Is My Course EL?

Are your students doing projects that reach beyond the traditional classroom setting?

Here are some general expectations for experiential learning courses at UGA:

 

  • Engagement: Approved courses involve student engagement at least equivalent to the intensity, depth, and/or time commitment of a 1-credit hour course (defined in UGA Credit Hour Policy as 15 contact hours plus 30 hours of out-of-class assignment).
  • Mentorship: Approved courses incorporate regular mentorship, supervision, and feedback.Approved courses and activities demonstrate achievement of learning outcomes for challenge, ownership, and self or social awareness. These are broken down by EL area (creative, global, internship, leadership, research, or service). See EL rubric.
  • Challenge: Students generally interact with an outside audience via projects, service, presentations, or competitions in which they receive feedback.
  • Ownership: Students recognize their role both independently and in a group situation and understand how it is an important part of the course.
  • Awareness: Students have a chance to reflect on their experience. They will leave the course being able to articulate what they did and how it plays into their major course of study and/or future goals.

Benefits of an EL course:

  • Empowers every student to apply their learning
  • Equips students with the competencies and expanded perspectives to thrive
  • Expands access through the EL Scholarship ProgramFulfills a graduation requirement
  • Enables students to connect a field of study to potential professional pathways after graduation

How do I begin?

  • Contact Kay Stanton (okay@uga.edu) in the Office of University Experiential Learning. Please have a syllabus or program/course description to share. We will review the course and make recommendations.
    • Course is EL “as is”
    •  Course would be EL with some changes
    • Course does not meet UGA’s definition of EL
  • If the course has a service-learning component, reach out to the Office of Service-Learning. Courses that are approved by the Office of Service-Learning are automatically approved for EL at the university level. Most schools and colleges have adopted blanket statements for these courses to fulfill their students’ EL graduation requirement.
  •  If the course is focused on faculty-mentored research, reach out to the Morehead Honors College to explore approval for the R-suffix. Courses with an R-suffix are automatically approved for EL at the university level. Most schools and colleges have adopted blanket statements for these courses to fulfill their students’ EL requirement.