Experiential learning that is interdisciplinary and involves meaningful student engagement through reflection on experiences that engage deep knowledge in broad applications and span co-curricular and curricular environments.
Published in Chapter:
Testing Assessments of Integrated Experiential Learning
William F. Heinrich (Orbis, Canada), Patrice M. Ludwig (James Madison University, USA), Seán R. McCarthy (James Madison University, USA), Erica J. Lewis (James Madison University, USA), Nick Swayne (James Madison University, USA), and Eleanor Louson (Michigan State University, USA)
Copyright: © 2021
|Pages: 22
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-7768-4.ch018
Abstract
Design thinking is a powerful platform that provides the structure and process to measure integrated experiential learning (IEL). IEL situates the activities of experiential learning in an interdisciplinary setting that facilitates learning through reflection on experiences that engage deep knowledge in broad applications and span co-curricular and curricular environments. Using courses developed at two institutions as case studies, the authors describe pedagogy, instruction, and assessment methods, and focus the data types, collection, analysis, and implications of three assessment approaches (reflections, networks, and deliverables). They show how design thinking is essential to the assessment of IEL in courses and across institutional stakeholders, including student and academic affairs, alumni relations, employers and local businesses, and those focused on data for improvement in design (e.g., institutional research and legislators). Moreover, they show that the assessment phase of design thinking is essential to sustainability, scalability, and rigor of design thinking IEL projects.