Experiential Learning - The Need of The Hour

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Have you heard of the old Chinese saying “Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will understand”? 

With the increasing rates of the Federal Stafford loan for graduate students and increasing global competition in the job market, pursuing higher education like Postgraduate Diploma in Business has become both more challenging and important. The fact is having a college degree is the basic requirement even for getting the lowest-level jobs. Online education programmes like MOOCs, online postgraduate diploma and other programmes are striving to put back the deteriorating system together. Moreover, various reputed and established organisations like Experience Institute, Enstitute and Watson University are looking forward to develop an all new learning system with personal development and experiential learning.

Need for More Experience 

According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, more experience in the current education system is required. Furthermore a post in The Atlantic reports that almost one third of college graduates in Education, Liberal Arts or Social Science regret their choice. But the most popular reason was not the choice of their majors. More than 50 per cent of the students declared that getting more relevant work experience would have been more beneficial for them. Thus it shows the need and demand for incorporating experiential learning or learning from experience into the educational programmes.

What is Experiential Learning?

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Learning from direct experiences beyond the conventional classrooms and developing skills and values forms the basis of experiential learning. It is an academic attitude which involves the process of informing different methods through which teachers decisively engage with students in direct experience with the content in an enhanced learning environment. It also involves focused reflection which results in developing necessary skills, gaining relevant knowledge, clarifying values and improving one’s ability to add value to the community. Experiential learning includes a number of activities such as study abroad, undergraduate research, service learning, internships and other types of work experiences.

It is obvious that not all students can learn effectively in a traditional classroom setting. The students at Experience Institute (Ei) are encouraged to accept 3 apprenticeships/projects while they complete the 5 modules in the curriculum that have been particularly developed for this programme. The one year course provides an affordable graduate experience to its students.

Experiential Learning in Business Education 

In an effort to build better business leaders and managers, business schools and universities are adapting new learning methodologies in order to meet the expectations of the employers and students. Hence, most Fast Track MBA, Accounting and Business Management programmes have effectively included experiential learning into the curriculum due to its increasing importance.

One of the main aspects of business education is applying what you have learnt in real business environments. By teaching in real corporate world context, current MBA, Postgraduate Diploma in Management and other business degree programmes aim to equip the learners with the skills and abilities that will enable them to face the daily challenges and become a successful business leader. Thus, it has been observed that this has lead to enormous enrolment in online postgraduate diploma courses that facilitate them to stay abreast in this highly competitive corporate world.

Scope of Experiential Learning 

Experiential learning aims to make a long term effect on the students by putting them outside the comfort zone and making them to get engaged and reflect on a specific topic or subject matter.

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According to Victor Saad, author of The Leap Year Project: Learning to Risk & Risking to Learn, “Young people need to continue building their confidence and agency. They must learn how to work towards solutions on problems that are not yet clearly defined. This entails learning how to listen, how to empathize with others, and how to use empathy to solve problems in any context from a creative and holistic standpoint.”

He believes that “Society will place a similar value on experiential education as they do now on the traditional degree." Although federal loans presently do not recognise experiential education programmes, but soon things will start changing as different educational institutes are including this approach in their teaching process.