EL Proposal Help Document

Guide for proposing a course or activity to satisfy the experiential learning requirement

Tips and recommendations for your experiential learning proposal. Make sure you review the EL rubric first to ensure your outcomes are aligned with your EL area (creative. leadership, etc.)

**Not all recommendations are applicable for every proposal

  • Program Description:

    Give a detailed description of your EL activity.

    Include an email or website for more information and/or applications.

    For courses – please list any serial or very similar courses in your department that have already been approved for experiential learning

  • Engagement: Describe the extent of student involvement in the activity.  Approved activities will involve student engagement at least equivalent to the depth and/or time commitment of a 1-credit-hour course.
    • Include minimum # of hours. (Should be equivalent to at least 45 hours)

  • Mentorship: Describe the nature of feedback, supervision, and mentorship of student participants.  Approved activities will involve regular response to student work by the activity director and/or supervisor, supporting student reflection and integration of learning through the activity.

    • Who is the mentor? (faculty/staff mentor, graduate students, peer mentors (please describe training – see rubric), director, partner organization supervisor)

    • Will regular meetings be held? If so, describe frequency.

    • Describe types of feedback and how the student is involved in this process

  • Challenge: Describe how students will engage in intellectually adventurous activity, pushing their own boundaries beyond what is familiar to them, exploring unknown territory, developing new knowledge and skills.  
    • Are the students interacting with individuals outside the usual class or student work environment?
    • How are they using what they’ve learned in class in an experiential/outside setting?
    • Is there any specific training or orientations students are required to complete? If so, describe.
    • Be sure to review the EL Learning Outcomes to show how your program fulfills the challenge for the specific area requested (Creative, Global, Internship, Leadership, Research, or Service)
    • Please note if there is any kind of recommendation, application, or interview process. Feel free to attach a copy of the application if desired.
    • For internships include language on how projects, activities, and tasks will be aligned with the duties of the supervising mentor and involve substantive and routine tasks. The student will be challenged regularly to apply academic knowledge to projects and tasks in the internship setting
  • Ownership: Describe how students exercise independent judgment in defining and/or executing the activity, or how students take ownership of the process and outcomes of the activity.  

    • How do students work/create/research independently?

    • Do the students set goals for the project? How are they assessed?

    •  If they are part of a team, how do they identify and understand their individual role/contribution to the whole?

    • re they creating a “product” that will be used as more than a simulation (e.g. website, grant, research to be published, or a project that is presented in a professional setting)? 

    • Is this a leadership activity? Explain how the student applies these leadership skills outside the classroom?

  • Self or Social Awareness: Describe how students will reflect on the activity, identifying values and attitudes developed through the activity in terms of personal, civic/social, and/or academic learning.  

    • Do students review objectives and goals that were set at the beginning of the program?

    •  Is there a culminating project or presentation? If so, who is the audience and what sort of feedback will they provide? We are looking for something beyond peers/classmates/instructor, e.g. community members, a panel of faculty judges, a publication, presentation at a conference, the greater UGA community, etc.,  

    • Do students keep a blog, journal, or do other types of regular reflection?

    • For internships and other applicable programs, ensure that there is a formalized final exit interview or meeting that includes feedback both from the mentor and the student in which the student is given the opportunity to reflect on what they learned in the activity.