Experience

people playing in fountain

A foundation of Ignatian pedagogy is that students need to experience the course material emotionally, to internalize the material so that it goes beyond an intellectual exercise. On the next page, we have gathered experiential assignment ideas from Seattle University courses. However, this isn't to suggest that you need to come up with entirely new assignments. With a little thought, you can usually transform your current activities to be more experiential. Below are some simple ideas for making your assignments, discussions and other activities more experiential.

IDEAS FROM FACULTY WHO TEACH ONLINE:

Using Personal Experiences: "I usually provide an example, case study or illustration of a topic. Then I ask students to provide their own illustrations of the topic from personal experience.”

Respond from a Different Perspective: “I ask groups to discuss the practical implications of the readings by viewing it from an alternate perspective and writing about how their imagined personas would be impacted by the ideas put forth in the readings.”

ASSIGNMENT EXAMPLE
Purely Intellectual	Experiential
ASSIGNMENT: Inflation Pros and Cons Citing examples from this week's readings, provide: 3 advantages of inflation 3 disadvantages of inflation Include specific examples for each. Please keep your response to between 500 - 750 words.	ASSIGNMENT: Inflation Pros and Cons In your assigned group, you will write a short (<4 min) reader's theater script and then record it to share with the class. The dialogue in this script should illustrate the impact of the rate of inflation (or deflation) on the people involved. Please include both positive and negative impacts. For example, characters might include: Restaurant owner Pension fund manager First-time home buyer A woman on a fixed income raising her grandchildren A couple with three teenage children and college savings account Worker in a company with stiff overseas competition

DISCUSSION EXAMPLE
Purely Intellectual	Experiential
DISCUSSION: Should Pluto be considered a planet? Do you think Pluto should be considered a planet? Why or why not? Please site the evidence and arguments provided by both astrophysicists and planetary scientists from this week's article in your response.	DISCUSSION: Should Pluto be considered a planet? We see from this week's article that astrophysicists and planetary scientists disagree about what makes a planet and that both views are reasonable and scientifically valid. The author suggests that we may not yet know enough to define what a planet is or isn’t at all. How valuable do you feel it is to have a working definition of a planet? What are the impacts (positive and/or negative) of not having a working definition at this point? In your lifetime, can you think of a time when the scientific consensus about something has changed? How did people react? Why do you think ambiguity is so challenging?

DISCUSSION EXAMPLE
Quiz Alternatives
Quiz Online quizzes have their uses. However, if you find yourself relying only on quizzes to test your students' grasp of course concepts, consider these alternatives: Concept Map Students take keywords about a concept and then organize them into a map by drawing and explaining the connections between the keywords. Pass the Pointer Provide a complex, intricate, or detailed image of a concept and ask students to identify key features or pose questions about items they don’t understand. One-Minute Papers Students write for one minute on a specific question, which might be generalized to “what was the most important thing you learned today.” Best used at the end of the class session. Muddiest Point Similar to the Minute Paper activity (above), but asks for the “most confusing” point instead. Pre-class Questions Students submit questions about the reading or other course material to a list before class for discussion. Storyboard Concepts Students visualize and arrange a sequence of events to tell a story, analyze a problem, or explain a multi-step concept. If you need more ideas, check out the CDLI Learning Activities page.

Experience

ASSIGNMENT: Inflation Pros and Cons

ASSIGNMENT: Inflation Pros and Cons

DISCUSSION: Should Pluto be considered a planet?

DISCUSSION: Should Pluto be considered a planet?