Camille Rutherford and Candace Figg

Professors Candace Figg and Camille Rutherford from the Faculty of Education will spend a year as acting co-directors for Brock’s Centre for Adult Education and Community Outreach (CAECO).

Figg stepped in as acting director on July 1 as Sharon Abbey, CAECO director, began a one-year sabbatical. In January, Rutherford will take over for another six-month stretch.

The appointments were recently announced by Fiona Blaikie, Dean, Faculty of Education.

“I am delighted that Drs. Candace Figg and Camille Rutherford have agreed to serve as acting co-directors,” Blaikie said. “Their scholarly and experiential expertise in technology education, in adult education, and their involvement in CAECO thus far positions both Drs. Figg and Rutherford extremely well to keep CAECO moving forward with curriculum and program development and ongoing expansion.”

Figg and Rutherford are well qualified to oversee the Centre and its Adult Education programs over the next year, Abbey said.

“This is a great fit for us,” she said. “Candace and Camille have both served on the CAECO Program Advisory Committee and have recently developed Adult Education courses to increase our elective offerings.”

In January, Rutherford facilitated the launch of a new elective that she developed titled “Introduction to Leadership Theory in Adult Learning.” The course was delivered via Sakai and Elluminate Live!, a web-based virtual environment.

“It has been a pleasure to work with the CAECO team in the past,” Rutherford said. “I look forward to working closely with their outstanding support staff and being a part of their ongoing success.”

Figg has also developed an elective, “Adult Learning with Technology,” that will be offered for the first time next year. The course will offer participants an opportunity to learn how to teach adults online using learning management systems, social networks, and digital/Web 2.0 tools.

“In the five years I have served on the advisory committee for CAECO, the staff, facilitators and curriculum developers stand out for their commitment to the quality and rigor of the courses being offered,” Figg said. “ I hope that my background in distance education and technology education will be useful in maintaining the quality and uniqueness of the program.”

Brock has offered the BEd in Adult Education programming since 1993 with courses offered online and face-to-face in 20 communities across Ontario. Students study part time to complete the degree program or the certificate program.

“The ADED program is uniquely positioned at Brock to provide educational opportunities to a diverse group of learners,” Figg said. “The fact that the program uses a variety of delivery options — face-to-face at Brock and other campuses in Ontario, or totally online — means that there are courses that meet the learning needs of any student interested in how adults learn.”