When the COVID-19 pandemic required all higher education learning to move to remote or online formats, students were challenged to maintain a sense of community and to advance in their education. By focusing on the immediate, human needs of students, IdeasCongress -- a community-engaged experiential learning course with a curricular emphasis on…

Team teaching can be a valuable means of enabling cross-disciplinary collaboration, interdisciplinary study, and pedagogical innovation, but the logistical and intellectual challenges can seem too daunting to overcome. Here, we share the story of how four faculty members from professional writing, communications, and computing sciences developed a…

Higher education institutions are continually seeking to recruit nontraditional adult students yet struggle at the same time to meet their needs effectively. The following case study offers strategies to address this situation by documenting the pedagogical design and initial outcomes of an interdisciplinary, nineteen-month leadership-themed…

Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) provides opportunities for scholars and students to respond directly to community needs; students also practice critical thinking, problem-solving, and conflict-resolution skills necessary for professional life and engaged citizenship. The challenges of involving undergraduate students in CBPR include…

Integrated Event Design (IED) capitalizes on three distinct courses to achieve a blended course delivery: Event Management, Research and Evaluation (for undergraduate students), and Experiential Education (for graduate students). Through the use of an event management company metaphor that fully integrates the diverse curricular concepts, course…

This article provides a description of the birth of The Odyssey Initiative. As teachers, this group of three, all educators, knew that there was outrage about the state of education in America. Griping about our nation's schools has almost become a pastime, and with very good reason. However, they found the solutions being offered to save our…

Researchers have described "service learning" as an ideal way to integrate experiential education into coursework while meeting community needs and imbuing students with civic responsibility. They have advocated service learning in business as a method to implement course concepts and increase student understanding of the external environment. In…

This article describes an interdisciplinary, experiential learning project that combined marketing and communications courses at a state university. Two professors from different colleges partnered with a domestic violence center to enable students to create a community-based social marketing campaign. Student assessments indicated success in…

This guide introduces teachers to the ideas and methods that underpin project-based learning. Teachers who are new to planning and managing projects will find the guide particularly helpful as a starting point and resource guide. Chapter 1 presents a rationale for project-based instruction, describes potential benefits and concerns, discusses the…

This book provides a powerful and clear picture of some of the outstanding programs designed and implemented in the United States to provide young adolescents with rich, meaningful, and powerful learning activities with community service. The book is comprised of two parts with 18 essays and an introduction. The essays reflect a range of…

Describes a middle school curriculum that integrates service learning and civic responsibility skills into the core academic program. The "CityYouth" curriculum consists of 32 multidisciplinary lessons divided into four units of eight lessons each. Examines how schools have incorporated the units into community activities. (MJP)

This idea-generating description of a successful class project tells how second grade students, through viewing a film on ecology were motivated toward involving teachers, schools, parents and community in a cooperative effort to collect used paper for recycling. Objectives of the project were to: 1) enable students to identify environmental…

This report describes efforts by Portland State University (Oregon) (PSU) to undertake administrative restructuring, reinvent the curriculum with an interdisciplinary focus, and initiate experiential learning programs that benefit both students and the community. By reducing support staff and middle management, PSU freed up funds to create a…

Recommends a broad application of experiential learning and community service projects as a means of reinvigorating social studies and making them relevant. Describes a number of projects from service learning to local history that illustrate this approach. Discusses this approach in terms of benefits, real life application, and assessment. (MJP)