Work-based learning takes many forms across disciplines, and no single model fits every course or program. The following examples offer flexible approaches that faculty can adapt based on their field, learning outcomes, and students' needs.  

Embedded Course Projects (may span 4-6 weeks of a course)

• Description: External projects or partnerships are embedded into an existing course, allowing students to work individually or in teams to solve real problems and/or produce deliverables.
• Examples: Sociology students partner with a local nonprofit to design and implement a community survey; marketing students develop outreach materials for a regional food co-op. University departments can also submit projects for consideration, for example a branded marketing campaign for a Residence Life initiative; digital toolkit for student teachers; biodiversity map of campus green spaces; and an oral history archive.
• Structure: Faculty coordinate with an external partner (or campus partner) in advance to scope a project aligned with course outcomes. Reflection and connection to course content are built in throughout the semester. Faculty may choose multiple projects and assign teams to complete them.
• Benefits: Encourages students to tackle complex, open-ended challenges that mirror professional work. The model builds problem-solving, communication, and collaboration skills. While many partnerships will be regional or community-based, project-based WBLEs also provide opportunities for students to engage with national or international collaborators.
• Additional Considerations: Project-based learning can happen in co-curricular spaces as well, including in student organizations, or in centers and institutes across campus such as Furious Flower, the Madison Art Collaborative, Center for Civic Engagement, Ethical Reasoning in Action, or the Edith J. Carrier Arboretum.

Community-Engaged Learning (CEL) Model 

• Description: Students engage in structured community-engaged learning and service that addresses a real need, while connecting their experiences back to course content through guided reflection and discussion.
• Examples: Psychology students develop and lead peer wellness workshops in local high schools; environmental science students collaborate with a watershed group on habitat restoration and analyze outcomes in lab reports.
• Structure: Service activities are integrated into course learning objectives, with community partners treated as co-educators. Students engage in sustained service, not just one-time volunteering.
• Benefits: Promotes civic engagement, social responsibility, and deeper understanding of complex community issues. Encourages empathy and systems thinking while reinforcing disciplinary learning.

Add-On or Lab Model

• Description: A 1-credit WBLE component is paired with an existing course. Students complete related out-of-class work (e.g., internships, research, service), get feedback from professionals in the field, and reflect through structured assignments.
• Examples: Economics students partner with a local government agency or nonprofit to analyze real economic data—such as housing trends—and present policy-relevant findings; art and design students assist a community arts organization with preparing exhibitions, creating accessible gallery materials, or managing social media storytelling campaigns—connecting their work to visual culture or art criticism coursework.
• Benefits: Allows for more formal tracking and assessment of work-based learning without redesigning the main course. Helps students make intentional connections between their applied work and academic learning, while enabling faculty to assess learning outcomes related to professional practice.

Full-Course WBLE Model  

• Description: The course itself centers around a WBLE, such as an internship seminar, practicum, or client-based project course that spans the full semester. Students engage in off-campus or hybrid work experiences while completing structured academic components.
• Examples: Media arts students complete internships with local production companies and present portfolios and reflections in a capstone seminar. X-labs' "Re-imagined internships" provides a full-semester course that partners with an industry to solve a problem, then the industry hires some of those students for a paid summer internship. Students in a computer science build a social media app to help people with aphasia keep up with their friends.
• Benefits: Provides students with immersive, real-world experiences directly tied to academic reflection and learning. Especially impactful when strong supervision and structured integration with coursework are in place.

Course Series or Capstone Experience Model

• Description: A set of linked courses builds toward or is structured around WBLEs, often culminating in a capstone, portfolio, or public-facing deliverable.
• Examples: Engineering students complete a two-semester senior design sequence with industry mentorship; English majors move from a writing-intensive seminar to a client-facing editorial practicum producing content for real organizations. Bluestone Communications is a JMU example.
• Benefits: Ideal for programs looking to differentiate their curriculum, build industry aligned pipelines, or integrate career preparation into the core of the major.

Discipline-Specific Immersive Experiences

• Description: Some academic programs include structured, intensive field-based experiences that are required for credentialing, licensure, or professional preparation. These may be full-time or part-time, credit-bearing, and often involve close supervision by both site mentors and faculty.
• Examples: Nursing students complete clinical rotations in hospitals; education majors engage in student teaching placements; environmental science students complete field research as part of a capstone; engineering students participate in semester (or longer) co-ops embedded within their degree program.
• Benefits: These experiences offer students deep immersion in professional settings with high levels of responsibility and oversight. They provide unmatched opportunities for skill development, career exploration, and professional identity formation.
• Considerations: Because these experiences are often mandated, already intensive, and highly structured, they may not need new WBLE overlays—but can inform best practices for reflective learning, supervision, and academic integration. These experiences count!

These models are intended to inspire—not prescribe. Faculty are encouraged to adapt and combine approaches in ways that reflect the values and priorities of their disciplines and students.