CELT community based learning initiative focuses on engaging learners with the surrounding community. The benefits for students are invaluable. The learners get to know the target community up-close - their potential future employers. They learn to negotiate with partners, to determine and meet their needs, and to present solutions to real and complicated problems. In turn, the target community benefits by having their projects, which need much time, effort and work force, done for them by students and their teachers. Examples on such projects are media campaign designs, English supplementary materials for grades 1-4, parking space planning in Nablus city, website design for NGOs, etc.
In August 2013, The Center for Excellence, as part of its effort to both improve the learning opportunity for ANU students and to serve the surrounding community, launched a community based learning program. The program included the planning, design and implementation for 10 CBL courses from the faculties of Education, Engineering, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Humanities, and Economics and Social Sciences. The implementation of the 10 courses was completed in May, 2014.
The Center for Excellence is now helping implement 10 new courses during Fall 2014. Faculty members who are interested in using this new pedagogy will find useful information on CBL course designs, sample CBL courses, contact information for potential community partners, and other useful materials.
