A Case Study on Experiential Learning in a First-Year General Education Course

Abstract

Experiential-learning provides opportunities for students that feature a variety of high-impact practices including first-year seminars, internships, community learning, collaborative projects, and capstone seminars. To offer these high-impact practices for students, faculty from across disciplines and majors must be willing to incorporate these opportunities within their courses and degrees. Indiana University Kokomo has offered two successful programs to support these high-impact practices. One program, the Kokomo Experience and You (KEY), supports faculty in the development and implementation of events and activities to support student learning. The other, the Student Success Academy Faculty Fellows Program, provided faculty members the opportunity to examine research and concepts so that they can better promote student success in their classrooms. Building on the success of these two programs, a third initiative, the Experiential Learning Academy (ELA), was launched in 2018, funded by a Reimagining the First Years mini-grant from AASCU.

Interpretive phenomenological analysis of first-generation student experiences in Living-Learning Communities at a large public university

“…Because of these factors and many more, FGCS tend to experience significantly more difficulties adjusting to college life than continuing-generation students. High-impact practices for college students, which include experiential learning, collaborative projects and faculty, firstyear seminars, LLCs, and capstone experiences, have been shown to increase the level of inclusion for freshman students, especially FGCSs (Weller & Saam, 2019).…”