Experiential Learning at UD

By Rhyan Pearson

While COVID-19 may change how we interact with one another, both academic and extracurricular activities are continuing. The Office of Experiential Learning reached out to experiential learning practitioners from around UD to gather some tips for faculty and staff on how to best utilize resources and adapt to online learning and education. A comprehensive list of tips can also be found on our website here. Please see below for what UD colleagues had to say:

• “Have realistic expectations for us and the students.”
  • Dr. Yvonne Sun, Biology
• “If I had been able to plan for remote EL during this health crisis, I would try to consider the needs of children cooped up at home...I think UD students would be great at producing materials for kids to watch online, whether that was reading books to kids, making kid-friendly work out videos, leading an art/craft activity, working through homework, or just talking.”
  • Dr. Melissa Layman-Guadalupe, Psychology
• “I've adopted an asynchronous approach and give each student an acting prompt each week. They have the full week to record and submit through Isidore. They are also required to watch their team members and objectively critique each recording. So far they seem engaged in their recordings and I've yet to see their observation responses but my hopes are high.”
  • Jerome Yorke, Theatre
• “Since we're not doing that fieldwork in-person, we have started to assemble materials to learn and train how to do the work over the phone and on video conference. Questions like, how do we build trust and establish relationships with people when we can't sit down next to them? Things like that, as well as hopefully produce a virtual/digital exhibit unless we're able to travel at some point in the next school year.”
  • Dr. Joel Pruce, Political Science, Moral Courage Project
• “One needs to think outside the box. This semester I am on sabbatical and I was working with one of my senior students remotely and we were able to write an article that will be published this Fall in a popular press magazine.”
  • Dr. Peter Titlebaum, Health and Sports Science
• “I’ve just been adding breakout rooms for each team within the Zoom meetings, giving time for the students to work on the active learning exercises related to their projects.”
  • Dr. Sandy Furterer, Engineering Management, Systems, and Technology
• “As far as tips for remote experiential learning... I'm still trying to figure things out myself. What comes to mind is being willing to try new things and also asking students what would be most useful (and doable) with their time. For example, in my film festival class, we were going to make a trailer this month... However, not everyone has access to the same resources so I'm going to send out a survey to see what's possible. A part of that survey will be a space for students to suggest ideas and deliverables that they can realistically do.”
  • Jesseca Ynez Simmons, Communication

You may also want to consider the following questions as we continue to learn and adapt our methods:

• How can you continue research and remote advocacy?
• Do you need to consider new communication methods to interact with students and facilitate discussion and reflection?
• How can you volunteer remotely?

If you have any tips for learning remotely or adapting EL experiences to a digital method, please let us know by emailing the Office of Experiential Learning at OEL@udayton.edu, and check out updates and stories we’re telling on our social media @ud_experientiallearning, as well as more detailed student stories on our YouTube channel.

All remote learning content we publicize will be collected and published on our Remote Learning Transition page.

"What's the Word" episode featuring Senior Adam Roman about a virtual campus tour: