In honor of the National Society for Experiential Education’s (NSEE) eight principles of good practice for experiential learning, here are eight of our main takeaways from the recent NSEE Annual Conference in St. Pete Beach, Florida.
1) In a morning keynote, Dr. Terry Doyle shared that by 2018, 70 percent of new jobs will require post-secondary education, yet, based on current graduation rates, the U.S. is expected to fall short of this demand. To address this challenge, we need to create a learner-focused environment that places responsibility on both the teacher and the student. In light of this recommendation, Doyle posed three key questions to inform teaching:
What content should we teach?
i.e. identify the things we want a student to remember most a year after they leave class
What can students do on their own?
i.e. the things that students can take ownership of to enhance their learning experience
What’s the best use of our time?
i.e. the most high-impact activities we can leverage to help students master learning outcomes
2) In regard to high-impact activities, Dr. Gail Matthews-DeNatale, Mamta Saxena, and Ellen Stoddard from Northeastern University identified 10 of the high-impact practices they use to engage online learners including the following:
- First-year experience
- Common intellectual experiences
- Learning communities
- Writing-intensive courses
- Collaborative work
- Research
- Diversity/global learning
- Community-based learning
- Internships (also co-op)
- Capstone
3) Dr. Kimberly Miloch from Texas Woman’s University discussed that in order to make experiential learning palatable across disciplines, it’s helpful to step back and identify the items that transcend experiences that can be used for assessment. At TWU, this boils down to collaboration, application and problem-solving.
4) Another great takeaway from TWU: when forming a new experiential learning or assessment initiative, remember, if we can’t do it simple, we can’t do it complex. In other words, find something you can execute well and learn, measure and scale from that point rather than launching a complex process from the start.
5) Dr. David Kolb’s keynote discussed eight styles of learning, and the four educator roles that can support those learning styles. Ultimately, by placing learning in context, a student has a higher chance of creating episodic or conceptual memory, versus simply declarative or fact-stating memory. The former is much more likely to lead to mastery and stronger outcomes.
6) At a roundtable with Augustana College, Karen Petersen shared practical strategies for engaging students in career preparation activities. One example being something they call a Viking Score, which helps students assign points to activities across their college experience with prompts about what to complete for higher points. More about this strategy can be found in
this recent NACE article.
7) Vincent Del Casino and Devon Thomas from the University of Arizona shared strategies for engaging adult learners, such as using gamification to empower learners to define their own course of learning, bring their expertise into the classroom to add value, and reward mastery through badging.
8) Sharon Harrison from University of Central Oklahoma shared that according to recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data, employers say that only 23 percent of graduates are equipped for the workforce. Knowing that experiential learning is a key way to address this challenge, UCO has defined six core tenets that students will master through a Student Transformative Learning Record. To ensure that student development is in line with the skills regional employers are looking for, UCO has convened an employer panel to provide regular feedback and insight.
We’re grateful to all of the NSEE members who openly shared their successes as well as their challenges so we can all help create learner-focused environments that enable students to engage in meaningful experiential learning.