Connecting Coursework to Life Through Community-Based Learning and VR

Among the most fundamental promises education makes is this: What you learn here, on campus, will help you when you’re out there, in the world. Learning researchers call this far transfer, describing the process by which students take a skill and apply it in another class, in an internship, or even in their careers after college.

But what does it look like when that far transfer is part of the class itself? In community-based learning, professors embed their courses in real-world contexts, creating partnerships with organizations who have real needs connected to the course material.

Notre Dame’s Wendy Angst has long embraced this approach to teach design thinking and business consulting, and she has now amplified it to a whole new level with the help of virtual reality (VR) technology. The result has been to give her students an unforgettable experience that makes an impact far beyond their classroom.

Key Topics Discussed:

• How coming from an industry background motivated Wendy to incorporate hands-on consulting work into her teaching
• The evolution of her Innovation & Design Thinking course to build a robust partnership with Saint Bakhita Vocational Training Center in Northern Uganda, starting with an eventful trip there in March 2020
• Working with ND Learning’s Office of Digital Learning to use VR to bring the experience of being on the ground in Uganda to more Notre Dame students
• The businesses in Uganda that have grown out of student-partner projects in the course
• How VR builds empathy and understanding among the large number of students who do not actually go to Uganda—but also among those who do
• Lessons Wendy has taken away from years of leading community-based learning and advice she’d give instructors looking to get started with it

Guest Bio: Wendy Angst is the Michael & Melanie Neumann Director of the Powerful Means Initiative and a teaching professor in the Department of Management & Organization at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. She also serves as the director of undergraduate studies for the impact consulting minor and has been instrumental in shaping experiential learning opportunities that empower students to drive meaningful social impact and grow the good in business.

Resources Mentioned:

• More About the VR Immersion in Wendy’s Class
• Office of Digital Learning’s Digital Learning Sprints Program
• Project Partner Website: Saint Bakhita Vocational Training Center
• Episode Transcript (PDF)

Designed for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu/podcast. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn.