The Certificate in Integrative and Experiential Learning certificate (IEL) is an initiative of The Center for Teaching Excellence and the Center for Integrative and Experiential Learning. The program is designed to bring together faculty, instructors, and graduate students interested in exploring ways to help students reflect on and connect what they do within and beyond their curriculum, embrace multiple perspectives, and synthesize and transfer their knowledge to new, complex situations.
Key outcomes for participants include obtaining a deeper understanding of the ideals of integrative and experiential learning as well as developing a toolbox of simple techniques to engage students in reflection on their within and beyond the classroom experiences.
Requirements
Faculty, instructors and graduate assistants who participate in six or more Integrative and Experiential Learning workshops approved by the Center for Teaching Excellence will receive a certificate of completion, a letter of commendation, recognition on the Center for Integrative and Experiential Learning website, and will be eligible to apply for a grant to incorporate integrative learning strategies into a class, develop a new experiential learning opportunity for a course, or develop a team-taught interdisciplinary course. Participants will be required to attend the Introduction to Integrative and Experiential Learning and Small Changes, High Impact: Practices to Support Integrative Learning workshops and four (4) electives. Participants will have 2 academic semesters (and the summer) to complete the certificate.
Click on the "+" sign next to each event to see description.
FALL 2023
Required Workshops
During their time at USC, our undergraduate students enroll in courses, participate in cocurricular engagements, hold down jobs while preparing themselves for their future careers, engage with the community, and manage their own personal challenges (AAC&U/Carnegie Foundation, 2004), but how do they make sense of these varied experiences and realize how they all interconnect? Integrative learning provides students with strategies to make connections between these within and beyond the classroom activities to help them apply their skills to new and complex problems and challenges.
This presentation explores teaching strategies and philosophies that encourage students to engage in activities beyond the classroom and then have students relate those experiences to their courses and curriculum. We will review current research and practices on integrative and experiential learning and how the Center for Integrative and Experiential Learning supports IL and EL, including the impactful role of our Quality Enhancement Plan, Experience by Design. Participants will discuss strategies for encouraging students to reflect and make interdisciplinary connections between their experiences within and beyond the classroom to promote creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving. Register
Utilizing integrative learning principles, the presenters will share examples of how high impact practice (HIP) characteristics are incorporated across different disciplines and identify classroom assessment techniques (CATs) that can be applied across a variety of academic settings. Participants will have opportunities to share examples of reflection and integrative learning principles in the design of assignments and appropriate assessment methods for their classroom. Register
Elective Workshops
The Career Champions training educates and empowers campus faculty and staff on best practices to have career conversations with students. Career Champions Module 1 serves as a foundation, reviewing career development, our roles in a career ecosystem, and resources. The learning outcomes for level 1 are as follows:
- Gain a basic knowledge of the career development theories, career decision making process and employability.
- Gain a foundation of basic helping skills to best assist students with career planning
- Learn how to assist students with goal setting regarding their career development
- Learn how to make an effective referral to the Career Center
- Learn the professional and ethical guidelines as outlined through the National Association of Colleges & Employers (NACE) Register
When you design your course, do you wonder whether you could be doing more to include cultural or community-based learning experiences? Do you wish you knew more about local cultural communities in South Carolina? In this interactive workshop, lessons from the Sea Islands will be explored including various examples of integrative and experiential learning activities. Participants will discuss and collaboratively craft a cultural or community-based learning experience, and the session will conclude with a formal question-and-answer session focused on addressing specific challenges participants have encountered when designing their course(s). Register
The Career Champions program was created to educate and empower campus faculty and staff on best practices to have career conversations with students. The learning outcomes for level two are as follows:
- Gain knowledge around experiential education
- Identify different opportunities in the Career Center and beyond available for students to gain experience
- Identify ways to help students discover what opportunities they are interested in and know where to find them
- Gain knowledge in how to support students while they are involved in their experience to make it more impactful
- Articulate ways on how to encourage reflection during and after the experience
- Identify ways on how to handle concerns that can arise while a student is participating in an experiential education opportunity Register
Join us for the 3rd module of Career Champions. In this session we'll learn about the career competencies employers are looking for within our students and how to incorporate those into our academic lessons, student employment, internships, etc. You'll also know how to help students see these competencies within themselves and how to advocate their talents, abilities, and experiences. Register
Do you teach a large subset of sophomore students? Energy is always focused on the incoming first-year and graduating students, but what about the students who are somewhere in between? Sophomores or 'second-year' students are considered an incredibly unique population and participants in this presentation will explore current and relevant research related to working with these students to learn about the 'sophomore slump'. Participants will also have the opportunity to discuss support resources and strategies available that are specific to sophomores at the University of South Carolina. Register