Thursday, September 12, 1:15pm - 2:30pm - In-Person

During their time at USC, our undergraduate students enroll in courses, participate in cocurricular engagements, hold down jobs while preparing themselves for their future careers, engage with the community, and manage their own personal challenges (AAC&U/Carnegie Foundation, 2004), but how do they make sense of these varied experiences and realize how they all interconnect? Integrative learning provides students with strategies to make connections between these within and beyond the classroom activities to help them apply their skills to new and complex problems and challenges.

This presentation explores teaching strategies and philosophies that encourage students to engage in activities beyond the classroom and then have students relate those experiences to their courses and curriculum. We will review current research and practices on integrative and experiential learning and how the Center for Integrative and Experiential Learning supports IL and EL, including the impactful role of our Quality Enhancement Plan, Experience by Design. Participants will discuss strategies for encouraging students to reflect and make interdisciplinary connections between their experiences within and beyond the classroom to promote creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving.  Register

Thursday, October 10, 1:15pm - 2:30pm - In-Person

Utilizing integrative learning principles, the presenters will share examples of how high impact practice (HIP) characteristics are incorporated across different disciplines and identify classroom assessment techniques (CATs) that can be applied across a variety of academic settings. Participants will have opportunities to share examples of reflection and integrative learning principles in the design of assignments and appropriate assessment methods for their classroom.  Register

Thursday, October 3, 1:15pm - 2:30pm - In-Person

Undergraduate research creates meaningful experiences that drive student learning further than theory alone. Multiples studies have demonstrated the importance of research experiences in helping students in STEM feel connected and engaged with their major (especially students from underrepresented groups) along with enhanced student outcomes. However, there's a limited number of labs/research groups and with so many students searching for research opportunities there's student needs not being met. The use of a course based undergraduate research experience (CURE) can help alleviate this undergraduate research bottleneck.

This session will explore the creation, implementation, and delivery of a CURE in biological sciences. We'll outline how we developed our CURE, recruited our student scientists, ensured student success, and the products created in one semester that will stay with our student scientists for a lifetime.   Register

Thursday, November 7, 10:05am - 11:20am - In-Person

Helping students develop the skills for the growing demands of the job market means teachings students to integrate their work experiences with their educational background. Often these elements are treated as two distinct experiences, with few connections drawn between career opportunities and classroom education and skills.

This session will provide participants the opportunity for exploring mechanisms to connect these experiences through the integration of internship opportunities in classroom settings. We will focus on exploring potential internship sources for your students, highlighting skills, theories, and tools that can be developed within the classroom to compliment these experiences, and helping students to integrate in and out of class opportunities in clear and concise ways through reflection.  Register

Tuesday, November 19, 1:15pm - 2:30pm - In-Person

With the launch of Carolina Experience in 2024, a heightened emphasis has been placed on understanding and supporting the experiences of sophomore, junior, transfer, and senior student populations through an emphasis on community development and career readiness. To help in these endeavors, longitudinal qualitative and quantitative data collected from the Student Success Center has been instrumental in better understanding these target populations.

What are the common experiences of students in the middle years of college? What are the biggest challenges they face and what do they most look forward to? How does this align with the national research on these populations? And most importantly- how can this information be used to support their overall experience at USC and in support of student engagement, including experiential learning, and career readiness?

We will go over the assessment findings and what specialized resources are already in place at USC to support these populations, as well as provide recommendations for instructors and course-based activities. Finally, we will wrap up this session with group discussion on suggestions to further support the target populations through the Carolina Experience, including additional ways for campus stakeholders to get involved.   Register