IUPUI Office of the Registrar Experiential Learning Notations on Indiana University Official Transcripts

IUPUI Policy and Procedure January 2006 Background and Policy

---

Background and Policy

Background

In an effort to identify and track specific community-based learning experiences, experiential learning notations have been approved for addition to the official Indiana University transcript. An explanation of what constitutes experiential learning, what courses might qualify, and how these notations would appear on a student’s transcript is outlined below. This policy is now implemented at IUPUI. It should be noted, however, that it has not been implemented at all Indiana University campuses.

Experiential Learning

Experiential learning is defined as formal, supervised learning experiences that rely substantially on students’ applying through direct experience the knowledge and information acquired through reading, simulations or electronic exercises, faculty instruction, or other modes of learning directly within the context and duration of the course. Consequently, experiential learning entails the integration of

• knowledge—the concepts, facts, and information acquired through formal learning and past experience;
• activity—the application of knowledge to a “real world” setting; and
• reflection—the analysis and synthesis of knowledge and activity to create new knowledge.

Experiential learning may occur on campus, in the community, or both. Although many co-curricular student activities can also be categorized as experiential learning, approval for transcript notations applies only to those activities that are linked to students’ academic coursework.

The intent of this policy is to permit academic units, faculty, and students to understand and to record these types of learning and, further, to identify which are based substantially in the community, either in off-campus settings or applied to off-campus situations. In making decisions about the classification of experiential learning, judgment of individual faculty and approval of the academic department will be required. These guidelines have been developed to provide assistance in this process, and to ensure consistency across campuses. The recognized categories of experiential learning are specified below.

Categories of Experiential Learning

The following list provides definitions of the types of experiential learning courses that will be tracked on transcripts and other official documents issued through the Office of the Registrar. Most of these definitions have been adapted from established, nationally referenced sources (see references section below).

All courses listed on the transcript must meet the criteria noted above.
Clinical education: Entails the practice of learned didactic and experiential skills, most frequently in health care and legal settings, under the supervision of a credentialed practitioner.

Cooperative education: Special program offered by a department or school in which students alternate work and study, usually spending a number of weeks in study (typically full-time) and a number of weeks in employment away from campus (typically full-time). Alternatively, cooperative education may occur when students simultaneously attend classes part-time and work part-time during consecutive school semesters in an intentionally planned and coordinated way. Students receive academic credit for cooperative education when the experiences meet the criteria for credit (i.e., faculty supervision, reflective components, evidence of learning).

Field work: Supervised student research or practice carried out away from the institution and in direct contact with the people, natural phenomena, or other entities being studied; especially frequent in fields including anthropology, archaeology, sociology, social work, earth sciences, and environmental studies.

Internship: Sustained work experience in a student’s field of interest assessed by a faculty member and supervised by an employer who is not the faculty member. Work can be part-time or full-time, paid or unpaid, on-campus or off-campus. The design of the internship determines whether or not the student may earn academic credit or have a formal transcript notation.

Practicum: A course or student exercise involving practical experience in a work setting (whether paid or unpaid) as well as theoretical study, including supervised experience as part of professional pre-service education.

Service learning: A course or competency-based, credit-bearing educational experience in which students (a) participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community needs and (b) reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and (c) an enhanced sense of civic responsibility.

Student teaching: A student in pre-professional and pre-service teacher education who is gaining required and evaluated experience in supervised teaching.

Study abroad: Students earn academic credit for coursework that occurs outside of one of the fifty states or the District of Columbia.

Identifying Attributes of Experiential Learning in Community Settings

In order to more fully track the richness and variations of students’ experiential learning on their transcripts and to identify which of the experiences occurred substantially in the community, each campus may identify appropriate courses with the following designations. The following formal designators may be applied to any course in the categories noted above. They may be used individually or in combination with each other.

Community-based research: This includes, but is not limited to, field work, e.g., courses in which students complete research in which they collect data in a community setting and/or share findings with community entities in a service-learning course or an internship.
          Approved Transcript Notation: Community Based Research

Service-learning: Courses in which students participate in service learning as defined above.
          Approved Transcript Notation: Organized Community Service Activity

Community: Courses in which students spend a significant amount, e.g., one-third, of their time in a community setting in ways that contribute to learning objectives of the course.
          Approved Transcript Notation: Significant Time in Community Setting

Immersion: Courses in which students are immersed in a culture different from one’s own while extending the study of the course content. Such courses include, but are not limited to, courses taken as part of a study abroad experience. They may also include field work, practica, internships, and all other categories defined above, provided such experiences involve immersion in a culture different from that of the student.
          Approved Transcript Notation: Immersed in Different Culture

Internal Tracking and Reporting

Courses will be identified in such a way that allows for consistent tracking and reporting of enrollments in courses using the categories and attributes listed above.

References

Bringle, R.G., and Hatcher, J.A. (1995). A service-learning curriculum for faculty. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 2, 112-122.

Hawes, G.R., and Hawes, L.S. (1982). The concise dictionary of education. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company.

Approved:
Academic Leadership Council (Oct, 2005)*
          Notations to be reviewed in three years; amended by formal action in the interim
Academic Policies and Procedures Committee (December 2005)
Implemented at IUPUI Effective Spring 2006

---

Procedures for Adding Experiential Learning Notations

Requirement Designations attached to the individual classes will be used to process Experiential Learning notations. These designations in the SIS represent additional requirements that should be met in the completion of a particular class. Requirement Designations must be attached at the class level and will “roll” with Schedule of Classes rollover process into the next same term (i.e. Fall to Fall, Spring to Spring, Summer to Summer).

Steps:

Once all appropriate approvals have taken place at the school dean/chair level, Scheduling Officer for course department will notify Office of the Registrar which EL notation(s) should be attached to which class(es)  (See list of approved notations below.)  This will be done via the normal Schedule Proof/Schedule build process.

• Once all appropriate approvals have taken place at the school dean/chair level, Scheduling Officer for course department will notify Office of the Registrar which EL notation(s) should be attached to which class(es) (See list of approved notations below.) Scheduling Officer should also designate which EL category this class fits (i.e., Internship, Practicum, Field Work, Service Learning, etc.) (See list of report codes below). These steps will be done via the normal Schedule Proof/Schedule Build process.
• Registrar’s Office will add appropriate EL Requirement Designation and Report Code when building Schedule of Classes.
• Registrar will add Department Consent required, when requested.
• Registrar will add a Class Note so the special requirement is listed when student’s do a class search. By using a Class Note, in searching for a class using either the on-line Schedule of Classes from the Registrar website or within the SIS application, a student will see the following for classes with an attached EL Requirement Designation:
  

• Once all appropriate approvals have taken place at the school dean/chair level, Scheduling Officer for course department will notify Office of the Registrar which EL notation(s) should be attached to which class(es) (See list of approved notations below.) Scheduling Officer should also designate which EL category this class fits (i.e., Internship, Practicum, Field Work, Service Learning, etc.) (See list of report codes below). These steps will be done via the normal Schedule Proof/Schedule Build process.
• Registrar’s Office will add appropriate EL Requirement Designation and Report Code when building Schedule of Classes.
• Registrar will add Department Consent required, when requested.
• Registrar will add a Class Note so the special requirement is listed when student’s do a class search. By using a Class Note, in searching for a class using either the on-line Schedule of Classes from the Registrar website or within the SIS application, a student will see the following for classes with an attached EL Requirement Designation:
  

A Class Note will also be added to the UCOL Learning Communities block classes if there is at least one class as part of that block that has a community-based requirement.

Once enrolled, students will see the following notation on their study list:

• At final grade processing, faculty member will be required to record a course grade along with notating whether the EL requirement was satisfied.

Sample Grade Roster for a class with a Requirement Designation attached:

• A RD Grade designation of “Satisfied” indicates the student satisfied the requirement and the appropriate note will appear on the official transcript under the class and grade.
• A RD Grade designation of “No Satisfy” indicates the student did not satisfy the requirement. The class and grade will appear on the official transcript, as usual, but there will be no additional note concerning the Requirement Designation.

Notes will appear on the student transcript as follows:

---

The following Experiential Learning Notations have been approved and are in SIS Production. These will be used by the Office of the Registrar for tracking and reporting data related to Experiential Learning Designations:

Table for EL Requirement Designations (as of March 22, 2006):

Designation	50-char Formal Description (note that will appear on transcript)
EL01	Community Based Research
EL02	Organized Community Service Activity
EL03	Significant Time in Community Setting
EL04	Immersed in Different Culture
Designations below are numbered and set up as combinations of the 4 approved notations above in order to designate two EL notations, when appropriate.
EL12	Community Based Resrch & Org'd Community Service	EL1 & EL2
EL13	Significant Time in Community Based Research	EL1 & EL3
EL14	Community Based Research  in Different Culture	EL1 & EL4
EL23	Significant Time in Organized Community Service	EL2 & EL3
EL24	Org'd Community Service Immersed in Diff Culture	EL2 & EL4
EL34	Significant Community Time Immersed in Diff Culture	EL3 & EL4

The following report codes will be used by the Office of the Registrar for tracking and reporting data related to Experiential Learning Categories: 

Course Attribute	Attribute Values	Description/Formal Description
RPCD	INE1	Clinical Education
RPCD	INE2	Cooperative Education
RPCD	INE3	Field Work
RPCD	INE4	Internship
RPCD	INE5	Practicum
RPCD	INE6	Service Learning
RPCD	INE7	Student Teaching
RPCD	INE8	Study Abroad

---

Individual Student Requirement Designation

In special cases where it is determined that an Experiential Learning notation should be added for an individual student, a Requirement Designation can be added by the Registrar via Enrollment Request.

ü      If rosters have not been created for the term, drop/add form with instructor and department chair signature (sign on Dean’s signature line) should be submitted noting which EL should be added to which class.

ü      If rosters have been created, the course department should submit a Grade Change form with all appropriate signatures, requesting that the appropriate EL Requirement be added to an individual student’s enrollment.  On the Grade Change form, request a grade change from blank to appropriate Requirement Designation code and complete the Reason for Change section. 

Experiential Learning Procedures
Quick Reference 

ü     Department determines class qualifies for special experiential learning notation and notifies Registrar via Schedule Build process or email to Mary Anne Black
o       Include which requirement designation should be added
o       Appropriate report code (is class an internship, field work, practicum, etc.)

ü      Registrar adds appropriate EL notation, class note, report code, and department consent if requested. 

ü      Class note appears in class search and designation appears on student study list once enrolled. 

ü      Report codes and Requirement Designation codes will be used to run reports on the types of course and notations being used. 

ü      Final grade rosters created at end of term with field for course grade and field for requirement “grade” (satisfied or not satisfied). 

ü      Faculty member submits grade roster with both grades. 

ü      Course grade will appear on official transcript
o       If student satisfies experiential learning requirement, notation will appear under class.
o       If student does not satisfy, only course grade will appear.