Development of an Online Platform to Cultivate Collaboration and Connect Post-Secondary Student Leaders Across Canada

• Published in: Collected essays on learning and teaching 2023-06, Vol.14 (1)
• Main Authors: Schreyer, Leighton, Sahiti, Qëndresa, Freynet-Gagné, Ariane
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activism; Advocacy; Educational Change; Fellowships; Foreign Countries; Higher Education; Leadership Training; Student Leadership; Sustainability; Undergraduate Students; Web Sites
• ISSN: 2368-4526; 2368-4526
• DOI: 10.22329/celt.v14i1.7072

In 2020, ten visionary undergraduate students across Canada were brought together through the 3M National Student Fellowship and tasked with developing a project that furthers STLHE’s mission of enhancing teaching and learning in higher education. To address a need for increased national collaboration among student groups and to unify student leaders in their efforts to transform higher education, we developed an online bilingual resource hub and forum—CANnect: Cross Campus Collaborations—that enables Canadian post-secondary students to learn about and engage in various areas of advocacy and activism across campuses. We worked with STLHE staff to build the online platform and drew from our own networks of student advocacy groups across Canada to populate the website. To ensure the platform’s sustainability and safety, we hired a bilingual moderator to manage the forum content and update resources. In December 2021, 19 months after we began working on the project, CANnect officially launched. Currently, our biggest challenges involve increasing platform usership and engagement, and ensuring the platform’s long-term sustainability. Nevertheless, we see great potential in this project and remain determined to enhance teaching and learning in higher education by creating an accessible and inclusive space to connect student leaders across Canada.