Sessions Sneak Peak 

Kathryn Kincaid, University of Alberta: Exploring community-service learning outcomes for equity-deserving students

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This session will provide an overview of evaluation findings from the Community-Service Learning program at the University of Alberta, with an emphasis on the learning outcomes of equity-deserving students. One of the major benefits of community service-learning is that it is a fairly inclusive form of experiential learning. Through our evaluations, we have consistently found that compared to the U of A student body as a whole, CSL students are more likely to come from equity-deserving backgrounds (e.g., Indigenous students, first-generation students, and non-binary students). More recently, our evaluations have also shown that students from equity-deserving backgrounds tend to experience better learning outcomes from participating in CSL. This session will explore equity-deserving students' learning outcomes to better understand how CSL supports equity-deserving students, and who benefits the most from CSL participation.

Rachelle Pascoe-Deslauriers; Susie Andrews; Rebecca Leaman, Mount Allison University: Collaboration, Community and Creativity: Reciprocal Relationships in WIL in Rural Areas 

This interdisciplinary, interactive panel brings together faculty, students, community partners, and experiential learning specialists to explore the co-imagining, co-design, and co-implementation of 8 Mount Allison-based WIL projects. At the heart of these projects are substantial collaborations with community partners that support their work, while providing motivating opportunities for applied learning to undergraduate students who experience how their academic studies are relevant in the “real world”.

My Truong and Anne-Marie Fannon, Work-Learn Institute, University of Waterloo: Tracking Students’ Progress towards Future Ready Talents: Development and Implementation of FRTF Self-assessment Tool

Student self-assessment, a process involving students reflecting on their knowledge and performance to judge the extent to which it has met explicitly stated goals or criteria, has long been considered a powerful educational tool thanks to its proven positive effects on students’ self-efficacy, self-regulated learning skill, and ultimately academic outcomes. When coupled with other-reported feedback, students’ self-reflection on their own learning can offer a unique opportunity for them to obtain a multi-layer and comprehensive picture of their progress, allowing them to recognize their own strengths and deficits, and opening up chances for in-depth feedback from others on areas of knowledge and skills where discrepancies in self- and other- assessments are observed.

Cora Dupuis, Brandon University: Let’s Deep Dive into the Topic of Co-op Supervisors

Quality co-op supervision has been identified as a major component of a successful co-op experience (Fleming, 2015; Hardie et al., 2018; Keating, 2014; Nevison et al., 2018; Rowe et al., 2012; Winchester-Seeto et al., 2016). Despite their vast potential for influence, little has been researched about co-op supervisors (Martin et al., 2019; Nevison et al., 2018; Patrick et al., 2008; Winchester-Seeto et al., 2016). With the federal government’s ambitious goal of providing a WIL opportunity for every “young Canadian” who wants one (Department of Finance Canada, 2019, p.53), thousands of co-op and WIL supervisors will have to be recruited, supported, and engaged in our post-secondary programs.

Jasmeen Sidhu, Bishop’s University: Breaking Barriers: The need for applied research internships for individuals who face barriers

Breaking Barriers: Applied research internships for individuals who face barriers is an internship program that aimed/aims to give applied research opportunities/exposure to traditionally underrepresented individuals in research while examining participating students' perceptual shifts in research ability. On its second iteration with 23 students, Breaking Barriers offers insights into how applied research internships can be impactful for individuals who face barriers. This talk will take stock of what we have learned and how we can move forward. The audience may find this impactful as a model for WIL intersecting with advocacy with measurable outcomes.

Robert Wooden; Jillian Pulsifer; Brittany Warren, Dalhousie University: ABC + 123 = Powerful Results

This session has nothing to do with the massive 1970s hit by The Jackson 5 and everything to do with how the careful and intentional combination of words and data can help you realize goals, both large and small. Let us examine together how timely access to accurate data is crucial and can be leveraged for articles, infographics, and annual reports for internal and external audiences alike. We will discuss how co-op and WIL practitioners and leaders can (and arguably must) be using some of the considerable data they collect (the 123) in an appropriate combination with a relative and effective narrative (the ABC) for more impactful communications! 

Julie Walchli and Linda Gully, University of British Columbia: Entrepreneurship in a Faculty of Arts: Innovating an E-WIL ecosystem for UBC graduate and undergraduate Arts students

While entrepreneurship training and experiences are a common part of many business and technology programs, they are less common in the Social Sciences, Humanities, and Creative and Performing Arts, despite the fact that students from these disciplines often have the ideas and skill sets ideal for an entrepreneurial career path. During this session, we’ll share our experience developing multiple streams of entrepreneurship programming, in partnership with the entrepreneurship@UBC and Arts Alumni offices, for undergraduate and graduate Arts students. We’ll explore how each stream works, what students do and learn, and how each stream is structured and funded, as well as some of the outcomes students and alumni entrepreneur partners have reported. An innovative feature across these streams is the involvement of Arts alumni who are themselves entrepreneurs and serve as mentors to the students. We’ll also share the recruitment materials we’ve used so that attendees can learn to attract this student population to entrepreneurship at their own institutions.

Amanda Brown and Linda Cheng (Durham College); Julie MacIsaac and Michelle Whitbread (City of Oshawa): TeachingCity Oshawa: Building community in Oshawa through innovative work-integrated learning

TeachingCity Oshawa is a strategic partnership of municipal government, city partners and postsecondary institutions addressing urban issues in Oshawa, Ontario through innovation, collaboration and work-integrated learning. TeachingCity focuses on developing practical, scalable and sustainable solutions to community challenges and coordinating experiential learning in various forms, including service learning, applied research, and placements. Since launching in 2017, the partnership has created over 1,700 student experiences through project-based experiential learning and has resulted in wide-ranging benefits to the community—from increased access to free legal advice to public art installations to supports for isolated seniors to development of new technology for firefighters.