2023 OSUN Experiential Learning Institute

Applications due November 27, 2022

The OSUN Civic Engagement Leadership Team and the IWT Center for Liberal Arts and Sciences Pedagogy (CLASP) invite applications from OSUN network partners to participate in the OSUN Experiential Learning Institute (ELI) in Spring 2023. The mission of the ELI is to foster, promote, and explore the pedagogy of experiential learning by cultivating reciprocal partnerships among OSUN partners while expanding Community Engaged Liberal Arts and Science (CELAS) course offerings. CELAS seeks to connect student’s classroom experiences with their local communities to enhance learning and promote co-curricular engagement.

About CELAS Courses: CELAS courses bring theory to practice by linking coursework, critical thinking, and engagement activities. A form of experiential learning, CELAS courses allow students to test ideas in the real world and develop creative approaches to social, cultural, and scientific issues. A significant portion of CELAS learning takes place outside of the classroom or virtually: students learn through engagement with different geographies, organizations, and programs in the surrounding communities or in collaboration with partners from OSUN and Bard’s International Partners. CELAS students and teachers often collaborate with non-profits, community groups, and government agencies whose goal is to serve the public good.

Courses can occur within any academic division and incorporate community-based research, field-work, public art, practica, internships, and policy research that are developed and shared with community organizations.

CELAS courses incorporate traditional liberal arts with community work and research including:
  1. Conducting interviews
  2. Engaging in environmental research in communities with government or community organizations
  3. Reviewing and summarizing research or policy options
  4. Creating public art or instructional materials
  5. Conducting project-based work
  6. Engaging with local government
The ELI Will Focus On
  • Course pedagogy and development around experiential learning to help faculty create and design courses within this framework.
  • Articulate, share, and develop context-specific student-centered pedagogies that are uniquely suited to the CELAS course model
  • Create community within the network where others can see the power of collaboration and gain tools needed to create sustainable programs
  • Connect with the long term vision of experiential learning within the network
  • Foster a culture of learning and knowledge sharing amongst network partners
  • Promote program development and project cohesion
The institute will be modeled as a Community of Practice (CoP). CoP is a learning community or network, defined as a group of people who share interest in an area of inquiry and engage in collective learning about that area of engagement as it relates to institutional goals and practices. Through discussions, joint engagement activities, and relationship building within the network, the CoP develops a shared and individual repertoire of resources, programmatic structure and cohesion, skills, and knowledge to use in this practice.

The institute is aimed at OSUN faculty, administrators and scholars interested in designing and teaching CELAS courses at their institution and supports the linkage between OSUN partners and a global community of experts and practitioners in experiential learning.

Our goal is to create a community of engaged leaders to build a foundation of support towards implementing CELAS courses and experiential learning opportunities at OSUN institutions. The ELI will meet for six 90 minute sessions between February-May 2023 with an in-person component at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY on July 16 – July 22, 2023.

Register today!