As part of experiential learning at IUB, instructors and departments can apply for the community engaged learning course designation. The purpose of the designation is to design impactful courses based on evidence based teaching, help students seek and find these courses when they register for classes, and for campus to track these high-impact practices. Designated courses receive a notation in the schedule of classes and are easily identified by students who visit our Take CEL Courses page
Faculty are encouraged to review the ELA Evaluation CEL Activity Type Rubric and consult with the Service-Learning Program before submitting a course for designation. Two consultation tracks are available:
- Track A: New CEL Course Development
Faculty designing new community-engaged courses can meet with SLP staff for support aligning course goals, community partnerships, student preparation, and reflection with the CEL rubric.
- Track B: Redesign of Previously Designated Courses
Faculty updating courses that previously held a CEL or similar designation can work with SLP to revise the syllabus to meet new criteria and clarify where past practice meets current expectations.
SLP support may include:
- Reviewing draft syllabi or assignments
- Offering guidance on partner integration
- Providing examples or models
- Helping map course elements to the ELA Evaluation CEL Activity Type Rubric
Consultation is optional but highly encouraged to strengthen submissions and ensure alignment before review. Schedule a consultation with Michael Valliant in the CITL Service-Learning Program.
Per IU Bloomington's experiential learning framework, a course qualifies for the CEL Experiential Learning Activity (ELA) designation when it has satisfied all required ELA characteristics plus those specific to the CEL designation.
- 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.