Ball State University
IN-4: Innovation 4

Immersive learning, the heart of a Ball State education, melds content, skills, societal need, and your interests into an intense, transformative experience. Immersive learning pulls together interdisciplinary student teams that solve problems for community partners. The result is a final product that enhances the community with a lasting impact. Students have created business plans, Web sites, documentaries, content and applications for emerging media, publications, and much more. Not only do students make a difference for a business or nonprofit organization, they can advance their career, making connections and showing employers that they have real-world experience. With immersive learning, we are preparing our students to graduate with the critical thinking, global knowledge, and self-direction they need to compete in the marketplace. Immersive learning takes students off campus, throughout Indiana, and sometimes around the world. Immersive learning experiences at Ball State have most or all of the following characteristics: •carry academic credit •engage participants in an active learning process that is student-driven but guided by a faculty mentor •produce a tangible outcome or product, such as a business plan, policy recommendation, book, play, or DVD •involve at least one team of students, often working on a project that is interdisciplinary in nature •include community partners and create an impact on the larger community as well as on the student participants •focus on student learning outcomes •help students define a career path or make connections to a profession or industry