This is a culminating course that requires senior grade students to integrate and apply what they have learnt in their academic journey. This course could be a project, a portfolio, an exhibit, or a performance. The practice allows students to reflect upon their educational journey, derive learnings and apply them appropriately.

A form of experiential learning, an internship provides students with a practical and professional setting in their field of interest. This helps them gain valuable real-world experience and exposure as well as feedback from professionals in the field. An internship can be taken as course credit with faculty approval as well.

DGL activities and courses help students learn about, understand and experience cultures, environments and world views that differ from their own. Intercultural studies and study abroad programs help students grow as compassionate and empathetic people who can appreciate unfamiliar perspectives and maintain respectful and healthy dialogues while addressing worldly issues. Collaborative tasks and interactive discussions facilitate this type of learning.

These courses encourage students to practice their writing skills by repeatedly producing and revising work for different audiences across a variety of disciplines. This act promotes growth through constructive and timely feedback and an improvement in areas such as quantitative reasoning, communication and information literacy.

These tasks are performed over a sustained period of time to foster active learning and cooperative bonds between team members of diverse backgrounds. Students learn to express themselves and develop their skills through peer insights and hone their listening skills in the process as well.

A contemporary approach to the idea of “core” courses in a curriculum, CIEs include a set of required, general programs that combine and explore broad themes in an interactive and collaborative environment. The idea is to bring students and faculty from different environments together in a setting that facilitates interdisciplinary learning within and beyond the classroom. This can be done through study, common fields of interest and experiences. It gives students a new perspective on their learnings, and strengthens relationships between teaching and learning groups across disciplines.

This practice involves having a group of students jointly enroll in two or more classes. This approach brings students and faculty with common interests together to exchange similar themes and ideas. This boosts interaction between people from different backgrounds by providing shared experiences and helps them engage in campus life better.

Some of the ways this approach can be manifested is through an independent study, a project or a student research position. These research opportunities aim to expose students to the process of empirical observation and systematic research methods by working over a period of time to nurture scientific curiosity and relate classwork to hands-on learning.

This practice implements experiential learning by engaging students in field-based situations. With direct experience of the real-world issues they are studying about, students are tasked with analyzing and finding solutions using their knowledge and through service. Working with community partners integrates meaningful community service with coursework, teaches compassion and promotes the philosophy of giving back, making endeavors such as volunteering an enriching learning experience.

ePortfolios are digital repositories of student work done over time, providing a highly accessible, secure, portable and updatable resource. This collection allows students to reflect upon their personal and academic growth, connect learning outcomes with their work, and demonstrate competence in their field. A well-curated ePortfolio is an accumulation of a student’s work and their accomplishments and can be shared with other audiences to enhance career readiness and learning potential.

These programs help transition new students into university life by having regular group interactions with other students and faculty. These experiences are in place to help boost information literacy, critical thinking and communication skills to develop students’ intellectual capabilities. They provide a foundation for further learning and prepare students for their academic futures.

Description: Students are challenged beyond their current ability levels at higher, more complex levels than “identify, define, and explain”. 

Examples:

• • Create modules that meet the complexity level of the course outcome, with assignments and their rubrics set at higher levels of learning.
    
    
  • Incorporate content, tasks, inquiry-intensive projects and instructions that aim for more complex levels of learning, problem solving, analyzing and formulating.

Description: Students work over the course of the academic term on multiple-part assignments.

Examples:

• • Assignments, group tasks and community engagement activities with periodic feedback given on work.

• • Scaffolded projects, papers, presentations and tasks that require higher levels of time invested.

Description: Students come together in groups, teams, learning communities, and discussions.

Examples:

• • Discuss common readings and share topic-based media. Evaluate discussion group postings and encourage student replies; create a system that facilitates peer mentoring and peer reviews.

  • Meet outside of class, attend events, have mandatory interactions with the instructor.

Description: Students must interact in settings with people of backgrounds and demographics unfamiliar to them.

Examples:

• • Assignments, activities, low stakes assessments, exams, readings, sharing relevant media and journaling observations and making connections between classes and experiences, exploring archives.

  • Interactive environments involving guest speakers, virtual reality, data, artifacts, cases, performances, demonstrations, activities, imagery and simulations.

  • Field experiences and service-learning; immersing students in diverse demographic settings, attending events and interviewing.

Description: Students must meet with instructors (or peers) and receive suggestions at various points to discuss problems, challenges, progress, and next steps through to completion.

Examples:

• • Weekly reading and summarization tasks, discussion posts, homework problems, designs, lab reports and activities.

  • Low stakes assessments, periodic quizzing and polling modules, peer reviews with instructor feedback and scaffolded assignments with rubrics for each step.

Description: Students must recap and elaborate upon learned concepts and how they connect at various points in the course, drawing upon materials and explaining proficiencies.

Examples:

• • Concept mapping, requirements for reflective posts and essays, portfolios, journals and visuals.

  • Logging interpretations and implications; encouraging broader perspectives through pre- and post-assessment reflections.

Description: Students engaging in activities that extend the classroom learning into practical, real-world environments. This enables them to apply theoretical knowledge to actual situations, enhancing understanding and retention of learned material.

Examples:

• • Internships, practicum, or field placements that require students apply the knowledge and skills acquired during their program of study.

  • Supervisor-mediated discussions among student workers that encourage students to reflect on and see the connections between their studies and experiences in the work setting.

Description: To peers, faculty, work-setting, supervising staff, supervisor, or faculty member, panelists, boards, reviewers, committees, etc.

Examples:

• • Courses could include a required oral narrative, demonstration, production or performance evaluated by peers, instructors, or other staff members.

  • Including structured presentations, debates, exhibits or performances.