Post-secondary institutions across Manitoba continue to respond promptly and flexibly in light of COVID-19. Now, a dedicated community of digital learning professionals – the HUB – is taking support of online teaching and learning to a new level.

The HUB is Here to Help

The Manitoba Flexible Learning HUB is a resource for the development of fully online post-secondary courses and blended learning modules. Based at the University of Manitoba, The HUB’s goal is to deliver a quality online teaching and learning experience for instructors and students alike. They provide opportunities for all members of the post-secondary community to build knowledge and awareness of flexible learning tools and methods. The brunt of their work aims to provide much-needed resources to faculty to meet the expanding presence of online and digital learning in Manitoba’s post-secondary landscape.

You could say that growth is at the heart of the HUB. So it is no surprise that they’ve taken a prominent role as Manitobans adjust to new social and professional realities.

New Realities for Teaching & Learning

As institutions across the province work to transition and deliver their spring/summer courses online, the HUB has developed an array of materials and tutorials for remote learning courses. This is meant to alleviate the stress of the current reality in which faculty have had to rethink many of their tried-and-true teaching and learning methods. Manitoba’s institutions are also examining contingencies for the fall semester.

Post-secondary faculty and students across Manitoba are now teaching and learning from home. Image by Prostock-studio. Adobe Stock, 2024.

“We are seeing an unprecedented and rapid shift to online,” said Campus Manitoba Executive Director, Kim Grenier Mintenko. “The work of the HUB is valuable to faculty because it supports the current challenge of transitioning to online.”

The HUB has taken a comprehensive approach. They are providing resources that touch on all levels of program planning: pre-learning, course delivery, and assessment. This includes suggestions to expand assessment methods that faculty are already familiar with. This approach ultimately flattens the learning curve, making the adjustment to digital teaching less challenging.

Guidance & Comfort

In addition to a dedicated page for new resources, The HUB leverages access to resources from Quality Matters. QM is a non-profit organization dedicated to optimizing online learning. This access is available to the HUB’s partner institutions. Campus Manitoba will be featuring the HUB’s engagement with Quality Matters later this summer.

The HUB team is passionate about working with faculty as much as they work for them. In short, they recognize with these resources that they are helping people work outside of a comfort zone. This is so important as we all work to meet new social challenges and expectations, while ensuring that we do our best to enhance teaching and learning practices across Manitoba’s post-secondary community.

Campus Manitoba is a consortium of Manitoba’s public universities and colleges. Through collaborative projects and shared services, we facilitate student mobility and expand access to post-secondary programs for students in Manitoba. In addition to campusmanitoba.ca, our websites include ecoursesmb.ca, setyourcourse.ca, and openedmb.ca.