

LETTER

Nate Lotze

Dear Readers-

The landscape of higher education, if not quite a post-
apocalyptic scene, is still unsettlingly different from
what we might have predicted twelve months ago. Covid-
19 has changed the way we live, from how we greet one
another (elbow bump, anyone?) to the sheer volume of
our screen time. It has also changed how we teach.
Before this year, e-learning was often seen as a second-
rate option. Now it’s a reality.

But is e-learning really second-rate? Like most things in
life, it’s not necessarily better or worse—just different.
And it has certainly taken some getting used to. It was,
however, inevitable. The world has been moving in the
direction e-this and e-that for quite some time. Higher
education is usually a few steps behind. Now that our
WHAT'S INSIDE hand has been forced by the ongoing public health crisis,

Deputy Director's Letter we’ve had to catch up—fast.
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The good news is that the Foundation Program has done
Events & Workshops just that. It’s not for nothing that we garnered the most

Page 3 OAAA commendations of any foundation program in the
Committee Focus country, and today we’re on the forefront of the move
online. Amid a ramp-up of faculty training, we’ve
Page 4 - 5 migrated a veritable mountain of content online, from
Event Highlight portfolios to exams. Videos and videoconferencing have

Page 6 helped us teach, and enabled our students to learn from
1,000 km away. If 2020 was a curveball, we’ve taken a
Staff Profiles giant cut at it.

Page 7
Department Updates We aren’t sitting on our laurels, though. Every day, we
discover new ways to enhance our teaching and learning.
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We didn’t see this year coming. But we’re still thriving.
Alumni Focus
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