Invest in your future and earn the Aspire Certificate, which is designed to complement your academic program by providing opportunities to develop a range of skills and competencies.
To earn the certificate, complete five workshops in at least two Aspire pillars.
Learn more details about the Aspire Professional Development Certificate.
Some of the workshops are self-directed on MyLearningSpace. First, register for the workshop by selecting "Self Registration," then select the workshop, and select "Register."
Take charge of your personal well-being. Our workshops provide you with the skills to manage your time, mental health, and work-life balance. Foster self-awareness and mindfulness in your personal, scholarly, and professional life.
All sessions are virutal, 1 hour in length and open to all students.
Our teaching development workshops offer transferrable teaching skills and foundational teaching knowledge that can be used for both the classroom and the workplace. Learn about different pedagogies and hear from experienced staff and colleagues as they reflect on their experiences and share their knowledge.
All sessions are 90 minutes in length.
Self-paced Microsoft Stream recorded workshops:
Rock the First Day
Want to spark student interest, motivation, and collaboration? This workshop will identify five practical things you can do as a teacher or teaching assistant on the first day (or any day thereafter) to establish a classroom climate that invites students to get the most out of your course. Students form an impression of you and your expectations on your first day of class. This is your opportunity to learn how to rock that first impression!
Didn’t connect with your students on the first day? These tips can be utilized beyond the first day as well. The strategies provided are equally helpful as ongoing tools to implement, reflect on, and revise throughout the term.
Skills Acquired: This workshop will identify five practical things you can do as a teacher or teaching assistant on the first day to establish a classroom climate that invites students to get the most out of your course.
Tuesday, September 9th 4:00 p.m. - Register for Zoom link here
Wednesday, September 17th 10:00 a.m. – Register for Zoom link here
Friday, September 26th 12:00 p.m. - Register for Zoom link here
Sparking Student Engagement
Does the room go quiet when you ask questions? Do you see blank stares when you try to get students talking? Knowing how to actively engage your students to enhance their learning is an important skill. This workshop will introduce you to some strategies to both ignite and sustain student engagement.
Skills Acquired: This workshop will introduce you to some strategies to both ignite and sustain student engagement.
Thursday, October 2nd 4:00 p.m. Register for Zoom link here
Friday, October 24th 12:00 p.m. Register for Zoom link here
Providing Student Feedback and Feedforward
For teaching assistants, recognizing how and when to provide feedback to learners can be a tricky task. Concerns about how much and the quality of the feedback provided is fundamental to students’ success. In this introductory session, participants will spend time exploring the complexity of providing guidance to learners as a TA and explore the idea of feedforward to support ongoing student development.
Skills Acquired: In this introductory session, participants will spend time exploring the complexity of providing guidance to learners as a TA and explore the idea of feedforward to support ongoing student development.
Monday, October 6th 10:00 a.m. Register for Zoom link here
Providing Student Feedback and Feedforward
For teaching assistants, recognizing how and when to provide feedback to learners can be a tricky task. Concerns about how much and the quality of the feedback provided is fundamental to students’ success. In this introductory session, participants will spend time exploring the complexity of providing guidance to learners as a TA and explore the idea of feedforward to support ongoing student development.
Skills Acquired: In this introductory session, participants will spend time exploring the complexity of providing guidance to learners as a TA and explore the idea of feedforward to support ongoing student development.
Friday, November 7th 12:00 p.m. Register for Zoom link here
Thursday, November 27th 4:00 p.m. Register for Zoom link here
Sparking Student Engagement
Does the room go quiet when you ask questions? Do you see blank stares when you try to get students talking? Knowing how to actively engage your students to enhance their learning is an important skill. This workshop will introduce you to some strategies to both ignite and sustain student engagement.
Skills Acquired: This workshop will introduce you to some strategies to both ignite and sustain student engagement.
Tuesday, November 18th 10:00 a.m. Register for Zoom link here
In any academic or professional environment, strong communication and leadership skills are critical. Perfect your writing and oral presentation skills with help from specialists in the field.
On-going self-paced learning on MyLearningSpace:
Details for each session and registration links can be found on the Graduate Tab of the Writing Service Workshop site.
Scholarship Proposal Writing
In this 90-minute workshop, you will develop the tools to write effective scholarship proposals. Working from samples of winning graduate student proposals (from OGS, SSHRC, and NSERC grants), we will examine common features of successful research statements, and you will learn how to apply these writing strategies in your own proposal. This workshop is targeted to Master’s and PhD students in all disciplines.
You can register for the workshop on the Student Success Portal.
The Zoom link for the workshop is included below. The Zoom link will also be emailed to all registered participants prior to the workshop.
Writing Literature Reviews
Graduate students are often tasked with writing a literature review during their coursework or graduate studies. This workshop will provide MA and PhD students with strategies on how to organize, structure, and write a literature review. We will also discuss how to frame your literature review around a research gap or scholarly problem. The Zoom link for the workshop is included below. The Zoom link will also be emailed to all registered participants prior to the workshop.
You can register for the workshop on the Student Success Portal.
Writing Reflection Papers
In this ASPIRE workshop, students will develop tools and strategies to write critical reflection papers. The workshop will discuss common challenges students face when writing reflection papers, including how to relate their personal experiences to academic literature. By the end of the workshop, students will have a better understanding of how to write and structure their reflection papers. The Zoom link for the workshop is included below. The Zoom link will also be emailed to all registered participants prior to the workshop
You can register for the workshop on the Student Success Portal.
Move successfully into your next career phase. ASPIRE workshops, run by Career Centre professionals, can help you to market your transferable skills, build your resumé, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile, and network and interview with confidence, among many other skills.
All sessions are virtual on Zoom.
Career Planning for Graduate Students
Whether you have clear ideas about your career path or are still wondering what is next for you, this workshop will allow participants to learn how to gather relevant information, insights, and resources to explore opportunities and how to develop a plan to get there.
Skills Acquired: This session will introduce practical strategies and resources to assist you in conducting the necessary self-reflection and research to identify ideal work environments, optimal job satisfiers and realistic goals for pursuing an academic or post-academic career.
Facilitator: Lisa Roy, Career Centre
Wednesday, September 17, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. (online via Zoom) Register here
Join the session on Zoom, or in person for coffee and conversation, at the Waterloo Career Centre, Room CC-101. Please register to receive the event link.
Create engaging documents that will get noticed. Interested in a career in academia or research? Lets build a CV, for academic and research roles!
Skills Acquired: Participants will learn the unique purpose, format and guidelines for creating an effective Curriculum Vitae (CV), as well as clarify the main distinctions between a resumé and a CV.
Facilitator: Lisa Roy, Career Centre
Wednesday, October 8th, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. (online via Zoom) Register here
Join the session on Zoom, or in person for coffee and conversation, at the Waterloo Career Centre, Room CC-101. Please register to receive the event link.
Research is a huge component of many Masters, PhD and Postdoctoral Fellow programs. Workshops in our research pillar can help you to complete the work that you are doing at Laurier and help prepare you for future research opportunities. Through workshops ranging from how to develop a research question, to managing your data, our research experts will teach you how to translate your technical work for non-specialist audiences.
Self-paced MyLearningSpace modules:
Students must self-register for "Libary Reserach Workshops" on MyLearning Space to gain access to these courses.
Tri-Agency Open Access Policy Changes: Library Supports
On January 1, 2026, Tri-Agency is expected to release a new Open Access (OA) policy. This policy, currently in draft and available for reading, is an update to the 2015 OA Policy. Under the revised policy, recipients of Tri-Agency grants will be required to: deposit peer-reviewed research articles associated with a Tri-Agency grant in a Canadian institutional repository at the time of publication use an open license at the time of deposit for these articles (e.g., Creative Commons licensing) Retain rights for the dissemination of peer-reviewed articles Acknowledge Agency contributions in all research outputs, including but not limited to peer-reviewed articles These changes are expected to be implemented on January 1, 2026 and will be applicable to recipients of grants awarded after that date. This webinar will introduce Library supports that will help researchers meet their OA requirements under the new policy. In particular, we will introduce Scholars Commons, our institutional repository, and explain how it will help you meet these requirements and disseminate your outputs with ease. This webinar is included in the 2025 ASPIRE series of workshops; researchers are encourage to invite their grad students to help them learn more about Tri-Agency's research policies. This webinar will be recorded and a link will be shared with participants for future playback.
Skills Acquired: Knowledge of Open Access - Academic repositories - Tri-Agency research policies
Facilitator: Michael Steelworthy
September 11, 2025 11:00 a.m.
Registration Link: https://library.wlu.ca/events/2025-09/tri-agency-open-access-policy-changes-library-supports
September 18, 2025 1:00 p.m.
Registration Link: https://library.wlu.ca/events/2025-09/tri-agency-open-access-policy-changes-library-supports-0
Industry Insights: Navigating Library Resources for Business Research
Discover how to access and use key library databases to research industries—whether you're looking for market analysis, financial statistics and data, competitive landscape analysis, or future outlooks. This workshop will guide you through the best tools and strategies for finding credible, up-to-date industry information to support your coursework, case studies, and business plans.
Skills Acquired: Locate and interpret credible industry reports and data using library databases. 2. Analyze industry financial performance, market trends, and competitive landscapes to support your academic or entrepreneurial projects.
Facilitator: Yanli Li
September 18, 2025 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Registration Link: https://library.wlu.ca/events/2025-09/industry-insights-navigating-library-resources-business-research
An Introduction to Data Management Planning
Data management plans (DMPs) help researchers identify and implement their data management needs during the life of their research program. This includes topics like storage, access, description/metadata, backups, sensitivity, and more. Since 2021, the Tri-Agencies have required DMPs or data management methodologies to be included in all grant applications. It's also just good practice to identify these data strengths and gaps, especially at the start of your research programme. This webinar will introduce the Library's data management planning service and our free webtool, the DMP Assistant. We'll demonstrate the Funding Opportunity DMP template, which covers 5 core areas critical to researchers who are in the initial stages of their grant application: ‚ Ethics, Legal, and Commercial Issues‚ Data Collection‚ Data Documentation‚ Data Storage and Access‚ Data Archiving and Disposition This webinar will benefit researchers and grad students, especially if you are planning a new grant application. Grad students are especially welcomed to this webinar given the benefits that data management planning brings to thesis preparation and fieldwork! This webinar is geared toward researchers and grad students. It is also part of the 2025 ASPIRE series of workshops.
Skills Acquired: Data management planning - Grant applications - Tri-Agency Research Policies
Facilitator: Michael Steelworthy
September 18, 2025 11:00 a.m.
Registration Link: https://library.wlu.ca/events/2025-09/introduction-data-management-planning
Mendeley: A free tool to manage your citations
Use Mendeley to streamline how you collect sources and create bibliographies. If you’re doing a research assignment, thesis, dissertation, or capstone project, this tool will save you time. Please note: a workshop about Zotero is also available. If you’re unsure which tool to use, it helps to ask a professor or student in your program what they use. Questions? libcitations@wlu.ca
Skills Acquired: By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to use Mendeley to: Organize their sources using folders and tags, Search their sources, Automatically cite their sources.
September 23, 2025 10:00 a.m.
Registration Link: https://wilfrid-laurier.zoom.us/j/94995324269
Finding Government (Public) Policy & its Analysis
Learn strategies for finding “policy documents”, the steps that led to their creation, a few ways for finding policy analysis, and how you might consider the merits of these arguments.
Skills Acquired: Awareness of what "public policy" can constitute; ideas on how to strategize your searches for finding "policy documents"; tactics for finding the background information to the policy at hand; strategies for looking for and evaluating policy analysis.
Facilitator: Helene LeBlanc
September 24, 2025 9:00 - 10:30 a.m.
Registration Link: https://library.wlu.ca/events/2025-09/finding-government-public-policy-its-analysis-aspire-library-workshop-graduate
Introduction to Evidence Synthesis
Systematic, scoping, and rapid reviews are all forms of evidence synthesis. Researchers undertaking these types of projects aim to find and analyze all the relevant information related to their research question. Evidence synthesis has traditionally been used to inform best practice in healthcare but is now increasingly being used in fields such as social work and criminology. In this session, we will look at the differences between different types of reviews and explore the methodology associated with each one. I will explain each stage of an evidence synthesis and share some tools and resources.
Skills Acquired: Participants will learn how to describe the main elements of an evidence synthesis, explain the differences between systematic, scoping, and narrative reviews, locate key methodology documents and guidelines, and decide if this is the right kind of project for their research.
Facilitator: Fiona Inglis
September 24, 2025 2:00 p.m.
Registration Link: https://library.wlu.ca/events/2025-09/introduction-evidence-synthesis
Zotero: A free tool to manage your citations
Use Zotero to streamline how you collect sources and create bibliographies. If you’re doing a research assignment, thesis, dissertation, or capstone project, this tool will save you time. Please note: a workshop about Mendeley is also available. If you’re unsure which tool to use, it helps to ask a professor or student in your program what they use.
Skills Acquired: Organize their sources using folders and tags; Automatically cite their sources within MS Word; Search their sources
Facilitator: Greg Sennema
Wednesday, October 1, 2025 10:00 a.m.
Registration link: https://library.wlu.ca/events/2025-10/zotero-free-tool-manage-your-citations
Introduction to Archival Research
Learn how archival material is organized, how to access, use, and evaluate archival material, and what to expect when visiting the archives.
Skills Acquired: Identify common characteristics of archival material ‚ Find and evaluate archival material
Facilitator: Amanda Oliver
Wednesday, October 1, 2025 2:00 p.m.
Registration link: https://library.wlu.ca/events/2025-10/introduction-archival-research
Borealis: How to archive your reserach data
Research Data is now an established output of scholarship that many journals, grant agencies, and fields require to be archived. At Laurier, faculty, grad students, and other HQP can submit their non-sensitive research data to the Library's data archive Borealis, for long-term archiving, access, and sharing. This webinar will introduce you to Borealis and our data curation service. We will cover: Who can use Borealis (Faculty, Grads, HQP) What kind of data we accept How grad students should archive their thesis data Open access and non-sensitive data requirements Metadata and Licensing How to get started By the end of the session, you will learn how to submit your valuable research data for archiving, access, and re-use. This webinar is geared toward researchers and grad students. It is also part of the 2025 ASPIRE series of workshops. For more information, contact Research Data Services at researchdata@wlu.ca
Skills Acquired: Data archiving - Tri-Agency research policies - Open access
Facilitator: Michael Steelworthy
Thursday, October 2, 2025 11:00 a.m.
Registration link: https://library.wlu.ca/events/2025-10/borealis-how-archive-your-research-data
Tri-Agency Open Access Policy Changes: Library Supports
On January 1, 2026, Tri-Agency is expected to release a new Open Access (OA) policy. This policy, currently in draft and available for reading, is an update to the 2015 OA Policy. Under the revised policy, recipients of Tri-Agency grants will be required to: deposit peer-reviewed research articles associated with a Tri-Agency grant in a Canadian institutional repository at the time of publication use an open license at the time of deposit for these articles (e.g., Creative Commons licensing) Retain rights for the dissemination of peer-reviewed articles Acknowledge Agency contributions in all research outputs, including but not limited to peer-reviewed articles These changes are expected to be implemented on January 1, 2026 and will be applicable to recipients of grants awarded after that date. This webinar will introduce Library supports that will help researchers meet their OA requirements under the new policy. In particular, we will introduce Scholars Commons, our institutional repository, and explain how it will help you meet these requirements and disseminate your outputs with ease. This webinar is included in the 2025 ASPIRE series of workshops; researchers are encourage to invite their grad students to help them learn more about Tri-Agency's research policies. This webinar will be recorded and a link will be shared with participants for future playback.
Skills Acquired: Knowledge of Open Access - Academic repositories - Tri-Agency research policies.
Facilitator: Michael Steelworthy
Thursday, October 2, 2025 1:00 p.m.
Registration link: https://library.wlu.ca/events/2025-10/tri-agency-open-access-policy-changes-library-supports
Thursday, October 9, 2025 11:00 a.m.
Registration link: https://library.wlu.ca/events/2025-10/tri-agency-open-access-policy-changes-library-supports-0
Thursday, October 23, 2025 1:00 p.m.
Registration link: https://library.wlu.ca/events/2025-10/tri-agency-open-access-policy-changes-library-supports-1
Systematic Searching for Evidence Synthesis
Evidence synthesis projects aim to produce a transparent and reproducible review of all the available literature on a topic and therefore require a more structured and systematic form of search development than we use in many other contexts. Becoming an expert in building this type of search takes considerable time and experience that a 1 hour workshop cannot replace. However, it can provide an introduction to the process and deepen your understanding of what is involved. In this session, we will review the steps required to build a systematic search along with some tips and tricks to make this process more effective. This workshop is not database specific but will instead focus on guidelines and principles that can be applied to searches in many health-focused databases, such as PubMed, CINAHL or PsycINFO.
Skills Acquired: Participants will learn how to define systematic searching, plan a search using PICO(T) or similar, incorporate subject headings and keywords into a search, describe the process for translating a search to a different database, and create a validation set to test a search.
Facilitator: Fiona Inglis
Monday, October 6, 2025 1:00 p.m.
Registration link: https://library.wlu.ca/events/2025-10/systematic-searching-evidence-synthesis
Industry Insights: Navigating Library Resources for Business Research
Discover how to access and use key library databases to research industries—whether you're looking for market analysis, financial statistics and data, competitive landscape analysis, or future outlooks. This workshop will guide you through the best tools and strategies for finding credible, up-to-date industry information to support your coursework, case studies, and business plans.
Skills Acquired: 1. Locate and interpret credible industry reports and data using library databases. 2. Analyze industry financial performance, market trends, and competitive landscapes to support your academic or entrepreneurial projects.
Facilitator: Yanli Li
Wednesday, October 8, 2025 10:00 - 11:00 a.m.
Registration Link: https://library.wlu.ca/events/2025-10/industry-insights-navigating-library-resources-business-research
Finding Legislation (Bills, Laws & Regulations) & its Analysis – for Beginners
Learn the very basics (or come for a refresher) on how Canadian laws are made, their key parts and where to find them. Discover resources for the analysis of laws and their impact, and how they have been interpreted in judicial proceedings.
Skills Acquired: Awareness of key legal instruments; awareness of how a Bill becomes a Law; where to look for the different parts of Law; discovery of sources for Legal Commentary.
Facilitator: Helene LeBlanc
Thursday, October 9, 2025 3:30 - 5:00 p.m.
Registration link: https://library.wlu.ca/events/2025-10/finding-government-public-policy-its-analysis-aspire-library-workshop-graduate
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
Registration link: https://library.wlu.ca/events/2025-10/finding-legislation-bills-laws-regulations-its-analysis-aspire-library-workshop-0
Mendeley: A free tool to manage your citations
Use Mendeley to streamline how you collect sources and create bibliographies. If you’re doing a research assignment, thesis, dissertation, or capstone project, this tool will save you time. Please note: a workshop about Zotero is also available. If you’re unsure which tool to use, it helps to ask a professor or student in your program what they use. Questions? libcitations@wlu.ca
Skills Acquired: By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to use Mendeley to: Organize their sources using folders and tags; Search their sources; Automatically cite their sources.
Facilitator: Pauline Dewan
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 2:00 p.m.
Registration link: https://wilfrid-laurier.zoom.us/j/92928492510
An Introduction to Data Management Planning
Data management plans (DMPs) help researchers identify and implement their data management needs during the life of their research program. This includes topics like storage, access, description/metadata, backups, sensitivity, and more. Since 2021, the Tri-Agencies have required DMPs or data management methodologies to be included in all grant applications. It's also just good practice to identify these data strengths and gaps, especially at the start of your research programme. This webinar will introduce the Library's data management planning service and our free webtool, the DMP Assistant. We'll demonstrate the Funding Opportunity DMP template, which covers 5 core areas critical to researchers who are in the initial stages of their grant application: Ethics, Legal, and Commercial Issues‚Äã Data Collection‚Äã Data Documentation‚Äã Data Storage and Access‚Äã Data Archiving and Disposition This webinar will benefit researchers and grad students, especially if you are planning a new grant application. Grad students are especially welcomed to this webinar given the benefits that data management planning brings to thesis preparation and fieldwork! This webinar is geared toward researchers and grad students. It is also part of the 2025 ASPIRE series of workshops.
Skills Acquired: Data management planning - Grant applications - Tri-Agency Research Policies
Facilitator: Michael Steelworthy
Thursday, October 23, 2025 1:00 p.m.
Registration link: https://library.wlu.ca/events/2025-10/introduction-data-management-planning
