ELA Required Characteristics

Learning outcomes specific to the ELA are clearly outlined in syllabus or program materials, are central to the course or program’s design, and have clear methods for assessment.

• Career competencies should be intentionally integrated, helping students make meaningful connections between academic learning and professional skill development.
• Learning outcomes may be phrased in more discipline-relevant terms than the core ELA Learning Outcomes, but these should still be present in spirit.

Preparation that provides students with the essential background knowledge, orientation, and skill-building they need to engage in experiences thoughtfully, ethically, and with meaningful purpose.

• Contextual background: Offering historical, cultural, or social context relevant to the experience or community involved.
• Logistical orientation: Informing students of practical details such as schedules, locations, safety protocols, and expectations for conduct.
• Skill development: Teaching specific skills needed for the experience (e.g., communication, conflict resolution, teamwork, or technical tools).
• Goals and intention setting: Helping students articulate personal or academic goals and how they align with the experience.

Development of original products, novel project outcomes, or work integrated learning, including:

• Final project, report, publication, presentation, exhibition, performance, or paper delivered to a public audience
• Product, plan, or other tangible outcome delivered to a client or community
• Direct employment or leadership that requires meaningful participation in work and/or civic practices.

Mentorship that provides meaningful opportunities for

• Feedback: Students have regular opportunities to receive feedback, including a final assessment, from an IU faculty or staff mentor, or their delegate, with the expertise necessary to provide supportive guidance throughout the experience.
• Professional network development: Mentorship should facilitate a student’s ability to take the next step in their career by developing a network within and beyond the university.

Reflection activities that encourage students to make connections between new perceptions of self, their learning, and its broader applications.

• There is a wealth of scholarship on best practices in reflection, particularly in community engaged learning. See here.
• Include experience, critical exercises, and reflective practices that prepare students for public/civic life by providing opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of:
  • ethical principles, implications of their actions, and different ethical perspectives within their academic discipline and/or broader community;
  • their role as professionals in broader civic systems, communities, and society.

Study Abroad

• By virtue of an existing university-wide approval process already in place for education abroad programs, those associated courses and programs will continue to follow the process for approval set by the Education Abroad office.  
• If your course or program abroad or with an international component carries multiple activity types (e.g., community engagement or work-based learning), then we ask that you also fill out the ELA application for campus data and tracking purposes.

Study Away

• The program includes travel that promotes learning in the context of regional or local cultures within the United States.
• A comprehensive contingency and safety plan has been developed with emergency protocols and plans outlined for students and program staff.
• Students should receive pre-departure training and on-going support throughout the program.

Project-based Activities

• Students are actively involved in identifying real-world problems, challenges, or issues that lack predefined solutions or outcomes at the beginning of the project.
• Students engage in sustained inquiry to generate new knowledge and/or innovative or entrepreneurial solutions to complex problems.
• Note: Approval of role-immersive activities (e.g., RTTF), simulations, gaming, and tabletop exercises may depend on the specific nature of the topic, activity, and its role in the course or co-curricular experience. Additionally, a single class session of a role-immersive activity likely does not meet the threshold to receive an ELA designation.

Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

• The undergraduate research or creative activity project holds the potential to contribute meaningfully to the scholarly or artistic field within the discipline.
• The undergraduate research or creative activity project adheres to ethical guidelines for the responsible conduct of research.
  • Projects involving human or animal subjects must undergo IACUC or IRB approval, and both faculty and students must be certified through the appropriate CITI training.
• The undergraduate research or creative activity culminates in a tangible product with a plan for public dissemination through peer-reviewed publications, presentations, exhibitions, or performances. 
• Note: While valuable, an introductory course where students build the skills necessary to embark upon a creative endeavor or engage in an experiment with a known scientific outcome for pedagogical purposes does not meet the ELA definition. Additionally, traditional final research papers likely do not constitute an ELA.

Community Engaged Learning

• The course includes a sustained and meaningful collaboration with a community partner, with clearly defined roles and mutual contributions to the learning experience and partner mission.
• Structured reflection is a course activity intentionally built into the course to help students make meaning of their community experience. Students, faculty, and community partners have opportunities to engage with one another throughout the course.
• The course includes intentional strategies to assess both student learning (e.g., civic growth, self-efficacy, academic understanding) and community outcomes (e.g., responsiveness to community needs), with opportunities for community partners to contribute to the evaluation of student work and course impact.
• Note: While immensely valuable to our society, service that benefits only the community, but not the student (or vice versa), does not meet IU's goals as a recipient of the Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement. Extra-curricular volunteerism, unless mentored by IU staff/faculty with stated learning outcomes, reflection, and oversight, is not co-curricular service learning. Similarly, loosely integrated course-based volunteerism (e.g., volunteerism with unclear or vague connection to course learning outcomes and improper support for community contexts) does not meet the goals of the ELA designation.

Student Leadership

• The leadership role enables students to apply their knowledge and skills to lead a group toward achieving a shared objective.
• The learning outcomes are intentionally designed to support the development of leadership skills. 
• The leadership role fosters multi-directional influence, with meaningful interactions between the student and faculty/staff mentors.
• The leadership role is maintained for the duration of the semester or equivalent time period.

Clinicals, Practica, and Student Teaching

• Criteria should follow accreditation, certification, or licensing requirements.

Internships

• The internship offers students the opportunity to apply knowledge gained in the classroom, with minimal involvement in routine or menial tasks.
• The learning outcomes are designed to support the student’s academic or professional goals. 
• The experience has a defined beginning and end, with a job description and desired qualifications.
• There is supervision by a professional with relevant expertise who provides routine feedback. If offsite, this person communicates with and provides final assessment for IU mentor.

Student Employment

• There is a job description with desired qualifications. Job duties might reflect an “all hands on deck” approach or more menial tasks. 
• The learning outcomes include basic career competencies but may not directly reflect the academic or professional goals of the student.   
• There is supervision by a professional with relevant expertise who provides routine feedback to guide student development.
• Student Employment as a designated ELA may occur over one or several semesters, even if employment predates or continues past the more intensive ELA period.
  • We currently only designate on-campus employers, but we hope to extend this to off-campus employers soon.