A big part of that initiative includes the appointment of a new position: the iCORE/Xerox/Markin industrial research chair for adaptivity and personalization.

Professor Kinshuk, director of the School of Computing and Information Systems at the university, accepted a five-year contract a little over two weeks ago when the provincial Department of Advanced Education and Technology announced his new position.

Xerox Canada and the Markin Foundation will fund research done under Kinshuk’s leadership.

Kinshuk is no stranger to technology in the classroom. He says the challenge of introducing new strategies to traditional teaching methods involves implementing changes that engage and interest students.

?We found that the kind of learning that happens in the class is really very shallow?a teacher talks and the students listen and by the time they’re out of the door, half of it is gone,? he said.

?Learning really happens [when] students can relate to what they’re doing or where they live,? he added. ?We started with Internet-based systems, using laptop and desktop machines, but these are still not very easy to take into the field.?

But the days of lugging around a huge laptop from site to site are coming to an end, says Kinshuk, pointing to advances like smart phones.

?Nowadays, mobile devices have all those functionalities that can really provide very rich learning,? he said.

As an example, Kinshuk paints the picture of two students, one in Alberta and one in New Brunswick, both of whom are studying similar topics and are able to share experiences and discoveries electronically.

Even though Kinshuk’s position stations him at the Athabasca University in Athabasca, Alberta, he is confident that these changes will affect students all over the country, allowing for a collective learning experience.

?Athabasca is perhaps a perfect place because it is an open university. Our students are all over Canada and some of them are outside of Canada too,? he said.

The university also draws in people who might not fall into that typical student pattern.

?A lot of our students are working and they do not have the possibility of [interacting in] a university environment. The kind of students we have fit directly with the kind of research that we’re doing,? Kinshuk said.

With those very students in mind, Kinshuk believes his research has two aims: to extend the overall access to post-secondary education, and to enrich the educational experience of all students.

?[Students] can learn wherever they are, in whatever situation, with what their behaviour or background is. According to that system, it will automatically provide them with the kind of education they need,? he said.

For Kinshuk, these new advances are the result of a changing world, one in which a university education has become almost necessary.

?It used to be that people didn’t want to come to university. After high school they would go straight to work because they could earn big bucks there,? he said.

With that in mind, a University of Alberta psychologist created a guide to help students cope with emotional crisis.

Kim Maertz has been working at the U of A’s University Health Centre Student Counselling Services for 10 years, and he says creating the guide was necessary to make sure his office is able to aid students who seek help.

?Over the last several years, we’ve had a lot of students who are experiencing various forms of crisis, and because we unfortunately don’t have nearly enough staff, we’ve got to find a way to try to meet the needs without seeing clients only for individual counselling,? he said.

According to Maertz, the university should have 19 psychologists to accommodate its student population, but his office has five. This discrepancy is what pushed Maertz to write the guide, and in the process, get the necessary information out to students.

Using his years of experience with Student Counselling Services and a PhD in counselling psychology, Maertz was able to provide another resource for students on campus.

?I think that [my experience] has put me in a position where I know what information to draw on and have accumulated some just from working with clients over the 10 years. [I wanted to] put it out there so that It’s in an easy, succinct, readable form for students who are facing all kinds of emotional crises,? he said.

The guide itself is divided into three sections: ways to identify whether you are a student in crisis, general strategies to deal with crisis, and resources to deal with those situations or suicidal thoughts.

Distribution to students will take place through residences, faculties, and the Student Counselling Services office.

?We see a lot of clients, and as a result, when they come in on what we call initial consultations, and we’re unable to accommodate them, we’ll send them away with a guide,? Maertz said.

Maertz says the amount of students seeking help for coping with depression isn’t surprising, and he attributes part of the problem to stress related to finances.

?Students are probably working more jobs today than they’ve ever worked in the past. Previously, I think a lot of students had funding from parents, and today, a lot of students are doing it on their own,? he said.

?If You’re working one, two, sometimes we have students with three jobs and they’re taking full-time classes?how could you not end up stressed out?? Maertz added.

In working with the university’s clients, Maertz feels there are three major issues facing students: depression, stress, and relationships.

He says school isn’t the only aspect of a student’s life that can be difficult, which is why he hopes students will take advantage of the free help the guide provides.

?The degree of stress today on the university campus is quite enormous. Students don’t just end up today dealing with classes, but they’re dealing with a wide variety of other stresses.?