About the 4D Experience
The Four Dimensions (4D) are a set of critical building blocks (life-related skills, mindsets, and habits of thinking and doing) that not only enable students to maximize their educational experience but also provide the foundation for lifelong learning, engagement, and thriving. Together, they support whole-student learning.
Impact
What does it look like to design a transformational education, using evidence-based strategies and approaches informed by research on what contributes to post-graduate success?
What education do we believe that all students deserve?
How may we commit to this work as an institution, building upon DU’s strengths while also imagining new possibilities for ourselves and our students?
The 4D Experience is our answer.
Deepen Intellect
Students pursue their curiosity. Explore new vantage points. Expand and deepen their understanding of the world. Engage with real-world challenges and big questions. Create and innovate. And navigate ambiguity to chart their way forward.
Design Careers & Lives of Purpose
Students connect the dots across their experiences, taking stock of where they have been and where they would like to go. They explore academic and professional pathways based on their interests and values. Learn how to tell their stories. Apply their skills and talents for the public good. And establish and activate networks for personal, academic, and professional growth.
Develop Well-being
Students cultivate positive relationships with others. Give themselves grace. Gain support in embracing healthy behaviors and decisions. Explore and work towards emotional, foundational, physical, relational, and spiritual well-being. And design a well-being playbook that works for them.
Discover Character
Students explore and create a strong sense of who they are, what they value and are for, and how they want to engage their communities. Practice compassion, resilience, and integrity. Build bridges, and engage across difference. Embrace ethical decision-making. Cultivate self-awareness. And lead with authenticity.
More About the Foundational Elements
Experiences
The 4D Experience elevates a set of signature experiences, including First Ascent at the Kennedy Mountain Campus, study abroad, undergraduate research, internships, and community-engaged learning. These signature experiences enable students to gain fresh perspectives on education and life, challenge themselves in new ways, grow their skills and understanding of issues that matter to them, and cultivate their passions. With the support of mentors and advisors, students create their own path based on their individual interests and goals. It’s a 4D Experience of their design.
In addition, DU faculty and staff are committed to creating learning environments in which students engage in deep learning across the four dimensions, both in and out of the classroom. From 4D signature activities like Debate Across the Curriculum and Compassion Lab to 4D signature assignments like reflective ePortfolios, students have the opportunity to grow as multi-dimensional thinkers.
Reflection
Through reflection, students connect the dots across their learning to make sense of and give meaning to these experiences. In doing so, they develop a greater sense of clarity and purpose. They also establish the foundation for expanded knowledge, growth, and maturity over time.
Mentors and advisors play a critical role in facilitating and encouraging this reflection across the arc of students’ educational experiences. For instance, from reflective supervision in student employment to DU’s storytelling initiatives to scaffolded reflection in coursework, students develop their ability to reflect and use that reflection for enhanced self-awareness and an increased sense of direction. And through a 360-degree reflective cycle, students explore how they have changed as a result of their learning and how they hope to apply that learning moving forward.
Mentorship
The 4D Mentoring Constellation reflects DU's commitment to providing every student with a relationship-rich education. The 4D Constellation refers to a student's network or web of support encompassing mentors and advisors, who collectively nurture and encourage a student's holistic learning and development in line with the four dimensions. This web of relationships is more likely to meet a student's evolving needs than a single mentor can; it also creates a more resilient resource for a student to draw upon (Lambert and Felten 2020). The 4D Experience guides students to understand, imagine, and build out their individualized constellations over the course of their DU education according to their needs and goals. By the time that they graduate, a student's constellation will include a range of faculty, staff, peer, and alumni mentors and advisors.