Small EL: Developing Professional Skills Through Mock Interviews

Students refine interviewing through practice and feedback

Faculty

Faculty of Arts

Course title

UNIV 304: Experiential learning in the workplace

Class size

Medium (30-75)

Year of program

2nd year course

Students complete a structured DEAL(ER) reflection based on a workplace experience, using prompts about goals, resources, and progress. The instructor explains expectations and encourages communication with supervisors to support meaningful feedback. Students analyze real workplace challenges, connect experiences to competencies, and plan next steps. This activity strengthens metacognition, adaptability, and professional growth by helping students interpret feedback and navigate evolving workplace demands.

Activity Setting: Online
Time for activity: 1-2 hours in class
Assessment Approach: Part of Specifications Grading
Assessment Type: Peer Assessment
Weight in Final Grade: 5%

Outcome 1

Students acquire and apply professional skills and personal development to behaviour, decision-making and goal setting in work and learning settings.

Outcome 2

Students enhance and articulate an understanding of your personal strengths and how you relate to and collaborate with others (roles, responsibilities).

Outcome 3

Students reflect on and articulate/communicate learnings and make connections between your work and academic experiences.

Outcome 4

Students create goals and plan next steps based on learning for on-going professional development (experiences plus reflections).

What worked well?

Giving students multiple opportunities to practice the skills before the assessment worked well, especially when they collaborated in groups and structured their responses to match the required prompt.

What challenges did you encounter?

The instructor often needed to return papers for revision because students did not follow the instructions.

How might students redo/try out or apply these skills in future opportunities?

The instructor expects that students will apply these skills in future interview situations.

Format for reflection: Written reflection
Graded: Yes

Sample reflection prompt

"Students are asked how the activity will influence their approach to future interviews and to identify a specific step they can take moving forward."

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.