It’s Not Just Business at the Rotman School of Management

With a busy year full of uncertainty, the Rotman School of Management wanted to deliver an event for students to get them to participate in a social and community building experience. Our Get Crafty students, Ania and Katrina, organized a Watercolour Bookmark session with students who registered.

The event took place on Friday, February 22, 2022.

Rotman setup the registration platform for students to sign-up, and our team purchased paintbrushes and watercolour paper. Students were encouraged to pick-up the items from the Rotman office.

While 16 students registered for the event, 8 students participated in the session. Students worked together for one hour to create their own bookmarks using watercolour paint provided to them. Many students had never used watercolour, so this was a great opportunity to try something new.

The event went very well, though some challenges that may have led to the lower participation numbers.

• Since the event was on a Friday before a long weekend, this may have been the reason why some students were unable to participate
• With virtual delivery, some students were unable to visit Rotman to pick-up the paintbrushes, bookmarks, and watercolour sets.

A survey was sent out to all the participants. The survey received two responses. One participant stated they enjoyed it, while the other didn’t.

“During the watercolour event the Get Crafty creative assistants taught basic watercolour techniques to Rotman students and demonstrated how to complete watercolour bookmarks using these techniques. The students that attended the event really enjoyed the watercolour tutorial. Many students asked questions with their microphones on or in the chat and engaged with the watercolour techniques. At the end of the event almost all students turned their cameras on to show their work!”

-Ania, L&C Work-study Student

“teacher didn’t seem professional enough in terms of watercolour technique; felt more like a do-it-yourself session, just with other people”

-Anonymous participant

Based on the results, we hope to better identify the learning outcomes and goals of the session and include it in our promotional material. This will ensure all participants come to the event familiar with the expectations and expertise required.

As well, our team can take a look at create specific sessions, including the learning outcomes, and develop the curriculum using pedagogical frameworks to enhance the community building and learning within each of the session. This can include a list of activities we can lead, the level of expertise required (ex. beginner, intermediate, expert), the time it takes to lead the session, the materials required for the session, and the components of the session (ex. 10 minute introductions, 15 minute session around technique, 15 minute to create a craft, followed by 10 minute reflection activity).

Thank you to the facilitator, Ania, for all the great work with leading the session. Thank you to Katrina for joining the session as well. Thanks to Florence from the Rotman School of Management for involving us.