Work and community experiences

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

You can see all of the pre-approved EDGE courses by visiting our full list of EDGE courses.

If you want to complete a milestone using an experiential learning course that hasn’t been pre-approved, submit the independent studies and special topics enrolment form available on the EDGE website. A member of the EDGE team will contact your professor to discuss your course’s compatibility with EDGE within several days of the form’s submission.

You can count any experiential learning course toward EDGE as long as it’s approved, even if it’s outside of your chosen program or faculty. With that said, many of the courses that have been pre-approved as EDGE milestones are upper-year courses with one or more prerequisites.

Make sure to thoroughly check the prerequisites and conditions associated with enrolling in these courses when planning your journey through EDGE. You can also talk to your academic advisor to make sure the courses you want to take will fit into your degree requirements and sequence. Finally, the EDGE team is here to help — feel free to contact us at edge@uwaterloo.ca if you need guidance.

If you fail an experiential learning course, you won’t complete an EDGE milestone with the experience. Your performance in the course doesn’t impact any other parts of your EDGE journey or your status as an EDGE student. If you retake and successfully complete the course, you can still receive an EDGE milestone.

Unfortunately, you can’t receive a retroactive EDGE milestone for experiential learning courses. EDGE students only complete milestones using experiential learning courses if they pass the course, submit a reflective assignment, and receive an evaluation from the course’s work or community partner. All components need to be completed within the same term. If you complete the course before opting into EDGE, you won’t have the reflective assignment and evaluation needed for a milestone.

On-campus experiences must involve at least 36 hours of work in a term. Students who want to receive an EDGE milestone for an on-campus experience need to complete a professional development (PD) course during the same term as their experience. They also need to submit a reflective assignment and their supervisor must submit an evaluation.

If you'd like to assess your current role or a future position you're considering, contact us at edge@uwaterloo.ca.

You can submit your experience for approval by signing up for one of the online professional development (PD) courses associated with EDGE. You'll be required to submit a job information form through LEARN on the day you first open the course. Once you've submitted the form, the EDGE team will contact your supervisor to vet the experience and give them the tools they need to provide you with quality feedback. If your experience isn't approved, someone from the EDGE team will contact you.

For more information about pre-approval and the milestone-granting process, visit our list of EDGE experiences.

You can see all of the pre-approved on-campus experiences by visiting our list of EDGE experiences.

Unfortunately, you can’t receive a retroactive EDGE milestone for on-campus experiences. EDGE students can only complete milestones using on-campus experiences when they complete a professional development (PD) course and receive an evaluation from their supervisor in the same term. If you complete an experience before opting into EDGE, you won’t have the combination of the PD course and evaluation needed for milestones.

Your reflective assignment is built into your PD course as a mandatory assignment.

The EDGE team will make direct contact with your supervisor and give them a link to the evaluation tool. The evaluation is designed to take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete, and it will be due at the end of the given term's exam period.

Off-campus experiences must involve at least 36 hours of work in a term. Students who want to receive an EDGE milestone for an off-campus experience need to complete a professional development (PD) course during the same term as their experience. They also need to submit a reflective assignment and their supervisor must submit an evaluation of their performance.

You can complete EDGE milestones using a wide variety of off-campus experiences. Full- and part-time employment, volunteer opportunities, short-term service learning (e.g. a Habitat for Humanity trip) and international opportunities are all viable as long as they meet the off-campus experience criteria.

If you'd like to assess your current role or a future position you're considering, contact us at edge@uwaterloo.ca.

You can submit your experience for approval by signing up for one of the online professional development (PD) courses associated with EDGE. You'll be required to submit a job information form through LEARN on the day you first open the course. Once you've submitted the form, the EDGE team will contact your supervisor to vet the experience and give them the tools they need to provide you with quality feedback. If your experience isn't approved, someone from the EDGE team will contact you.

For more information about pre-approval and the milestone-granting process, visit our list of EDGE experiences.

Unfortunately, you can’t receive a retroactive EDGE milestone for off-campus experiences. EDGE students only receive milestones for an off-campus experience if they pair it with a professional development (PD) course and receive an evaluation from their supervisor. If you complete an experience before opting into EDGE, you won’t have the combination of the PD course, reflective assignment and evaluation needed for milestones.

Your reflective assignment is built into your PD course as a mandatory assignment.

The EDGE team will make direct contact with your supervisor and give them a link to the evaluation tool. The evaluation is designed to take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete, and it will be due at the end of the given term's exam period.