The 4D Experience
The 4D Experience at the University of Denver (DU) is a university-wide strategic imperative dedicated to preparing students for lifelong learning, engagement, and thriving. Established in July 2021 and led by the Chancellor, the Provost, and the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, the 4D Experience team has worked to engage the DU community in conversations, programs, and initiatives dedicated to enhancing student thriving through facilitating engagement with four dimensions of intellectual growth, well-being, character, and well-being.
In collaboration with campus partners, the 4D Experience team has developed a robust set of structures, programs, and offerings to realize these goals. One particular area of focus has been on creating relationship-rich learning environments, informed by data correlating mentorship with thriving and engagement in and beyond college. For example, we have launched the university-wide 4D Mentorship Collaborative and the 4D Constellation of Support Program, which offers professional development to equip faculty, staff, and graduate students with the frameworks and strategies for caring for themselves, colleagues, and students in order to build a stronger, more resilient community.
In addition, the 4D Experience team has pursued strategies that infuse well-being, purpose, and character exploration into curricular and co-curricular programs. We have provided opportunities for faculty and staff development in the form of fellowships and seed-funding opportunities, including the 4D Infusion Grants, which support faculty and staff to develop and implement a new curricular or co-curricular project focused on enhancing student well-being. We also facilitate an annual 4D Innovations Cohort for faculty and staff to design for greater student thriving through a 12-week design-thinking process.
Two critical 4D initiatives that are representative of our larger approach and philosophy are 1) the 4D Faculty Design Series that embraces experimentation and radical collaboration as a means of enhancing student and faculty well-being and 2) the Compassion Lab, which enables students to consider compassion in the context of their own lives and gain the skills to enact it through curricular experiences.
In collaboration with the Office of the Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs and the Office of Teaching and Learning, the 4D Experience team runs a 4D Faculty Design Series for faculty that was launched in Winter 2024. The goals for the workshop series are 1) to give faculty practical strategies and tools to support their students’ purpose, well-being, and sense of belonging in the classroom and 2) to provide faculty with the community, mindsets, and strategies to engage with their own 4D Experience, recognizing that faculty who are flourishing are better positioned to enhance support flourishing among their students.
Launched in Winter 2024, the Compassion Lab is meant to: 1) provide meaningful 4D learning experiences for undergraduate and graduate students that (a) encourage them to think about compassion in their own life and work, and (b) equip them with the confidence and skills to enact compassion, and 2) increase faculty engagement with the 4D Experience through partnership. Given the ways in which compassion is linked to stronger relationships and increased well-being, the Compassion Lab is meant to offer an important curricular pathway for building foundational values and skills for lifelong flourishing.
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College of Arts, humanities & social sciencesMobile Compassion Lab Brings Classroom and Workplace Support to Cultivating Compassion |
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- 4D Faculty Design Series Impact:
- In the first two quarters since launch, faculty across six of DU’s colleges and schools have participated in a two-part workshop series.
- The Net Promoter Score (NPS) across all sessions was 52%. The NPS is a metric evaluating participant satisfaction and enthusiasm and likelihood to recommend a program to a peer. It asks: On a scale of 1 (not likely at all) to 10 (extremely likely), how likely are you to refer “X” to a friend or colleague? Respondents who score >=9 are classified as “promoters,” those who score 7-8 are classified as “neutral/passives,” and those who score <=6 are classified as “detractors.” An organization’s NPS score is calculated by subtracting the % of detractors from the % of promoters. For reference, Bain & Company, the creators of the NPS, consider a score above 50% to be excellent. Greater than 0% is good, and above 30% is great.
- Qualitative comments shared in exit surveys spoke to “the profound value of having interdisciplinary teams creating together”; the importance of having theoretical frameworks to guide their teaching practices; and the great usefulness of design levers in providing concrete strategies to enhance students’ purpose, well-being, and sense of belonging.
- Compassion Lab Impact:
- Since its launch in Winter 2024, the 4D Faculty Fellow for Character has led seven total Compassion Lab experiences in five different faculty members’ classrooms and engaged 95 students.
- A post-class survey found the following:
- 92% of respondents found this content to be very meaningful and relatable
- 4.5/5 average for feeling that they have a better understanding after the session of specific ways they can connect with and act compassionately toward others
