Christopher Laursen is an Educational Developer in the Office of Teaching and Learning (OTL). He focuses on how universal design principles enrich teaching and learning. His latest work focuses on the 2024 update to the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines, which integrates identity, interdependence, collective learning, and learner-centred pedagogies into the framework’s goals of making education more accessible and inclusive. He collaborates with our OTL team, the campus community, and experts from outside of the UofG to co-create resources and programming to practically and wholistically integrate pedagogical tools for accessibility, well-being, and belonging. He enhances this work in his professional collaborations through his three-year role as an elected Co-Chair of the Council for Ontario Educational Developers (COED, 2023-2026) and with Educational Developers from other Canadian post-secondary institutions.
Since 2023, Christopher has been a co-chair of the Teaching and Learning Innovations (TLI) Conference held each May at the UofG. He is leading the organization of the 2025 conference with the OTL team. Christopher takes an ongoing role in collaborating with the team to organize a variety of proactive and responsive programming and resources for UofG faculty and instructors.
As a historian and interdisciplinary humanities scholar, Christopher brings pedagogical expertise in UDL, eLearning, curriculum design, scaffolding, and experiential learning from his time as an instructor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He holds a PhD in History from the University of British Columbia, and an MA in History from the University of Guelph. Before his studies and career in higher education, he was a journalist and broadcaster in community-based media. He was also an administrator for an international broadcasting organization that helped broadcasters explore and develop technological standards. He combines these skills in media and scholarship to network and break down silos, build bridges, and enliven connections to improve teaching and learning at UofG.