Experiential Learning Courses Research Articles

UNDERGRADUATES’ PERCEPTION OF COMMUNITY SERVICE COURSE-NARRATIVES ON CHALLENGES AND INITIATIVES AT TECHNICAL ENGINEERING UNIVERSITY

Community service is an important co-curricular course which is offered to university students in many countries to develop critical thinking skills, awareness, empathy and soft-skills like management and communication. How such as course is able to instill in students the desired traits requires more study. This study aims to investigate the perception of undergraduates participating in community service course, the challenges that they have to face and their initiatives as mitigation strategies in achieving the goals of community service. Data for this study is elicited via a simple mix-method approach that combines elements of quantitative and qualitative research. The 68 undergraduates who served as purposive samples were enrolled in a 14-week co-curricular course called community service and were surveyed, interviewed and physically observed as they undertook the assigned tasks. All the community service groups were able to plan and execute four main projects. The study found five types of main challenges that the students have to face namely i. sourcing for funds and financial support, ii. logistics and manpower, iii. group dynamics, communication and cooperation, iv. time management and v. task planning and distribution. Initiatives and mitigation strategies undertaken by the students are having more specific meeting and discussion, exploring all possible options, appointing capable group leader who knows roles well and referring to and consulting lecturers. These insights from this study are useful for tertiary level curriculum planners to further enhance the effectiveness of such experiential learning course to further actualize the potential of the university students.

Pivoting an Entrepreneurship Experiential Learning Module Online: Applying a Concrete Experience Framework

Experiential learning has gained in popularity over the past 20 years in many fields and in entrepreneurship education in particular, where many educators posit that it is essential. Delivery of experiential learning activities and courses became extremely difficult and nearly impossible in some countries during the COVID-19 pandemic due to government imposed lockdowns and restrictions, forcing educational institutions to adapt and many opted to move their teaching online. How these changes impacted positively or negatively on experiential learning and students’ ability to adapt and learn has yet to be fully understood. This paper introduces a concrete experience framework and describes how it was applied to the process of pivoting an MBA experiential learning module online. It contributes by demonstrating how educators can adopt the framework in their efforts to adapt or create online courses that aim to deliver experiential learning.

A Community Mental Health and Well-Being University Level Course: Design and Implementation

Background: Community mental health is growing discipline in psychology that recognizes the importance of creating a community that fosters wellness. Although universities provide many individuals a sense of community, little research has examined how community mental health interventions can be implemented into a classroom setting. Purpose: This paper provides a proof of concept of a university course that was created to give students the opportunity to interact with their campus community while receiving course credit over two semesters. Approach: In the first semester, the course provided students with content and theory as it relates to community mental health, well-being, and health promotion. The second semester implemented experiential learning, where students applied knowledge and skills to a placement related to mental health and well-being within their university. Conclusions: This university course can provide benefits to the university (e.g., cost-efficiency), the students (e.g., networking), and the community (e.g., accessible mental health services). This research presents a course framework that other post-secondary institutions can build upon and implement into their own programs. Implications: Future research should focus on implementing experiential learning courses that provide opportunities in the mental health field for undergraduate psychology students to facilitate post-graduate student success.

Sustainable innovations by design thinking: An experiential learning course implemented by students

How to promote sustainable practices and practical learning at universities? The course Design Thinking Challenges at the University of Graz, initiated by students, incorporated student-centered pedagogies like experimental learning and critical reflection. The goal was to empower students to address sustainability issues, foster collaborative learning, and develop problem-solving skills. The article offers a personal perspective on the experience of implementing the course, and shares achievements, challenges, and recommendations.

Applying Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory to an Event Management Course: Practical Guidelines for Educators

While experiential learning is well established in higher education, several scholars called for more studies on how to embed it for event management students. This article aims to answer these calls by investigating student and instructor perspectives on delivering a live event for a postgraduate course in an English university. It uses primary as well as secondary data from previous studies to suggest how to plan an experiential learning course. Findings provide practical recommendations to educators in relation to four elements: teaching content; resources and support; assessment; and links to employability. While doing so, Kolb's cycle is reviewed and a new model of experiential learning for event management students is suggested. Thus, this article expands the current debate on experiential learning and suggests practical guidelines for event management educators.

Exploring students’ perceptions of self-assessment in the context of problem solving in STEM

Central goals of higher education in STEM domains include learning of problem solving and self-assessment skills. To achieve these goals, we propose a novel self-assessment method called the Solve-Correct-Assess-Negotiate (SCAN) method of assessing problem solving that includes both formative and summative elements. We study students’ learning experiences in courses involving different methods of assessing problem solving (Course 1 including teacher-led assessment, Ntrad = 53; Course 2 including SCAN method, NSCAN = 56) and specifically associations between these learning experiences and students' perceptions of the SCAN method. We found that the students relied on teacher-led assessment more than the self-assessment. The perceived utility of the self-assessment was positively associated with a deeper approach to learning in Course 2 than in Course 1. Students who found the self-assessment less beneficial also perceived less support from the learning environment. Our findings suggest that the successful implementation of novel self-assessment-based practices for problem-solving requires personalized support for self-assessment, teachers’ awareness of the different perceptions that students have towards these practices, and discussion among teachers and students on the rationale, utility, and reliability of the different practices.

Using multidisciplinary, conflict-based experiential learning to train students on how to address controversy at the public-private land interface

Agricultural and natural resource managers face complex problems that involve thinking across multiple disciplines, particularly in North America where professionals often have to work in multi-use landscapes containing both private and public lands. Here we describe a multidisciplinary, conflict-based experiential learning course we developed to prepare students to address complex issues facing future managers working at the public-private land interface. Using both pre- and post-course surveys and qualitative analysis of reflective essays, we observed that following our course students (1) were more aware of conservation needs and more sensitive to perspectives of various stakeholder groups concerning those needs, (2) embraced complexity and multidisciplinary thinking needed to address management challenges at the public-private land interface, and (3) showed appreciation of and became more comfortable discussing controversial issues with stakeholders and the general public. Students also became more willing to travel, work independently, and take a leading role in peer groups. By embedding students in a charged learning environment with multiple competing perspectives, our course has been able to build a more knowledgeable, empathetic and confident cohort of future employees who are better prepared to address complex issues facing agricultural and natural resource managers working at the public-private land interface.

Utilizing experiential learning to deliver substance misuse prevention education and impact local communities

ABSTRACT This two-year study examined whether an experiential learning course (N = 3) can effectively train Bachelor of Social Work students (N = 61) to provide substance misuse prevention services and make a quantifiable impact on their campus and surrounding community. The results showed that the course effectively trained students to engage in prevention activities with a 97% cumulative class average and an 80% pass rate for engaged students on an internationally accredited prevention exam. The course also produced several significant outputs such as collecting 7.6 tons of garbage from the local community, distributing public health materials to over 7,000 students, and saving a community member’s life through the administration of Naloxone for an overdose. Overall, implications from the study suggest that social work academic programs can utilize experiential learning to effectively train students to engage in substance misuse prevention while also producing significant and measurable outcomes for local communities.

Hospitality and tourism management student satisfaction with their majors and career readiness amid the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak impacted hospitality and tourism management (HTM) program offerings that typically attract students, such as experiential learning courses, field trips, and internships, which were canceled or postponed. This transition has raised concerns about whether student satisfaction with their major and their perceived career readiness were impacted by the modified curriculum. Therefore, this study investigates how perceived curriculum, campus support, and self-efficacy affect HTM student satisfaction with the major and career readiness during the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, perceived curriculum, campus support, and self-efficacy positively influenced student satisfaction with their major. Self-efficacy has a positive impact on career readiness.

Communication and relationship building in pharmacy education: Experiences from a student-patient buddy project

Background and purposeIn order to deliver patient-centred pharmaceutical care, pharmacy students need to develop the appropriate competences and skills. During their regular study program, they have limited long-term patient contact. We therefore implemented a student-patient buddy project to give students opportunity to practice and learn from the patient contact. Educational activity and settingA student-patient buddy project was implemented in a 10-week first-year master experiential learning course, including a community pharmacy internship. The pharmacist paired the student with a community-dwelling patient. Student learning activities included: (1) three meetings at the university to prepare and discuss buddy contact moments, (2) three buddy contact moments, (3) discussion with the internship providing pharmacist, and (4) a written reflection report. FindingsIn total, 66 students participated from April to June 2021. Most students found patient contact fun and a useful learning experience. Students mentioned that patients were very open and there was opportunity to build a relationship. The first conversation was experienced as exciting and sometimes difficult. Understanding the person was perceived as important. Internship pharmacists were positive about the project and saw learning benefits for students, as well as added value for the pharmacy, mainly because patients seemed to appreciate the contact. SummaryA student-patient buddy project is a good way to expand the limited long-term “real” patient care experiences of pharmacy students. This enables them to practice communication and building relationships with patients.

Fostering Resilience in Experiential Learning Courses

A focus on resilience in experiential education provides students in pre-professional programs opportunities to reflect upon their experiences as interns while also supporting their mental health and professional growth. Faculty must help students to identify strategies to manage stress and develop professional norms needed to thrive in a variety of work environments – whether in-person, hybrid, or remote. Capstone internship experiences offer an ideal setting to help students develop practical skills to support their personal and professional growth and identify their personal values and priorities. Field experience courses can foster student resilience by incorporating time for student journaling and reflection into all class meetings, encouraging students to identify strategies to forge a healthy work-life balance, and focusing on professional socialization by curating their online presence and mastering online collaborative tools such as Microsoft Teams that are vital elements of hybrid and remote work settings.

대학의 자기 주도적 융합교육과정 동향

This study examined self-directed interdisciplinary curriculum trends in higher education by delving into the self-directed interdisciplinary curricula (SDIC) of Korean universities, compared to those of U.S. universities. Data sources included SDIC information from the individualized studies program websites and hyperlinked documents. The analysis centered on (1) whether a student should include interdisciplinary independent study and experiential learning courses and (2) whether a student was given support in curriculum design and course study. Results revealed that U.S. and Korean universities enacted SDIC under different names to make the traditional curriculum diverse and flexible. The former required students to develop course plans, including interdisciplinary independent study and experiential learning courses. The latter encouraged students to design course plans to improve their multidisciplinary expertise and skills. Both SDIC were oriented toward the shared object: to foster individuals equipped with creativity and interdisciplinary competencies to meet the needs of society and industry. U.S. universities provided diverse aids to students who planned to take the SDIC. Korean universities gradually secured professionals to help students design and complete the SDIC. Based on the results, I suggested management systems of SDIC in higher education.

Emotional Variance Analysis: A new sentiment analysis feature set for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning applications.

Sentiment Analysis (SA) is a category of data mining techniques that extract latent representations of affective states within textual corpuses. This has wide ranging applications from online reviews to capturing mental states. In this paper, we present a novel SA feature set; Emotional Variance Analysis (EVA), which captures patterns of emotional instability. Applying EVA on student journals garnered from an Experiential Learning (EL) course, we find that EVA is useful for profiling variations in sentiment polarity and intensity, which in turn can predict academic performance. As a feature set, EVA is compatible with a wide variety of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) applications. Although evaluated on education data, we foresee EVA to be useful in mental health profiling and consumer behaviour applications. EVA is available at https://qr.page/g/5jQ8DQmWQT4. Our results show that EVA was able to achieve an overall accuracy of 88.7% and outperform NLP (76.0%) and SentimentR (58.0%) features by 15.8% and 51.7% respectively when predicting student experiential learning grade scores through a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) ML model.

Enhancing management education: How do experiences outside the classroom matter?

We use principles of participatory action research (PAR) to investigate differences in learning by business students resulting from an experiential course in their curriculum. Our research is framed by Fink's (2013) learning framework classifying student learning into cognitive and behavioural dimensions. As part of PAR, the students participated in this type of action learning through engaging with a community, reflecting on their experiences and participating in the research process. Through a content analysis that explores student learning reflections through the lens of Fink's taxonomy, we explore learning that is linked to the development of humanistic management. We compare how course delivery methods impact the learning of the students and how this difference is manifested along the human dimension. We find that a field-based experiential learning course provides a different learning experience, richer in the humanistic perspective than a traditional on-campus lecture. As part of the PAR, students reflected on their significant learning experiences a year after their initial experiences and demonstrated learning along the human dimension that had lasted and influenced their career decisions. We contribute to the literature on experiential learning in the context of a business curriculum by expanding the importance of place-based learning as a way of learning humanistic principles. We find that over time, students reflect more on behavioural rather than cognitive experiences.

How to assess? Student preferences for methods to assess experiential learning: A best-worst scaling approach.

Transitioning from traditional in-person classroom formats to online instructional delivery methods and online student assessments during the COVID-19 pandemic was a significant challenge to effective teaching, learning, and evaluation. Although there is a growing literature assessing the relative efficacy of different online teaching techniques, previous literature has not analyzed, from the student perspective, what methods are preferred for evaluating performance in experiential learning courses. How students perceive assessment methods is critical because it can affect their learning experience and academic achievements. To better understand student preferences for assessment methods, the best-worst scaling approach was used in two online surveys of 218 undergraduate students enrolled in experiential learning-based programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysis of student responses indicates students’ highest levels of support for assessments that emphasize the development of critical thinking skills and professional skills, such as case studies. Most students would prefer assessments that are driving (develop different skills such as creative thinking) and realistic (develop skills transferable to the real world), while only a few (< 1%) prefer assessments that are fast (involve little time), frequent, safe (has preventive measures to eliminate cheating), or strategic (high probability of getting good grades).

Experiential Learning: The Case of Training MBA Students in an Asian School

Consulting for a startup company is an effective way for Master of Business Administration (MBA) students to learn about management consulting, and the ways and means of a startup company. This paper discusses the experience of an MBA startup project within the context of a core corporate finance course. The project requires the active engagement of several groups of stakeholders—MBA students, the university’s entrepreneurship incubator, a selection of startup companies, and the project’s academic collaborators. In line with the literature, we find that entrepreneurship education through student-startup collaboration contributes to the students’ entrepreneurial learning, and that the offering of an experiential learning course provides students with the opportunities to work with the external business community that yield positive benefits for students, startups, and the university. Our findings add to the experiential learning literature in business education and show that practice-based learning offers an effective learning experience for students whereby all stakeholders are exposed to various communities of practice that facilitate multiple streams of learning. We provide insights on experiential learning from the implementation of a “new” learning pedagogy for MBA students at an Asian institute of higher learning.

Enabling Undergraduate Student Entrepreneurs to Structure Their own Experiential Learning Course

The one-semester undergraduate course “Applied Entrepreneurship” allows student entrepreneurs to investigate their own business idea while following a course structure that they design for themselves under the mentorship of an entrepreneurship professor. The course is available to all students across campus, regardless of degree program or year of study. No prior courses in entrepreneurship are required (indeed the only students excluded are those already enrolled in the Management School Entrepreneurship Major). The course is based on a widely held teaching principle for entrepreneurship education -- getting the students out of the classroom and into the real world. Students bring their own business idea to the course, which can be at any stage of development from ideation, through launch, operation and even sale of their business. Each student develops a personal course workplan of eight modules including a mix of structured learning and primary and secondary research appropriate for their own personal development as entrepreneurs and about their business idea. A short write-up is prepared by the student for each module, including evidence of the work they have done. They conclude the course by presenting a summary of the work they have done and a personal reflection. As the course progresses, the instructor provides individual feedback and counselling to each student as they submit their modules. Student feedback on the course is highly positive, on the education experience, improvement of their business idea and on their personal development.

An experiential learning course for cardiovascular and sleep technology.

Undergraduate programs related to allied health are often pursued by students to prepare for entrance into professional programs, but many students also ask about what types of employment options they may have upon completion of the bachelor's degree. This experiential learning course in cardiovascular and sleep technology was designed to provide opportunities for students to gain hands-on clinical skills that could help them to enter professional programs or to find employment in an allied health field such as cardiopulmonary rehabilitation, cardiovascular technology, or sleep technology. The prerequisites for this course were the completion of two semesters of anatomy and physiology. This course was based on experiential learning and was structured into three modules: clinical exercise physiology, autonomic physiology, and sleep physiology. As part of the course students completed a 4-page scientific report for one designated topic within each of the modules. The two exams in the course were essay based. The design of this course required students to review key topics from anatomy and physiology, to comprehend peer-reviewed manuscripts, to gain hands-on experiences with sophisticated physiological equipment, to work as individuals and in groups, and to become better oral and written communicators. The sleep physiology module included an introduction to electroencephalography (EEG) and a student-led nap study, which may be an effective way to introduce students to sleep medicine. We are hopeful that the summary of this course will be useful to physiology educators as they work to provide the most meaningful experiences to their undergraduates in the health sciences.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Experiential learning in clinical exercise, autonomic regulation, and sleep physiology is an impactful way to train undergraduate biomedical students to enter a variety of careers in healthcare, graduate programs in the health professions, or traditional research graduate programs. A hands-on course such as Cardiovascular and Sleep Technology provides a way, in addition to or independent of original research, to provide clinically relevant training.

Health sciences students' and instructors' perceptions of the emergency switch to virtual internship amid the COVID-19 pandemic: A case from Qatar.

In efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, health colleges at Qatar University shifted their clinical training to virtual internships (VI) and project-based learning (PBL). The shift was new to students and faculty alike, and a major change that posed many challenges. This study aimed to explore the experience of changing to VIs during the pandemic from both the clinical instructors' and health sciences students' perspectives. A qualitative study was conducted based on the framework of readiness to change. It involved focus group discussions with students from the departments of Public Health and Human Nutrition and in-depth interviews with clinical instructors using appropriate online platforms. A total of 4 focus groups with 20 students and 4 interviews with instructors were conducted. Transcripts were analyzed following the inductive-deductive approach. The major themes that emerged from the analysis described students' and clinical instructors' perceptions of the necessity and efficiency of the switch to VI; the design of the VI and the extent of the clinical/field experience and skills that it offered; confidence in the ability to succeed in this type of internship and confidence about reaching expected goals; academic and moral support from clinical faculty and coordinators and the communication process with faculty and preceptors; and finally, the benefits gained and how employers would view this type of internship. Health sciences students' readiness for VI was generally low. Several student and faculty needs have to be addressed, specifically regarding the design of the program and the level of preceptors' communication with students. The findings would direct health programs, clinical instructors, and preceptors to better understand students' needs and efficiently plan for virtual internships during not only emergencies but also whenever there is a need to deliver online experiential learning courses.

Experiential Learning: Interventions and Implications for Enabling Learning in Uncertain Environments

In the years preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, surveys of top US business schools revealed an increasing trend in adoption and provision of experiential learning courses, particularly as part of MBA programs. Experiential learning within management education, refers to the application of business concepts, ideas, and theories in solving real-world problems, through the use of real-world learning projects. According to business school surveys conducted during 2020, COVID-19 brought with it a reversal of this trend, with a sudden lowering of reliance on experiential learning offerings and an increased emphasis on flipped classrooms. Schools that opted to continue with experiential programs did so amidst an environment of ongoing uncertainty. Program educators had to shift the paradigm in which they operated, revising and re-creating structure in the absence of predictability, and stimulating learning motivation in the absence of traditional learning spaces. This research draws attention to how management educators have grappled with supporting students and their learning under such uncertain conditions and considers the theoretical and practical implications for experiential learning theory. Findings from this empirical study, which includes graduate student and educator interviews, point to a greatly increased focus on planned and enhanced educator interventions. The results reveal that experiential learning during times of uncertainty fosters both resource-seeking and learning-opportunity seeking behaviors among students. Keywords: Experiential learning, Interventions, Resource-seeking, Learning- opportunity seeking