The Art and Science of Graduate Student Supervision

Description

The supervision of graduate students is both an art and a science. This course is designed to provide an overview of the responsibilities and best practices of an effective supervisor while promoting self-reflection. The course addresses Master‘s (course based and thesis) and Doctoral supervision.  Emphasis is placed on how to support students while they progress through the various milestones of their programs of study. Particular attention is given on how to assist students experiencing challenges.  Questions related to institutional regulations and policies are also considered.  The course provides participants with multiple strategies, and alternatives for success and culminates in students creating a draft statement of supervisory practices.

Dates

Thursdays, 3:00-5:00 pm EST/EDT

  • January 29, 2026
  • February 5, 2026
  • February 12, 2026

Course Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will have developed the following competencies:

  1. Identify best practices in graduate supervision
  2. Relate institutional policies and guidelines to their supervision practices.
  3. Take program milestones into account and recognize how they provide a context that colors the roles and resultant approaches of a supervisor at different point in time.
  4. Outline how they will foster an effective supervisor-student relationship that takes into account Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility principles.
  5. Translate the proposed strategies and alternatives for success in graduate supervision into their own work, through the drafting of an initial graduate supervisory statement outlining one’s proposed approach. The statement must infuse four best practices.

 Requirements

  • Participation in three live course webinars
  • Posting & responding at least three times in the course discussion forum
  • Timely submission of three brief assignments.

Delivery: Online (Zoom & Moodle)

Cost

Member fee: $255 CAD

Non-member fee: $300 CAD

Instructors

Pauline Paul, PhD, RN

Professor at the Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, she is a former Associate Dean Graduate Programs in the Faculty of Nursing. She has extensive experience in teaching and supervising graduate students. She has supervised or been a committee member for 33 PhD students, and in addition has served as Chair or examiner in more than 90 instances. She has had various involvement in the supervision of 52 MN students (both thesis and course-based) and has taught 11 graduate courses.

Cheryl van Daalen-Smith, PhD, RN, CCNE

Cheryl van Daalen-Smith is a faculty member with the school of nursing at York University. She currently serves as the Associate Dean, Academic for the Faculty of Graduate Studies where she oversees and guides best practices in graduate supervision. She’s co-developed an innovative toolkit for supervision that is used across Canada. She recently released her first novel, The Chronicles of Paisley Corners, which focuses on a fictitious Canadian public health nurses comings and goings in rural Ontario.

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