Experiential Learning for Undergraduate Students

Example 1 CAS IN 299 Course Learning Objectives

Successful completion of the course components will allow students to:

• Develop an understanding of how coursework in Arts & Sciences connects to professional areas of interest.
• Build proficiency in a range of professional skills relevant to the field of the internship placement, such as oral/written communication; critical thinking; professionalism; and teamwork.
• Navigate team-based settings through training in goal setting, conflict management/ resolution, and effective collaboration strategies.
• Reflect critically on their contributions to the host organization and the overall internship experience.
• Articulate their professional identity, including skills, achievements, career aspirations, and areas necessary for continued growth.

In addition, the course meets the learning outcomes for the Teamwork/Collaboration unit through the BU Hub in the following ways:

1. Students undertaking this course participate in an internship placement, which will offer multiple opportunities to collaborate with members of a workplace team. Depending on the structure of their specific placement, students may be involved in group projects, participate in regular team meetings, and/or engage with members of the office staff through online collaboration tools. In all cases, students gain experience collaborating with others in a professional environment – experience that they will draw from in their analysis of what makes an effective team. (TWC LO #1)
2. To complement the experiential learning they do as part of a professional team at their internship site, students will read studies on teamwork and use those studies to collectively identify the components of an effective team. These components will form the basis of the “teamwork contract” that describes the responsibilities and expectations for each student’s role in the culminating team presentation/project. (TWC LO #1 & #2)
3. Each student will be assigned to a team in the first week of the semester, with whom they will work to produce a final presentation and/or multimedia project that highlights a common transferrable skill they developed during their respective internship experiences. All team members will be expected to contribute equally and proactively to the work. Peer evaluations of each student’s contributions will be factored into the instructor’s evaluation of the presentation/project. (TWC LO #2)

Example 2: Third-Year Modern Japanese I LJ303 

Faculty: Satoru Ishikawa 

Project: Interview Project 

Objectives: Students conduct interviews with Japanese people who live in Boston using Japanese language. During these interviews students investigate what kind of community the Japanese person belongs to in Boston, how the Japanese person associates with Americans, how the Japanese person thinks about society here, what kind of differences the Japanese person observes when they compare to Japanese society, and so on. After conducting interviews students will write a short report and make a presentation to class. 

Outcomes: Students will learn how Japanese people live in Boston. Moreover, students will learn about American society through Japanese people’s point of view, and in this way students will deepen their understanding of both Japanese and American society. Through this interview project students will improve their spoken and listening proficiency. Also, they will learn Japanese customs and protocol while they are communicating with Japanese people: Japanese manners (making an appointment, writing thank you letter, etc.), using Keigo (Japanese honorific language), and so forth. Moreover, students will be able to improve their writing and presentation skills, which are required for the intermediate level of Japanese language. 

Procedures:  

1. Team up with a classmate and conduct interviews with a Japanese person who lives in Boston. The Japanese person can be a student from Japan (exchange student), or a person who has immigrated from Japan. However, she/he must be a native speaker of Japanese. Meet the same Japanese person at least 2 times and each interview should last 20~30 minutes. Students need to find an interviewee and make appointments. 
2. Students compose interview questions. Students need to receive feedback from their instructor about interview questions before their interviews. 
3. After each interview session, students write a summary of the interview and submit to an instructor along with the interview’s audio. 
4. After the completion of a total of three interviews, students write a report and present this report in class. 
5. Write thank you message to interviewee in Japanese. 

Recommendations for fellow faculty members interested in developing similar experiential learning projects:

It is very beneficial for our students to associate with native speakers of Japanese other than instructors. Especially, our students do not have many opportunities to meet Japanese people. Meeting with Japanese people motivates the learning of Japanese as well as improving students’ Japanese language ability. Therefore, I recommend having a project like this for all languages. However, to conduct this type of project instructors need to give a lot of consideration before the project and need to plan well. Sometimes instructors can contact various places to find a native speaker of the target language. As for Japanese, there are not many Japanese people living in Boston and students may have difficulty finding Japanese people. For this reason, an instructor needs a special arrangement with institutes such as Japanese exchange programs in Boston. Also, our students’ Japanese proficiency level is not very high, so it is important that the Japanese person (interviewee) knows there may be inappropriate use of language or attitude due to limited student Japanese ability. To avoid this misunderstanding or mishap, instructors should explain the purpose of the project and students’ language level directly to the interviewee by mail or letter before the project starts, while also getting consent for the interview. Since the final report will be presented in the classroom, avoid overly personal questions regarding interviewees so that we can respect interviewees’ privacy. Also, let the interviewee know the instructor’s contact address in case they need to contact.  

Example 3: Technology enhanced museum exhibition strategies

Faculty: Liling Huang

Learning Objectives:

2. Language Learning Objectives: describe the experience of visiting a museum in both oral and written formats, employing appropriate language and vocabulary. Compare and articulate personal opinions regarding digital-enhanced museum exhibitions in China and Peabody Essex Musuem (PEM) in a well-structured and coherent manner.
3. Culture Learning Objectives: gain an understanding of the different digital enhanced museum exhibition strategies in China and PEM; the unique architectural style of the Yinyu Tang (Hui style) and Asian export history.

Primary learning tasks: Participation in language learning and class discussion about technology-enhanced museum exhibition;  Research on various digital tools and their impacts on museum visitors’ experiences; Field trip to Peabody Essex Museum; Post trip discussions on the experiences with students’ Chinese native speaking language partners; Create a multimedia story or video to compare the technology enhanced museum exhibition strategies  

Examples of student experiential learning projects

In their Snapchat takeovers, Eliza Clark (CGS’19) showcased a trip to Highgate Cemetery and Kirthana Iyer (CGS’19) went to Stonehenge and Bath.

In her video essay on the women of World War I, Avery Bebon (CGS’19) integrated pictures of London memorials with an analysis of propaganda from the Imperial War Museum and quotes from her research. The experiential component of the project helped her find more information and make fresh connections.

Without the face to face component of the Imperial War Museum … I wouldn’t have seen all the propaganda in person, or the uniforms donned by the women, or the pictures of comradeship.  — Avery Bebon

Faculty Reflections on Experiential Education

Kate Nash (Senior Lecturer, Rhetoric, College of General Studies) provides opportunities for students to learn about the Royall House and Slave Quarters Museum with two goals in mind: to analyze what makes protest rhetorically effective and to unpack how local sites of public memory, such as museums, persuade. Before visiting the museum, we read and discuss the rhetorical moves made in Belinda Sutton’s 1783 petition to the Massachusetts General Court, in which the formerly enslaved Sutton requests a pension from the estate of slaveowner Isaac Royall . Visiting the museum—and exploring its architecture and artifacts—both illuminates the daily conditions of Sutton’s life and showcases how museums are not neutral sites but spaces of persuasion. Recently, the museum’s mission has shifted to highlight the connected stories of wealth and bondage in Massachusetts, so the students examine how the museum layout, tour, and exhibits shape that narrative.

Experiencing the museum and interpreting its materiality support active engagement in the topics of protest and public memory in the Boston area, while turning attention to the realities of enslavement in the North. — Kate Nash

CGS faculty integrate the excursions with the course assignments. For example, students might read Virginia Woolf’s essay on visiting Westminster Abbey in rhetoric class, during the week they visit Westminster Abbey. On the week of a visit to Highgate Cemetery, students in one class might read an essay on the “landscapes of memory” as seen in the nineteenth-century garden cemetery, or they might analyze Alfred Tennyson’s In Memoriam. Students might study postmodern art in the first part of the week and take an in-class excursion to the Serpentine Gallery in the second half. A week with a Jack the Ripper Tour in London’s East End could include an assignment about an author who’s mapped the East End and analyzed the relationship between poverty and the spatial economy. Students are also encouraged to strike out on their own to visit museums and exhibits and to write their own reflections. 

John Regan (Master Lecturer, Rhetoric, College of General Studies) assigned his students an exploratory research essay, combining their in-class readings and discussion with their own independent research of peer-reviewed sources. Next, students gleaned insights from monuments, memorials, and museums. Then they connected ideas from their peer-reviewed sources with their observations of monuments and artifacts, creating a video essay that pulled all of those elements together. 

A few other examples of typical assignments

• Research a social class in Britain and visit different sites in London—monuments or museum exhibits—to conduct social science research
• Create a podcast or put an essay into video form, with narration and photos
• Do a rhetorical analysis accompanied by a photo collage
• Visit a chosen memorial and take photos and videos
• Visit a Holocaust exhibition at the Imperial War Museum

PRLab

Contacts:  Professor Amy Shanler & Professor Laura Hannon

Read more about the PRLab

PRLab is the nation’s longest-running student-managed public relations agency and is comprised of junior, senior and graduate-level Boston University public relations students. The structure of PRLab parallels the structure of an actual public relations agency, complete with directors, account supervisors and account executives. Directors oversee approximately six accounts, supervisors oversee one or two accounts, and account executives work directly with their assigned client to fulfill the company or organization’s public relations objectives.  PRLab students are not interns in that they are working  for a paying client and reporting to their account supervisor – just as in a real PR agency setting.

Length: 1 semester

Credits: 2 or 4 credits

Who do the students work with? Boston-area companies and nonprofits

Skills developed: writing, teamwork, account management, client service, media relations, social media, content marketing, account planning, project management, research, evaluation

Written materials / learning tools: PRLab builds on previous public relations courses. Students also leverage an operating manual, class lectures, and guidance from other students to complete their client work. They also have access to professional project management, social media analytics, media relations, and performance evaluation software.

Simulations and classroom exercises: PRLab doesn’t run simulations – it conducts real work for paying clients. Students begin by establishing their teams and expectations for working together. Then they develop a PR plan for a client based on the client’s scope of work. Teams implement the PR campaign all semester long, providing updates to the client, holding client and team meetings, and tracking their “billable hours” weekly. At the mid-point in the semester, students reflect on what they have accomplished and how they will complete the semester, as well as their individual performance. At the end of the semester, students present their work to the clients and agency, prepare transition materials for future teams, and evaluate individual performance. The work varies on client needs, from fundraising to awareness building to brand building.

AdLab

Contact:  Professor of the Practice Shawn Zupp

Read more about the AdLab

AdLab is the country’s largest student-run agency for crafting advertising campaigns and is a creative incubator utilizing the fresh perspectives, pop culture expertise, and strategic insights of graduate and undergraduate students.  Advertising students can build their portfolios by being assigned roles on advertising teams consisting of an account executive, strategist, art director. copywriter, and project manager. After completing a semester of AdLab students may join the Executive Board, giving the student more work-related experience .

BU News Service

Contact:  BU News Service; Editor-in-Chief Tyra Brooks

Read more about the BU News Service

BU News Service offers students in the journalism department opportunities to gain practical experience reporting and editing news. Some reporting may be shared with media partners who will publish it for a larger audience.  The News Service’s focus is primarily off-campus, and favors stories about the city, neighborhoods, and wider issues.