a colourful illustration of the outline of two heads, back to back with various objects focused on them.

TeachingLIFE

President's message

The University of Manitoba is nurturing entrepreneurial thinking across our campus because, as a community, we want to pursue big ideas.

Entrepreneurship naturally welcomes interdisciplinary collaboration with partners within and beyond the university. It is a mindset that encourages taking risks and exploring ideas that may fail—but that journey is where discovery and deep learning can flourish. It is where competencies like empathy, problem solving, innovation and communication are developed.

We take this approach because we have a desire to make an impact and add value, wherever that may be—and that may not necessarily mean the launch of a business. We need social entrepreneurs who are driven to overcome challenges we face in society, from mitigating climate change to bolstering human health to advancing Reconciliation.

As a university for Manitoba, we increase our impact and foster greater innovation when we have the courage to be bold.

Michael Benarroch, PhD
President and Vice-Chancellor

  • 53

    number of participants in the Lab2Market Prairies Cohorts since 2021

  • 1

    New Faculty Specialist for Entrepreneurship hired

  • 12

    number of pitches in the inaugural Faculty of Science 3K Science Spark Pitch Competition

  • 32

    UM teams accepted into the 2023 New Venture Championships hosted by the Stu Clark Centre for Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship and innovative thinking

Message from Diane Hiebert-Murphy

  • Diane Hiebert-Murphy, Provost and Vice-President (Academic).

 

Entrepreneurship in the classroom

We all have an idea of what we think entrepreneurship means. It is a business term, about taking a spark of an idea and starting a company. And it is that, but it is more than that. It is about taking a spark of an idea and creating change.

Entrepreneurship is becoming a foundational aspect of the student experience. Twenty UM students recently competed in Sprint to Innovate, where they had to solve problems put forward by local businesses. This year, the challenges included finding a way to improve snow clearing in Winnipeg, incentivizing the use of a commercial rental app, and engaging passengers in the airport while they wait to board a plane. Most often, people will start a new business because they see a gap in the market and think that they have a unique approach to filling that gap. When we think about entrepreneurship as applied to teaching and learning we can ask – what gaps are there and how can we fill them? This prompts us to look at our teaching, research, classrooms, syllabi, and coursework in a new way.

 

Read more

We are bringing entrepreneurship into our classrooms, in places that we’d expect – in the Asper School of Business – and places we wouldn’t – like in the Faculty of Science.

Adopting technology like virtual reality, robotics, and teleconferencing in health care are innovative and entrepreneurial approaches to something we were already doing well and making it that much better. These things make our students and our communities better.

Maker spaces on our campuses, hosted by several of our faculties, add dimensions to student learning. It encourages us to ask not just ‘what should I know’ but ‘what can I create?’

I am constantly inspired by the innovative and entrepreneurial ways that our faculty and staff are approaching their work. They are asking: what are we doing, and how can we make it better? This is something I aim to ask myself regularly. Responding to this question will enable us to better serve our students as we grow to meet the demands of our ever-evolving world.

I am excited about this new turn in our educational thinking. Asking our students and our professors, ‘how do we innovate what we already know?’ will keep us on our toes. It will stop us from being so comfortable with what we are already good at that we stop growing. It is growth through knowledge and learning that will help us face the future with open minds.

With great optimism,

Diane

View past stories

2022

Experiential learning made easy
Small steps, big outcomes.

Land as teacher
Land-based education means learning on, about and from the land.

Creating an inclusive syllabus
Meeting students where they live by considering equity, diversity and inclusion.

Rethinking UM's approach to experiential learning
Bold, new approach will bring EL to more students.

Experiential learning made easy
​​​​​​Small steps, big outcomes

Land as teacher
Land-based education means learning on, about, and from the land.

Creating an inclusive syllabus
Meeting students where they live by considering equity, diversity and inclusion.

Rethinking UM's approach to experiential learning
Bold, new approach will bring EL to more students.

2021

An illustration of a vector butterfly emerging from a laptop screen and into a blue sky with a group of other butterflies.

Learning lives on

After more than a year of remote delivery, we check in on how our faculty and students have adapted – with positive outcomes.

Teacher, teach thyself – online
The faculty of Education's newest graduates find themselves learning a new, remote way of teaching while on the job.

All together, now
How incorporating Indigenous pedagogy into coursework brings a sense of community to remote learning.

Best in class
Recipients of two UM teaching awards share what it takes to make an impact in the classroom.

Pandemic performance
How a cross-faculty collaboration proves social distancing is no match for creativity.

Near, though far
Faculty of Science instructors create novel ways of engaging their students in virtual classrooms - and, in turn, become more connected to each other.

Thinking outside the box
When the pandemic temporarily closed campus facilities, Price Faculty of Engineering instructors found ways to bring their lab to their students at home.

You may also want

About CATL

The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning provides leadership and scholarly developmental support for the growth and innovation of teaching and learning at the University of Manitoba. The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning has six key areas of practice:

  • Faculty development and consultation
  • Curriculum development and renewal
  • Research, evaluation and iInnovation
  • Flexible learning course development and support
  • UM Learn and solutions
  • Strategic projects and programming

The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning

ResearchLIFE

ResearchLIFE is a publication of the Office of the Vice-President (Research and International). The magazine highlights the quest for knowledge that artists, engineers, scholars, scientists and students at UM explore every day.

Learn more about ResearchLIFE

Contact us

The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning
University of Manitoba
65 Dafoe Road, Winnipeg, MB
R3T 2N2, Canada

(204)-474-8708
(204) 474-7514