Session T-01 - Topics: Alternative Course Formats; Specification Grading; Glitch Pedagogy & Online Learning

This session introduces alternatives to traditional course formats by exploring flexible scheduling and broader enrollment opportunities. Presenters showcase how courses can be opened to professionals and other audiences, highlighting pedagogical and financial benefits. The session also demonstrates strategies for transforming courses into engaging events through research activities, guest speakers, and social media initiatives, and shows how similar “wow” factors can enhance traditionally scheduled courses within a learning experience design framework.

While specification grading has been taught as a great mechanism to promote meaningful competency-based education, its practical adoption in the CEGEP context remains elusive. In this session, we will be reviewing our process in designing a spec-based CEGEP course, informing the important documents needed to develop one, as well, providing session participants with local tools we have developed to help with the backward design process.

Higher education institutions strive to implement seamless solutions that yet inevitably produce glitches and gaps. Glitch pedagogy reframes these “errors” as opportunities rather than failures. Instead of striving for perfect systems, it encourages learning environments that are flexible, reflective, and responsive to breakdown. Like the real world, troubleshooting and imperfection become part of the process. This session will resonate with those in instructional design, online learning, and media production, offering a shift from fixing glitches to leveraging them pedagogically.