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Thirty Years of Experiential Learning

Dennis G. Severance Professor of Business Information Technology, Emeritus

Stephen M. Ross School of Business University of Michigan

WIIFM: What’s In It For Me???

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Agenda For This Session

• How do experiential and didactic learning differ

• Velocity Manufacturing as an example of experiential learning

• Why experiential learning is (can be) better (or worse)• What is in it for the stakeholders (students-faculty-administration)

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Our Definition of “Experiential Learning”

Students are given active responsibility for their own learning with only solicited support from others such as

faculty, advisors, and colleagues

To complete their task, students need to figure out what they know and what they do not know. They need to reflect on and deepen prior knowledge as they gain new insights and master new concepts, principles, and skills in their attempt to transfer

previous learning to new contexts or situations.

Students working in small groups on realistic practice-oriented projects in ambiguous and challenging situations with real consequences for which there is no one correct answer.

(Revans, 1982, Linn, et al., 2004)

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Elements of Experiential Learning

• Allows for cross-curricular problem solving.

• Places a faculty in the role facilitator of learning, rather than a disseminator of known information.

• Allows faculty to learn more of who their students are, what they know, interests they have, and how they think.

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EDUCATIONAL PARADIGM SHIFT

Student/"Learner"

Team

Interdisciplinary

Messy

Days-Weeks

Detailed

Team

DifferentTime/Place

DIMENSION

Responsibilityfor Learning

EXPERIENTIALTRADITIONAL

Teacher/"Trainer"

Faculty Individual

Perspective Functional

Problem Simplistic

Duration Minutes-Hours

Solution Conceptual

Student Individual

LearningLocation

SameTime/Place

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Linkage Between Core Business Courses and BIT-465

Velocity Manufacturing Co. Simulation and Scenario

EvaluatorScenario Risk

Profile

Projected Net Present

Value

BIT-465 Business Systems Consulting

Business Case for Capital

Investment

Prior Management

Decisions

Measures of Management Performance

(RONA)

(case study) (plant visit)

Financial Statements (historic)

Current Operations Exploring the Linkages

Between Investment Decisions and Improved Business Performance

Alternatives for New Business

Design and Investment

Related Courses

STAKEHOLDERS Marketing,

Org Management, Fin Accounting

MONEY Economics,

Mngt.Accounting, Finance

ANALYSIS Operations Management,

Information Systems, Statistics/Mngt Science

The Velocity Manufacturing Company

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Topics “Known” by the Students and Relevant to “Solving” their Problem

MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING capacity expansion

factory loading performance measurement

MARKETINGmarket surveys

market mix formulationdemand forecasting

INFORMATION SYSTEMSEIS, DSS, ES, EDI

process simulation, optimizationdata statistics and analysis

ENGINEERING

infrastructure (technical and logistics)process speed/reliability/quality

product and process designOPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

information-inventory-service-capacity tradeofflogistics systems design

impact of variation on demand, supply, processing

HUMAN RESOURCESchange management

organizational downsizing transitional leadership

FINANCIAL ACCOUNTINGincome statements

balance sheetspro forma projections

FINANCE

capital appropriationcost of capital

net present value

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12 weeks – 5 teammates – 1 problem

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double revenuesincrease margin

25% RONA

Investment Proposals That Have Surfaced At The Velocity Manufacturing Company

CONSUMERS

PROCUREMENT

GENERALMANAGEMENT

FINANCE and ACCOUNTINGLEGAL(STAKEHOLDER) RELATIONS

INFORMATION SYSTEMSHUMAN RESOURCES

SALES/SERVICEPRODUCTIONMANAGEMENT

SUPPLIERS CUSTOMERSand and

ENGINEERINGAND

RESEARCH

MANUFACTURINGMANAGEMENT

MARKETINGMANAGEMENT

PLANTOPERATIONS

WAREHOUSING

DISTRIBUTION

RECEIVING

STOCKING

computerized schedulingscheduled maintenance

overtime operations

6-sigma quality98% availabilityOne-Piece fitting

quality suppliers

faster deliveryreliable delivery

reduced inventory

lower priceincrease variety

to increase volumesecond shift operations

purchase new equipment

new product testersincrease run speedsreduce set up times

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Ten Interconnected Capstone Experiences2. Analysis and Interpretation ofCompany Financial Statements

5. Analysis of a Market Research Data and Formulation of Marketing Strategy

3. Analysis of Historical Demand Data and design Production Scheduling

Using MRP “Push” and KANBAN “Pull”

1. Team Work in a Diverse Group with Differing Goals, Interests and Abilities

4. Interpretation of Yield Dataand Development of a

Quality Improvement Strategy

9. Presentation of Consulting Recommendations to an Executive Management Team in a Hostile Setting

6. Development of Financial Justification for Business Investment in the Form of a Capital Appropriation Request

7. Use of Decision Support Software for Proforma Business Plan Projection and Factory Operation Simulation

10. Design and Development of a Business Case in the Team’s Final Report

8. Design and Development of a Performance Measurement and Project Implementation Control Process

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Why might this be a “good” way to learn?

Take out a sheet of paper divide it in half.

On the left side, list three things that you were “taught” and that you got good at.

On the right side, three things that you were “taught” and that you did not get good at.

Below each list see if you can describe characteristics of those learning experiences that were common for that side.

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It is natural for humans to learn from first hand experience

But, “experience keeps a dear school”

dolls, blocks, play time, play grounds, dodge ball, soccer, wind tunnels, wave tanks, role plays, simulations.

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It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor

more dangerous to manage, than the creation of a new order of things. For the initiator has the

enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old and merely lukewarm defenders in those

who would gain from the new.

- Niccolo Machiavelli

Why might this approach not work?

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Challenges to Experiential Learning• The tradition educational model of focusing on explicit knowledge and didactic teaching is

both efficient and “comfortable” to all concerned.

• Mechanisms for understanding and improving learning is not part of the faculty training nor is the effort a part of their reward structure

• Because the learning process is complex and all are fully occupied by other tasks, we focus on doing what we already know as the path of

least resistance

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“Everyone who needs to cooperate for a project to succeed, must perceive

positive WIIFM or the project will fail.”

- Anonymous

The Rule of WIIFM(What’s in it for me?)

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Who are the main stakeholders in experiential learning?

MAdministratio

n

Students

Faculty

“Experience keeps a dear school”

“What is this going to cost me?”

“What exactly are we going to do?”

(deliverable, workload, grading)

(time required, student expectations,

career risk)

(cost/credit, quality assurance,

faculty support)

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Exercise and strengthen what they already know

Work with, learn from, and teach others on a diverse team

Clarify what they don’t understand or have misunderstood

Have fun, think holistically, take some risk, gain confidence

“How will I know what I think until I see what I say?”

What is in it for the student?

communicate-coordinate-cooperate-collaborateapply-teach-listen-learn

“It’s not what we don’t know that gets us into serious trouble,it’s what we think we know that isn’t so.”

“High wire trapeze with a net”

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“Why did you put me on the team with all of the idiots?”

Unrealistic goals Lack of progressPoor attendance

Attacking the leaderArguing among members Code-of-conduct violations

Concern over excessive work Defensiveness and competition

Lack of consensus-seeking behaviorsPower struggles, clashes, polarizationConfusion, loss of interest, opting outBlaming others for the team’s failure

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Impact on MBA Students at Ross

• enhanced ability to work in teams – 84%

• enhanced leadership skills – 76%

• enhanced functional skills – 73%

Self-report by 320 students in course debrief April 2014

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The Faculty's Role• Design and develop experiences that enable experiential learning.

• Pose problems, set boundaries, ensure suitable resources, support learners, provide the safety net, and facilitate the learning process.

• Recognize spontaneous opportunities for learning, engage with challenging situations, encourage experimentation and novel solutions.

• Help the student notice the connections between one context and another, between theory and the practice and encourage this skill in them.

• Resist the temptation to stick just to what you know or to provide solutions too quickly.

• Facilitate contact with colleagues when topic expertise is required.

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Administrator’s ConcernsCreating experiential learning environments for students can be expensive.  In general, it works best with small group interactions, which work against the efficiencies we've achieved by increasing class sizes.  There are costs associated with creating the learning environment.  And there can be other costs, such as faculty or student travel, to consider.  

Making room for experiential learning may require curriculum changes.  Changing the footprint of the curriculum leads to full out turf wars.  No one wants to give up a required course in their area.  Since curriculum issues generally come to a vote, faculty can block major changes from the top.  

“Experiential” requires “digital” in one form or another.  We need to deliver the conceptual material students need as foundations for their experiential learning in more flexible formats.  This is likely to require the use of digital delivery.  But that also requires a new skill set from faculty.  Moreover, digital requires a infrastructure enhancement, which again is costly.  

New teaching formats pose challenges for course credit and compensation.  Traditional didactic teaching lends itself well to counting credit hours.  But when you start having faculty play different roles, either in digital production or in leading experiential learning efforts, the credit hour no longer fits as well.  In particular, in these two modes of instruction, there is no clear reason that student and faculty credit hours should match.  But if not, then what criteria do you use to give credit fairly? 

Stakeholders must “buy in” to achieve what experiential learning can deliver How does the program communicate its learning goals and suitably measure accomplishments? How do we assign grades fairly? How do we deal with the free-riders among students and faculty? How do we assess learning success and use those insights to improve the experience?

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Some Thoughts in Summary

Experiential Learning can add interest and variety to your teaching

Experiential Learning can bring insight and clarity to your learning

Experiential Learning can bring notoriety to your school or program

While change is uncomfortable it may be worth your effort here

Start small if necessary with a sense of adventure

Involve your friends and a sense of humor

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Reference Slides

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How Effectively Do We Really Communicate?

A business man had turned of the lights in the store when a man appeared and demanded money. The owner opened the cash register. The contents of the cash register were scooped up, and the man ran away. A member of the police force was notified immediately.

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“Having lost sight of the objective, we redoubled our effort.”