i.Connect

Register with CTE

Faculty start by filling in the Interest Form. It asks about the course, what the faculty member hopes industry input could add, and any company already in mind. CTE reviews each submission and follows up.    

Meet your Learning Designer / Technologist

CTE logs the request, reviews the form, and assigns a Learning Designer or Technologist, who becomes your main point of contact for the rest of the journey and will introduce themselves directly

Identify where industry fits

Faculty and the assigned CTE PIC kickoff the project conversation to scope things properly. Faculty share the course, learning outcomes and term dates.

Together, they identify where industry input would genuinely add value, and start scoping the kind of practitioners needed. 

Decide the level of industry involvement

Industry involvement can take different forms, depending on your learning outcomes and what the identified practitioners can realistically contribute: 

• Industry as Context — Students encounter industry perspectives through resources such as interviews, examples, cases or an AI avatar built on industry knowledge, and use them to make sense of course concepts.
• Industry as Input — Students analyse, critique or respond to problems, perspectives or feedback contributed by practitioners, such as a real dataset or brief, a live Q&A, reactions to their pitches, or an AI avatar that challenges their proposal. 
• Industry as Co-Creator — Students produce work that responds to an authentic industry need or could be useful to the practitioner, such as an executive report or a bounded deliverable that the practitioner reviews. 

Faculty and CTE confirm the level of involvement together, based on the intended learning outcomes, the lead time available, and what the practitioner can meaningfully contribute.  

For courses built more extensively around a live project with an industry partner, see [SMU-X]. 

Build the experience with CTE's guidance

Once the approach is laid out, CTE’s Learning Designers / Technologists work with the faculty and the practitioner(s) to build the learning products. This could involve:

• Creating a new activity or resource or adapting something from the existing i.Connect Library. 
• Developing practitioner briefs or designing how students will engage with the industry input. 
• Liaising directly with practitioners where appropriate, so the faculty don't have to manage the process alone. 

Extend the impact beyond the classroom

After the learning experience has been implemented, CTE helps capture what was learned through feedback from faculty, students and practitioners.

Useful resources and approaches can be developed further through showcases, write-ups or inclusion in the i.Connect Library, allowing others to adapt them for their own teaching. The engagement may also create opportunities for future collaboration. 

Practitioners share their expertise and perspective, and students use it to make sense of course concepts. For example, a recorded video interview, a company report, a use case, or industry knowledge that powers an AI avatar students can consult. 

Practitioners bring a real problem, perspective or feedback for students to analyse, critique or respond to. For example, a live Q&A session, a real dataset or brief, reactions to student pitches in a single sitting, access to a tool the practitioner’s team already uses, or the perspective behind an AI avatar that challenges student proposal 

Practitioners are actively involved in building part of the learning experience with faculty and may review work that students produce. For example, co-authoring a case study, co-designing an assessment rubric, validating an AI avatar’s knowledge base, or reviewing a bounded student deliverable.