While the modern classroom can provide a variety of learning opportunities, increasing efforts to extend these boundaries and apply skills outside the standard setting offer students a broader spectrum of interactions and engagement. Client-based learning is one such method that puts students in direct contact with community partners, those seeking potential solutions to a defined problem or opportunity. This panel reflects on recent experiences in an upper-division technical communications course framed around a set of clients in the university and local communities. With its inherent connection to forces beyond the classroom, this tech comm course not only alloWednesday students to take ownership of their work but also forced them to work together to solve both internal and external challenges. Discussions of course aims and design will be enhanced by comments from students in the class, who will share their experiences with this client-based model.
