Episode Description

It’s not something you would expect to see in higher education: an art cart filled with paper and markers, being rolled into a Geography, or Sociology, or Liberal Arts classroom. However, it is a sight that has become more common at Vanier College. Since fall 2024, Colleen Ayoup, a teacher in Communication, Media, and Studio Arts, has been helping faculty integrate the creative arts into their teaching.

Join us as Colleen shares three practical activities, including blackout poetry and student-created card games, that have helped change classroom dynamics. She explains how these activities help slow students down and promote deeper reflection on learning. Because of their tactile nature, they are a useful example of embodied learning, providing a needed break from digital distractions. Finally, by focusing on process over product, they give students a chance to develop their agency while getting into the creative zone.

About our Guest

Colleen Ayoup is a Montreal-based educator who has been teaching in Vanier College’s Communications, Media, and Studio Arts (CMSA) program since 2013. Her commitment to experiential pedagogy is shaped by her own learning experiences, her observations as an educator, and the interviews she conducted with high school learners and teachers for her MFA in Documentary Media—Wired to Learn—at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Her approach is also shaped by her earlier work in the media arts sector, including her time at the National Film Board of Canada, where she collaborated with media artists and active citizens on projects that amplified diverse voices and encouraged dialogue around social change.

Colleen’s most recent certification in therapeutic arts further strengthens her belief in the cognitive benefits of creative expression and its powerful impact on learning, well-being, and interdisciplinary thinking. She also holds a BA in Psychology and a BFA in Film Production from Concordia University.