Student Handbook

4. Student Code of Conduct

4.1. Student Expectations

Students are expected to engage within their program and/or course in alignment with Life Strategies’ Learning Philosophy/Approach:

LearnOnline is a student-centred, dynamic community where instructors and students co-create an engaging safe space to reflect, share, and grow together. Life Strategies Ltd. is committed to infusing principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion within all our endeavors, including our e-learning offerings. We recognize that learning is a lifelong process impacted by our lived experiences and relationship to others and appreciate the unique learning preferences our students hold as they balance complex lives.

Life Strategies Ltd. continues to serve as an industry leader supporting local, national, and international strides forward in the professionalization of the counselling and career development sectors. As a result, our courses are well positioned to respond to current and emerging trends, ethical and professional standards, and evidence-based practices from a variety of related sectors (e.g., HR/business, education, counselling). Life Strategies recognizes and values the diverse educational and employment backgrounds of individuals from within the counselling and career development sectors and welcomes contributions that bridge across sectors, contexts, and clientele. 

Life Strategies invites students to integrate their unique contexts within their e-learning journey and honour their personal learning goals. Together our learning community can support enhancing our professional community. We expect students, instructors, and administrative staff to treat others with respect and kindness, even when differences of opinions arise. We acknowledge, however, that sometimes our efforts to make people feel welcomed and included may fail, so we are always open to feedback to inform adjustments and improvements going forward.

To support our learning community, students are expected to take ownership over their own learning journeys by demonstrating professional behaviour, academic engagement, and a readiness for learning/practice. This can be demonstrated through:

  • Reviewing the course syllabus or overview at the onset of the program so they have a fulsome understanding of the course expectations, flow, and timeline
  • Obtaining all required course materials prior to the course start as described within the publicly available course outlines and online store
  • Participating in all the required learning activities to the best of their abilities in accordance with the specified timeline
  • Responding to instructor requests in a timely and respectful manner
  • Communicating professionally with instructors, peers, and administrative staff

Students are also expected to uphold academic integrity and conduct themselves in a manner aligned with professional expectations. Plagiarism, cheating, misuse of artificial intelligence or digital tools, manipulation of course requirements, or attempts to exploit loopholes or technicalities are contrary to the spirit of the learning journey. "Good-faith" questions and sincere efforts to learn are welcome; however, behaviour seeking to avoid responsibility, undermine fair evaluation, or otherwise conflict with ethical and professional standards may result in a formal notice of concern, failure, or removal from the course.

For our certificate programs which serve as a step towards formal counselling certification processes (e.g., Ethics Training for Counsellors & Psychotherapists, Foundations of Supervision), we will hold students to enhanced professionalism standards in line with CCPA’s Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice. It is imperative that students within these programs demonstrate a mastery of concepts, as well as their professionalism throughout their coursework. The learning here is more than just a tick mark along a certification journey. To get the most out of the learning, we encourage students to strive to look beyond the completion of tasks towards a more fulsome transformative journey with likeminded peers setting themselves up for success within the next steps.