Both courses and co-curricular programs can qualify for the ELA designation, but each pathway has a separate process for review and approval. Please review the EL framework before applying for the co-curricular designation or engaging in the curricular designation process.
Apply for the ELA Designation
Curricular Designation
In partnership with other unit leaders, undergraduate deans are responsible for identifying appropriate courses for the ELA designation. Class schedulers will then add the relevant course attributes.
Co-Curricular Designation
Faculty/staff mentors are responsible for reviewing the EL framework and applying for the co-curricular ELA designation. Applications for co-curricular ELAs will be considered on a rolling basis.
The university has created definitions and a coding system for both High Impact Practices (HIPs) and Experiential Learning Activities (ELAs), both of which feed into the success metrics for the IUB 2030 Strategic Plan.
At the system-wide level, only HIPs are being tracked. However, IUB has elected to recognize activities beyond the HIP designation and created the additional ELA designation to reflect the types of activities offered at IUB.
Yes, you can assign multiple attributes to one ELA. For example, some of our Sustaining Hoosier Communities courses may carry the attributes of service learning and creative activity (such as designing and painting a mural for one of our rural partner communities). Some experiences abroad may also be internships or community engaged research may also be community-based learning, and so on.
You may also combine ELA course attributes with other course codes. For example, if your project-based ELA is also an example of global learning, we encourage you to use both tags to inform campus metrics and data reporting.
Many IU experiences combine curricular and co-curricular elements. For example, there may be a spring course that is followed by a co-curricular summer research program. We recommend going through both the curricular and co-curricular approval processes, so that the university can track the full extent of your program’s impact. If the co-curricular activity represents the experience itself, and the curricular activity is preparation for that experience, then the ELA designation will likely be tied to the co-curricular portion.
There is currently no campus-level guideline for number of credit hours or length of experience. Refer to the ELA engagement classifications to better understand how the length of experience plays a role in determining the type of engagement.