Learn beyond classrooms with Experiential Education and Learning

By Bryce Johnson •

All first-time-in-college students at NSU must earn six Experiential Education and Learning units throughout their undergraduate studies.
First-Year Experience, or UNIV 1000, is a required course and counts for one ExEL unit.

“There are two routes. Students can earn them through the ExEL approved courses. At this point, I think we have over 200 courses that are approved for ExEL,” said Jeff Hartman, director of Experiential Education and Learning & First-Year Experience. “And then we have, I’d say maybe two dozen or so, co-curricular experiences that are also approved for ExEL.”

The ExEL units are designed for students to reflect on past learning and experiences, and to be able to apply that to future instances outside of class.

“In UNIV 1000, we asked students to do Beyond the Classroom because we want them to experience engagement on campus and then write about it. What were they expecting; what did they learn from the experience; is it something they would do again?” Hartman said. “It’s asking students to practice the art of reflection in order to think about what they’ve learned and how they can apply that to future decision making.”
Each ExEL course qualifies for one unit. For a course to qualify for an ExEL unit, departments have to submit it for the approval process. If it meets all the qualifications, then it can become an ExEL course.

“We try really hard to make sure that we have a good representation across disciplines so that a student in any major or any minor has a handful of courses they can choose from,” Hartman said.

If a student takes a regular course, and that course later becomes eligible for an ExEL unit after they’ve already taken it, they would not automatically receive that ExEL unit.

“It’s a good possibility that some of the experiential learning elements that we want in the course didn’t exist. So it has to be from the date of approval-after, and then students can earn that,” Hartman said.

Students can also earn ExEL units through co-curricular experiences, which can be internships, community service and more. Completing 40 experiential hours counts toward one unit, while completing 80 or more counts for two.

“Any community service type activity are usually things that are done with a community partner, and those are coordinated through SLCE [Student Leadership and Civic Engagement],” Hartman said.

Students at Mako Media Network, formerly Student Media, can also earn up to two units a semester if they work for MMN.

“It’s a great opportunity for students academically and an incentive for Mako Media staff,” Chris Delboni, MMN director, said.
For more information on ExEL units, including what courses and co-curricular activities are available, students can visit the website at undergrad.nova.edu/experiential-learning.

“I think it’s a good idea for students to consider doing some coursework and some extracurricular experiences because it gets them out of a classroom. They can apply some of the concepts and learning that they’re doing in the classroom into real life experiences,” Hartman said.