Frequently Asked Questions
General
A Signature Polytechic Experience brings lessons out of the classroom to prepare students for their professional careers after college. A PolyX promotes the discovery of real-world challenges by engaging students to work collaboratively and with hands-on techniques. Although Cal Poly ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ offers many courses that foster a diverse culture of experiential learning, discovery, and innovation. A Signature Polytechnic Experience must include 7 critical elements to arm students with the essential skills and competencies necessary for the future of work.
The 7 Elements of PolyX Criteria are:
- Intense Mentorship
- Dissemination Beyond the Classroom
- Creativity, Discovery, and Innovation
- Diverse and Multidisciplinary Perspectives
- Community and Global Engagement
- Collaborative Learning
- Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
If your Polytechnic Experience is a course, you may earn course credit. If your PolyX is a program or a club, you may not earn course credit. By participating in a PolyX you will recieve an invaluable experience that includes all 7 PolyX elements! Go to the PolyX Hub and click on a PolyX to see the description or contact the faculty/staff for confirmation.
Searching for a PolyX is very easy! Just go to the PolyX Hub and scroll through over 42 PolyX to choose from. Use our search or filter function to find the perfect PolyX for you!
All PolyX might not be offered every semester. If the PolyX is a course, click the link on the PolyX Hub go to My CPP to check the by term. If the PolyX is a program or club, contact the faculty/staff for confirmation.
Yes! If the PolyX is a course that fulfills your major or GE requirement, then you will be working towards that degree.
The PolyX Hub is updated every semester after the application process in which a course, club, or program is determined to have the 7 criteria to be considered a PolyX. You can search for a PolyX using the PolyX Hub search tool and start your polytechnic experience!
Please email us at innovationinc@cpp.edu with any questions about PolyX or visit the Innovation Incubator website for more information how to get started with a PolyX!
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Application & Eligibility
Please visit the PolyX Hub home page, under "Interested in Featuring your PolyX? Find out how by following the steps below!", click on the button, "Instructions".
Anyone who is a staff member, lecturer, and/or T/TT faculty member at Cal Poly ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½.
The committee is made up of faculty and staff from various departments and divisions, so sometimes it may not be obvious what others in a different discipline are doing for mentoring, dissemination, etc. Any supplemental documents that can help clarify and provide details for your PolyX would be appreciated.
Faculty or staff cannot apply for a PolyX Minigrant in two consecutive years. More details coming soon!
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Criteria
Please refer to the document below for ideas on how you can satisfy each criterion.
Intense mentorship: being explicit about how the mentoring will happen, when, how often, and the expected outcome of the mentoring. Mentoring of some level happens in most projects and classrooms. However, if it is not intentional, then some students will receive more mentoring and others less. For a PolyX, the mentoring should be planned and the application should explain what kind of mentoring a participant will receive, the expected outcome of the mentoring, at what points of their involvement, and how the mentoring will be delivered. Mentoring can be from the project director, peer, external experts, alumni, etc.
The reason that the PolyX requires a dissemination piece is that PolyXs generate wonderful results that could be impactful not just to the students but to a broader community. We encourage project directors to consider what community would benefit from knowing about the results/knowledge/actions that your PolyX generates. Then consider how to share your PolyX results with those communities. Some projects create a website; others ask their students to present at a campus, local, regional, or national conference; others require students to publish their results (such as on the Bronco ScholarWorks repository).
The most important element of this criteria is being able to demonstrate that students engage in reflective learning. This can be done through a written reflection assignment, oral reflection, group reflection, etc. It is important that students not only obtain the experience of a PolyX, but are able to articulate that experience through reflection exercises. Students should reflect on what they have learned and the skills they have developed as a result of participating in the PolyX. Students should be able to tell others what they are able to do (or do better) as a result of the PolyX experience. To appropriately demonstrate this criteria, please explain in as much detail as possible how students reflect on their experiences in the project/course.
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