Report

As the central focus of the class, students planned for, developed, and disseminated Knowledge Translation (KT) products to community partners. Along with the course instructor, students collectively monitored their progress over the semester and ultimately produced three projects each: an infographic, a taped media interview, and a newspaper/blog posting. Classes were a mix of guest lectures, workshop opportunities, instructor-led discussions and in-class assignments about evidence-based practice and knowledge translation.

Throughout this course, students worked with a community partner to analyze and approach broad social issues from a multidisciplinary perspective. A unique aspect of the course was that there were no clear rubrics or mark breakdowns established. Students were informed about bare minimum requirements, but were encouraged to think beyond how to perform to meet expectations, and engaged in conversations with the instructors regarding appropriate learning goals and outcomes based on their discipline and year-level.

As a mandatory course for the Masters of Applied Nutrition (MAN) program, students worked individually with a community partner to create and conduct an individual research project. Over three semesters, students learned skills and theoretical knowledge from guest lectures and applied those skills to their projects with the community partners.

Over two semesters, students worked in pairs to conduct a program evaluation to meet the needs of a community partner. Together, the course instructor and CESI staff composed a list of partners for the students to choose from, and the students were coached (through guest lectures and class sessions) on how to do community-engaged work and interact with their community partners. 

As a capstone course for several streams of geography students, students worked in small groups to contact community partners and organize projects that aligned with their interests and the course learning objectives. The core of the course was a group project; in small teams, students identified a problem, designed a solution, gathered the necessary data, implemented the solution, and presented their results. 

Working in groups of 2 or 3, students worked with community partners to complete several components of a program evaluation depending on the needs of the partner. Components included a program overview, exploratory assessment, logic model, evaluation questions and an evaluation framework. The instructor also hosted a workshop to inform participating community organizations about program evaluation. 

Throughout the course, graduate students developed knowledge, skills and values related to the principles and practices of community-engaged scholarship (CES). Working with one community partner (varies each semester), they applied their knowledge to develop a product to solve a problem brought forward by the community partner.

As one component of the course, students completed a community-focused learning project where they researched an organization whose mandate is related to crime-prevention. After selecting an organization, they planned a way that they could personally contribute to this organization and (after receiving approval from the course instructor) worked to enact their plan.