Credential Program
The College of Graduate Studies offers non-credit credentials to provide graduate students with opportunities for professional development and personal growth that complement their academic work.
By participating in the credentials, students expand their knowledge on specific topics and engage in productive discussions with their peers. Completion of the credentials showcases an interest in learning about the topics and provides a valuable experience that students and postdocs can draw on in the future.
Students who complete credentials receive Letters of Completion as per Senate policy O-129.
The Scholarly Research, Writing, and Publishing Credential, created in partnership with the Centre for Scholarly Communication, consists of six workshops over four themes: Scholarly Research, Research Data, Writing, and Publishing.
The credential is intentionally flexible, allowing students to attend workshops that pique their interests.
Graduate students who complete the credentialing program will gain:
- Increased awareness of effective tools and practices for discovering scholarly literature and managing literature searches
- Increased understanding of tools and strategies for acquiring and managing data in current scholarly practice
- Increased understanding of the typical elements of the scholarly genres that are used at different stages of the writing and publication process
- Increased awareness of effective practices for synthesizing the literature to demonstrate a scholarly contribution
- Skills to leverage this understanding and knowledge to produce a document that achieves the writer’s purpose (e.g. defend a thesis or publish an article)
- Knowledge and tools for students to use when initiating new research.
- Knowledge and tools for students to use in disseminating scholarly writing to improve discoverability by intended audiences and enhance the writer’s scholarly profile
The Social and Cultural Awareness Credential consists of eight workshops over three themes (Interculturalism, Equity and Inclusion, and Mental Health and Wellbeing). These workshops focus on building awareness around social and cultural differences, diversity, inclusion, and equity, and are offered in partnership with relevant organizations on campus.
The credential is intentionally flexible, allowing students and postdocs to attend workshops that pique their interests.
Graduate students who complete the credentialing program will gain:
-
- Increased understanding of social and cultural differences
- Increased understanding and knowledge of historically, persistently, and systemically marginalized groups
- Skills to leverage this understanding and knowledge to build empathy and compassion and address issues of inequity
- Knowledge and tools for students to use when engaging with marginalized groups among their peers and their students
- Knowledge and tools for students to use in the classroom and the workplace to ensure an inclusive and safe environment for everyone
The Career Readiness and Professional Development Credential, created in partnership with Academic and Career Development, consists of seven workshops over four themes (Career Exploration, Job Search Strategies, Preparing Your Application, and Networking). These workshops focus on building a strategy for personal career management, help students reflect on their experiences, create a future vision of their careers, and learn strategies and skills to develop and grow professionally.
The credential is intentionally flexible, allowing students to attend workshops that pique their interests.
Graduate students who complete the credentialing program will:
- Develop a strategy for personal career management
- Reflect on personal experiences, strengths, interests, and influences.
- Create a vision for their future career and strategies and skills to help get there
- Learn about different types of interviews, interview questions, and how to present oneself and one’s skills effectively
- Learn how to conduct an effective job search and strategies to stand out
- Develop interpersonal skills to connect with people during networking opportunities
The Centre for Teaching and Learning collaborates with various academic units to develop and deliver a centralized Teaching Assistant (TA) training program at UBC Okanagan. The program consists of 10 hours of paid training outside of the standard TA contract and is offered to all new-to-UBC undergraduate and graduate TAs. The training is broken into a number of asynchronous and synchronous components in the form of modules. All TAs will have access to the full suite of modules for ongoing learning and resources throughout the term.
Graduate students who complete the credentialing program will:
-
- Understand and identify the UBC policies, services, and systems that inform and support your role as a teaching assistant.
- Understand UBC’s expectations of being a teaching assistant.
- Recognize and navigate factors that contribute to classroom climate and student engagement with learning.
- Develop learner-centered facilitation and feedback strategies.
This series of workshops is designed to introduce learners to the field of scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). Our aim is to explore scholarship of teaching and learning across the disciplines through a facilitated research development process to design a teaching and learning-focused research project – from defining a research question and placing that question in the context of the relevant literatures, to determining appropriate research methodologies and exploring the ethical implications of your research design.
Graduate students who complete the credentialing program will:
-
- Identify the characteristics of good SoTL.
- Develop a research question relevant to your practice.
- Practice qualitative and quantitative research methods.
- Compare and contrast various research paradigms.
- Explore SoTL literature relevant to your interests.
- Develop a research proposal, plan, and timeline.
- Practice undergoing the research ethics process.
- Explore avenues for SoTL dissemination.