Proposing an Educational Experience

The experience and the learning are fundamental and the experience must have clear intentional roles for both the participant and any KU Faculty Sponsor(s) of learning. Participants must ensure that they enter the experience with sufficient foundation to support a successful experience. Both the participant and the KU Faculty Sponsor(s) should develop and implement a plan that includes learning goals, objectives and activities. This guided experience involves engagement from both the participant and the KU Faculty Sponsor.

Reflection is the element that transforms simple experience to a learning experience. For knowledge to be discovered and internalized the learner must test assumptions and hypotheses about the outcomes of decisions and actions taken, then weigh the outcomes against past learning and future implications. This reflective process is integral to all phases of experiential learning, from identifying intention and choosing the experience, to considering preconceptions and observing how they change as the experience unfolds. Reflection is also an essential tool for adjusting the experience and measuring the outcomes.

Any learning activity will be dynamic and changing, and both the participant and the KU Faculty Sponsor bear responsibility for ensuring that the experience, as it in in process, continues to provide the richest learning possible, while affirming the participant learner. It is imperative that there be a feedback loop related to learning intentions and quality objectives and that the structure of the experience be sufficiently flexible to permit change in response to what the feedback suggests. While reflection provides input for new knowledge based on documented experience, other strategies for observing progress against intentions and objectives should also be in place.

Outcomes and processes should be systematically documented with regard to initial intentions and quality outcomes. Assessment is a means to develop and retain the specific learning goals and quality objectives identified during the planning stages of the experience, while evaluation provides comprehensive data about the experiential process as a whole and whether it has met the intentions which suggested it. Approved learning experiences will implement an assessment plan that includes competencies and learning outcomes for the experience along with both summative and formative measures to assess the competencies and outcomes.

An approved educational experience is an extended learning experience that is sponsored by a faculty member and meets the learning outcomes defined by the KU Core Goal. The experience must meet the standards of experiential learning, which includes intentionality and goal setting, action, reflection, and application.

You must submit a proposal to the University Core Curriculum Committee (UCCC) before completing the experience for review and approval.

Goals 4.1, 4.2, 5.2, and 6 can be satisfied using this process. 

After identifying an experience, you should meet with your academic advisor. The academic advisor can help you determine if KU offers a course that aligns with the experience. If a course is available, you should enroll in the course. If no course is available, you should complete this proposal form which will be reviewed by the UCCC.

Complete the approved experience proposal form. Upload a letter of support from your advisor, faculty sponsor, or experience supervisor. Upload any other supporting documentation such as a position description, syllabus, or documents that further explain the experience.

These are the questions you’ll be required to thoroughly answer.

• Describe the experience. Please include the following details:
  • What are the parameters of the experience (duration, hours, start/end dates)?
  • Where does the experience take place (research innovation/institute, community or workplace organization, local or abroad)? 
• Describe how your roles, responsibilities, and/or the activities in which you'll participate in during the experience are relevant and align to the proposed goal. 
• Explain how this experience meets the criteria for the KU Core goal in which you are seeking approval. Use specific examples that connects your experience to each learning outcome and criterion listed for the goal. 
• Describe how this experience helps you meet your academic and career goals.
• How will you assess whether you met your goals and the criteria for the KU Core goal you're seeking approval for? Who will be evaluating your performance (supervisor, faculty/staff, clients/self)?

Please see the following documents below.

• Experience A for Goal 4.1 (PDF Document)

Extensive research has been conducted on student learning resulting from experiential learning. In order for you to have a meaningful learning experience, you must follow the international framework for experiential learning that requires you to set intentions and goals for the experience, routinely reflect on your learning and adjust expectations/goals throughout the experience, and process and assess your own learning. Therefore, in order to receive UCCC approval, you must address how you are meeting the requirements of experiential learning.

You will be enrolled in a zero-credit hour course associated with the goal you are satisfying. You will also be added to the course's Canvas site where you will complete activities and exercise throughout your experience. 

There are no costs associated with this zero-credit hour course. 

The UCCC may offer you the option to provide additional details and resubmit the experience. If the UCCC denies the proposal, you will need to satisfy the KU Goal you are seeking to complete through a course or another experience that meets the requirements of an approved educational experience.