Frequently asked questions

For a course to be eligible as an EDGE work or community milestone, the learning activities and assessments need to be authentic to the workplace. This means that students must work on problems, processes and projects that they may encounter in their professions and produce work reflecting professional practice. The learning activities and assessments must also have an impact outside of the typical student-instructor course model with an authentic audience beyond the classroom and a clearly articulated need for the student work. An authentic audience is usually an industry or community partner for which the work is completed, but may also be other members of the community, e.g. members of the general public. 

EDGE course experiences generally require students to:

• interact directly with industry or community partners on work activities with the intention that the community partner uses the work completed by the students; OR
• complete authentic work activities with the final product actively and purposefully disseminated to the community, e.g. information resources, performances.

The students need to engage in the authentic work for a minimum of 18 hours over the term. This requirement is guided by the principle of reciprocity. The student’s work needs to be at a level that is of value to the community partner. In turn, the industry or community partner needs to provide feedback by completing a student evaluation that focuses on the student’s performance within the work experience. In circumstances where the industry or community partner is not well defined, e.g. with a public performance, an alternate evaluator will be explored.

Additionally, the course must be open to students in traditional (i.e. non-co-op) programs and the course must be weighted for academic achievement at 0.25 credits or higher to be eligible for an EDGE work or community milestone.

With this criteria, there are many experiential education courses that do not qualify for EDGE. These experiences are extremely valuable to students, but do not meet the threshold to be an EDGE pre-approved course. Examples of experiential education courses that would not satisfy the criteria for an EDGE work or community milestone include:

• Fieldwork courses where the work completed by the student is graded by the instructor/TA and does not get used by a community or industry partner 
• Courses that contain workplace simulations that take place within the classroom without involvement from a community or industry partner
• Seminar courses where students research and lead course discussions on a specified topic
• Lab reports that are designed to assess student learning but were not intentionally designed with a work or community partner

WatPD worked with each department in the Faculties of Applied Health Sciences, Arts, Environment, Math and Science to conduct an environmental scan of experiential learning courses during the 2015/16 academic year. Each department classified the types of experiential education occurring in their classes using a system developed at the University of Victoria, and WatPD collection additional details regarding courses involving industry or community engagement. Courses that met the criteria governing experiential learning courses were then approved for use with EDGE.

If you want to submit a course you teach for approval, contact us at edge@uwaterloo.ca. Please include a description of the nature of the external party connected to your course and the number of hours students are expected to work with this external party. You should also make the nature of your teaching commitment clear — whether it’s on a regular basis, as part of a rotation, or a one-off — as part of your email. Finally, please include the course’s syllabus (or draft syllabus) in your submission if possible.

If you’re teaching a course that includes the skills identification and articulation workshop, your experience as an instructor won’t change very much. A member of the EDGE team will contact you at the beginning of the term in which you’re teaching to share and confirm the following details:

• Where you’ve placed the workshop and associated tutorial in your course schedule and/or syllabus;
• The date, time, and location of the workshop and tutorial;
• The WatPD and Centre for Career Action staff supporting the workshop;
• Whether or not TA training and/or additional resources will be required.

If you’re teaching one of the experiential learning courses listed on the EDGE website, your duties will vary based on your existing course processes. There’s a good chance your experience as an instructor won’t change at all with the addition of EDGE. In any case, a member of the EDGE team will contact you at the beginning of the term in which you’re teaching to share and confirm the following details:

• The number of students enrolled in your course who have opted into EDGE;
• Contact information for your course’s industry or community partner;
• Whether or not you and your industry or community partner already have an evaluation framework in place;
• The appropriate time during the term at which your industry or community partner should evaluate the EDGE students in your course.

Some of these details don’t represent any additional work. For example, the EDGE team tracks student enrolment in the certificate through Quest; we share this information with experiential learning course instructors for informational purposes.

If you’re supervising a student and want to submit their experience for approval, please encourage the student to complete the independent studies and special topics enrolment form on the EDGE website. Submitting this form will allow the EDGE team to vet the course on a one-off basis and determine whether it not it meets the standards governing EDGE’s work or community experience milestones. If your student submits the form, someone from the EDGE team may reach out to you for further details regarding the nature of their experience in the course.

If you want to submit the positions in your lab for approval as EDGE milestones, start by sending the EDGE team an email at edge@uwaterloo.ca. You can expedite the vetting process by including the following information:

• The position title;
• A description of the position, if available;
• The number of hours students will work per week, or the number of hours students will be expected to work over the course of a term;
• Terms in which the position is available (i.e. fall, winter or spring);
• Whether or not the position’s availability is contingent on funding;
• Whether or not you’d be willing to evaluate students’ performance at the end of each term the position is available.

If you want to submit your NSERC-funded research roles for approval as EDGE milestones, start by sending the EDGE team an email at edge@uwaterloo.ca. You can expedite the vetting process by including the following information:

• The position title;
• A description of the position, if available;
• The number of hours students will work per week, or the number of hours students will be expected to work over the course of a term;
• Terms in which the position is available (i.e. fall, winter or spring);
• Whether or not the position’s availability is contingent on funding;
• Whether or not you’d be willing to evaluate students’ performance at the end of each term the position is available.

If you want to submit your teaching assistant positions for approval as EDGE milestones, start by sending the EDGE team an email at edge@uwaterloo.ca. You can expedite the vetting process by including the following information:

• The position title;
• A description of the position, if available;
• The number of hours students will work per week, or the number of hours students will be expected to work over the course of a term;
• Terms in which the position is available (i.e. fall, winter or spring);
• Whether or not the position’s availability is contingent on funding;
• Whether or not you’d be willing to evaluate students’ performance at the end of each term the position is available.

Campus life is vibrant and continuously evolving, and it’s possible that the EDGE team isn’t familiar with the organization or activity you have in mind. We’d appreciate it if you shared details regarding the activity with us by sending us an email at edge@uwaterloo.ca. The EDGE team will follow up with our faculty contacts directly if the activity is compatible with the certificate. Thanks in advance for your help and support!

If you’d like to market the EDGE program to your students, you can start by adapting the following introduction for use in a lecture or email:

EDGE is an academic certificate open to traditional (non-co-op) undergraduate students focused on career exploration and employability skill development. EDGE helps students develop their professional skills, explore their career options and learn how to market themselves to employers. Students can earn the six milestones needed to complete the certificate by completing academic courses, co-curricular experiences, workshops and professional development courses. They can even complete milestones using work or volunteer experiences in which they’re already interested. If you want to learn more, visit uwaterloo.ca/edge.

If you need help or support when it comes to marketing the program, please contact the EDGE team. We’re happy to conduct site visits, attend campus events, write LEARN announcements, provide marketing materials, or support you in some other way.

If you want to add the skills identification and articulation workshop to your course, contact us at edge@uwaterloo.ca.

If you want to set up a class visit from a member of the EDGE team, contact us at edge@uwaterloo.ca.

If you want a member of the EDGE team to visit your department meeting, contact us at edge@uwaterloo.ca.

Any courses that features industry projects sourced through Riipen need to meet EDGE's standards for experiential learning courses in order for students to earn milestones with their work. If your course features a Riipen-associated industry project, it needs to meet the following criteria: 

• Open for students in traditional (i.e. non-co-op) programs to enrol
• Weighted for academic achievement at 0.25 credits or higher
• Includes a third party (e.g. industry or community partner) who actively engages and supports students with their project
• Third party works closely enough with students to provide feedback on their performance
• Industry or community project must engage students for at least 18 hours (can include time inside and outside of class)

If you have any questions about these criteria or want someone to review your course to ensure it meets our standards, contact the EDGE team at edge@uwaterloo.ca. 

If you have questions about anything EDGE-related, the best place to start is by contacting us at edge@uwaterloo.ca. 

If you want to find out whether or not students in your class have opted into EDGE, send us an email at edge@uwaterloo.ca.

If you're teaching a pre-approved course, you don't need to do anything extra to help students earn milestones using your course. Students will receive an evaluation from the third party involved in your course and will complete a reflection assignment submitted to the EDGE time. They'll receive a milestone as long as they complete the two steps above and successfully pass the course. 

If you're teaching a course that isn't pre-approved, students in your class may submit your course for approval using our independent studies and special topics enrolment form. If a student in your class submits this form, you may be contacted by a member of the EDGE team to confirm your course meets the criteria governing EDGE milestones. 

If you have any questions or concerns about this process or want to pre-approve your course, contact us at edge@uwaterloo.ca.