Educational Design 

Experiential learning.  PER provides education in the context of real experiences.  This is not simply a set of experiences in which the student is expected to extract practical learning but rather a purposeful blending of theory and practice in which theory informs the experience and the experience fuels further inquiry.

Integrative learning.  Nothing can be fully understood in isolation from its context.  All PER courses are designed to facilitate investigation of particular subjects in the context of their relationships to the total curriculum, other classes, and the student's professional environment.

Proactive learning.  Every student is unique in his/her learning style, frame of reference, existing knowledge, and motivations.  Students who take initiative for, and control over their own learning process gain most from their education.  PER courses are designed not only to accommodate such initiative but to teach students proactive learning skills that will enhance life long learning.

Cooperative learning.  The world in which learning must be applied is made up of people with widely varying perspectives, capabilities, and frames of reference.  Key to successful leadership is the ability to value that diversity and to leverage the multiple perspectives and varied capabilities within a group to produce higher levels of learning.  PER courses are designed to facilitate the acquisition of cooperative learning skills.  

Student Evaluation

In the context of all PER programs of study, student learning evaluation is seen as a significant part of the learning process.  Each course is designed to assist students in gaining competencies as defined by specific learning objectives.  All student learning evaluation is aimed at determining the degree to which a student has achieved the specific course objectives. Evaluation happens in a variety of forms throughout the student's interaction with each course, including peer evaluation, evaluation of student designed products by consumers of those products, feedback from outside subject experts, formal and informal performance evaluation provided by the student's mentor, and formal and informal academic evaluation provided by the instructor.  Informal evaluation covers a range of issues complementary to the course objectives, designed to be helpful to students as they pursue the learning process.  All formal evaluation is tied directly to the course objectives. 

While it is necessary for students to do all course assignments or alternative exercises agreed upon with the instructors, evaluation is based on what those assignments demonstrate regarding student's mastery of the course objectives.  An evaluation rubric is attached to each course syllabus indicating various levels of competency against which student performance is measured and the grade that is assigned at each level. Evaluation is seen as primarily formative in nature.  Students are encouraged to interact with all forms of evaluation, using it as an aid for improvement.  Accordingly no evaluation is seen as final until the student chooses to finalize the process of improvement and resubmission of work.