Mandate and objectives

This initiative exists within a vision of 21st century education that encourages the development of employability skills and an entrepreneurial spirit. INNOVA is therefore a visionary project that will bring together experts from the worlds of education and business.

INNOVA will enable the various stakeholders - Francophone and Francophile immersion students, teachers, researchers and professionals - to work together to reinvent innovative, quality, forward-looking French-language education for lifelong learning, from primary to post-secondary education, and to meet the needs of business.

INNOVA will be open to researchers, teachers, students, and professionals from partner organizations. It will feature innovation and experimentation workshops (simulations, play-based learning, augmented reality, virtual reality, etc.). It will also feature experimental classrooms, laboratories, spaces for face-to-face and virtual meetings with experts (holographic projection), and creative spaces for "design thinking" activities to enable the collaborative development of innovative teaching resources. INNOVA will also offer training spaces that can be reserved and opened to teaching staff, the community, and the business community, to explore new techno-pedagogical approaches and innovative training design and engineering models.

Located at the University of Ottawa, in the heart of the nation's capital and close to its Kanata North Technology Campus, INNOVA will also be open to francophone minority language communities across Canada.

INNOVA, as a centre for French-language teaching and learning, will benefit from the expertise of uOttawa's Teaching and Learning Support Services (TLSS), as well as teacher-researchers from the Faculty of Education. The Faculty of Education is Canada's largest training faculty for French-speaking teachers and home to the largest French-language Education graduate programs outside Quebec. The Faculty also offers a fully online teacher training and additional qualifications program Faculty of Education, and is ranked in the Top 100 (Quacquarelli Symonds - World University Rankings).

• Unique in Ontario and Canada, INNOVA provides a space for research, experimentation, and training for all those involved in French-language education in minority language settings (elementary, secondary and post-secondary levels).

• Aims for modern, relevant, engaging, and high-quality education, specifically adapted to French-language learners.

• Offers state-of-the-art educational experiences open to students and educators from Ontario and other Canadian provinces.

• An essential addition to the infrastructure of the francophone community and puts all francophone learners on an equal footing by contributing to an educational experience that is fundamentally equivalent to the majority language school experience.

• Supports Canada's Action Plan for Official Languages by facilitating the dissemination of knowledge, method, and tools to support minority-language educators, and by promoting and enriching minority-language education.