- Eligibility
- Funding
- Capstones & Sharing Your Work
- Applying for the Program
- Selection Criteria
- FAQs
- Literature Samples
The Students as Partners Program (SaPP) provides funding for undergraduate students to partner with instructors, librarians and teaching support staff on course design projects.
Fully funded by Teaching and Learning Services (TLS), SaPP offers students paid hands-on work experience and provides a meaningful opportunity to develop important academic and transferable skills. Partnering with students to develop the teaching and learning environment also helps to foster student-centered learning. The program seeks to engage students in different projects and activities, including, but not limited to:
- Co-designing and contributing to the development of curriculum
- Researching, sourcing and organizing course materials, media, and appropriate learning resources
- Helping design course materials, Brightspace sites, and multimedia tools
- Formatting and preparing new, innovative assessments
- Incorporating educational technologies, whether online or face-to-face
- Enhancing the use and understanding of assessment criteria
- Working on a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project
Working directly with students helps to support the implementation of innovative and exciting teaching practices, but most importantly it helps foster student-centred teaching and course design. By engaging students in the development of existing courses, we can not only incorporate feedback and student perspective but also foster skills that may support student partners as future educators. A SaPP project can not only transform a course, it can transform a student’s perspective of academia and can be a valuable mentorship experience for both Staff and Student Partner.
SaPP projects may take place in one of three possible SaPP terms: the Summer term, Fall term, and Winter term. Approved projects will not be extended into a subsequent term and must be completed within the term specified on your application. To complete a SaPP project, students will need to:
- Complete the project hours specified on the application,
- Complete and submit a project capstone,
- Complete, asynchronously, a FUSION module.
Get a glimpse into the world of hands-on learning – hear from past participants. You can also learn more about engaging students as partners in the literature samples below.
Eligibility
All faculty, instructors, contract instructors, librarians and teaching support staff working on relevant teaching projects are eligible to participate in the Students as Partners Program.
Students must be a part-time or full-time undergraduate student enrolled in a Carleton degree program. Students must remain in good academic standing throughout the duration of the internship and must not be completing a co-op work term simultaneously. Students may not complete a SaPP and I-CUREUS project concurrently, and can only be awarded one SaPP or I-CUREUS project in a single academic term.
Due to funding limitations, there is a limit of one student per staff member and one student per project. If a project may require more than one student partner, please discuss with us before applying.
SaPP Projects must be completed before the course begins. SaPP Projects may not take place at the same time as the course. The projects funded through SaPP are not meant to resemble a teaching assistant or simply to alleviate instructor/librarian/teaching support staff workload. As such, projects attached to courses must be completed prior to the beginning of the course.
Funding is limited and the SaPP program has limited places available. Eligible projects will be approved in a timely manner on a first-come, first-served basis. Applications are not guaranteed to be accepted. Do not begin work on a project that has not yet been approved. Priority may be given to students who have not yet participated in a SaPP project in an academic year. The academic year runs from May – April.
Funding
The FLL will compensate Student Partners via a one-time bursary payment for up to 130 hours of work on a SaPP Project, at minimum wage. The work should be completed within one academic term. Student partners are paid a lump sum upon completion of their project.
When partners apply to the program, they are to specify the number of hours associated with the project to a maximum of 130 hours. All hours must be completed before the end of the term specified in the application. Staff Partners must notify the Future Learning Lab immediately of any changes to the terms provided in the application form.
Neither students nor supervisors are responsible for tracking a student partner’s hours. They will be calculated using the information provided on the initial application. Payment will be administered upon completion of the SaPP Project. Staff partners are responsible for ensuring their student partner is on track with the work assigned, and should notify the Future Learning Lab if a project is cancelled or incomplete.
Please contact SaPP@carleton.ca with any questions.
Capstones & Sharing Your Work
Projects funded through SaPP will not be considered complete until students share their experiences and contributions with the teaching community in the form of a Capstone project that showcases the project. These must be submitted by the end of the term in which they are completing the project. There are multiple ways that students can meet this requirement, including:
- Completing a SaPP Conference Poster and presenting at the Students as Partners Showcase
- Writing a SaPP Report or submitting a SoTL output for publication
- Creating a SaPP web resource, such as a blog post, cuPortfolio, web page, etc.
- Creating a SaPP testimonial video
Of the capstone options, students should choose one which will best highlight the impact or applications of the work completed through the partnership. Student partners are encouraged to be creative with their Capstone submissions! If partners have an alternate capstone idea, they are encouraged to email SaPP@carleton.ca.
Please note: Capstone submissions may be shown publicly or used for public purposes including but not limited to, displayed on Carleton University and Future Learning Lab websites, TLS newsletters, and social media.
Applying for the Program
The Future Learning Lab does not vet or select students or staff partners. Interested instructors, librarians and teaching support staff members are encouraged to identify an undergraduate student they can collaborate with. This may be a student who has successfully completed a course they’ve taught, a student they’ve worked with before or a student who has expressed interest in collaborating with them.
If you are a student interested in participating in SaPP, speak with your professors to discuss your interest and options, or see your department’s administrators, chair or dean for further information.
Once the partnership is established, the partners should work together to determine the standard of work for the proposed project, and outline the responsibilities and scope of the collaboration. Both partners are responsible for reviewing the Acknowledgment of Understanding and jointly completing the online application form.
Applications for SaPP open each term in which funding is available. You may apply for a project in one of three terms, the Summer term, the Fall term, or the Winter term. Your project must be completed in the term specified on your application.
Generally, applications open one month before the start of a new term, and remain open until the program has reached capacity for that term, or until the last Monday before the Reading Break (not the Monday of Reading Break). If the program reaches capacity before this, the applications will be closed until the next term.
For more information, please see our FAQ below or email SaPP@carleton.ca.
Selection Criteria
Faculty members, instructors, contract instructors, librarians and teaching support staff, along with a student partner, should jointly complete the online application form below. Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
- The strength of the partnership between the instructor/librarian/teaching support staff member and the student (is the student considered as collaborator and partner?)
- The scope and appropriateness of the project/initiative being proposed
- Impact of the work and possible applications to other courses or projects
- The opportunities for learning by both the staff and student partner
- How the partners intend to communicate or present their work (capstones, events organized by TLS, blog posts, social media, reports, etc.)
SaPP Projects must be completed before the course begins. SaPP Projects may not take place at the same time as the course. The projects funded through SaPP are not meant to resemble a teaching assistant or simply to alleviate instructor/librarian/teaching support staff workload. As such, projects attached to courses must be completed prior to the beginning of the course.
Funding is limited and the SaPP program has limited places available. Eligible projects will be approved in a timely manner on a first-come, first-served basis. Applications are not guaranteed to be accepted. Do not begin work on a project that has not yet been approved. Priority may be given to students who have not yet participated in a SaPP project in an academic year. The academic year runs from May – April.