Dan Palermo
"The vision for the Markham Campus from the onset was to provide our students with access to high-level experiential education opportunities," said Dan Palermo, interim deputy provost, Markham. "This vision aligns with the broader vision of York University to expand experiential education opportunities for students across the institution.
"This is also in response to what students want as part of their academic journey, even what parents want for their children as they go to post-secondary school. And it does prepare students better for the workforce," Palermo said.
The Markham Campus offers degree programs and micro-credentials focused on EE, digital technologies and entrepreneurship. Among the courses benefiting from the campus's focus on EE are the brand-new Communication, Social Media & Public Relations course, the Digital Technologies course and the Computer Science for Software Development course, which will all include work terms in Markham-based industries or non-profits.
The Markham Campus's new Master of Biotechnology Management (MBM) program and Graduate Diploma in Biotechnology will also advance the University's EE leadership, closely aligning classroom education with what the industry has said workers need.
In the case of the biotechnology programs, the course experiences were - in fact - specifically designed that way.
Jade Atallah
Jade Atallah, graduate program director of biotechnology at Markham and an assistant professor in the teaching stream in the Department of Biology; and Luz Puentes Jácome, an assistant professor in the teaching stream in the Department of Biology, developed the curricula and pedagogical approaches of the biotechnology programs after listening to the industry.
"Pedagogically, we knew that experiential education must be at the centre of curricular delivery," Atallah said. "Because we were working with new programs, it was a relief that no retrofitting was needed. We were able to start from the ground up, where experiential education was at the centre and everything else came around it."
Indeed, the graduate biotechnology programs incorporate immersive and multimodal experiential learning such as industry workshops, industry fireside chats, participation in biotechnology conferences, industry challenge questio
This story was originally featured in YFile, York University's community newsletter.
