Faculty Tips

Tips for Supervising Faculty

To foster a rewarding remote work placement or internship opportunity for your students, you might focus on:

• Connection
• Support
• Feedback

CONNECTION

Establish and maintain points of contact with the student(s.)

Be involved in remote onboarding and off-boarding with the student and community partner.  

Establish a point person on the partnership end of the project, with the goal that they can answer student questions and help to remove roadblocks quickly.

Help both the student and partnering organzation to set and understand clear expectations & achievements for the placement. Discuss the nature of the project and how success and deliverables will be supported and measured. 

Find out if there are opportunities for students to make connections with new colleagues at the organization, for example, inclusion in relevant phone or video conference calls or meetings.

SUPPORT

Decide and communicate how you will be assessing competencies for remote work when a placement would normally have taken place in a hands-on, immersive setting.

Determine and ensure (when possible) that students have access to the tools, resources and info they need.

Verify student progress with the community partner’s point person, and verify with student that they are learning from the project, receiving adequate support, and are able to meet expectations once project is underway.

Help students to manage any feelings of isolation, encourage their engagement with the project.

FEEDBACK

Ensure that the student receives effective and consistent feedback from the community partner.  These can be informal check-ins or more in-depth discussions.

Facilitate a chance for students to give their own feedback. A written reflection piece can keep students engaged on the project by helping them explore and define what skills are being used and built (helpful for future resume writing and interviews), and thinking about what aspects of the project were challenging or rewarding, and why.