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Grant program: New Ways of Teaching, New Ways of Learning

Grant recipient: Shauna Jones, Beedie School of Business 

Project team: Desirae Stack, Beedie School of Business, Abdelrahman Fakida, research assistant

Timeframe: September 2020 to February 2022

Funding: $5,000

Course addressed: BUS 202 – Foundations for Collaborative Work Environments

Final report: View Shauna Jones's final report (PDF)

Description: For this project, we would like to investigate whether participating in an experiential learning project and a launch orientation helps transfer students develop a sense of belonging, increased self-awareness, resilience, and collaboration skills.

Over the last six years, the Beedie School of Business has improved how we welcome transfer students. This improvement has been the result of external and internal research conducted by the School in 2012. As a result of this research, a new course (BUS 202) was developed for transfer students with the purpose of creating a sense of belonging and setting them up for academic and personal success.

Using primary and secondary data, we want to find out what we are currently doing well, and what can be done to improve how we support transfer students’ successful transition into the Beedie School of Business. We will examine how we build students’ sense of belonging and connection as well as how students develop self-awareness and resilience. Given that we have transitioned to remote instruction, we want to learn how to continue to foster a sense of community in an online environment.

Questions addressed:

• What is the effect of the online experiential BUS 202 course on transfer students’ self-awareness, resilience, and collaboration skills?
• What is the effect of the online experiential BUS 202 course and Launch Orientation on transfer students’ ability to build community and a sense of belonging?

Knowledge sharing: 

• We plan to present our findings at a Beedie Teaching and Learning Event as well as at an SFU/BC Campus Event or workshop 
• We also plan to present our findings at teaching conferences such as the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE), The Teaching Professor Conference, the Educational Developers (EDC) Annual Conference, National Society for Experiential Learning (NSEE). 
• Our intention is to publish in SoTL and other teaching- related journals.

Keywords: Emergency Remote Teaching, Community Building in Online Environments, Experiential Learning, Resilience, Orientation, Transfer Students, Collaboration, Self-Awareness, Belonging