Deborah Oesch-Minor, School of Liberal Arts, and Connie Justice, School of Engineering and Technology
Principal Investigator: Deborah Oesch-Minor, senior lecturer, Department of English, School of Liberal Arts
Co-Principal Investigator(s): Connie Justice, clinical associate professor, director of IT Security Education and Experiential Learning, director of the Living Lab, Department of Computer and Information Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
Project Title: Building Pathways for Cross-Disciplinary, Community-Based Experiential Learning Projects: Bridging W231 Professional Writing Skills and The Living Lab
Funding Level: $5,000
Abstract: W231 Professional Writing Skills and The Living Lab combine project-based curriculums and community-client partnerships to build projects the AAC&U identifies as signature assignments. In W231, students partner with 180+ community clients, conduct 10-weeks of research, then compose formal recommendation reports. The problem is that W231 students do not have opportunities to implement their client-project recommendations. The Living Lab fills this gap. The Living Lab will enable students to bring recommendations to life as they partner a second time with not-for-profits to research, design, prototype, and build technical tools that address workplace challenges. For this CEG intervention, W231 and The Living Lab will join forces to design, create, and implement pathways for W231 students interested in continuing their work with a specific workplace issue from W231 into a Living Lab. The CEG objectives create two unique pathways: a pathway for students and a pathway for community partnerships. Students will meet CEG goals through three distinct phases. The W231/Living Labs CEG will systematize an engaged learning pathway for W231 students, ensure a steady flow of workplace IT projects for Living Lab students, and expand IUPUI's cross-disciplinary course offerings that emphasize HIPs. The W231/Living Lab intervention will provide proof of concept for engaged learning projects that bridge a School of Liberal Arts course with the School of Engineering and Technology. This goal of this pilot project is to create a prototype for other pathways for the 1,000+ W231 students to continue projects in other IUPUI engaged learning environments.