My first summer experience as a Center for Engaged Learning (CEL) Student Scholar began like a dance rehearsal full of uncertainty and curiosity. As a dancer, I’m used to entering unfamiliar spaces, hearing unfamiliar music, and trying to make sense of counts, movement, and intention. The early stages are always…

In a recent blog post, the three inaugural Center for Engaged Learning (CEL) Student Scholars responded to an invitation to document their experiences engaging in CEL’s 2021-2023 research seminar, Re-Examining Conditions for Meaningful Learning Experiences. During their preparation for the…

As defined by the Center’s website, “the Center for Engaged Learning (CEL) Student Scholar program is a three-year, mentored opportunity for students to collaborate with Elon University faculty and staff on CEL’s international, multi-institutional research on specific engaged learning topics….

When the Center for Engaged Learning releases calls for applications for our research seminars, we often field questions about how many people can apply from an institution and how the multi-institutional research seminars support institutional research. Many applicants are the…

by Tim Peeples

Finding time, space, and resources to conduct and manage one’s own research, honing effective research questions and methodologies, and reporting results are all difficult enough. Why complicate this intellectual work by pursuing multi-institutional collaborations? And if one chooses to pursue such collaborations, how can they be best organized, managed, and resourced to succeed?

Multi-institutional research is not at all new. The numbers engaged in this kind of research grew after World War II, with the rise of “big science” and the support of national and international agencies and institutes, primarily in the sciences. The numbers have grown even more, increasingly crossing educational and cooperate lines, supported by enhanced computational and communications technologies.

Still, much remains to be learned about the benefits, costs, and best practices of multi-institutional research. And even today, very few are engaged in multi-institutional research outside of the sciences. What do we know, what do we need to know, how can we enhance this work, and is it worth pursuing, specifically in fields outside the sciences and around questions of engaged learning, broadly writ?