Instructor Development Day 2026 Agenda

Amber Fraser is an educator, instructional designer, and Lead Courseware Development Specialist at SkyAlyne with over 20 years of experience across K–12, higher education, and professional training. She specializes in curriculum development, assessment design, accessibility, and learning systems for regulated industries.

Throughout her career, she has developed certificate, diploma, and degree-level programs at Fleming College, Seneca Polytechnic and Brock University. In her current role, she supports the quality assurance and continuous improvement of courseware for SkyAlyne’s Future Aircrew Training (FAcT) program, helping prepare Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) aircrew through rigorous, standards-based learning.

Amber is passionate about making complex topics, including AI, digital literacy, and technical content, clear, practical, and accessible for diverse learners.

Digital Citizenship & Literacy: Teaching for Critical, Ethical Participation

This interactive session supports educators in career-focused programs in moving beyond basic digital safety to developing students' ability to think critically, act ethically, and engage professionally in digital environments. In regulated, outcomes-driven contexts, digital citizenship is directly connected to employability, academic integrity, and professional risk.

Participants will explore how digital environments are shaped by algorithms, artificial intelligence, and the spread of information, and consider the implications for teaching and assessment. Through practical examples, the session focuses on making student thinking visible, clarifying expectations for AI use, and embedding media and digital literacy, including source evaluation, digital identity, data privacy, and responsible participation, into existing courses without altering learning outcomes.

Designed for adult learners, this session emphasizes realistic, low-prep strategies that can be implemented immediately to strengthen accountability, support ethical decision-making, and prepare students for professional practice.

Taylor Chetty is a Registered Master Social Worker in the Province of Saskatchewan with almost 10 years of experience working with survivors of trauma including sexual, physical, mental and environmental.

In her private practice, Returning Home Counselling & Contracting, she provides individuals and groups with the tools necessary to regulate and feel safe in their physical bodies to show up in the world authentically using various tools and opportunities for connection and while minimizing trauma.

Beyond Regulation: Building Internal Safety, Self-Leadership, and Connection

Building on previous sessions with Taylor exploring nervous system awareness, regulation, mindfulness, and trauma-informed approaches, this interactive workshop will provide a summary of previous presentations and move beyond what regulation tools we use and explore why we sometimes struggle to access them when we need them most.

Drawing from Internal Family Systems Therapy, Somatic Experiencing and Self-Compassion theory, trauma-informed practice, and embodied approaches to wellness, participants will explore how protective patterns, emotions, and nervous system responses influence the way we navigate stress, relationships, and workplace challenges.

Through reflection and experiential activities, participants will learn practical strategies to increase self-awareness, cultivate self-compassion, strengthen boundaries, and respond to challenges with greater curiosity, choice, and connection.

Einat Sandler Leib is a lawyer by training, educator, and innovation professional. Throughout her legal career, she also taught in higher education, developing a strong passion for education and innovative approaches to teaching and learning.

After moving to Canada, Einat shifted her professional focus toward innovation in the fields of aging, cognitive health, and dementia care. She currently serves as Managing Director of the Memory Loss Foundation, where she is leading the relaunch of the registered Canadian charity and overseeing the development of community-based programs that support older adults living with memory challenges, their caregivers, and the broader community.

In parallel, Einat works at Peak College as an Educational Innovation Consultant, helping the college redesign learning experiences, develop innovative teaching strategies, and create targeted training programs that respond to emerging workforce needs. Her work emphasizes learner engagement, digital literacy, AI adoption, and evidence-informed educational design.

Einat is passionate about translating real-world challenges into practical solutions. Her work combines education, technology, community engagement, and data-informed decision-making to develop accessible, inclusive, and human-centred programs that improve learning, strengthen communities, and enhance quality of life.

How Innovation in Teaching Can Inspire Growth, Confidence, and Success

In an era of rapid technological transformation, educators face a double-edged sword: unprecedented challenges in student engagement alongside a powerful array of new digital tools. This session explores how embracing innovation in the classroom, specifically through digital tools and Artificial Intelligence (AI), can reshape the educational experience.

We will address the core challenges educators face today, while demonstrating how these modern tools can be leveraged not just to teach, but to inspire student growth, build lasting confidence, and drive academic success.

Attendees will walk away with practical insights on turning today's classroom hurdles into tomorrow’s opportunities.

Sahar Joya is the Academic Planning Manager at triOS Education Group, where she provides academic leadership across a portfolio of career-focused programs and leads Faculty Heads and Program Coordinators in advancing program quality, growth, and continuous improvement.

Her expertise spans adult learning, curriculum and instructional design, educator development, and academic leadership. She holds a Master of Education from York University, focused on adult learning and curriculum, with additional credentials in Adult Learning and Instructional Design from Seneca Polytechnic and Not-for-Profit Management from the Schulich School of Business.

Sahar has extensive experience designing and supporting more than 100 courses across 20 career-focused diploma programs, with work spanning program renewal, instructional quality, leadership and equity-focused learning, and pre-service teacher education at York University.

Her work is grounded in creating meaningful, relevant learning experiences that strengthen student learning, skill development, and workplace readiness, with a growing focus on the thoughtful integration of AI in teaching and learning.

Evolving Teaching and Learning in Career Education in the AI Age

Career education has always evolved alongside changes in work and technology. Its roots can be traced to apprenticeship and craft traditions, where learning happened through observation, practice, feedback, and increasing independence. Industrialization changed the nature of work and created a greater need for formal technical and vocational education.

Later, electrification, automation, computers, the internet, and digital technologies continued to reshape occupations and the skills required to succeed in them. Each shift required career education to adapt, not only what was taught, but how students were prepared for changing workplaces.

Generative AI is the latest major shift in that story, but it is affecting education in a deeper way. It is not only introducing a new tool into the classroom; it is prompting educators to rethink parts of the learning experience itself.

When students can use AI to generate ideas, explain concepts, analyze information, solve problems, and produce work, familiar approaches to curriculum, teaching, and assessment begin to shift. The question is no longer simply how to use AI, but how to design learning when technology can participate in some of the same cognitive activities students are meant to develop.

For career college educators, it becomes very important to ask when, why, and how AI should be used in learning, what students still need to do for themselves, and what evidence will show that genuine understanding and vocational competence have developed.

This interactive session is designed as a space to think through these questions together. Drawing on emerging research, instructor experience, and examples from career education, participants will share perspectives and explore the challenges and possibilities created by AI.

At its core, the workshop asks:

How does teaching and learning in career education need to evolve in response to this technological and educational shift, while keeping authentic learning and vocational competency development at the centre?