Until the waning days of senior year, many students find it hard to re-focus their energy from coursework toward their post-college options. By then, they may be far behind their peers.
“Decisions for graduate school or a career need to be determined early in a student’s college life for greater success in reaching those goals,” said Sallie Dunphy, Ph.D., instructor in the Department of Human Studies. Each semester, she asks staff from the UAB Career Center to speak to students in her courses in exercise science to help them “begin formulating a career path and to find out about all the great services provided to them as students,” she said. “No one wants to graduate and then realize that they don’t know what to do with the degree.”
Crucial tools for career success
Like Dunphy, many UAB faculty plant the seeds of career-readiness by inviting staff from the Career Center to speak to their classes about resume building, internships and interview skills. In spring 2020, the Career Center added another option. A Canvas-based online course series developed in partnership with UAB eLearning aims to catch students’ attention with everything they need to know in an hour or two.
The learning objectives are straightforward:
- Identify services and resources available through the Career Center
- Identify career pathways that align with a student’s unique characteristics and aspirations
- Create a personalized Career Action Plan
- Navigate common interview questions
- Craft a compelling resume, and
- Find that crucial first job after college
To date, more than 7,000 students have engaged with the Career Center Canvas Course, and faculty have implemented its modules in 46 academic courses, including First Year Experience courses, capstone courses and practicum courses.
| To date, more than 7,000 students have engaged with the Career Center Canvas Course, and faculty have implemented its modules in 46 academic courses, including First Year Experience courses, capstone courses and practicum courses. |
“We launched in late April,” said Adam Roderick, associate director of the Career Center. “Our initial plan was to soft-launch it in the summer, but when COVID hit and students were sent home, we expedited that to ensure they had access to career success tools in a virtual environment.”
What faculty are saying
Faculty can incorporate the entire course or specific modules as part of their classes. Dunphy gave students the option to review the modules “and strongly urged them to look over each area,” she said.
| “Our initial plan was to soft-launch in the summer, but when COVID hit and students were sent home, we expedited that to ensure they had access to career-success tools in a virtual environment.” |
Jonathan Amsbary, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Communication Studies, has incorporated the series as part of his CMST309 course, Interviewing. “Understanding how to best utilize the Career Center is an important part of the job-seeking process that I have always covered in class,” Amsbary said.
Martha Earwood, teaching assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice, has incorporated modules on resume building, interview skills and career launch in her Criminal Justice and Digital Forensics capstone courses. “I was already asking the Career Center to conduct a resume workshop, and I was using their Interview stream tool,” Earwood said. “Incorporating the modules was a perfect fit for what I was already doing; now I don’t need to request a workshop.” The modules actually provide the students more time to consider their resumes and practice their interviewing skills, Earwood said. “Previously, I didn’t have time to thoroughly cover the content from the Career Launch module. Now the students have a reference and guide for long-term skill building.”
Audience and engagement
“The course was designed to benefit all Blazers, from freshmen to graduate students and beyond,” Roderick said. “Modules like Career Launch are certainly beneficial for our junior, senior and graduate students. However, we also encourage freshmen and sophomores to begin thinking about life after graduation as early as possible, and this module is a great way to get that jumpstart.” UAB alumni maintain access to the course for two years following graduation, he added.
Students have submitted more than 3,200 quizzes through the course, Roderick said. These quizzes, which are embedded throughout each module, are “designed to be mechanisms of engagement,” Roderick said. They immediately assess content retention. In the Resume Building module, students are asked to identify a properly constructed Accomplishment Statement. In the Career Launch module, “we ask students to briefly reflect on current career competencies they can highlight in their job search,” Roderick said.
More interactive content is on the way. “We are working on a badging system for students who complete modules” to provide students “with tangible and marketable evidence of their engagement in this career-preparation content,” Roderick said. The badging system will be developed in partnership with eLearning and will be implemented through Portfolium.
