Course changes

Continuous improvement is a huge part of WatPD's day-to-day operation, and our courses are no exception. We're always working to ensure our courses remain engaging, relevant, and aligned with employer needs.

We also think it's important to respond to student feedback. When students tell us they're enjoying a certain unit or learning from an assessment, we try to carry their qualities into future development and redevelopment. When we observe common issues or patterns of behaviour in a course, we work with the instructor and course team to address those issues. We want students to know their voices shape our courses and improve future students' experiences.

Click through the expandable boxes below to review recent changes made to our courses. If you want to review changes from previous years, visit the following pages:

2019 changes | 2018 changes | 2017 changes

All courses

Term implemented	Summary of changes	Why are we making the changes?
Spring 2020	We modified course content and assessments to reflect instability in student employment due to COVID-19.	Some students have been forced to transition to remote work, and others have found it more difficult to find jobs or volunteer experiences. We believe that the skills students learn in their PD courses will be useful in future professional, academic, and workplace settings. With that in mind, we updated course content and assessments where possible to make it easier for students to engage with every part of the course, no matter their employment situation.

PD1

Term implemented	Unit/assessment affected	Summary of changes	Why are we making the changes?
Spring 2020	All units	We redeveloped PD1 from the ground up, refreshing the design, content, and assessments.	PD1 was due for an update. In addition to giving the course a new look and feel, a team of experts rewrote the content in conjunction with employer feedback to reflect up-to-date best practices. We also created a new assessment structure for the course.
Spring 2020	Résumé	We replaced the PD1 résumé assignment with multiple assignments that focus on skills and values and writing résumé bullet points.	We received plenty of student feedback regarding the résumé assignment in PD1. Many students felt like the assignment prescribed a certain résumé format that didn't suit the needs of employers in their faculty or field. Replacing the résumé assignment with a series of smaller, more targeted assignments introduces new flexibility for students across faculties, disciplines, and job fields. The new assignments also represent an improvement in terms of pedagogy.
Spring 2020	Interview questions	We changed the format of the interview questions assignment. Students are now asked to select interview questions from a pool and submit video-recorded responses.	Switching to a video format for this assignment makes it more realistic and introduces new flexibility for students. PD1 TAs can now offer better feedback that directly impacts students' approach to answering interview questions.

Term implemented

Unit/assessment affected

Summary of changes

Why are we making the changes?

Spring 2020

All units

We redeveloped PD1 from the ground up, refreshing the design, content, and assessments.

PD1 was due for an update. In addition to giving the course a new look and feel, a team of experts rewrote the content in conjunction with employer feedback to reflect up-to-date best practices. We also created a new assessment structure for the course.

Spring 2020

Résumé

We replaced the PD1 résumé assignment with multiple assignments that focus on skills and values and writing résumé bullet points.

We received plenty of student feedback regarding the résumé assignment in PD1. Many students felt like the assignment prescribed a certain résumé format that didn't suit the needs of employers in their faculty or field.

Replacing the résumé assignment with a series of smaller, more targeted assignments introduces new flexibility for students across faculties, disciplines, and job fields. The new assignments also represent an improvement in terms of pedagogy.

Spring 2020

Interview questions

We changed the format of the interview questions assignment. Students are now asked to select interview questions from a pool and submit video-recorded responses.

Switching to a video format for this assignment makes it more realistic and introduces new flexibility for students. PD1 TAs can now offer better feedback that directly impacts students' approach to answering interview questions.

PD1 EDGE

Term implemented	Unit/assessment affected	Summary of changes	Why are we making the changes?
Spring 2020	Assignment 10	We revised the rubric to better represent the distinctions between levels.	Revising the rubric improves our marking accuracy and pedagogical alignment with the associated content.

PD3

Term implemented	Unit/assessment affected	Summary of changes	Why are we making the changes?
Winter 2020	Unit 10 assessment	We wrote a new assessment for the unit. While the new assessment uses many of the same reflective prompts as the old assessment, it no longer consists of a series of open-ended DEAL reflections.	The Unit 10 assessment is a good opportunity for students to reflect on the term and their communication skills, and to set tangible goals for improving their communication in the future. We wrote the new assessment with that opportunity in mind, and it will help students write substantive and meaningful reflections on their work terms and communication skills.

PD5

Term implemented	Unit/assessment affected	Summary of changes	Why are we making the changes?
Fall 2020	Units 3-4, 6 assessments	We edited questions within each of the listed assessments.	Editing these questions creates more clarity for students and makes it easier for them to write thoughtful reflections as part of their answers.
Fall 2020	Units 4, 6, 10 assessment rubrics	We updated sections within each of the listed rubrics.	We updated the rubrics to reflect changes made to the assessment questions and help students better understand our expectations.

PD10

Term implemented	Unit/assessment affected	Summary of changes	Why are we making the changes?
Fall 2020	Assignment 5, part 2	We created a downloadable template for this assignment.	This was the only dropbox assignment that didn't include a template, so we added one for consistency and ease of use.
Spring 2020	Assignment 3	We replaced the Turnitin and Snapchat end user license agreements (EULAs) with more relevant EULAs for Netflix and YouTube.	We'd been using the existing EULAs within this assignment for several years and they were due for a refresh. The articles chosen as replacements are commonly used services, so they might seem even more relevant to students.
Spring 2020	Assignment 4	We transitioned this assignment from a discussion forum to a dropbox-based assessment. Students are also now permitted to use late days for this assignment.	We observed that students weren't replying to other students' posts or doing much discussing in the discussion forum, so we decided to adopt an alternate format.
Winter 2020	Assignment 1	We converted the assignment's fill-in-the-blank questions into multiple-choice questions.	Some responses to fill-in-the-blank questions were causing issues with LEARN's assessment tool, so we decided to change their format entirely. Students respond more quickly to multiple-choices questions, and they're simpler to manage.
Winter 2020	Assignment 4	Assignment 4 now asks students to think of a safety-critical software product that has a direct impact on their life. If students can't think of an existing product, they can come up with one on their own.	We wanted to help students improve their skills as reflective learners. This assignment now gives students an opportunity to personally reflect on products that are important to them.
Winter 2020	Assignment 5	We added a new warranty to part 1 and added two new articles to part 2.	We periodically update the warranties and articles in the assignment to ensure they address popular software products.

PD11

Term implemented	Unit/assessment affected	Summary of changes	Why are we making the changes?
Fall 2020	Unit 1 weekly writing assignment	We revised Questions 2 and 3 by adjusting its formatting and including more prompting questions, respectively.	Some students were answering all three questions in Question 2. In Question 3, we're asking students to think more deeply about their goal (i.e. the "why" behind their goal).
Fall 2020	Unit 2	We added an optional resource to support students with the Unit 2 weekly writing assignment and their work report. This resource outlines the dos and don'ts of paraphrasing.	We noticed that students sometimes struggled with paraphrasing, particularly when attempting to summarize technical concepts. The new resource helps them paraphrase more effectively.
Spring 2020	Final draft deadline	We pushed the final deadline back by two days and moved the late deadline back by an additional business day.	We noticed that students could benefit from more time to review their second draft feedback and pose questions to the TAs, so we extended the deadline.
Spring 2020	APA style online resource	We adopted a new online resource on APA style and will promote it through course content, announcements, and assignment feedback.	We identified a more robust resource to support students with APA 7th edition citation and referencing format. This resource is also being promoted by the Library.
Spring 2020	Unit 4 weekly writing assignment	We added a new supplementary resource called "What do I write about?" The resource is an infographics with tips on brainstorming a work report topic.	We noticed that students were sometimes struggling to define a problem that would fit in a work term report. We built the infographic to address common challenges and included a "do this, not that" list of topic themes.
Winter 2020	First draft of work term report	We added a bonus grade of 5% to the submission of the first draft. Students will be awarded 5% if they submit their first draft before the peer review deadline.	Because the work report writing process is iterative in nature, we wanted to encourage more students to submit a first draft by adding a small amount of bonus marks. This change will have the added effect of helping students gain valuable feedback from their colleagues through the peer review process.

PD12

Term implemented	Unit/assessment affected	Summary of changes	Why are we making the changes?
Winter 2020	Unit 2 worksheet	We updated the worksheet to increase its interactivity. This worksheet is now similar to the Unit 6 worksheet, so students can benefit from consistency across these units.	The updated worksheet helps students craft stronger SMART goals for the Unit 2 assessment.
Winter 2020	Unit 9 worksheet	We replaced the existing list of aspects of organizational culture with an interactive worksheet that prepares students to write a full DEAL reflection on organizational cultures.	Students have struggled with their Unit 9 reflection on organizational cultures in the past. Adding this worksheet will help them organize their thoughts and concisely compare two organizational cultures.

PD13

Term implemented	Unit/assessment affected	Summary of changes	Why are we making the changes?
Fall 2020	Assignment 2	We added a step to the first part of the assignment instructions. Students are now directed to review strategies for translating complex ideas using an in-course resource.	Students were having trouble distilling complex ideas for a general audience. Adding this step draws their attention to tips for creating infographics and distilling complex ideas.
Fall 2020	Assignment 2	We made changes to the "Story Arc" criteria of the rubric to better reflect the intent of the assignment.	We discussed this criteria at PD13 marking meetings but noticed that it hadn't been reflected in the rubric. Making these changes clarifies the expectations for both students and markers.
Fall 2020	Assignment 3	We clarified the assignment instructions by providing the language expected in each question.	Students weren't always using the expected language, which created further confusion among PD13 markers and staff. Making these changes clarifies the expectations for both students and markers.
Fall 2020	All assignments	We added a word limit/length recommendation to each assignment.	Students weren't sure how much information to include in their assignments. Including word limits/recommendations on length gives them more clarity regarding our expectations.
Spring 2020	Assignment 2	We added links to Canva and Piktochart, pieces of software students can use to create their infographics.	Students weren't sure how to create their infographics, so we provided links to two commonly-used online tools. Students can use either tool to build their infographic.
Spring 2020	Assignment 2	We added an explanation at the beginning of the instructions to better link the assignment to course content.	Students didn't understand why they were creating an infographic and how it was linked to interdisciplinary research, so we added some text to clarify the connection.
Spring 2020	Assignment 3	We added a link to an online database of retracted articles.	Students have told us that it's not easy to find retracted articles in some subjects. We identified an online database that'll make it easier to find relevant retracted articles.
Spring 2020	Unit 9	We added a link to an online listing of predatory journals and publishers.	Some students have expressed their interest in tangible resources to help them in their research work. We added this link to help students evaluate their research sources.

We hope you'll give us feedback on your experience in our courses through their end-of-course surveys or other communication. If you want to learn more about our approach to course development, send us an email.

Course changes

All courses

PD1

PD1 EDGE

PD3

PD5

PD10

PD11

PD12

PD13

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