Teaching and Learning Services (TLS), together with the Student Experience Office and Career Services, is excited to partner with Riipen to offer Carleton students, staff, and faculty the opportunity to collaborate on virtual, short-term projects (maximum 6-8 hours of work) called Discovery Challenges. Discovery Challenges provide students with resumé-boosting work-related experience and staff and faculty with valuable input from students.
In short, Carleton staff/faculty can propose Discovery Challenges that Carleton students can complete for meaningful experience and co-curricular record (CCR) credit.
Some examples of possible Discovery Challenges:
- design an infographic to describe the student experience with a particular program/activity (“A day in the life…”), including constructive feedback and/or suggestions for the future (“What’s working/not”).
- develop a detailed communication plan to promote an upcoming Carleton event, including drafting social media messages (e.g., Tweets) for the target audience and a timeline.
- evaluate a specific Carleton website from a gendered, racialized, or disability lens and make specific recommendations for improvement.
- propose and/or prototype an update/upgrade to an existing Carleton product or service.
Or make it your own! See here for more examples.
Here’s how it works:
- Carleton staff/faculty propose a Discovery Challenge through the Project Submission Form.
- TLS creates the project in Riipen and makes them available through MySuccess. TLS also creates a co-curricular record (CCR) entry that will be validated upon students’ successful completion of the project.
- Students sign up for a Discovery Challenge and submit their completed project deliverable via Riipen by the deadline (varies by project). Every participating student must submit a Project Completion Form alongside their project submission.
- Staff/faculty review and provide feedback on submissions. If applicable, winners are identified and prizes distributed (varies by project).
- SEO validates CCR entries for students who submitted the project deliverable and the Project Completion Form.
Here’s how YOU can get involved:
Students:
- Browse open Discovery Challenges in MySuccess (accessed via Carleton Central). Use the Search to refine by projects with “Discovery Challenge” in the title.
- When you find a Discovery Challenge that looks interesting, click the link in the posting to open the detailed project description in Riipen. You will be prompted to create a Riipen account. Tip: Connect to your LinkedIn account to save time.
- Sign up for the Discovery Challenge alone or as a team in Riipen (see sign-up instructions here).
- Complete the project and submit in Riipen. See here for tips to maximize your success. Don’t forget to include your Project Completion Form along with your project submission!
Staff/Faculty:
- Browse our sample Discovery Challenges. Submit a Project Submission Form. The earlier you submit it, the more likely it is that you will get a good number of submissions. Tip: Target specific student groups by tagging the project appropriately (e.g., “computer science”, “design”).
- Once TLS has received the project, you will be invited to create a Riipen Employer profile. You must create a profile in order to access project submissions.
- After the submission deadline has passed, TLS will notify you to log into your Riipen account to view the submissions. A key part of your role is providing feedback on submissions. If applicable, identify winner/s and distribute prizes.
That’s it!
If you have questions or concerns about Discovery Challenges, please contact nina.dore@carleton.ca.
Learn more about the benefits of using Riipen here. For general Riipen FAQ see here.