Experiential Learning Course Designation: CASNR Information Session

Lisa Karr/Larkin Powell Author

10/24/2022 Added

4 Plays

Description

Oct. 20, 2022 informational session for CASNR instructors and administrators and staff regarding strategies for designating courses as "EL" designation for the new graduation requirements through the N2025 Strategic Plan.

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[00:00:00.000]I'm going to record.
[00:00:09.240]Okay.
[00:00:10.073]Welcome, everyone, to our session on experiential learning.
[00:00:16.050]So I'm Dr. Lisa Karr.
[00:00:18.060]And so myself and Larkin Powell
[00:00:20.670]are going to talk a little bit
[00:00:22.500]about CASNR EL courses and information.
[00:00:27.300]We just have a few slides,
[00:00:29.130]and then we will have time for questions and answers.
[00:00:35.700]So if you have questions, you can put 'em in the chat,
[00:00:38.640]and we'll try to watch the chat.
[00:00:40.800]Or feel free to to save those,
[00:00:43.547]and we can bring 'em up at the end as well.
[00:00:46.590]Again, just one reminder,
[00:00:47.880]I wanna make sure that your microphone is muted.
[00:00:50.550]And you can submit questions on the chat,
[00:00:52.200]or we can go through those at the end.
[00:00:55.500]So with that, I'll turn it over to Larkin.
[00:01:03.765]Afternoon, everybody.
[00:01:04.740]And we are really grateful that you're joining us today.
[00:01:08.910]It's an important topic
[00:01:09.743]that I know is on several people's minds,
[00:01:13.020]more maybe from a logistics standpoint
[00:01:15.450]than any other at the moment.
[00:01:18.000]So Lisa and I wanted to run through the logistics
[00:01:22.980]and a little bit of context
[00:01:24.540]about the Experiential Learning course designations.
[00:01:30.390]Just as a broad context,
[00:01:32.610]as part of the N2025 Strategic Plan,
[00:01:37.140]having our students graduate
[00:01:39.540]with an experiential learning portfolio,
[00:01:42.630]that is, a set of experiences
[00:01:45.030]that they can put on the resume,
[00:01:46.440]that they can show to potential employers,
[00:01:49.620]grad schools, medical schools, that sort of thing,
[00:01:53.310]is a goal.
[00:01:55.590]And to make sure that even though
[00:01:58.380]we've been doing this in CASNR,
[00:02:01.380]I think we would all agree
[00:02:02.850]that's been a focus for a long time,
[00:02:04.680]making sure that every student at the university
[00:02:06.870]has that portfolio and group of courses.
[00:02:10.320]So we're gonna talk
[00:02:11.970]about how that's manifested itself at the university,
[00:02:15.570]is an Experiential Learning requirement
[00:02:18.510]that every student graduate with one course
[00:02:21.750]that's designated as an Experiential Learning course.
[00:02:24.990]We're also going to,
[00:02:26.986]I'll just briefly talk about how CASNR
[00:02:29.370]is trying to also continue to go beyond that requirement
[00:02:33.960]with more comprehensive experiences
[00:02:38.790]for our students and to support that.
[00:02:41.610]So that's part of this first part
[00:02:44.340]of the presentation today, is just to...
[00:02:46.950]You may hear about experiential learning
[00:02:48.980]in a couple different buckets,
[00:02:51.510]and one is this course requirement,
[00:02:53.400]and other is this broader effort that we have within CASNR
[00:02:57.570]to provide experiences within and beyond the classroom.
[00:03:01.890]So Lisa, if you wanna go to the next one.
[00:03:04.980]And thank you for doing that.
[00:03:08.250]A framework that we have in CASNR
[00:03:10.950]is this little drawing that shows three students
[00:03:13.320]wandering their way through college.
[00:03:15.240]It's not the linear process we know.
[00:03:17.930]But they start their freshman year on the left,
[00:03:20.220]they end up at graduation, and headed off to their future.
[00:03:23.400]Along the way, we're going to have a requirement.
[00:03:26.610]All three of those students
[00:03:27.750]are gonna take an Experiential Learning course.
[00:03:30.180]But then the other experiences that they take
[00:03:32.400]will potentially depend upon the major that they're in,
[00:03:37.110]the degree program that they're in,
[00:03:39.300]the career that they want to go into.
[00:03:41.490]And that is also an important part
[00:03:44.730]of this experiential learning process at the university.
[00:03:49.260]And go ahead, Lisa.
[00:03:53.730]We have a support team here at the university
[00:03:57.000]that we have assembled.
[00:04:00.780]Julie Obermeyer has been here.
[00:04:03.600]I was gonna say that we've assembled in the last year,
[00:04:05.460]but Julie has been here for quite a while.
[00:04:08.430]And you're aware of her,
[00:04:11.430]her programming that she does
[00:04:12.960]in Coordination and Strategy of Career Services.
[00:04:16.920]She's our link to the UNL Career Services.
[00:04:19.830]But we have two newer folks
[00:04:21.750]that have just joined us in July and August.
[00:04:24.330]Darrell King, Jr. and Stephanie Osterthun.
[00:04:27.330]Stephanie's office is in the East Campus Union,
[00:04:32.370]right next to Julie's.
[00:04:33.540]And Darryl is over by the ice cream store,
[00:04:35.400]kind of between the ice cream store
[00:04:36.900]and our recruiting welcome center on campus
[00:04:39.060]in our new Experiential Learning Hub.
[00:04:41.850]And so both of them are also going to be available
[00:04:46.590]now and in the future to work with students
[00:04:48.870]as they plan for what that little path
[00:04:52.560]will look like for them
[00:04:53.760]as they go through their four years here at the university,
[00:04:56.880]what things they would select,
[00:04:58.320]how do I know what to select,
[00:05:00.300]what's best for me to add to the courses
[00:05:03.570]that I take here at the university.
[00:05:06.090]Go ahead, Lisa.
[00:05:09.840]And so the types, that portfolio is based on a grouping
[00:05:17.460]of types of experiential learning courses.
[00:05:19.950]And the categories that UNL is using
[00:05:23.280]are important for the logistics that Lisa will talk about.
[00:05:27.150]Because you'll have to select one of these categories
[00:05:32.160]that is the primary designation
[00:05:35.610]for any EL course or proposal
[00:05:40.200]that you're submitting for EL designation.
[00:05:42.540]So I'm gonna run through the types of these,
[00:05:45.810]but you can see them here.
[00:05:48.060]Case and project-based learning, creative activities,
[00:05:51.210]community engagement, education abroad, field work,
[00:05:54.990]internship and co-op, leadership,
[00:05:56.520]student teaching/education practicum, and research.
[00:05:58.680]Look, I can read. That's our categories, okay?
[00:06:02.220]And so there's a whole host of things.
[00:06:06.090]And it may be that your course
[00:06:08.190]touches on a couple of these things.
[00:06:09.840]But you're gonna be asked to pick the one
[00:06:11.910]that most fits the description of your course.
[00:06:16.800]So the key here
[00:06:19.530]is for those Experimental Learning-designated courses,
[00:06:24.090]they have to be, with perhaps one exception
[00:06:27.630]that Lisa will touch on at the end,
[00:06:29.700]they have to be course based.
[00:06:31.140]So there has to be something that the student can enroll in
[00:06:35.610]as even a zero-credit course.
[00:06:38.100]There has to be a course in the curriculum.
[00:06:41.070]And that's the process that we're gonna go through
[00:06:43.320]to designate certain courses as EL-based courses
[00:06:46.620]so our students can meet this requirement.
[00:06:49.080]Lisa, the next slide please.
[00:06:52.140]So just to kinda tick through some definitions of these.
[00:06:55.860]And you're welcome to ask questions as we go through.
[00:07:00.660]But a course with case and project-based learning,
[00:07:05.850]the definition that we're currently using at the UNL level
[00:07:09.360]is that that's a course
[00:07:10.920]where a high amount of the course material
[00:07:18.060]is based on real-world problems or scenarios.
[00:07:21.690]It's not just a small little,
[00:07:23.700]like, "We spend a week talkin' about this."
[00:07:26.070]This would be a course that's really built
[00:07:27.990]around these case and projects
[00:07:32.340]so that the students either are engaged with the real world
[00:07:38.100]or really feel like they're engaged
[00:07:39.960]with the real world during that course.
[00:07:43.800]Lisa, the next slide there.
[00:07:48.210]Creative activity.
[00:07:49.380]I'm gonna try to link these
[00:07:51.300]to just some CASNR-based examples.
[00:07:53.220]But you might think of English students
[00:07:55.860]or engineering students.
[00:07:57.990]In other colleges, this may be students
[00:08:00.120]that would be composing music or something like that.
[00:08:02.400]But in this, it's activity.
[00:08:06.360]These are courses where there's some sort of activity
[00:08:08.820]where students are creative, they're producing something,
[00:08:11.640]and then they're presenting that product of some type.
[00:08:16.860]So you think of engineering students
[00:08:18.420]creating new irrigation robotics or something,
[00:08:23.250]or English students developing their business plan
[00:08:25.950]and presenting that to an audience.
[00:08:28.380]Go ahead to the next one, Lisa.
[00:08:30.960]Community engagement.
[00:08:32.040]In the past, we may have called this "service learning,"
[00:08:34.500]but "community engagement" is a broader title,
[00:08:38.640]that it would include service learning courses
[00:08:41.250]if that's how you're thinking about 'em.
[00:08:43.440]But community engagement would go beyond that as well.
[00:08:47.760]It's some situation where students and the faculty,
[00:08:51.450]the instructor in the class,
[00:08:52.980]are collaborating with community partners
[00:08:55.980]to exchange knowledge and resources.
[00:08:58.740]So something where there's a definite real-world engagement,
[00:09:03.090]in this case, through an attachment to community partners.
[00:09:06.960]Next slide, Lisa.
[00:09:09.960]Education abroad.
[00:09:11.730]The strict definition of these...
[00:09:15.540]And this was interesting, to be on the group
[00:09:17.760]that came up with some of these definitions,
[00:09:20.490]to think about how they applied.
[00:09:22.770]But the definition here is that these are instructor led.
[00:09:26.250]So they're courses that we offer
[00:09:30.178]that include an instructor leading a group of students
[00:09:36.270]and courses that take place in countries
[00:09:38.970]and territories outside the 50 United States.
[00:09:42.990]So hopefully that gives you a flavor of that.
[00:09:46.260]In the past, for example, we have had,
[00:09:48.360]during COVID, we had some non-travel global experiences.
[00:09:53.400]Those can work for EL, but not in this category, okay?
[00:09:58.680]So this one is what we would've called education abroad,
[00:10:03.570]study abroad, global study tours led by instructors.
[00:10:08.070]Lisa. Thank you.
[00:10:10.800]And so this field work category is actually a category
[00:10:13.770]that those previous global experiences might have fit into,
[00:10:19.770]or they may have fit into community engagement.
[00:10:22.470]So if you still have a course like that,
[00:10:25.410]if it's a very active course,
[00:10:27.240]gets students into the real world,
[00:10:28.740]but it's in the United States,
[00:10:32.310]but it's still giving them cultural experiences,
[00:10:35.430]it may count for ACE 9, okay?
[00:10:40.050]But as an EL course,
[00:10:41.610]the category that it would fit into might be field work.
[00:10:45.390]Because the field work is a very broad category.
[00:10:48.210]And you may think about how you can use this category.
[00:10:51.510]This may be a good one for a lot of...
[00:10:54.600]If you come to a place, you're like,
[00:10:55.807]"It doesn't fit into any other category,
[00:10:57.907]"but I know it's experiential learning,"
[00:10:59.490]think about this category.
[00:11:01.920]Instructors leading students
[00:11:05.130]somewhere outside of the traditional classroom or lab.
[00:11:08.250]It could be with industry, okay?
[00:11:10.530]Instructors leading students out to work with industry.
[00:11:13.350]It could be to work with a lab.
[00:11:14.880]It does not have to be, like, literally outside,
[00:11:17.700]like we might think of initially in CASNR,
[00:11:20.850]because of agriculture and natural resources.
[00:11:22.890]It doesn't have to be out standing in a field.
[00:11:25.380]It could be just working in the field outside the classroom.
[00:11:29.880]So this is a broad category,
[00:11:32.520]but again, engaged outside the classroom
[00:11:36.690]with some skill practice, research,
[00:11:40.860]or exploration in some other way.
[00:11:44.340]Lisa.
[00:11:46.950]Internship.
[00:11:48.478]This is one that a lot of people probably thought of.
[00:11:50.670]Some programs in CASNR already have an internship course.
[00:11:55.170]And so those should be pretty straightforward
[00:11:58.140]to get into the designation.
[00:12:04.440]Co-ops are long internships,
[00:12:07.020]is the way I'll just describe 'em.
[00:12:09.330]But it's where a student might spend a semester away.
[00:12:12.150]And if you're interested in that,
[00:12:14.580]we can chat with you more specifically about that.
[00:12:17.400]We actually have a course in CASNR
[00:12:19.200]that students can sign up for.
[00:12:20.820]It's a zero-credit course while they're away from campus
[00:12:25.020]doing those co-ops to keep them attached to the university.
[00:12:27.810]But internships, students away from...
[00:12:32.850]Well, the students are involved
[00:12:36.330]with some sort of an employer or supervisor
[00:12:39.090]doing a professional activity and skill.
[00:12:44.130]Lisa.
[00:12:48.870]Leadership is one that we're gonna come back to
[00:12:51.900]and talk about extracurricular.
[00:12:55.980]But leadership is not just a leadership course
[00:12:59.670]where you're learning the theory of leadership,
[00:13:01.860]but it's a course that would have students
[00:13:04.710]engaged in leadership.
[00:13:06.720]And so I'll give you, the example that we might have
[00:13:10.530]is students that are engaged
[00:13:12.360]in the Rural Prosperity Nebraska's student fellows.
[00:13:17.640]A moment, Dad's phone is ringing. (chuckles)
[00:13:22.950]If there's a course associated with them
[00:13:25.080]being a part of that fellows program,
[00:13:26.610]they're in a leadership position out in a community,
[00:13:28.770]it's also a community engagement opportunity.
[00:13:32.010]So which course that one fit best into.
[00:13:39.510]But students are engaged for a minimum of one academic term.
[00:13:43.470]So it's a longer leadership experience,
[00:13:47.760]for at least a semester.
[00:13:50.310]Lisa.
[00:13:51.900]And then student education,
[00:13:53.790]or student teaching and education practicums.
[00:13:56.220]These are restrictive.
[00:13:57.900]And not to upset the pre-vet practicums,
[00:14:02.100]but the university is limiting the student teaching
[00:14:06.780]and education practicums to education types of practicums.
[00:14:10.410]So they would fit things
[00:14:11.640]that our AG educators are doing in ALEC.
[00:14:15.390]But the pre-vet practicums,
[00:14:17.040]the word we use, the word "practicums,"
[00:14:19.500]we may use the word "practicums"
[00:14:21.060]in some other academic units as well.
[00:14:25.050]I didn't encourage you to look and see
[00:14:27.060]how those fit into an internship category.
[00:14:30.090]Because they don't fit into the practicum here,
[00:14:33.120]because it's education practicum.
[00:14:35.700]Lisa.
[00:14:40.830]Research, student research.
[00:14:42.450]Students are working under the guidance of an instructor.
[00:14:44.910]So probably internships and research
[00:14:48.720]are the two things that we think of
[00:14:50.550]as kind of the first things we think of
[00:14:53.100]with experiential learning.
[00:14:55.050]And you can see there's a lot of other categories here.
[00:14:57.330]Again, some academic units and programs
[00:15:00.450]may have a special course for independent study
[00:15:05.460]or some research-based course, 1, 2, 3, 0-credit course.
[00:15:11.460]But if a student's engaged in UCARE
[00:15:13.800]and signs up for a course as part of that,
[00:15:17.850]then this could count for in your academic unit
[00:15:22.950]or in your program as a EL course.
[00:15:26.640]And it's a very broad description of research
[00:15:30.180]from really any part of it.
[00:15:32.010]So it doesn't have to be the entire research process,
[00:15:36.270]from identifying the question to submitting a thesis.
[00:15:39.840]It can be any part of that where students are engaged
[00:15:44.198]in a portion of the research process.
[00:15:48.810]And Lisa.
[00:15:53.100]I think that's my part, and onto you.
[00:15:57.330]All right.
[00:15:58.920]So the part I wanted to talk a little bit about
[00:16:02.220]was the curriculum side of the process
[00:16:05.250]and what needed to be done on that front.
[00:16:09.510]So there was a question in the chat, and I did answer it.
[00:16:11.937]But if a course can be both EL and ACE?
[00:16:16.260]And they can be both, right,
[00:16:18.330]as long as they're fulfilling the requirements of both.
[00:16:20.220]So for example, a study abroad trip, right,
[00:16:22.590]could be your ACE 9 as well as meet that EL designation.
[00:16:29.040]So in terms of what the requirement
[00:16:31.350]is for UNL students, right,
[00:16:33.390]students will complete one documented EL experience
[00:16:37.890]during their career.
[00:16:39.390]But that experience doesn't need to be for credit.
[00:16:42.300]So it can be a zero-credit class or a course for credit.
[00:16:47.070]And then students can choose something from any category.
[00:16:51.360]They also have the option
[00:16:52.860]of completing more than one experience, right?
[00:16:54.537]So a student could do an internship
[00:16:56.910]but also do a study abroad or any of the other options.
[00:17:02.580]They don't have to do one from each category.
[00:17:05.610]And they don't necessarily need to sign up for credit
[00:17:08.790]for every experience they have.
[00:17:12.390]UNL would like to track those experiences, right?
[00:17:15.030]And so there may be some things coming out in the future
[00:17:18.750]in terms of how do we track all of the EL experiences,
[00:17:21.330]whether a student does them for credit or not.
[00:17:23.620]But I just wanted to make sure that was clear,
[00:17:25.800]that students don't have to sign up for credit
[00:17:27.900]every time they do something that might seem like EL.
[00:17:31.200]And then the EL requirement to meet UNL's guidelines
[00:17:34.950]doesn't have to come from within a student's major
[00:17:38.010]or even within CASNR, right?
[00:17:40.380]So just broadly, you just have to meet the EL requirement
[00:17:50.640]at some point from anywhere in the university.
[00:17:55.710]So I wanted to talk
[00:17:57.900]about how to get a course approved as an EL class.
[00:18:01.020]So my first suggestion would be to make sure
[00:18:03.090]you updated the course syllabus
[00:18:05.130]for the class that you're wanting to designate as EL.
[00:18:08.430]So making sure that you're hitting
[00:18:09.660]all of the required syllabus guidelines
[00:18:11.580]for the university and for CASNR within your syllabus.
[00:18:15.120]And that you're clearly thinking
[00:18:16.410]about how your experiential learning within that class
[00:18:21.270]is gonna fall through the cold cycle, right,
[00:18:24.060]and thinking about experiential learning.
[00:18:27.210]Once you've got your syllabus updated,
[00:18:29.370]you will enter your course
[00:18:31.050]into the course inventory management system,
[00:18:34.230]or go edit it, right,
[00:18:35.220]if you have a course that already exists.
[00:18:37.860]You'll need to mark, right?
[00:18:39.150]There's a checkbox in there.
[00:18:40.230]I screenshot this outta the CIM, right?
[00:18:43.721]You'll mark "Yes"
[00:18:45.000]for, "Is this an Experiential Learning course?"
[00:18:47.940]And then the options for what type
[00:18:50.850]of experiential learning will open up for you.
[00:18:54.210]The expectation is you'll pick just one category.
[00:18:58.080]If you notice, what's in CIM right now
[00:19:01.260]doesn't exactly match the definitions
[00:19:03.600]that Larkin just presented.
[00:19:05.220]Those are being updated and will match those soon.
[00:19:10.560]But you can pick one of the categories.
[00:19:12.360]There's also an "Other"
[00:19:14.340]if you can't figure out where you fit.
[00:19:16.170]But I think that most things, you should figure out
[00:19:18.510]a spot they fit in the other categories.
[00:19:24.330]And then CASNR has an Experiential Learning Form
[00:19:28.020]that needs to be filled out.
[00:19:30.210]When you're submitting your course in CIM,
[00:19:32.310]you'll upload that form
[00:19:33.510]under the Additional Documents section.
[00:19:36.750]So you'll upload a new syllabus,
[00:19:38.250]and then you'll upload this form as an additional document.
[00:19:42.720]I have the link here.
[00:19:44.310]We can certainly send out the link.
[00:19:46.410]It's currently on that Teaching at CASNR webpage as well.
[00:19:52.500]But in the document,
[00:19:53.730]you'll essentially identify what class you're writing about.
[00:19:56.520]You'll talk about the real-world context of the course.
[00:19:59.220]So how does this course meet EL, right?
[00:20:01.500]What things are they doing
[00:20:02.730]to gain these real-world experiences?
[00:20:05.670]And then describe how your course fits
[00:20:07.950]into that Experiential Learning cycle, right?
[00:20:10.860]So what's that concrete experience?
[00:20:12.540]What experience are they getting?
[00:20:14.610]How are they reflecting on it?
[00:20:16.170]And I think it's important, right,
[00:20:18.240]that we think about how the student's gonna reflect
[00:20:21.210]on what they're learning through the process.
[00:20:24.330]And then abstract conceptualization, right?
[00:20:27.720]So thinking about, once they reflected,
[00:20:29.310]how can they change things,
[00:20:31.470]how can they conceptualize things
[00:20:32.640]that would be an improvement.
[00:20:34.530]And then active experimentation, right?
[00:20:36.000]Going back through that cycle,
[00:20:37.740]making changes or proposing changes for future action,
[00:20:41.190]and how do they then apply what they've learned, right?
[00:20:43.770]And so this is why having it be
[00:20:45.420]at least a semester-long experience, right,
[00:20:48.870]allows them to kind of reflect and refine their techniques
[00:20:53.010]and document those things.
[00:20:54.510]So again, there is a form up on that Teaching page
[00:20:58.470]that you can link to,
[00:21:00.990]and use that to fill out and submit in CIM.
[00:21:06.930]And then I have had a couple of questions
[00:21:09.060]about, "What if a student does something
[00:21:10.717]"that's not for credit," right?
[00:21:13.800]So for example, I think that leadership category
[00:21:16.020]is one that I've been asked about a lot.
[00:21:18.840]So similar to ACE,
[00:21:19.830]there will be like a co-curricular experience form
[00:21:22.200]that they can fill out that will be available.
[00:21:25.320]And they can then indicate
[00:21:27.060]how they've completed an EL experience
[00:21:28.950]that wasn't necessarily for credit
[00:21:30.660]or to document it in some way.
[00:21:33.330]One of the other things I want to throw out here
[00:21:36.570]is that instead of every department or unit
[00:21:39.180]creating a whole set of new courses, right?
[00:21:43.350]So that you have, like, a new EL category
[00:21:45.840]for every experience, right?
[00:21:48.060]That we look at classes,
[00:21:49.290]like if there is something
[00:21:50.340]where you'd want it in a class or document in a class,
[00:21:52.920]that we look at things
[00:21:53.753]that are either at the college level, right?
[00:21:55.980]Maybe under like AGI 42 or something.
[00:21:58.980]Or, you know, a special section
[00:22:01.320]at the university level under UGP.
[00:22:03.030]So that we're not creating
[00:22:04.470]through CASNR Curriculum Committee, right,
[00:22:06.930]eight new non-credit courses through every department.
[00:22:10.500]'Cause that would be pretty overwhelming.
[00:22:12.810]And so seeing how we can fit
[00:22:14.760]either what we've already got under EL
[00:22:17.160]or if you've got some experiences
[00:22:18.810]that you're not sure how they fit,
[00:22:19.920]we could talk about how we look at those moving forward.
[00:22:26.220]Okay, so that maybe was pretty short,
[00:22:31.230]but we've got lots of time for questions.
[00:22:39.060]Let's see.
[00:22:42.000]Lisa, there was one that I'm gonna ask Patty,
[00:22:46.200]or you may know, Lisa.
[00:22:47.490]There was a question about when does this take...
[00:22:50.850]Which set of students
[00:22:52.590]will this officially be it in action for?
[00:22:59.130]Is it students this fall or is it students...
[00:23:02.610]It's currently this catalog year.
[00:23:04.980]That's what I was...
[00:23:05.813]Okay, so students that came here this fall
[00:23:09.240]and are under this current catalog have that requirement.
[00:23:13.080]And in fact, I mean, that switched to this catalog year.
[00:23:15.270]So if a student were to wanna change it,
[00:23:18.510]they'd have to be aware
[00:23:19.343]that they're gonna also have to fit in that EL.
[00:23:25.770]Yeah.
[00:23:26.814]And again, in the time, just to check,
[00:23:27.930]there was a question about,
[00:23:29.640]it was for both undergraduates or graduate students.
[00:23:32.070]It is only for undergraduate students.
[00:23:35.410]I think all of grad school is an EL experience.
[00:23:41.280]And then we got that, "When is it affected?"
[00:23:44.280]So there's a question that says,
[00:23:45.367]"What if we already submitted
[00:23:46.867]"our courses last academic year
[00:23:48.607]"and had two categories selected?
[00:23:51.307]"And what was the process of changing that
[00:23:53.077]"to only one category selected?"
[00:23:56.760]And it looks to me Larkin caught this one.
[00:23:57.990]But we're gonna try to go through those classes
[00:24:00.210]and reach out to instructors
[00:24:01.620]if we don't think it's clear what category they fit under.
[00:24:04.050]And we'll go ahead and, like, edit those
[00:24:06.540]to make them fit under the category
[00:24:08.130]that's best matched to them.
[00:24:10.350]So if we're not sure, we'll check with you.
[00:24:16.500]Are there other questions?
[00:24:33.360]One thing I'll mention while you're thinking
[00:24:36.060]if you have any questions.
[00:24:37.193]The form, and I put the link to that form in the chat there,
[00:24:43.680]probably the hardest bit about this form
[00:24:47.220]is that from a formal experiential learning standpoint,
[00:24:51.630]if we think about, like, national associations
[00:24:54.900]and professional organizations
[00:24:56.730]in experiential learning, experiential education,
[00:25:00.150]there's some generally accepted definitions
[00:25:02.850]of the experiential learning cycle.
[00:25:06.390]And it has to do with the student
[00:25:07.860]having an experience and reflecting on it,
[00:25:10.560]and then taking that experience and conceptualizing
[00:25:14.010]what that might mean for the future again.
[00:25:17.010]And so that may mean that you have an activity
[00:25:22.980]or you have a course,
[00:25:25.222]that you may need to add a reflection.
[00:25:28.920]Or maybe you already have an assignment
[00:25:31.710]in the course that acts as a reflection.
[00:25:33.660]But because of the formal nature
[00:25:36.060]of what experiential learning involves,
[00:25:39.390]this application,
[00:25:42.090]the course designation proposal form,
[00:25:44.490]has questions that we ask you to tell us
[00:25:48.780]how your course incorporates those four components
[00:25:52.470]of the cycle for experiential learning
[00:25:55.020]from the student's perspective.
[00:25:57.390]And we've put some hints in there to help you with that.
[00:26:00.210]So if that gets in the way
[00:26:02.940]of you getting your course proposal in,
[00:26:05.790]let us know, and we'll help you.
[00:26:07.980]You can describe it,
[00:26:08.940]and we'll work with you to help you get that part down.
[00:26:14.460]And as the Curriculum Committee reviews those,
[00:26:18.000]members of the Curriculum Committee
[00:26:19.200]may also have some suggestions that would be helpful.
[00:26:23.220]So you can talk to your Curriculum Committee representative
[00:26:27.840]in your academic program as well.
[00:26:34.710]Okay.
[00:26:35.831]So there were a couple of questions that came in.
[00:26:37.650]And I'm glad Patty's on so she can help with this one.
[00:26:41.070]So Anne had asked, "With the new major,
[00:26:44.047]"several students changed the 22/23 catalog,
[00:26:46.987]"and some will be graduating in December.
[00:26:49.507]"Since they don't have an EL course approved right now,
[00:26:52.327]"how should they handle that situation?"
[00:26:57.630]So my suggestion would be to,
[00:27:04.365]you're probably gonna have to do just a substitution waiver.
[00:27:06.510]I mean, because it's just an exceptional situation
[00:27:10.170]that is happening.
[00:27:11.160]So I think if you can look back
[00:27:13.680]onto their courses that they've completed,
[00:27:19.440]you can apply one to say...
[00:27:20.640]You know, for example, that it's going to be designated EL.
[00:27:23.610]You know that this is in fact an EL opportunity
[00:27:26.490]that they fulfilled.
[00:27:28.530]CASNR has a Substitution/Waiver Form
[00:27:30.030]that would probably accomplish that,
[00:27:31.410]and then Gail would program it in.
[00:27:35.730]Thank you.
[00:27:36.761]We have a internship requirement,
[00:27:38.970]so that's gonna be an easy process for us then.
[00:27:42.510]Yeah, I think as long as you have, right,
[00:27:44.407]"They did the internship, it just isn't designated EL yet,"
[00:27:48.630]and that'll go through pretty easily.
[00:27:51.690]And then there was a question
[00:27:52.950]about if we needed to update our undergraduate programs
[00:27:55.350]to have an EL experience.
[00:27:57.510]So it now shows up in Degree Audits
[00:27:59.820]in their university core.
[00:28:01.770]And so because it's a university-wide requirement,
[00:28:04.320]and there's no requirement that credit
[00:28:07.290]be attached to that EL experience,
[00:28:09.540]it shouldn't require an update
[00:28:11.280]to your undergraduate catalog.
[00:28:15.150]I would guess that most CASNR programs
[00:28:17.220]are gonna designate something
[00:28:18.360]that is already in their degree program
[00:28:20.340]as their EL experience, right,
[00:28:22.560]whether that's an internship experience
[00:28:24.600]or something along those lines.
[00:28:28.020]But that may not be like these.
[00:28:31.320]But there's no requirement
[00:28:32.580]that EL have credits associated with it.
[00:28:40.320]So Lisa and Mark.
[00:28:41.850]And sorry, it may be easier to actually ask this question
[00:28:44.820]than trying to type it.
[00:28:46.050]There was questions in our department
[00:28:47.940]of, "What if another department designates something as EL,
[00:28:51.457]"but that's not quite what we would want
[00:28:53.197]"our students to take it as EL?
[00:28:54.907]"You know, can we say their ELs
[00:28:57.037]"have to be within a set of courses?
[00:28:59.347]"Or because it's university, they can take anything
[00:29:02.257]"that designates as EL, and that becomes their EL credit?"
[00:29:06.600]So they can take anything that's designated as EL.
[00:29:11.340]And that means the university requirement, right?
[00:29:14.220]Just like you could take any ACE 6, right, at UNL,
[00:29:19.170]and that would mean a university ACE 6 requirement.
[00:29:21.390]But within CASNR, we've limited what those ACE 6s are.
[00:29:25.080]You could within your degree plan
[00:29:29.250]designate some specific EL that they need to choose between.
[00:29:32.040]So for example, in animal science, right,
[00:29:33.840]we require students to either complete
[00:29:35.880]an internship experience or a TA, right, or a judging team.
[00:29:39.270]We have a list of ones.
[00:29:41.070]So while they could complete any at UNL
[00:29:43.380]to meet that UNL requirement,
[00:29:47.520]we would also expect them to do one
[00:29:49.260]of the animal science EL experiences, right?
[00:29:52.050]So they could do two,
[00:29:53.083]but we are gonna make 'em do an animal science one
[00:29:55.380]in addition if they did something else.
[00:29:58.320]Does that make sense?
[00:30:01.140]Yes, thank you.
[00:30:01.973]Actually we were looking at the animal science ones
[00:30:03.960]as we were going through.
[00:30:09.660]And just to kinda tie that back
[00:30:12.720]to Bert's question about statistics,
[00:30:15.180]I just peaked at the statistics major requirements,
[00:30:20.250]and there's a nice set of four choices
[00:30:23.880]the students have that are ACE 10 courses.
[00:30:26.220]And it looks to me like at least three of the four of those
[00:30:29.580]are no-brainers for being EL.
[00:30:32.520]And so because they're a ACE 10 requirement
[00:30:34.650]and students have to take 'em,
[00:30:36.270]if you just make sure that that category
[00:30:40.200]or a category in your degree program
[00:30:44.070]that's a required course has that EL requirement,
[00:30:49.350]then students can take, as you were saying, Kate,
[00:30:52.320]you know, they could take experiences in other programs,
[00:30:54.420]but you're forcing them to take one in yours.
[00:30:58.800]Or the positive way, is you're providing them
[00:31:01.080]an opportunity to take one in yours, right?
[00:31:03.390]And then the only way that that could potentially,
[00:31:08.542]that we need to watch during our advising
[00:31:14.040]is if a student gets a waiver
[00:31:17.970]that they don't have to take that course
[00:31:20.130]that you've designated as the EL course for your program.
[00:31:23.490]We just need to make sure
[00:31:24.660]that that student gets an EL experience
[00:31:29.970]if we waive or substitute something else in
[00:31:33.150]for that during their process,
[00:31:35.070]because then they won't have that course
[00:31:37.020]that carried that EL designation.
[00:31:41.100]And so yes, as Christian pointed out,
[00:31:43.050]the EL certification is considered a course change.
[00:31:46.080]So it will go through CASNR Curriculum Committee.
[00:31:49.830]And so you'll need that form submitted through CIM,
[00:31:52.967]and it will be reviewed for CASNR Curriculum Committee.
[00:31:56.400]And so that's where the updated relevance will be important.
[00:32:00.780]I guess we're expecting that a large number of courses
[00:32:03.570]will come through this academic year for EL designation.
[00:32:09.510]But once we get through the process,
[00:32:10.760]a course is approved for EL,
[00:32:13.380]any student who, for example, took it this semester,
[00:32:15.840]but then the course isn't approved until next semester,
[00:32:18.090]that EL designation will match that on that course.
[00:32:20.340]So they'll be okay.
[00:32:22.440]We won't have to go back and do a bunch of substitutions
[00:32:24.930]because it got added later.
[00:32:27.000]And then there was a question about if there was a deadline
[00:32:30.090]for getting the EL designation submitted and approved.
[00:32:33.420]So if you know you have a lot of students
[00:32:35.580]who will be graduating in May from that 22/23 catalog year,
[00:32:40.590]it would be ideal if you got some sort of EL, right,
[00:32:44.820]so looking at Anne, right,
[00:32:46.890]approved this fall or early spring semester
[00:32:50.940]so it's updated in CLSS.
[00:32:52.290]Or you're gonna have to get,
[00:32:55.230]you know, a lot of working on a lot of substitution waivers
[00:32:57.810]or something to make that designation work.
[00:33:00.900]But because most students
[00:33:02.610]in this academic year's catalog are freshmen,
[00:33:05.010]we do have some time to get that process done.
[00:33:08.280]And the course system is updated regularly in MyRED.
[00:33:12.810]And so it's not necessarily
[00:33:14.700]that it needs to be done
[00:33:15.533]by the bulletin date in November, right?
[00:33:17.310]We have more time than that, because it will get updated.
[00:33:20.760]Students can search for EL designated courses by that
[00:33:24.810]as a class attribute in the enrollment schedule,
[00:33:27.870]just like they can for ACE classes.
[00:33:29.370]So once it's added,
[00:33:30.870]they'll be able to find the classes that way.
[00:33:46.260]May I ask a question real quick?
[00:33:50.610]The students can search it by class attributes.
[00:33:52.800]Are we going to be able to search it in CIM?
[00:33:56.730]Does anybody know if that is gonna get coded in?
[00:34:02.790]I don't think you're gonna be able to search
[00:34:04.380]for the attribute in CIM, if that's what you're asking.
[00:34:06.960]I don't... Yeah, yeah.
[00:34:07.830]I don't think that's gonna be search function.
[00:34:09.780]So I mean, like with ACES, are there going to be lists?
[00:34:13.740]You know, I oversee a shared program,
[00:34:15.712]and, you know, I'm gonna have to sort of...
[00:34:18.510]A little bit easier if I can just search
[00:34:19.890]to see what's been EL designated
[00:34:21.690]before I start saying, "Okay, we need this, we need that."
[00:34:24.330]Yeah, there's gonna be a website
[00:34:26.068]that's gonna have a link.
[00:34:27.930]Right now it's up there just a blank.
[00:34:29.280]It's not populated yet because we don't know,
[00:34:31.470]not everybody has selected their one EL
[00:34:33.570]that they wanna have attributed to their course.
[00:34:36.810]Once we do, it's gonna be a university webpage.
[00:34:41.370]It's gonna link to CASNR,
[00:34:42.469]so your students are gonna be able
[00:34:43.350]to search on CASNR'S courses.
[00:34:45.210]But it's also gonna let the students
[00:34:46.290]search across the entire university,
[00:34:47.700]if they decide they really like one kind of experience,
[00:34:50.970]so they wanna seek it out elsewhere.
[00:34:52.350]So it should be multi-purpose.
[00:35:01.920]Maybe I should just make a comment there, Patty,
[00:35:05.100]because I think many times our message
[00:35:07.410]has been to academic programs
[00:35:10.050]to think about being efficient, right?
[00:35:14.100]You don't have to have every course
[00:35:16.500]that might qualify as Experiential Learning
[00:35:19.290]designated, at least immediately.
[00:35:21.870]And I'm sure the CASNR Curriculum Committee
[00:35:23.520]would appreciate that. (chuckling)
[00:35:25.560]But so we can be strategic, right,
[00:35:28.646]in which courses we put forward.
[00:35:31.830]At the same time, I think,
[00:35:34.320]I mean, this is me lookin' into the future a little bit,
[00:35:38.130]that, you know, there will be some cases like this website,
[00:35:42.300]where, you know, if that website's available
[00:35:47.580]to people outside the university,
[00:35:49.140]they may be looking at the biochemistry program,
[00:35:51.990]at the animal science program,
[00:35:55.230]at the fisheries and wildlife program,
[00:35:56.520]and saying, "What kind of experiential learning courses
[00:35:59.767]"do they have for my student?"
[00:36:02.310]And so I would not want everybody
[00:36:06.780]to submit all experiential learning courses immediately.
[00:36:10.170]I think we have to be strategic about that.
[00:36:13.080]At the same time, if you have a good set of those,
[00:36:18.090]I think at some point it's going to be nice to show
[00:36:22.470]that breadth that your program offers.
[00:36:25.200]So there's just kind of a trade off there,
[00:36:27.663]that we don't need to do all of 'em at first,
[00:36:30.180]and we may never need to do all of 'em,
[00:36:33.180]but there may be another...
[00:36:34.950]Like, I'm thinking like political recruiting
[00:36:39.600]need to have those be seen,
[00:36:42.870]as there's quite a selection of those in a program.
[00:36:55.710]And then of course there was a question
[00:36:56.820]about if you can restrict EL courses
[00:36:58.560]to major students only, or it has to open to any major.
[00:37:02.190]You can restrict it,
[00:37:03.120]just as you'd have any other course set up
[00:37:05.760]to be only your majors or by permission,
[00:37:10.500]and that would be fine.
[00:37:13.800]And then I would be willing to say
[00:37:15.960]that both Larkin and I are available
[00:37:18.420]if you have questions later or you have specific things
[00:37:20.880]you want to ask us about over email or anything.
[00:37:25.020]We're both relatively available, so.
[00:37:31.890]I'm back to being able to say I'm new
[00:37:33.510]and I don't know all the answers though, right?
[00:37:35.670]So I sometimes don't know the answer
[00:37:37.500]if you ask me too many questions.
[00:37:42.240]I don't see any other questions
[00:37:43.680]that we haven't covered, Lisa, in the chat.
[00:37:45.840]But I appreciate everybody throwin' those in there
[00:37:48.960]and asking questions.
[00:38:01.500]Anything else for the good of the cause?
[00:38:08.700]Well, thank you so much for attending.
[00:38:10.530]As Lisa said, let us know if you do have questions.
[00:38:13.860]And I'm sure the CASNR Curriculum Committee
[00:38:17.070]is just on pins and needles waiting to see your submissions.
[00:38:20.880]So. (chuckles)
[00:38:22.650]And thanks to them for their work on this too.
[00:38:25.920]We couldn't do this without them, and appreciate that.
[00:38:33.540]I think that's it.

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Experiential Learning Course Designation: CASNR Information Session

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