From the Provost

Preparing Students for the Future of Work

November 11, 2025

Across campus this fall, experiential learning (EL) is expanding in both scope and impact, connecting classroom knowledge with real-world application and transforming how students learn, lead, and contribute. This effort isn’t new at IU Bloomington; it’s part of who we are. What’s happening now marks a new level of alignment and ambition. Faculty, staff, and partners across campus are working together to make experiential learning an even more defining feature of an IU education.  

Expanding opportunity through experience

Experiential learning takes many forms: research, service, internships, creative work, global engagement, and more. As the nature of work evolves, these experiences help students develop essential skills—critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and adaptability—that prepare them not just for their first job, but for a lifetime of learning and leadership. 

Ongoing programs like Student Teaching, Diplomacy Lab, Rural Scholars Program, Kelley School of Business Consulting Workshop, and Education Abroad have grounded IU students in vital, hands-on practice for many years. Today, new initiatives are expanding how students engage with experiential learning.  

• The K+M Collective will connect students from Kelley School of Business, The Media School, and the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design with real-world consulting projects.  
• The KIX Lab (Kinetic Immersion and Extended Reality) will offer students hands-on experience with immersive technologies for work in AI, digital storytelling, and extended reality.  
• In Spring 2026, IU Bloomington will launch the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) program—a hallmark Student Success initiative and a major milestone in expanding experiential learning—made possible by the generous support of IU alumnus Dr. Anand Deshpande. 
  
  Unlike traditional undergraduate research, VIPs bring together long-term, multidisciplinary teams—from second-year students through post-docs—to collaborate on applied research and public-facing projects that span multiple years. Faculty mentors can connect VIP teams to ongoing research or launch new initiatives that address real-world challenges, giving students meaningful, sustained roles in advancing ideas that matter. 
  
  Students and faculty from any school can participate, with applications opening in Spring 2026. More details will follow as plans take shape. 

And there are more interdisciplinary programs to come. Together, these efforts signal a new era of experiential learning at IU Bloomington—one grounded in creativity, collaboration, and meaningful action. 

Building a shared framework

A new Experiential Learning Framework, shaped by faculty and staff, serves as the foundation for how we’re expanding and elevating experiential learning across campus. It provides a unified system for categorizing and coding EL experiences, ensuring they are automatically captured in students’ records. 

Building on this framework, we’re creating a new Experiential Learning Record, which will launch with the Fall 2026 class. Similar to a transcript, this official IU document will capture each student’s applied learning journey, updated every semester, and students can share it with advisors, mentors, and employers. All designated activities will automatically feed into the record, so students won’t need to take any extra steps to have their experiences reflected.  

These efforts feature campus-wide collaboration and shared vision. I want to recognize Paige Andersson, Senior Assistant Vice Provost for Experiential Learning & Outreach, whose leadership has been instrumental in building the framework and systems behind this work.  

What’s ahead

This fall, the Office of Undergraduate Education is developing workshops to support faculty and staff creating co-curricular opportunities and seeking the Experiential Learning Activity (ELA) designation. In January, the School of Public Health-Bloomington will pilot the framework within curricular design. The College of Arts and Sciences is already leading in scaling undergraduate research and coding courses accordingly, while a campus-wide group is improving how we track and reflect on community-engaged learning. 

Looking ahead, we are continuing to explore making experiential learning a formal part of every IU Bloomington student’s journey—ensuring every graduate gains the skills, confidence, and perspective that come from applying learning in meaningful contexts. 

Our goal is clear: to make experiential learning universal, visible, and transformative. From the first year to graduation, every student should have the opportunity to connect what they learn to who they want to become, and every faculty member should have the support to make that connection possible. 

In the months ahead, we’ll see these efforts come to life across classrooms, labs, and communities, demonstrating what’s possible when innovation and experience intersect.