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Article History

Received: 14 May 2024

Accepted: 23 September 2024

First Online: 15 October 2024

Declarations

:

: Ethics approval for this study was granted by the University of Alberta’s Research Ethics Board 2. The study’s Ethics ID number is Pro00095938. As the study is retrospective in nature the need for informed consent was waived by University of Alberta’s Research Ethics Board 2. The research protocol we described as part of our ethics application entailed pseudonymization techniques to anonymize participant data, with password protection to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of personally identifiable information (PII). This secure repository meticulously safeguarded critical identifiers such as Student ID, Class ID, and name and last name, thereby adhering to data protection regulations and mitigating the risk of unauthorized access or data breaches. This study did not involve collecting any new data from human participants. Data used in the study pertained to students’ program application packages and pre-existing data gathered during program application or class performance assessments, but was deidentified when it was obtained.

: Not applicable.

: This study was supported by funds provided to the first (MRR) and second authors (CBA) from Acuity Insights’ Alo Grant. This article does not necessarily represent the position of Acuity Insights and no official endorsement should be inferred. The other authors (FC and CRS) declare that they do not have any competing interests.