The SoTL Leads

Melanie Hamilton

​Melanie has been working in the area of SoTL (informally and formally) at Lethbridge College since 2014. Prior to her role with SOTL, Melanie taught for 19 years in both the classroom and the clinical setting in the nursing program. For the past decade, she has been actively involved in many SOTL projects at the micro, meso, and macro level. Her work includes: humor in the classroom, academic integrity and dishonesty, and supporting early career researchers with SoTL. She has presented extensively at the local, provincial, national, and international level on a variety of topics. She currently serves as the Vice-Chair for SoTL Canada.
​Contact information: Phone 403-320-3202 ext. 5409 Email: Melanie.hamilton@lethbridgecollege.ca

Andy Benoit

​With a professional and academic background in educational technology, encompassing ten years of teaching experience and another ten years of experience in roles related to educational development and management, Andy was seconded to the newly SoTL team in July 2018 and has since be made permanent in this role. Andy is keenly interested in technology adoption and utilization as they relate to teaching and learning. Two recent projects have focused on digital textbooks and interactive whiteboards – topics of broad appeal given sector-wide interest in open educational resources and the broader issue of textbook affordability. ​
Contact information: Phone: 403-320-3202 ext. 5349 Email: Andy.benoit@lethbridgecollege.ca

SoTL Researchers at Lethbridge College

​The following Faculty and Staff were awarded SOTL Grants for 2018-19.

Janet Yorke

Janet L. Yorke, MN, RN, is the Associate Dean in the Centre for Health and Wellness at Lethbridge College. Janet has approximately 10 years’ experience in post-secondary education and has a keen interest in assessment practices to ensure students are provided with innovative and supportive approaches to test their knowledge. Janet is currently engaged in a collaborative scholarship of teaching and learning project that investigates a new approach to assessing student competency of nursing skills.​

Dr. Karla Wolsky

Dr. Wolsky is an active member of the SoTL research community at Lethbridge College. Dr. Wolsky’s research focus encompasses academic integrity; specifically academic dishonesty among students, academic integrity within the K-12 system, perceived barriers to reporting by instructors, and future implications for professional practice. Additional scholarly activities surround student engagement and the benefits of using humor in the classroom. Currently Dr. Wolsky, along with her fellow peers, is investigating the value to lab skills testing outside of the classroom setting.

Dr. Amy Bright

Amy Bright is an English instructor at Lethbridge College. She has a PhD in English from the University of Alberta. She has written two novels for young adults, and she has also won the Howard O’Hagan Award for short story. Some of her academic work can be found in the Journal of Children’s Literature, Studies in Canadian Literature, and the International Journal of Comic Art. Her teaching pedagogy aims to foster critical learning skills in students through both print-based and non-print based texts, and to encourage them to be self-sufficient learners, readers, and writers.

Dr. Juliet Onabadejo

Dr. Onabadejo's research focus includes culture and learning, with an emphasis on multicultural teaching strategies, and cultural competency in nursing education. Other research and scholarly activities include; culture and health, immigrants’ health and wellbeing, a sense of home across the Atlantic: Growing old in Canada, and quality of life issues of aging immigrants of African descent in Calgary. Dr. Onabadejo is active with the Lethbridge College SoTL research. She is currently working on the use of concept map in a flipped clinical from an engagement perspective.

Francis Rankin

Francis Rankin, BBA, MBA is the Senior Project Manager for Facilities Management at Lethbridge College. Francis has over 30 years of project management experience, with most of that time being involved in new constructions and renovations. Francis has worked with post-secondary institutions in the Yukon, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Francis has an interest to determine the ideal learning temperature for classrooms. He is currently working in collaboration with other post-secondary institutions, college departments, faculty, and outside agencies on this research.

Kirsten Fantazir

​Kirsten Fantazir is an inventive educator who has taught post-secondary students, online and in face-to-face contexts, at Lethbridge College since 2010. She works collaboratively with others, integrates a variety of education technologies, and pursues innovative teaching and learning strategies. Her background is in education, technology, and distance learning; currently, she is pursuing a PhD in General Psychology, with an Emphasis on Integrating Technology, Learning and Psychology.

​Her research is focused on game-based learning technologies and their impact on student engagement and motivation, in distance education settings. She is passionate about motivation, training, lesson planning, learning management systems, and instructional delivery methods. She first was introduced to SoTL in 2018 as a participant in Lethbridge College’s Magic Wand project where her passion for teaching combined with her interest in research; in 2018-19, she is working on a collaborative SoTL project examining the impact of integrating Classcraft (a game-based technology) into a criminal justice writing course.

Murray Bartley

Murray Bartley -  After 28 years in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the last ten years as the Non-Commissioned Officer in charge of the homicide investigation unit, Murray came to Lethbridge College as a full-time faculty instructor in the Criminal Justice Program in 2014. He has introduced The Amazing Race and Escape Room activities to his students, and worked with nursing faculty in creating a Simulated Learning Incident for Collaboration and Knowledge (SLICK).

​He will be working alongside Kirsten Fantazir (fellow Criminal Justice Program Instructor) concerning a SoTL project in January of 2019 concerning “Gamification” in the classroom, and believes he is extremely blessed to be involved in such an exciting venture.  His passion is to create the most rich and engaging learning environment for his students, and he is confident introducing “Gamification” in the classroom will assist in doing so.