CEL facilitates multi-institutional research on engaged learning topics. Participants from institutions around the world collaborate over three years, producing scholarship that shapes research and practice globally.
CEL is home to two book series. In addition, CEL research seminars and other initiatives have produced 100+ publications (to date).
CEL’s concise guides offer research-informed practices for engaged learning.
CEL’s concise guides offer practical strategies for studying engaged learning.
CEL brings together international leaders in higher education to develop, synthesize, and share rigorous research on central questions about student learning.
The CEL Scholar role and CEL Student Scholars program enable Elon faculty and students to deepen their understanding of and professional development in scholarly activity on engaged learning.
Engle, Lilli, and John Engle. 2003. "Study Abroad Levels: Toward a Classification of Program Types." Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad 9 (1): 1-20.
In basic terms, this article is helpful in how it describes study away experiences using five levels, with full immersion representing the highest level of learning engagement. More importantly, the article does a good job of demonstrating comparable differences in the range of study away experiences that a typical college student might have. The authors suggest that deeply immersive experiences, such as ones that involve home stays, language challenges, and/or community-based interactions or professional internships, provide students with deeper levels of learning engagement on a variety of fronts than ones in which students live in co-housing or take classes in their primary language. The article also discusses the value of authentic cultural engagement and the need for guided reflective processing to help students make sense of potentially dissonant experiences.
Hartman, Eric, Richard Kiely, Christopher Boettcher, and Jessica Friedrichs. 2018. Community-Based Global Learning: The Theory and Practice of Ethical Engagement at Home and Abroad. . Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.
Hartman et al. make a strong case for responsible community-based learning of all forms, but specifically for engagement that takes place between students and universities and their international community partners. And, although this book does not explicitly focus on immersive practices, there are numerous examples of deeply immersive learning experiences throughout many of the chapters. Many of the examples provided demonstrate many of the components of immersive learning as defined in this resource including authentic, place-based engagement, the need for heightened student agency, students reckoning with dissonant experiences, and the need for reflection as a method of sense–making.
Inks, Scott, and Ramon Avila. 2008. "Preparing the Next Generation of Sales Professionals through Social, Experiential, and Immersive Learning Experiences." Journal for Advancement of Marketing Education 13 (1): 47-55.
This article focuses on designing student–directed, authentic, community-based learning experiences for students and the need for an active facilitative guide from a faculty member. This article draws nuanced learning engagement distinctions between types of work-integrated learning experiences and models of service learning. It also points out interesting differences between the immersive learning experiences as described in the article and internships stating that in the former students benefit from the active and continual involvement by a faculty member in ways that aren’t part of the typical internship experience. The article further defines the team-based approach of the designed immersive learning experience and the inherent value of students experiencing and learning from the authentic, partnered work together.
Lave, Jean, and Etienne Wenger. 1991. Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
This book is an essential text for anyone interested in the theory that all learning is situated in a specific context and that placing students in learning environments that most closely approximate the specific nature of the learning goals of the experience is beneficial. Lave and Wenger give support for the idea that providing students with opportunities for authentic engagement within a specific topic or domain can be the best way for them to connect abstract, disciplinary knowledge to an eventual need or applied usage.
Warner, Beth, and Judy Esposito. 2009. "What’s Not in the Syllabus: Faculty Transformation, Role Modeling and Role Conflict in Immersion Service-Learning Courses." International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 20 (3): 510-517.
This article describes immersive learning in the context of international service learning (or domestic service learning that happens away from the local community surrounding an institution) where students and faculty live and work together in a deeply immersive environment. The article is careful to articulate the difference in international or away service learning, where the immersion is constant, with localized experiences where the service learning experience is socketed into a student’s day. The article also discusses the value and need of the instructor working in close proximity to students as a facilitative guide to the learning experience.
