AlgonquinCollegeLogo Staff Profiles
z

 Linda Cooke
< Back  
 Chair, Design Studies | Faculty of Arts, Media & Design
 
 
Linda Cooke, Chair of Design Studies in Algonquin College’s Faculty of Arts, Media and Design, was born in Ottawa and grew up on a dairy farm in Kemptville, Ontario. Concentrating in post-modern fiction, Linda completed her Ph.D. in English at the University of Ottawa in 1988. Following this achievement, she taught English at the University of Ottawa and Algonquin College in the Journalism, Law and Security, Graphic Design and Applied Museum Studies programs. In 1990, Linda became the Coordinator of English for Applied Arts and Health Sciences.


Linda maintains a student-centred teaching philosophy. “Every student comes to us at a different education level,” Linda explains. “It is up to the Professors to work with them and bring them up to the level of an Algonquin College graduate.”


In 1995, Linda left Algonquin College to work on program standards for the Ministry of Education implementing the general education requirements in colleges. In addition, she worked to
  
establish the generic skills outcomes for one-year certificate programs in all 24 Ontario colleges. “This experience made me fully appreciate Algonquin because of how well we adapted to the governmental changes to the college system,” says Linda.

Linda returned to Algonquin in 1996 and worked on the Communications Task Force. In 1998, where she moved to the School of Transportation and Building Trades. As the Academic Chair, she led projects to revamp apprenticeship curricula, working with faculty members from Algonquin and other colleges, along with industry representatives, and to introduce alternative training methods for those programs. Linda helped produce 23 educational CD ROMs, the AST Online project and was asked to teach a session of the Mentor Coach Training program for OC Transpo.

Linda has traveled to Africa 10 times to work on the College Partnership Projects, which produced an outcome-based curriculum for technical and vocational schools in South Africa.

Recently, Linda spent a full year in Zanzibar, Africa, helping to set up their vocational college system. She trained people to write locally-relevant curriculum for 30 post-secondary programs. The curriculum was designed to teach the students to use their newly-acquired skills in an entrepreneurial way and how to create their own job opportunities. “Working in Zanzibar was a real opportunity to learn about myself,” says Linda. “I got to see the world through their eyes.”

In August of 2005, Linda returned to Algonquin as the Chair of Design Studies. “I have enjoyed my time at Algonquin because I have been fortunate to work in areas all across the College,” Linda explains. “That’s what has made my experience here so rewarding.”