February 25, 2021Immersion, High-Impact Practices, and the Power of Combinationsby Phillip MotleyWe can thank George Kuh and colleagues at the Association of American Colleges & Universities for initially proposing the idea of “high-impact practices” (HIPs) as exemplar components of a college student’s learning experience in the AA&U publication, High-Impact Educational Practices: What…
November 16, 2020How We Describe Immersive Learning Experiencesby Phillip MotleyInterviewing teaching faculty about the pedagogies they use in their courses has been one of my primary methods of collecting data for my exploration of immersive learning practices in higher education. With each interview, I learn more about the range…
September 10, 2020COVID-19: An Unexpected Adversary—and Ally—for Immersive Learning Researchby Phillip MotleyI was on sabbatical in the spring semester of 2019 and thus escaped much of the turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic that affected students and teachers alike at Elon University and most other institutions of higher education. While my colleagues…
August 25, 2020Service-learning/Community Engagement Opportunities and Immersive Learningby Phillip MotleyLike many higher education institutions, Elon University is many things, including a place of opportunity and possibility. Since my last blog post, I was selected to serve as Elon’s next Faculty Fellow for Service-Learning and Community Engagement (SL-CE). By itself,…
May 8, 2020Research on Immersive Learning: How to Know When Enough is Enough?by Phillip MotleyIn short order, I’ll have collected close to 25 interviews with colleagues who are involved in some way with immersive learning. Most of the interviews are with Elon faculty and staff, but a few are from colleagues at other institutions….
April 7, 2020Immersion is a Structure, and a Constructby Phillip MotleyThe coronavirus pandemic has slowed, but not stopped, my investigation of immersive learning practices in higher education. In particular, my plans to conduct in-person interviews of university teaching faculty about their experiences with immersive learning have been delayed. However, due…
March 10, 2020Defining the Characteristics of Immersive Learningby Phillip MotleyAttempting to fully define the characteristics of immersive learning is a distinct challenge. What pedagogies count and which ones don’t? Is there a specific line in the sand that demarcates what is and isn’t immersive learning, and if so, where…
February 13, 2020Curricular Structures That Facilitate Immersive Learningby Phillip MotleyAs part of my exploration of pedagogies that constitute immersive learning, it is hard to ignore Elon University’s robust use of a specific curricular structure: our winter term. Every January at Elon, students can elect to enroll in a single,…
December 10, 2019Immersive Learning at ISSOTLby Phillip Motley My previous two blog posts on immersive learning have touched on experiences that I am directly involved with at Elon University. While I feel strongly that both approaches to teaching and learning are clear examples of immersive…
October 30, 2019The Design Thinking Studio in Social Innovationby Phillip Motley In the spring semester of 2017, four faculty members and fourteen students at Elon University embarked on an immersive semester exploration of using design thinking tools and processes to address social challenges in the community surrounding the…