Teaching & research commons (TREC)

The Teaching and Research Commons (TREC) is a collaborative initiative bringing together the EdTech and Pedagogy Coordinator, Academic Technology Services (ATS), the Library and Learning Centre, the Community of Practice for Instructor Well-Being and Effective Teaching (CoP), Accessibility Services, and the Research and Innovation Office (RIO).

TREC provides an open, visible and centrally located physical space at the New Westminster (NW) and Coquitlam (CO) libraries. These spaces are designed to give faculty convenient, in-person access to coordinated supports for teaching, research, and learning, drawing on expertise from across these partner units.

Consultation services

TREC builds on the success of an array of existing consultation services and now provides options to access them under one roof! In-person consultation supports faculty in a wide range of pedagogical needs to enhance your research, teaching, and classroom needs.

Book a consultation

Faculty development

With TREC, we will coordinate professional development activities, targeted workshops, and guest speakers designed specifically to support faculty growth.

Check the TREC events calendar

Community of practice

The Community of Practice for Instructor Well-Being and Effective Teaching (CoP) has been designed as a space for instructors to connect - we invite all instructors across the college (including full time faculty, part time faculty, contract faculty, and lab facilitators) to join and engage!

Learn more

Are you interested in hosting a faculty development event in one of these spaces?

Please first view the TREC events calendar to see what's happening on dates of interest or use the below room-specific calendars to check their availability on your preferred dates:

• N2100B (flex space, NW Library)
  N2100B does not have any installed technology. If you need equipment for your booking, please see the Library's equipment borrowing information.
• N2100A (Library classroom, NW Library)
• B1307 (Library classroom, CO Library

Submit your request

We will do our best to accommodate requests; please note that these spaces are reserved for events with a focus on faculty professional development and are subject to approval on this basis.

Research data management

The College’s Research Data Management strategy supports good RDM practices and prepares Douglas researchers to meet increasing funder, journal, and disciplinary expectations for data management plans at the outset of projects and data deposit at their conclusion. See our in-depth guide to learn more about creating data management plans, the FAIR principles, Indigenous data governance, data deposit, and more.

Metadata for researchers

Metadata refers to information that describes / makes research data comprehensible to others, such as variable labels in a table or spreadsheet, along the axes of a graph and/or labels for data fields such as date, location, author/creator etc. See our in-depth guide to learn more about metadata, metadata standards and the role of other accompanying documentation in enhancing the usability and long-term value of your research data.

Safeguarding research data

Research data are a valuable and frequently sensitive commodity – that may be impossible to recover if lost due to technical failure, human error or mischief. See our in-depth guide to learn more about data storage and back up best practices, managing data with colleagues, handling private/sensitive data, data anonymization and more.

Guides that faculty might find useful

Introduction to research data management tutorial

This course covers essential practices for organizing, storing, and sharing research data effectively. Enhance your skills and ensure your data is secure, accessible, and reusable.

Register

DOuglas Open Repository (DOOR)

DOOR is a scholarly publishing platform which showcases and preserves the scholarly, research and creative works of the Douglas College community. Our open access repository contains a number of growing collections indexed by the major search engines and is also searchable directly here. DOOR is a member of Arca which is British Columbia's province-wide network of institutional repositories.

Citation guidance for publishing presentations in DOOR

Use this quick citation guide to ensure the images in your presentation are cited correctly and your presentation is ready for uploading into DOOR.

Quick guide for citing in PPT presentations

Faculty publishing guide

Research and publishing are exciting and rewarding professional activities for many scholars. We have created a guide to provide helpful information and links about scholarly publishing in general, as well as information specific to the Douglas College context. Create a scholarly profile, establish a publishing plan, and learn about your rights as an author.

Predatory journals

Predatory journals and publishers do not follow best practices for publishing scholarly work - e.g., appear to be motivated primarily by profit and/or may disregard accepted standards for scholarly quality control, ethics, copyright law etc. While there is no single definitive list of criteria guaranteeing that a journal is "predatory" there are some characteristics of concern to look out for.
 

Predatory conferences

A non-reputable or deceptive conference operates a scam by setting up fake conference websites designed to trick authors into believing that they are submitting their work to a legitimate and established conference in the field. Check out a list of indictors that could suggest conference quality concerns.

DC authors' celebration

On Wednesday, March 6, the Library hosted the third Douglas College Authors' Celebration in the New Westminster Library Foyer. This event is a newly established tradition that started in 2020, and takes place every two years. It is an opportunity to recognize research and authorship of all types taking place in the Douglas community, and we were lucky this year to recognize works by administrators, students, alumni, and faculty! 

We were pleased to have Research & Innovation Coordinator, Richa Dwor, share the stage to highlight some of the collaborative efforts taking place between the RIO Office and the Library to help support faculty and students with their research and sharing their findings.

Add your publication to our collection

Douglas College Library celebrates employee scholarship. If you have a book that is published or are currently undergoing the process, please let us know and we will be happy to add your published work to our growing physical and electronic collection.

Contact Collections Librarian Trevor Smith at 604-527-5259 or use the suggest a purchase form. Make sure to let us know it's your own work.

Fun facts and stats!

• 33 authors made submissions – 24 faculty, three administrators, two students, and four alumni.
• Faculty authors represented every Faculty – Applied Community Studies, Commerce and Business Administration, Health Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences, Language, Literature & Performing Arts, and Science & Technology
• Those faculty came from a wide range of departments – English, Criminology, Computing Studies, Therapeutic Recreation, Nursing, Sport Science and more!
• 15 of the 24 faculty who submitted works had previously created faculty scholar profiles and added works into the Library's Douglas Open Repository (DOOR).
• 48 works were submitted – 21 academic research journals, 10 books, six book chapters, and various journal supplements, video recordings, audio recordings including an episode of CBC's Ideas with Nahlah Ayed, plus one work of poetry!
• A number of the articles were published in open journals, making them accessible beyond commercial paywalls.

See the full list of submissions

Fundamental principles of the Community of Practice

Instructor well-being matters
A healthy, supported instructor fosters a positive and productive learning environment.​

High expectations, high impact
Instructors aim for students to meet high standards and demonstrate strong competency.​

Time is precious
Instructors face increasing demands—identifying time-saving strategies can help ease workloads and maintain quality teaching.​

Foster connection between instructors 
A strong, supportive faculty network nurtures shared understanding and encourages practical, meaningful solutions.​
Showcasing real instructor stories and strategies brings successful ideas to life and inspires others.

Designed to be flexible and inclusive

The CoP  is designed to be flexible and inclusive, allowing you to participate in ways that align with your interests, availability, and needs. You may choose to:

• Only attend the in-person session.
• Only explore the asynchronous content.
• Engage in both discussion forums and asynchronous content.

Deliverables through facilitated collaboration

The CoP engages in topics each semester that have been co-developed by Design Team and Contributors. Through a structured process of engagement, each topic is developed through the following workflow.
 

1. Module development (build) – The project lead and facilitators create a structured module centered on key topics.
    
2. Asynchronous engagement – CoP members interact with content through engaging, interactive activities.
    
3. Synchronous session preparation – Content is organized and curated to inform synchronous sessions
    
4. Synchronous sessions – CoP Members participate in collaborative discussions and activities.
    
5. Content consolidation & synthesis – Insights from synchronous sessions inform the ongoing development of asynchronous content
    
6. Ongoing access and engagement - The module content will always be available to refer back to and expand on!

Contact

Patty Hambler, Associate Vice President Student Affairs, [email protected]
Cathy Mills, Faculty S&T and Project Lead - [email protected]
Tim Paul, Manager Academic Technology Services - [email protected]

How to join

1. ​Login to Blackboard
2. Self-enrol into the Blackboard CoP organization

Events and discussions

• Online asynchronous discussions and resources development are ongoing
• In-person and online sessions are offered regularly
• Book clubs, drop in chats, and more!

View and register for upcoming events

The TREC Collection is a collection of pedagogically themed videos featuring Douglas College instructors that are hosted in DOOR, the Douglas Open Repository.

Newsletter

Sign up to get a monthly email newsletter featuring upcoming TREC events, teaching and learning tips, and to stay in the know with news and alerts.  

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