Below are some of frequent questions people ask about My Spartan Story, the platform that populates the Spartan Experience Record, MSU's official co-curricular record for students.
What is My Spartan Story?
The mission of My Spartan Story is to comprehensively identify, index, and recognize undergraduate student engagement and learning occurring outside the classroom. We empower students to learn and reflect on their involvement and skill development through their MSU official co-curricular record, the Spartan Experience Record, in partnership with MSU facilitators and educators of co-curricular experiences. The record launched to students in Fall 2020 and to-date there are nearly 500 experiences in the platform representing 6,000 Spartans.
Why does the record matter?
The co-curricular record is a valuable initiative to students, faculty/staff, and our shared goals in supporting student success. Research demonstrates students significantly benefit from engagement in co-curricular activities, such as supporting their development, retention, and holistic success. The record help brings together learning whenever it occurs outside the classroom at MSU for the first time in our history. This allows us to provide students with an MSU-validated record and for us to create opportunities to understand engagement pathways and how co-curricular learning directly contributes to student success. Data will be shareable in the future to colleges and divisions which can support strategic goals and priorities.
What qualifies as an out-of-classroom or co-curricular learning experience for My Spartan Story?
My Spartan Story defines co-curricular as “an intentional learning activity not bearing academic credit, where the experience has learning goals measured by an assessment strategy.”
Experiences can include but are not limited to:
- Community engagement
- Committee service
- Internships
- Leadership roles
- On-campus jobs
- Student organizations
- Undergraduate research
I advise and/or supervise a co-curricular experience listed above. How can it be added to the co-curricular record and is there a submission deadline?
Experiences are submitted for inclusion in the record by MSU faculty and staff (we do welcome and encourage students to be a part of the process with you).
The preferred deadline is April 1, 2022. (This allows the Advisory Committee time to review and to ensure experiences will display on a student’s Spartan Experience Record by commencement).
I would like to learn more about My Spartan Story. What are ways I can do so?
We have many great resources on the My Spartan Story website.
We look forward to connecting with you this semester on My Spartan Story. If you have any questions, please contact Sarah Schultz, Director of My Spartan Story.