General Education Curriculum: Engaged Learning experience criteria

6 Personal Growth

a. Develop intellectual curiosity and a desire for lifelong learning

b. Strive for a life lived in balance
c. Cultivate leadership skills

7 Breadth of Knowledge and Integrative Learning

d. Explore the connections between classroom knowledge and real-world experiences.

Additionally, Engaged Learning must get the student out of the classroom and into a real world experience or performance. This includes but is not limited to internships, performances, public presentations of research or artistic works, electronic portfolios and experiences such as retreats. Key features are a) connection between class work and real world and b) experience away from the classroom and c) reflection on the experience.

Goals Chart for the Syllabus

Complete the chart and place it in your syllabus.   A downloadable version is below the table.

For a course or co-curricular experience to be considered an official “Engaged Learning” experience, it must:

• Require that previously learned information and/or skills be applied to a specific academic, cultural, social, educational or professional setting.
• Require the student to demonstrate a command of knowledge and/or skill through successful completion of a specific activity or project with criteria appropriate to the chosen setting.
• Require students to demonstrate reflective/critical thinking and team or individual leadership concerning an ethical issue, social problem, subject of research, workplace dynamic, community development, interpersonal or cultural experience or other issue involving experience beyond the traditional classroom setting.
• Require a student to work individually or collaboratively with others to produce a unique product, project, performance or program and present it to an audience broader than the person(s) evaluating the outcome (e.g. public performance, campus presentation, conference panel, etc.).
• Include evaluation of the product, project, performance or program by a faculty member, adjunct faculty member or staff member who is credentialed to apply the specified criteria and assess the outcome appropriately.  Opportunities for self-evaluation of learning may be integrated into the experience.
• Involve an experience for which the student registers as a course or which is otherwise capable of being tracked and transcripted as meeting the “Engaged Learning” requirement.
• Include in a syllabus or other contractual document the Inquiry Student Learning Goals mapped to “Engaged Learning.”