Experiential and Collaborative Learning (ECL)

Experiential and Collaborative Learning (ECL)

For NTU to truly deliver a holistic university education that can develop attributes and competences required by our students to be successful in the future world, Experiential and Collaborative Learning (ECL) must be a key pillar in our education strategy. The ECL approach inspires students to develop an innate desire to explore and create, and an astute attitude towards risk taking, which they may not easily acquire through conventional didactic teaching and learning.

Experiential learning is conceptualised as a learning cycle consisting of the following four stages:

Kolb's cycle of experiential learning

Collaborative learning, on the other hand, presents a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together, and when effectively carried out, nurtures both individual accountability and positive interdependence.


The ECL Office will support stakeholders in NTU in the following ways to allow ECL to be an integral part of NTU Education:

  • Identify best practices in ECL through engagement with various Schools and student-facing departments
  • Explore new pedagogical approaches and modes of assessment relevant to ECL
  • Integrate successfully piloted ECL pedagogies into the core of the revamped Curriculum and Co-Curriculum Framework
  • Develop a framework to capture and record student learning and skills developed through ECL
  • Formulate a system of appraisal (teaching / service component) to encourage active contribution by faculty

Students who have been positively engaged in ECL will be able to:

  • Carry out critical reflection as a component of meaningful learning
  • Meet demands for self-directed inquiry to address real-world problems
  • Take on innovation with a more risk-resilient frame of mind
  • Identify relevant collaborators and work effectively with them
  • Develop emotional intelligence and ethical sensitivity
  • Better embrace lifelong learning

These include professional internships, overseas programmes, projects and fieldwork, and other efforts to forge synergies between research, innovation and entrepreneurship. Some examples are

  • Undergraduate Research Experience on Campus
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Internship
  • Work Study Degree
  • Minor in Design and Systems Thinking
  • NTU Makers' labs/Making and Tinkering courses
URECA
Internships
makers lab

They are currently administered by Schools and Departments in NTU, and the ECL Office will help to align them to frameworks and systems to enhance pedagogical outcomes of these practices.

Leveraging the vibrant student life experiences, ECL opportunities have been structured and designed with learning outcomes to develop students beyond simply taking part in co-curricular activities, be it in clubs, societies or halls of residence. Some examples are

  • Residential Education
  • Community Engagement
  • Student Leadership Development
  • Student Life Activities
Experiential and Collaborative Learning activity
Experiential and Collaborative Learning activity
Experiential and Collaborative Learning activity

The ECL Office will work with Schools and Departments in NTU that are overseeing these activities, to incorporate successfully piloted pedagogical frameworks.

NTU’s emphasis on holistic education necessitates the blurring of the curricular and co-curricular domains’ boundaries. The ECL Office will engage Schools and Departments involved in learning activites that straddle both domains to establish seamless developmental scaffolds and pathways. 

These include: 

  • DEEP Scaffold
  • Global Citizenship Pathway
  • Career Preparation Pathway
Experiential and Collaborative Learning DEEP activity
Experiential and Collaborative Learning prototypes
Experiential and Collaborative Learning activity