As a faculty or staff member, you are critical to encouraging students to make the most of their education by connecting beyond the classroom opportunities to their academic work. While this begins with encouraging purposeful engagement beyond the classroom, the most challenging step is to help students understand the connections between their beyond the classroom experiences and what they are learning in class. How is learning from class contradicted or reinforced by direct experience? How does learning within and beyond the classroom impact future decisions? These cognitive connections across experiences, are what the CIEL is all about: Integrative and Experiential Learning.
Applying learning to real-world context is the basis of experiential learning which requires student reflection and feedback on their engagement. Have we included your Experiential Learning Opportunity for students in the official list?
In order to promote student engagement the classroom, CIEL is offering four different grants for faculty and staff to enable the development of new and revised programs as well as collaboration between departments, offices, and academic and student affairs.
GLD indicates integration and application of learning at the highest level and is recognized on students' transcripts and diplomas. Earning GLD is a valuable learning experience for students in any major.
Need help in organizing students' participation in community service, internships or opportunities? USC offices can support you and your students in making beyond the classroom connections.
Faculty Fellows are an integral part of the Center for Integrative and Experiential Learning team. Fellows serve as advocates for experiential and integrative learning (including GLD) and provide faculty perspectives and recommendations to CIEL.
I now emphasize the connections between the student and content. So instead of lecturing, I help them make connection and figure out how theories are applicable to the real world. The idea of key insights – making the connections - guides how I teach some of the more abstract concepts. I also focus on the connection between WTC and BTC. So you learn X in class, where do you see it outside of the class?
Elise Lewis, School of Library and Information Science,
College of Information and Communication