Integrative learning is not a new concept, but it is the latest buzzword among Eastern’s faculty and administration.

“I want it to be a signature of Eastern,” said President Bill Perry. “It will attract students to us.”

Blair Lord, provost and vice president for academic affairs, called integrative learning an “umbrella initiative” to cover the different goals of academic affairs.

A definition of integrative learning was recently drafted specifically as it applies to Eastern.

“Integrative learning entails providing students with coherent curricula, significant learning and life experiences outside of the traditional classroom context and ample opportunity for guided reflection, enabling students to tie the disparate parts of their academic, personal and professional lives into a holistic, transformative university experience,” said Lord at a faculty luncheon earlier this semester.

For students, this could mean an internship, a study abroad experience or any other real life application of class work.

The process is different for every student because, as Perry said, the department faculties know their curriculum best.

“They know how they’ve connected with students in the past, and they know how to further that,” he said.

Recent years have seen growth in several integrative areas, including study abroad.

The program grew from around 30 participants in 2002 to about 300 in 2008-09.

Another rapidly growing program is the service learning initiative.

Lord said the initiative has students do service in the community and connects it to what they are learning in class.

“We have a number of faculty who build service into their curriculum,” Lord said.

Undergraduate research, first-year seminars, writing intensive courses and capstone courses are part of the curriculum-based initiatives.

“(Capstone courses) integrate everything a student has learned before sending them out,” Lord said.

Internships are another element stressed in integrative learning that helps connect coursework with practical experience.

“It gives students a high quality and high impact education,” Lord said.

The integrative learning moniker might be new to the university, but its principles and goals have long been a tradition at Eastern, Perry said.

“We already have a strength in this area,” he said. “We just want to be more intentional about it and take the amount and quality of these programs to the next level.”

The effect of the hands-on learning environment has left an impression on alumni.

“When I speak to alumni, they say they’ve learned life lessons here and connected the academic with the personal elements,” Perry said.

That connection is the main educational goal of the faculty and administrators.

“It all has to knit together,” Perry said. “We’re trying to build the whole student.”

Sarah Ruholl can be reached at 581-7942 or at seruholl2@eiu.edu.