Nov. 24, 2022

It takes a village to prepare career-ready graduates with the skills and experiences to be successful.

At Seneca, this includes cross-disciplinary experts coming together to provide students learning environments that replicate what they will encounter on the job.

A recent example is the Simulation Apartment Lab at King Campus, where Honours Bachelor of Behavioural Psychology (BBP) students participate in simulations that replicate interactions with real clients as part of the Adulthood and Aging course.

The lab’s infrastructure has been designed and is operated with support from students and faculty in the Event & Media Production (EMP) diploma program and the Information Technology Services (ITS) team. It includes equipment to film and livestream the simulations, which enables students to participate remotely and review their performances afterwards.

“I love it,” said Yancy Liu, a fourth-year BBP student. “The lab helped me develop practical skills and learn how to build rapport with clients.”

In one simulation, Ms. Liu took on the role of a case worker conducting an intake interview with an elderly couple, one living with dementia. They were played by volunteer actors from the King City Seniors’ Centre.

“It’s a very realistic situation,” said Bethany Kopel, Professor, School of Public Safety. “And it gives students the opportunity to comfortably apply the principles they learn in the classroom to realistic scenarios that involve managing challenging behaviour, such as physical aggression, screaming or property destruction.”

Tim Abbott, the EMP Program Co-ordinator, oversees the student research assistants, who lead the technical side of the simulation. They set up tracking cameras and mics and use streaming software to engage students virtually and record the sessions.

“It’s an important experience for our EMP students,” said Mr. Abbott. “They can now go out in the industry and say, ‘I can operate equipment in a live event, stream it and connect others,’ which is great.”

Rounding out this multi-party collaboration are Adrian Klymenko, Senior Media Specialist, ITS Audio-Visual Services, and Gino Franceschetti, Manager, ITS Audio-Visual Services, who designed the technical upgrades for the lab, which now features four HyFlex cameras.

This winter, Ms. Kopel will also use the lab for classes in the Behavioural Gerontology course. And Gary Galbraith, Chair, School of Public Safety, has identified it as the perfect location to host crime scene simulations for the Honours Bachelor of Crime and Intelligence Analysis and Police Foundations programs.

“Experiential learning is the secret sauce at Seneca,” said Mr. Galbraith. “There’s a lot more we can do with this lab. I’m really excited about it.”