Ball State University
The immersive learning experience is the signature element of Ball State's "Education Redefined."  Immersive learning is an intense learning and developmental activity that requires a student to progress well beyond merely learning to realize the intention and goal of education. The immersive learning experience is designed to bridge content knowledge, skill of application, societal need, and life-long learning. Ball State's immersive learning experiences shift much of the responsibility of learning to the student. Stretching students through creative rather than directed inquiry, these experiences develop the ability to synthesize and problem solve. Students are required to work collaboratively in teams that are both multifunctional and multidisciplinary. Immersive learning experiences require students to manifest their learning in a tangible outcome that lives on and has utility beyond the duration of the experience itself. Through such transformative experiences students should better understand societal issues in global, local, economic, or environmental contexts.
To achieve these goals, immersive learning experiences at Ball State have most or all of the following characteristics:
  • Carry academic credit
  • Engage participants in an active learning process that is student-driven, but guided by a faculty mentor
  • Produce a tangible outcome or product, such as a business plan, policy recommendation, book, play, or DVD
  • Involve a team of students, often working on a project that is interdisciplinary in nature
  • Include a community partner(s) and create an impact on the larger community as well as on the student participants
  • Focus on student learning outcomes
  • Help students define a career path or make connections to a profession or industry

 

See examples at the Virginia Ball Centre for Creative Inquiry 

 

Northwestern University
The Northwestern Immersion Experience aims to move intensive, project-based activities to the centre of undergraduate education. The program allows students to focus on one project intensively for one quarter or longer. The focus of an immersion experience is limited only by a learner’s interests and imagination. It may be drawn from the current University curriculum or be completely original and self-designed. It may be pursued on campus or off, in the United States or abroad. For example,
  • pursuing research in a faculty member's laboratory
  • travel abroad to explore a topic of interest
  • an internship in a company or organization in the United States or abroad
  • writing a novella, play, or string quartet
  • researching a topic in an archive or museum or through one-on-one interviews
 
While the parameters are broad an immersion experience must fulfill a few essential criteria. It must preferably
  • have significant scholarly
  • have significant scholarly, creative, or reflective potential
  • be conducted under the supervision of a faculty member
  • result in a substantial academic paper or creative work that is evaluated for credit
 
Some immersion experiences will carry the equivalent of a full quarter of credit: 3 or 4 units.
A number of universities have developed educational models that contain within them the idea of immersive learning and immersive experience.
 

 

Cornell University Business School
Johnson School's unique MBA immersion learning curriculum replaces lecture- and case-based training with integrated, experiential, reality-based learning. Students solve real problems under intense time pressure and are often evaluated as they would be on the job. Immersion experience courses share these features:
  • Integrated learning. Courses incorporate coordinated, cross-functional learning. Cases are open-ended, like real business decisions, rather than segmented by discipline.
  • Faculty who combine real-world experience with academic expertise.
  • Corporate participation which ensures that the curriculum stays relevant and current.
  • Real-world relevance. Team-based learning structures, frequent presentations, and real-world focus enable students to hone the professional skills essential to on-the-job success.

 

 

ONLINE INTERVIEWS

 

Lewis Elton - click to play video clip

Immersive Learning, how can it benefit the education system?

 

 

Osamah Khan - click to play video clip

Where does immersive learning stand now in the education system?


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