Experiential Learning: Faculty
What is Experiential Learning?
Experiential learning is a type of learning that occurs through direct, hands-on experiences. It involves actively engaging with the environment or material being studied, as opposed to passively receiving information through lecture or reading. Experiential learning is often used in settings such as outdoor education, vocational training, and team-building exercises, but it can also be applied to a wide range of academic subjects. This approach to learning is often characterized by reflection, experimentation, and problem-solving, and it has been shown to be particularly effective at promoting long-term retention and practical application of knowledge.
Types of Experiential Learning
Apprenticeships |
Apprenticeships provide students an opportunity to try out a job, usually with an experienced professional in the field who acts as a mentor. |
Authentic Experiences |
Authentic experiences are real life activities in a formal setting. |
Clinical Experiences |
Clinical experiences provide hands-on experiences of a predetermined duration directly tied to an area of study, during which students are actively involved with patients or their care. Examples of clinical experiences include speech language pathology students interacting with clients in a supervised school-based setting or physician assistant students working with patients in a supervised clinic setting. |
Creative Activities |
Creative activities such as performing in or setting up concerts, art shows, plays, performances, or other events are experiential learning activities |
Fellowships |
Fellowships are usually provided by educational institutions, corporations, or foundations to assist individuals pursuing a course of study or research. Often, fellowships include learning experiences working in the field while also taking classes. Most fellowships provide tuition or aid to support the training of students for a period of time. |
Field Trips |
Field trips are course-related activities that serve educational purposes and occur outside of the classroom at a location other than on the campus at which the course is regularly taught. |
Field Work |
Field work allows students to explore and apply content learned in the classroom through observation and application of knowledge outside the classroom. Field work experiences bridge classroom learning with practical application in an outside setting. Field work settings vary widely and range from neighborhoods and schools to archaeological sites and laboratories. |
Internships |
Internships provide students with an opportunity to apply classroom learning in a career field. Internships are a great opportunity to try out a career field and also gain some valuable work experience. Internships can be for credit, not for credit, paid, or unpaid. |
Practicums |
Practicums are often a required component of a course of study and place students in a supervised and sometimes paid situation. Students develop competencies and apply previously studied theory and content, such as school library media students working in a high school library or marketing majors working in a marketing research firm. |
Problem Based Learning |
Problem based learning is a teaching method in which complex real-world problems promote student learning of concepts and principles in contrast to direct presentation of facts and concepts. |
Research |
Research experiences provide students with the opportunity to participate in the discovery or creation of new knowledge. Both graduate and undergraduate students participate in research experiences. Research experiences take many forms ranging from one on one mentor guided projects to course-based research experiences which allow all students in a class to address a research question. In addition to creation or discovery of knowledge, the goal of research is to involve students with actively contested questions, empirical observation, cutting-edge technologies, and the sense of excitement that comes from working to answer important questions. |
Service Learning |
Service learning experiences provide opportunities for students to learn content through tackling real-life problems in their community. Such experiences are mutually beneficial for the student and the community. |
Simulations and Gaming/Role Playing |
Simulations and gaming/role-playing when used as part of a course, simulations and gaming/role-playing aim to imitate a system, entity, phenomenon, or process. They attempt to represent or predict aspects of the behavior of the problem or issue being studied. Simulation can allow experiments to be conducted within a fictitious situation to show the real behaviors and outcomes of possible conditions. Virtual Reality (VR) is an environment generated by a computer that makes the user feel immersed with the object that is generated in their surroundings. Augmented Reality (AR) is a virtual interface that enhances what we see by overlaying additional information. VR and AR are technologies that can provide simulated experiences for learning. |
Student Teaching |
Student teaching provides candidates with an opportunity to put into practice the knowledge and skills they have been developing in the teacher preparation program. Student teaching typically involves an on-site experience in a partner school and opportunities for formal and informal candidate reflection on their teaching experience. |
Study Abroad |
Study abroad offers students a unique opportunity to learn in another culture, within the security of a host family and a host institution carefully chosen to allow the transfer of credit to a student’s degree program. |
Volunteering |
Volunteering allows students to serve in a community primarily because they choose to do so. Many serve through a nonprofit organization — sometimes referred to as formal volunteering — but a significant number also serve less formally, either individually or as part of a group. Volunteering experiences often build leadership and soft skills. |
Guidelines for Experiential Learning Activities
In experiential learning activities, students “learn by doing” through engagement in real world applications of knowledge gained in class. NSU is committed to providing these high impact experiences for any student who desires them. Academic and non-academic programs and offices alike will identify and disseminate experiential learning experiences, inclusive of credit bearing, non-credit, or volunteer opportunities, for any student who desires these experiences. These experiences can include but are not limited to internships, research, simulations, study abroad, field trips and practica, with the main objective of connecting learning to outcomes and workforce needs through application.
The following criteria guide the institutional expectations for these experiences.
- The experience is structured, intentional, and authentic.
The activity should be structured with a purposefulness that enables experience to become knowledge. The experience should have a real-world context and/or be useful and meaningful in reference to an applied setting or situation. Expectations of learning/responsibilities for community partners, learner, and instructors leading the experience should be clearly communicated. - The experience requires meaningful collaboration between students and experiential
learning partners.
Instructors and community partners, if involved, should ensure that learning activities are designed with learners in mind and that learners have the sufficient foundation to be successful in the experience. Preparation, orientation, and/or training can be provided as needed. All parties should acknowledge learner creativity, progress, and accomplishments. - The experience should include purposeful communication and feedback.
The experience should support the learner through communication and feedback related to desired learning expectations. Feedback from all parties should work to enhance the learner’s experience and achievement of the learning expectations. The experience should be flexible enough to afford the learner, community partner, or instructor the opportunity to incorporate the feedback to enhance the experience. Students are more likely to see the value of their educational experience when they can directly connect that experience to their future career and professional goals. - The experience should include reflection.
Reflection is the element that transforms experience into learning. The reflection process is integral to all phases of experiential learning. Ongoing reflection throughout the experience encourages students to consider preconceptions and observe how they change as the experience unfolds. - The experience should be evaluated.
To ensure student learning and success, experiential learning opportunities should be evaluated for continuous improvement. Continuous improvement in experiential learning supports NSU's mission to provide students with learning opportunities that prepare them for professional and personal success.
Adapted from National Society for Experiential Education