Inspired by previous students’ stated desire for academic support and literature that correlates instruction in academic skills with student success, this poster describes an instructional intervention integrating notetaking, study skills, and peer coaches in a lecture-based General Education, gateway course, Introduction to Political Science, at a historically American Indian university. This study demonstrates the intervention’s impact on student success through a correlation to previous exam performance in classes without peer coaches’ assessments of students’ notes, and students’ responses to timely formative feedback.

Mentoring relationships are co-constructed and can involve interdependent bi-directional developmental changes in both the mentee and mentor over time. Here, I explore how those involved in mentoring relationships can enhance collaboration and mutuality through both parties being authentic, mutually engaged, empowered, and reciprocal. I discuss the benefits of grappling with complex issues related to identity, respect, responsibility, power, and healthy emotional vulnerability. Collaboration and mutuality are crucial for fostering environments of engaged learning. 

The concept of belongingness has become a topic of interest in colleges and universities as an addendum to diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) initiatives.  As pre-health and professional program students prepare for careers in health professions, they engage in work-integrated learning (WIL) experiences. These experiences may affect the student’s ability to develop the sense of belongingness. This poster outlines the literature on WIL and belongingness in the health professions, and highlights many findings of the literature. 

Faculty members hold diverse perspectives on work-integrated learning—a diversity that has been underexamined in the literature. We have performed a representative review of the research on faculty members’ support for and engagement in WIL programs. We consider the barriers that faculty encounter when considering supporting or engaging in WIL; provide a deep dive into the substantial research on faculty’s perceptions of, and barriers to participating in, service learning; and share recommendations for future research.

Given lack of consensus in scholarship on first-generation students and work integrated learning, we approach first-generation students through a life design framework, asking how do first-generation students understand work, and what role does their understanding of work play in the negotiation of identities in WIL? Drawing on survey and case study data, our poster presentation shares practical ways to adapt WIL to be sensitive to the needs of first-generation students and their intersecting identities.

As post-secondary institutions offer more diverse forms of work-integrated learning (WIL), there is a greater need to consider meanings of “quality” WIL. Ongoing discussions about quality WIL in the literature mostly overlook students’ perspectives—the central stakeholder in WIL. To address this, we explored students’ perspectives on quality WIL through interviews with students (n = 30) at three institutions, across three countries, representing various kinds of WIL experiences and multiple disciplines. Findings from the study position students’ perspectives at the center of discussions about quality WIL.

Organizations invest significantly in leadership development and training. There is some literature suggesting that supervision of work-integrated learning\ students leads to leadership development in staff (Martin et al, 2019) but this research is quite limited. This poster presentation shares the findings from an international survey of over 300 placement supervisors describing how student supervision affects their leadership behaviours and attitudes.  The survey also examined perspectives of supervision on inclusive leadership and the impact of supervision on well-being and satisfaction. 

The social-class achievement gap is not due solely to a lack of resources; the experience of living in or near poverty itself has psychological effects on our students. This presentation will look at research into the effects of three important psychological cues of a life lived in poverty—scarcity, instability, and stigma. It will lay out how instructors can provide the resources, stability, and educational mission that can counteract those effects and help students succeed.

This paper explores graduate employability using a landscape of practice lens and different methods including narrative frames, ethnographic observations, and interviews. It interprets capability development and identity construction in a work-based Masters program, arguing that learners enhance their employability through community engagement. The paper redefines capability as a social construct, emphasizing participation in community practices and understanding community norms. It concludes that building professional futures involves problem-solving, negotiation, and learning, along with resilience and reflection.

This presentation will include multiple projects that evaluate faculty engagement in the context of work-integrated learning (WIL) as framed by Wade and Demb’s 2009 Faculty Engagement Model. The researchers have surveyed and interviewed faculty at several international institutions to evaluate the personal, professional, and institutional barriers and facilitators to faculty engagement with WIL. Implications for students, faculty, and institutions will be discussed. 

This workshop shares curricular design strategies and study outcomes from the Power + Place Collaborative: A partnership that centers issues of diversity, inclusion, and equity through place-based community-student projects. Community, student, and faculty facilitators will briefly summarize findings from a longitudinal, mixed methods study documenting the value and the challenges of this approach to engaged learning. Participants will be invited to explore ways they might adapt strategies towards cultivating diverse, inclusive, and equitable engaged learning collaborations across their communities.

Have you ever considered how to purposefully include student use of ChatGPT and what implications there may be on student engagement? In this presentation, we will consider research on a set of multimodal writing assignments that involved students using ChatGPT in support of their investigations and writing. Writing samples and feedback will be examined to assess students’ work and perceptions along three key practices for fostering engaged learning. 

This exploratory work tested how ChatGPT can assist students in creating a product plan for a seed-funded product. The method employed were questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and focus groups by using students after they had utilized ChatGPT. First results indicated that when students used AI they produced more organized and developed product plans. The significance of this research stemmed from utilizing AI as an essential tool to foster engaged learning.   

Positive student-faculty and student-student relationships are among the most significant factors contributing to learning, motivation, wellbeing, and graduation rates. Trust is commonly understood as a key element of these relationships, yet little research has been done on trust higher education classrooms. This session draws on interviews with faculty in four countries to explore how they understand and value trust. We will consider the implications of this research for teaching, WIL, and further SoTL inquiries.

The purpose of this session is to underscore how educators can foster reflection of learning and self through creating assignments that engage artistic expression. Participants will gain insight on an assignment where students explored their own personal development through creating an artistic representation of their experiences. Furthermore, participants will identify how they can use projects such as this to support application, analysis, and integration of theory and course content. 

Enhancing WIL supervisors’ professional development and acknowledging their role is vital for fostering a sustainable knowledge society. This study presents the findings from a large-scale, systematic literature review of 180 English and Norwegian peer-reviewed articles (selected from 9349), exploring challenges faced by industry supervisors overseeing work-integrated learning placements. The findings underscore the necessity for formal training and recognition to empower placement supervisors, enabling them to create inclusive, lasting learning experiences for students.

This presentation documents the rapid personal growth and community cultivation enabled by AI educational tools piloted in Fall 2023. Early hesitation gave way to empowerment as intelligent collaboration fostered idea exchange, creative risk-taking, and treasuring process over product. By spotlighting student perspectives on chatbots, the session crystallizes AI’s potential to fuel more inclusive, human-centered classrooms when designed to amplify rather than automate. Attendees will leave inspired by the visions for connection and lifelong learning unlocked through mindful incorporation of machine intelligence.

Mentored undergraduate research is a high-impact and transformative experience for student development and professional outcomes. Mentoring practices must intentionally attend to identity differences among mentors and students. The goal of this session will be to apply a neuroinclusive and neuroaffirming lens to The Ten Salient Practices of Mentoring Undergraduate Research to provide mentors tangible actions to be inclusive of neurodivergent students in undergraduate research experiences.

As Design Thinking has been diversified and refined over recent decades, its use in developing immersive and transformative learning experiences has grown to encompass key aspects of Engaged Learning. This session builds upon Key Practices for Fostering Engaged Learning, summarizing over two decades of Design Thinking literature and four years of research data from Elon’s Center for Design Thinking. The session will provide attendees with research-based strategies for creating the conditions for engaged learning environments. 

This paper offers a critical thinking model that could be used by individuals at the university and workplace. Through practical examples, it discusses how individuals can critically analyze the physical space around them, understand existing policies, ideologies, and power relations, and interpret interactions with others. It concludes that the model can present a dynamic, robust, and fair understanding of social space, addressing questions of DEI, and preparing learners for the world of work.

Education for healthcare professionals and pre-health undergraduates commonly involves work-integrated learning (WIL) experiences. One assumption behind integrating WIL is that this immersion will assist in the students’ feelings of belongingness. The BeWIL study explores how WIL fosters belongingness for healthcare students during all stages of their educational journey. This group presentation is an interactive workshop exploring early study findings, the involvement of student partners in the research process, and recommendations for supporting belongingness in WIL settings. 

This presentation will showcase three course design projects using engaged learning principles to overcome design challenges, including challenging content, lack of student motivation, and difficulty transferring knowledge. Participants will collaboratively apply key principles into one of their courses, followed by individual takeaway sharing, and Question and Answer time.

Given lack of consensus in scholarship on first-generation students and work integrated learning, we approach first-generation students through a life design framework, asking how do first-generation students understand work, and what role does their definition of work play in the negotiation of identities in WIL? Drawing on survey and case study data, our group research presentation shares practical ways to adapt WIL to be sensitive to the needs of first-generation students and their intersecting identities.

Assessment in community engaged courses proves challenging because what students learn often lies outside the margins of the typical academic project. Labor-based grading can provide a more equitable system for offering feedback.  The presentation will include examples of rubrics, project feedback, and student evaluations as well as conclusions about the improved quality in student work, alternative ways to reward excellence, and the increased role of community partners in assessment.