Active Learning Experience (ALE)
Active Learning Experiences are a requirement of the General Education Program and provide opportunities for students to explore interconnections among various venues for learning- courses, labor, service, research, internships, etc. All ALEs must include
- learning through sustained continual engagement in, reflection on, and assessment of experiences;
- the use of knowledge, imagination, and judgment to address questions in a novel context; and
- the exploration of connections between theory and practice, and between learning in courses and from experiences outside the classroom.
Recognizing the tremendous capacity for experiential learning through the Labor Program, the College has determined that students may use a labor assignment as a platform for completion of an ALE in the following ways:
- as an academic course through the Internship Office
or
- as a non-credit experience to satisfy the basic requirement. Proposals must demonstrate a clear and strong connection between the work performed and the academic discipline through which it is studied.
ALEs through the Labor Program require a faculty sponsor and labor supervisor co-sponsor who cooperate with the student in the development, guidance, and assessment of the experience. Labor supervisors are not required to participate in this program, but it provides an added element of learning to the workplace and encourages collaboration between the Academic and Labor Programs.