For Students: What is Building TILEs and the QEP (and Why Do I Care)?

You’ve heard of immersive learning during your time here at WPU. Our faculty pride themselves on providing a hands-on learning experience. Anyone can sit in a lecture hall and half-listen while half-asleep. But we know students learn best when doing. 

Now, we’re taking immersive learning even further. This year, we’re broadening how we teach so that our immersive approach touches every one of our 30+ majors and 21 different courses, including the academic internship course. We call it Building TILEs (Tangible Immersive Learning Experiences).

What does this mean for my classes? 

Right now, your classes are in small classrooms, out in the field, or even outside on campus. You’re measuring catfish in Raleigh’s streams, performing police surveillance work, and simulating global political relations. 

With Building TILEs, we want to add to this, challenging you to apply classroom skills and knowledge to real-world experiences and problems. Faculty are working on designing these experiences, which will help you develop creative problem-solving and collaboration skills among students. 

Besides, getting out and doing the fun part of your chosen field is better than a lecture. 

Why This Matters

The way students learn matters, not only so that we can say that WPU is amazing. We know that these skills will help you after you leave here. Whether you’re off to graduate school or a career, you’ll have problems to solve. You’ll have to work with teams — some of whom will be great and some of whom won’t. Learning isn’t memorizing facts and reciting them; it’s thinking and learning how to think. We hope you’ll finish your time at WPU with these critical skills. 

The QEP

Colleges and universities are accredited by someone making sure you’re getting a good education. In our case, that’s the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). Our five-year Building TILEs Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) is required for our accreditation. You may see members of the SACSCOC on campus in November as they tour the school and review our work on immersive learning. If they ask, tell them you know about TILEs: Tangible Immersive Learning Experiences! 

Learn More

If you’re interested in our five-year plan, check out our QEP Page.