Center for Engaged Learning, Teaching, and Scholarship (CELTS)
Loyola University Chicago
1032 W. Sheridan Road
Chicago, IL 60660
Phone: 773.508.3366
experiential@luc.edu
What is Engaged Learning?
Engaged Learning—as defined by the creators of this toolkit—is a pedagogical approach that enables students to derive learning from meaningful community engagement whilst working on real world problems. Engaged Learning may include either curriculum-based or optional, one-off initiatives, which may, or may not, be credit bearing.
Engaged Learning initiatives vary in structure and approach, sit within a diverse range of university disciplines, and tackle an array of societal challenges. (Source: engagedlearningtoolkit.org).
At LUC, the Engaged Learning University Requirement brings Loyola’s mission to life through the curriculum, offering students an opportunity to find their passions, joys, interests, and educational pursuits through hands-on learning in and out of the classroom. Students engage in a variety of experience-based learning courses, including service-learning, academic internships, undergraduate research, fieldwork, and public performance.
Learn more about the Engaged Learning University Requirement here.
Capstone experiences can take the form of:
Capstones provide students with a culminating experience in their field of study. Depending on the program, capstone experiences include academic seminars, individual and team research projects, artwork, public performances, and academic internships: students’ goal is to apply knowledge and skills they have gained, synthesize their learning, and demonstrate their mastery in their chosen academic discipline. Students may contact individual departments and interdisciplinary programs to explore the range of capstone options available.
Cultivating Capstones
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Capstones have been a part of higher education curriculum for over two centuries, with the goal of integrating student learning to cap off their undergraduate experience. In practice, capstones are most often delivered as a course or include a significant project that addresses a problem or contributes new knowledge. This edited collection draws on multi-year, multi-institutional, and mixed-methods studies to inform the development of best practices for cultivating capstones at a variety of higher education institutions. The book is divided into three parts: Part One offers typographies of capstones, illustrating the diversity of experiences included in this high-impact practice while also identifying essential characteristics that contribute to high-quality culminating experiences for students. Part Two shares specific culminating experiences with examples from multiple institutions and strategies for adapting them for readers' own campus contexts. Part Three offers research-informed strategies for professional development to support implementation of high-quality student learning experiences across a variety of campus contexts. Cultivating Capstonesis an essential resource for faculty who teach or direct disciplinary or interdisciplinary capstone experiences, as well as for faculty developers and administrators seeking ways to offer high-quality, high-impact learning experiences for diverse student populations. Visit the Cultivating Capstones Companion Page, hosted by the Center for Engaged Learning.
Designing and Teaching Undergraduate Capstone Courses
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Enrich your students and the institution with a high-impact practice Designing and Teaching Undergraduate Capstone Courses is a practical, research-backed guide to creating a course that is valuable for both the student and the school. The book covers the design, administration, and teaching of capstone courses throughout the undergraduate curriculum, guiding departments seeking to add a capstone course, and allowing those who have one to compare it to others in the discipline. The ideas presented in the book are supported by regional and national surveys that help the reader understand what's common, what's exceptional, what works, and what doesn't within capstone courses. The authors also provide additional information specific to different departments across the curriculum, including STEM, social sciences, humanities, fine arts, education, and professional programs. Identified as a high-impact practice by the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and the Association of American Colleges and Universities' LEAP initiative, capstone courses culminate a student's final college years in a project that integrates and applies what they've learned. The project takes the form of a research paper, a performance, a portfolio, or an exhibit, and is intended to showcase the student's very best work as a graduating senior. This book is a guide to creating for your school or department a capstone course that ties together undergraduate learning in a way that enriches the student and adds value to the college experience. Understand what makes capstone courses valuable for graduating students Discover the factors that make a capstone course effective, and compare existing programs, both within academic disciplines and across institutions Learn administrative and pedagogical techniques that increase the course's success Examine discipline-specific considerations for design, administration, and instruction Capstones are generally offered in departmental programs, but are becoming increasingly common in general education as well. Faculty and administrators looking to add a capstone course or revive an existing one need to understand what constitutes an effective program. Designing and Teaching Undergraduate Capstone Courses provides an easily digested summary of existing research, and offers expert guidance on making your capstone course successful.
An academic internship is a form of experiential learning that integrates knowledge and theory learned in the classroom with practical application in a professional setting. Students explore their field of study, clarify their professional goals, and develop new skills for the competitive workplace. With site supervisors as co-educators, there is an added degree of direction and self-study that allows students to "learn by doing." Students may participate in academic internships through their major, or in internship courses sponsored by the Center for Experiential Learning.
Service-learning connects academic study and reflection with real-world experience with community organizations. Through volunteer work, research, advocacy, or community education projects, depending on the course and the aims of the community partner, students help community members achieve their goals. Students may take a service-learning course as part of the Core Curriculum, within their major, as an elective, or they may participate in service-learning courses through the Center for Experiential Learning.
Community-Based Global Learning
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International education, service-learning, and community-based global learning programs are robust with potential. They can positively impact communities, grow civil society networks, and have transformative effects for students who become more globally aware and more engaged in global civil society - at home and abroad. Yet such programs are also packed with peril. Clear evidence indicates that poor forms of such programming have negative impacts on vulnerable persons, including medical patients and children, while cementing stereotypes and reinforcing patterns of privilege and exclusion. These dangers can be mitigated, however, through collaborative planning, design, and evaluation that advances mutually beneficial community partnerships, critically reflective practice, thoughtful facilitation, and creative use of resources. Drawing on research and insights from several academic disciplines and community partner perspectives, along with the authors' decades of applied, community-based development and education experience, they present a model of community-based global learning that clearly espouses an equitable balance between learning methodology and a community development philosophy.Emphasizing the key drivers of community-driven learning and service, cultural humility and exchange, seeking global citizenship, continuous and diverse forms of critically reflective practice, and ongoing attention to power and privilege, this book constitutes a guide to course or program design that takes into account the unpredictable and dynamic character of domestic and international community-based global learning experiences, the varying characteristics of destination communities, and a framework through which to integrate any discipline or collaborative project. Readers will appreciate the numerous toolboxes and reflective exercises to help them think through the creation of independent programming or courses that support targeted learning and community-driven development. The book ultimately moves beyond course and program design to explore how to integrate these objectives and values in the wider curriculum and throughout formal and informal community-based learning partnerships.
Learning Communities are groups of students who share a common interest, live in the same residence hall, and take some classes as a group. Students connect their academic and residential experiences through activities planned by student and faculty committees in each Learning Community. Those who participate in Learning Communities make friends with similar interests, create important connections with faculty, develop more holistically as students, and achieve higher GPAs – all while having fun learning.
Learning Communities from Start to Finish
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While the phrase "learning communities" has various definitions, at the heart of all programs is the goal of enhancing the student learning experience in the community of others. This volume provides valuable information about learning communities--from start to finish--including: * historical and theoretical foundations that guide these programs, * structures of learning communities that provide varied opportunities for student participation, with a focus on specific student populations who may benefit from learning community experiences, and * elements of staffing and assessment, as well as an annotated bibliography of recent learning community literature. The authors consider critical elements of learning community programs and offer recommendations and options for faculty and staff who work with, or hope to work with, this particular curricular and cocurricular learning structure. This the 149th volume of this Jossey-Bass higher education quarterly series. An indispensable resource for vice presidents of student affairs, deans of students, student counselors, and other student services professionals, New Directions for Student Services offers guidelines and programs for aiding students in their total development: emotional, social, physical, and intellectual.
Students from any discipline may engage in undergraduate research with a faculty mentor. Some carry out parts of faculty members’ research projects, working in laboratories or other research settings; others initiate their own research projects under faculty mentors’ direction. All research students actively engage in systematic investigation and analysis, participating in the co-creation of knowledge with their research mentor. The Loyola Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (LUROP) helps manage students’ applications for supervised fellowships in several funded programs. Students also may take undergraduate research courses within their major or participate in undergraduate research seminars through the Center for Experiential Learning.
Loyola's ePortfolio Program supports high-impact learning by providing a space for students to collect, reflect, integrate, and synthesize their learning across academic and co-curricular domains. An ePortfolio is a digital collection of work that showcases skills, abilities, values, knowledge, and experiences through a variety of artifacts, documents, or media files that provide a holistic representation of a student's personal, professional, and academic progress. An ePortfolio may also function as a venue for sharing academic work with faculty members, a tool for inviting collaboration and feedback, a professional resource, or a private log of academic progress. ePortfolios can also be used as a capstone project in a course, major, or co-curricular program.
For a course to be designated as “Service-Learning”, satisfying the University Engaged Learning requirement, it must meet all the following criteria. Criteria for service-learning courses are based on research and best practices, the CAS Standards for Service-Learning (2009), and the Principles of Good Practice for Service-Learning Pedagogy (Howard, 1993).
The Center for Engaged Learning, Teaching, & Scholarship publishes a listing of ALL approved service-learning classes each semester. This list can be found on the Service-Learning Program website.
Learning Communities from Start to Finish
by
While the phrase "learning communities" has various definitions, at the heart of all programs is the goal of enhancing the student learning experience in the community of others. This volume provides valuable information about learning communities--from start to finish--including: * historical and theoretical foundations that guide these programs, * structures of learning communities that provide varied opportunities for student participation, with a focus on specific student populations who may benefit from learning community experiences, and * elements of staffing and assessment, as well as an annotated bibliography of recent learning community literature. The authors consider critical elements of learning community programs and offer recommendations and options for faculty and staff who work with, or hope to work with, this particular curricular and cocurricular learning structure. This the 149th volume of this Jossey-Bass higher education quarterly series. An indispensable resource for vice presidents of student affairs, deans of students, student counselors, and other student services professionals, New Directions for Student Services offers guidelines and programs for aiding students in their total development: emotional, social, physical, and intellectual.
For a course to be designated as “Academic Internship”, satisfying the University Engaged Learning requirement, it must meet all the criteria below. Criteria for academic internship courses are based on research and best practices, the CAS Standards for Internships (2009), and the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Position Statement on U.S. Internships (2011).
For a course to be designated as “Fieldwork”, satisfying the University Engaged Learning requirement, it must meet all the following criteria. Criteria for field work courses are based on research and best practices in experiential learning:
For a course to be designated as “Undergraduate Research“, satisfying the University Engaged Learning requirement, it must meet all the following criteria. Criteria for undergraduate research courses are based on research, best practices, and the CAS Standards for Undergraduate Research (2009).
In addition to classes approved for EL credit in the area of Undergraduate Research, research projects students pursue under an Independent Study or Directed Readings course-number may be approved for EL credit if they meet the criteria. Students should follow the process to request EL credit on the "Requesting EL Credit" page.
For a course to be designated as “Public Performance“, satisfying the University Engaged Learning requirement, it must meet all the following criteria. Criteria for public performance courses are based on research and best practices in experiential learning:
This section shares resources around access, inclusion, and supports for neurodivergent and physically disabled students in higher education settings. It is the beginning of a conversation and not an all-inclusive set of resources. The goal is to pique the readers’ interest in challenging perspectives of learning in higher education.
Neurodiverse: (See www.exceptionalindividuals.com)
There is not a singular definition for neurodiverse or what it encompasses. It can be used as a noun or adjective to describe the variation or diversity in cognitive functioning in people. Neurodivergence is often used to describe people who have cognitive functioning outside of “typical,” including autistic, dyslexic, or dyspraxic people or people with less common learning differences. Individuals may identify as neurodiverse/neurodivergent and may or may not identify with one of the diagnoses that typically fall under the neurodiverse/neurodivergent umbrella (autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, Irlen Syndrome, hyperlexia, obsessive compulsive disorder, Tourette syndrome, synesthesia).
Neurodivergent: Refers to an individual with an identity from a neurodiverse category. An individual would be referred to as neurodivergent—neurodiverse describes a population of neurodivergent identities.
Neuroinclusive: Creating spaces where a diversity of learning, thinking, processing, and executing styles are celebrated and neurodivergent identities can thrive. Related to inclusion (Longmire-Avital 2018), but focused on diversity of cognitive functioning.
Neuroaffirming: Asserting and affirming that all variations of thinking, learning, processing, and execution are valuable and valued.
Physical Disability:
This is a disability that is an impairment to a body’s structure and function. For purposes of this white paper, it includes a mobility, visual, hearing, or sensory impairment. In some definitions, mental impairments also fall under physical disabilities, but I have not specifically focused on inclusion of common mental health conditions including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, etc. in this resource. With that said, much of the accommodations and advice included for this population could apply and be valuable for our students with mental health conditions or concerns.
