Sophia Palahicky

Dr. Sophia Palahicky is currently serving as Executive Director, Online Learning and Educational Resources with the Ministry of Education and Child Care. Previously, she held the title of Associate Director, Learning Design at Royal Roads University (RRU) and her portfolio included leadership for online, blended, and face to face program design, course design, development and delivery supported by the Learning Design team. As Associate Director, Learning Design, Dr. Palahicky led curriculum design, instructional design, faculty development, and faculty support. Additionally, Dr. Palahicky is an Associate Faculty in the School of Education and Technology at RRU. She teaches at the graduate level and supervises research of students in both master's and doctoral levels. For more than 20 years, Dr. Palahicky worked in the field of education in many different areas and her roles included the following: online instructor, instructional designer, curriculum consultant, author, researcher, manager, K-12 teacher, executive director, and academic advisor. With gratitude, Dr. Palahicky worked with many Indigenous communities over the course of her career as an educator. Her work with Indigenous communities started in 2002 when she worked for Coast Mountain School District 82 as a distance educator. Dr. Palahicky believes that teaching excellence requires the following: understanding how learning occurs; establishing a learning community; respecting diverse talents and ways of learning; responding to the needs of students; mastering subject material; and developing technical proficiency.

Publications

Pedagogical Values in Online and Blended Learning Environments in Higher Education
Pedagogical Values in Online and Blended Learning Environments in Higher Education
Sophia Palahicky, Donna DesBiens, Ken Jeffery, Keith Stuart Webster. © 2021. 23 pages.
Pedagogical values directly affect student performance and, therefore, are essential to successful teaching practice. It is absolutely critical that post-secondary educators...
Pedagogical Values in Online and Blended Learning Environments in Higher Education
Pedagogical Values in Online and Blended Learning Environments in Higher Education
Sophia Palahicky, Donna DesBiens, Ken Jeffery, Keith Stuart Webster. © 2021. 23 pages.
Pedagogical values directly affect student performance and, therefore, are essential to successful teaching practice. It is absolutely critical that post-secondary educators...
Utilizing Learning Management System (LMS) Tools to Foster Innovative Teaching
Utilizing Learning Management System (LMS) Tools to Foster Innovative Teaching
Sophia Palahicky, Lauren Halcomb-Smith. © 2020. 17 pages.
Many post-secondary institutions utilize learning management systems (LMSs) to deliver online, blended, and face-to-face courses. LMSs have a wide variety of built-in...
Enhancing Learning Design for Innovative Teaching in Higher Education
Enhancing Learning Design for Innovative Teaching in Higher Education
Sophia Palahicky. © 2020. 400 pages.
The higher education landscape is embracing the call to be innovative, yet scholars have not clearly defined what it means to innovate. Innovation is not limited to the use and...
Innovative Curriculum Design: A Disruptive Approach
Innovative Curriculum Design: A Disruptive Approach
Sophia Palahicky. © 2020. 32 pages.
Learning outcomes are often referred to as the foundation of the curriculum and some scholars see them as “first elements” with precedence over other curriculum aspects....
Innovative Leadership: The Higher Educational Context
Innovative Leadership: The Higher Educational Context
Sophia Palahicky. © 2020. 24 pages.
Traditional leadership theories focused on the individual as the “leader” and noted specific skills and characteristics of a leader. It is important that conversations about...
Pedagogical Values in Online and Blended Learning Environments in Higher Education
Pedagogical Values in Online and Blended Learning Environments in Higher Education
Sophia Palahicky, Donna DesBiens, Ken Jeffery, Keith Stuart Webster. © 2019. 23 pages.
Pedagogical values directly affect student performance and, therefore, are essential to successful teaching practice. It is absolutely critical that post-secondary educators...
Case Study: Preparing Students for Active Engagement in Online and Blended Learning Environments
Case Study: Preparing Students for Active Engagement in Online and Blended Learning Environments
Sophia Palahicky, Adrianna Andrews-Brown. © 2018. 24 pages.
Student orientation programs can enhance new student self-esteem, which is in turn a significant positive predictor of personal, social, and academic achievement (Hickman...