The Experiential Learning Spotlight Series documents the diverse and innovative ways in which UM faculty and instructors incorporate experiential approaches to their teaching. The series is curated by The Office of Experiential Learning within The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning.

Join UM’s growing Experiential Learning Community of Practice!

In March, UM students were able to access healthy, 4-course meals for only $7 at the Human Ecology lounge. Compared to other food options available on campus, it was a steal of a deal! The menu and all the prep were courtesy of fourth-year Human Nutritional Sciences students in the Quantity Food Production and Management course.

The hot lunch project is one of many ways that Dr. Snehil Dua incorporates Experiential Learning (EL) into her teaching. She is always looking for ways to help her students prepare for the dynamic demands of the food industry.

“The students simulate real-world scenarios by organizing the lunch sales,” says Dua, who is an instructor in the Department of Food and Human Nutritional Sciences. “Through role-playing as managers and workers, they gain firsthand experience in menu planning, recipe standardization, inventory management, food preparation and sales.”

Dua understands the value of integrating real-life learning at all course levels. “In lower-level courses, I incorporate decision-making activities and case-study discussions, gradually progressing to more hands-on experiences such as laboratory work,” she says.

In advanced courses, students benefit from a range of EL opportunities. 

• Students write a comprehensive business plan for a for-profit or non-profit food service, where they consider all aspects of the business, including location, menu, human resources, break-even analysis and profitability, waste management, sustainability, and quality control. “The consistently impressive quality of the business plans students present surpasses my expectations,” she says.
• Guest speaker Randy Dagasdas, CEO of Me-Dian Credit Union, visits classes to share details on securing loans for small businesses and navigating the financial landscape.
• Students engage with local businesses to work on projects tailored to their course objectives with an entrepreneurial focus. “This fosters meaningful connections with potential employers and cultivates an entrepreneurial mindset.”

The feedback from businesses and students regarding EL initiatives has been overwhelmingly positive, with several students securing job offers due to their outstanding performance, says Dua. “It’s incredibly rewarding to receive emails from students, even a year later, expressing gratitude for the valuable skills gained through WIL experiences, particularly when navigating the job market.”

Dr. Dua’s story is one example of the many ways to incorporate work-integrated learning into courses. From industry projects to entrepreneurship, The Office of Experiential Learning is here to help you prepare your students to thrive in the real world!

For more information about how to teach through entrepreneurship,  get in touch with Janine Carmichael, Faculty Specialist: Entrepreneurship.

If you would like to be featured in this series, or know someone who should be, email The Office of Experiential Learning at OEL [at] umanitoba [dot] ca.

UM’s Pride celebrations are a reflection of UM’s continued allyship, enthusiasm and support for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Take the opportunity to gather and celebrate our pride with UM’s diverse communities!

UM Pride events

Friday, May 24

Campus Pride Week Kick-off

Where: Room 200 – Faculty of Education
Time: 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.

Join us as we kick-off UM Campus Pride 2024. The event will feature special guest speakers and the unveiling of UM’s new pride visual experience. Everyone is invited to a reception with tea, coffee, snacks and other light refreshments.

Monday, May 27

U of Them Climbing Club

Where: Bouldering Room, Frank Kennedy Centre
Time: 6 to 10 p.m.

UM Recreation Services continues to create welcoming and safe spaces for the 2SLGBTQAI+ community. Come try out bouldering, offered every Monday with the U of Them climbing group. There is a drop-in fee of $21.

Thursday, May 30

Pride button making

Where: First floor, UMSU University Centre (near UMSU Service Centre)
Time: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

UMSU with the Rainbow Pride Centre (RPC) will once again host a button making day! Drop by any time between 11 – 2 to create your own unique buttons to show off at Pride. Pride-themed snacks and drinks will also be served.

Sunday, June 2

Winnipeg Pride Parade

Meet time: 10:45 a.m.
Meeting location: Memorial Boulevard

Parade: 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Parade route: North on Memorial Boulevard, East down Portage Avenue to the Forks.

By registering to walk or roll in the parade with UM, you’ll receive the newly re-designed UM Pride merchandise while supplies last. Come early to get your fan, t-shirt, buttons or bubbles. Bring your friends, family, pets and join our UM community as we dance to DJ tunes, celebrate amongst the bubbles and enjoy being part of the largest crowd in the parade!

Following the parade, all are welcome to enjoy the onsite entertainment, vendors and festival events.

Register to participate today!

The Experiential Learning Spotlight Series documents the diverse and innovative ways in which UM faculty and instructors incorporate experiential approaches to their teaching.

The series is curated by The Office of Experiential Learning within The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning.

Are you a faculty member, instructor or staff involved in experiential learning? Join our community of practice or grab lunch on us during our upcoming community consultations!

Plant lovers will especially appreciate this month’s feature. We interviewed Carla Zelmer—instructor in the Department of Biological Sciences, former researcher in the Department of Plant Science, and curator of the Buller Greenhouse Teaching and Outreach Collection—about how she uses plants to create experiential learning opportunities for students in her courses.

What does Experiential Learning mean to you?

I believe that we are all wired to learn most deeply by engaging our mind, our senses and our emotions in things that matter to us. Experiential learning is like co-creating a web. As an instructor, we are bringing new concepts and skills, and teaching students how to connect these things into the web that they already have begun. I find that the strands that bind the web are the strongest when the learner interacts with the material on many levels; connecting new information to existing knowledge, abstract concepts to things that can be seen and handled, the microscopic to the ecosystem, themselves to their peers, instructors, and the community.

When we help students weave the right threads and make the appropriate connections, concepts like diversity, evolution, conservation, genetics, climate change and others, which are of importance to scientists today, take on a more personal meaning. This sets the stage for students to succeed in our program and helps shape global citizens that will make a difference to our future.

Why do you use Experiential Learning in your teaching?

I teach about plants with the help of hundreds of co-teachers, many of whom are residents of the Buller Greenhouse Teaching and Outreach Collection that I curate. They come with me to lectures and labs.

I often hear students say things like “I have only ever seen this plant in photographs!”—they begin to ask questions and become curious about plants. “Where are they from, why do they have these features, how do they grow, what do they need?” Clearly, being in the presence of these live organisms is very different from just seeing them on a textbook or PowerPoint slide.

One of the units in my Flowering Plants class of 116 students covers seeds, germination, and seedling development. I created an assignment that asks pairs of students to germinate seeds at home. At the beginning of the assignment, students interview their partners to get to know each other. I provide seed types that I know well and are likely to germinate in the required time, but I also included some species that I am unfamiliar with.

I love that the students and I both learn at the same time!

The students plant the seeds and then follow their development at home. The same seeds are also planted and cared for in the Buller Greenhouse as safeguard and reference. Students take daily photos of their seeds and measure the growth of seedling roots and shoots. This assignment also connected to a hands-on lab in which the students compared different germination patterns and seedling development. A collaborative final report is prepared by both students.

While this assignment might sound like the grow-a-bean-seed-in-a-cup exercise done in grade school, the speed of germination for some species, lack of germination of viable seeds, rate and sequence of development and even the understanding of what was planted (e.g., some ‘seeds’ are actually whole fruits) are often a surprise for many students.

Apart from the course’s learning outcomes, the students identified important outcomes like teamwork, interview skills, time management, consistency, communication, reflection, collaborative report writing and photography skills. The students also provided me with helpful advice about ways to improve this assignment.

What advice would you give instructors who want to give Experiential Learning a try?

It’s very rewarding for the students and instructors, so jump in! There are some important aspects to consider as you design your experiences. I think it’s important to identify what the purpose(s) of the activity will be and how it will be assessed prior to releasing it as an assignment. These are not always easy to assess, so be sure the expectations are communicated clearly to the students.

Start small and work your way up to larger experiences as your confidence grows. The Office of Experiential Learning at The Centre has a lot of resources and great people to help you along the way. A key piece of experiential learning is the preparation of the students to learn in this way.

If you would like to be featured in this series, or know someone who should be, email The Office of Experiential Learning at OEL@umanitoba.ca.

We asked Colleen to share some thoughts about her approach to experiential learning.  

Colleen talked about the importance of engaging students with real-world problems that are relevant and familiar to them. During a student-driven assignment, Colleen asked Physical Education students to create projects that framed physical education as a preventative approach to healthcare.  

At first, students resisted the assignment “because they wanted to be told exactly what to do.” Colleen worked through those challenges with her students and was excited to report that “in the end, they created amazing things.”  

Colleen remembered a group of students created a proposal for a Fit For Life and Learning first-year course: 

“These students created this amazing course and I helped them pitch it to our former Dean, Jane Watkinson, who also thought the course was amazing because she decided to run the course as a pilot project. The students were involved in designing and marketing the course. 35 first-year students registered for the course! The best part is that these same students graduated from our program and are now educators and healthcare professionals who understand their role in supporting our health care system.” 

For Colleen, the key takeaway from that experience is the importance of “getting that passion out of our students.”: 

“It is important that we show them our passion and interest in experiential learning and share those experiences together. We want to tap into students’ ideas, curiosity, and creativity. Learning can and should be engaging and enjoyable!”

Colleen Plumton with Kevin Scott, Jack Haper, and Dave Bosiak at KinRec’s Supervised Fieldwork Program’s 40th Anniversary celebration.

Learn more

To learn more about Colleen’s work and the Supervised Fieldwork Experience program at the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation, visit their website! 

To learn more about the Office of Experiential Learning, visit our website. 

To attend an Experiential Learning workshop or event, visit our workshops and events page. 

What is experiential learning, from a teaching point of view?

Experiential learning takes many forms and happens in many places across UM—from applied research to work-integrated learning, both inside and outside the classroom. As an approach to teaching and learning, the basic premise of experiential learning is that students learn better when they are able to interact with concepts and ideas as agents in the world. This is the opposite of what the educational theorist, Paulo Freire, called “the banking model of education.” In the banking model of education, students are seen as empty vessels in which instructors are supposed to deposit information. On the other hand, in experiential learning, the role of instructors is to design and facilitate experiences that allow students to connect their existing knowledge and skills to new concepts and ideas. Whereas the goal of the banking model of education is to accumulate and recall information, the goal of experiential learning is to foster meaningful relationships to knowledge and ideas, innovation and creativity.

How can I bring EL into my classroom?

As an instructor, start by asking yourself the question: how can I avoid replicating the banking model of education? Here are some general guidelines to help you come up with your own answer:

• Prepare fewer lectures, design more experiences: engage students in games, case-scenarios, interviews, group projects and other forms of active learning.
• Connect knowledge to the real world: Bring in a guest speaker, use videos and articles from current news and events, help students see the connection between what they are learning and the things they care about.
• Build-in reflection: Think of all the information you have take in today: names, faces, dates, facts, numbers, places, etc. Our brain’s real estate is very expensive. Unless we take time to connect new information to the valuable information that already exists in our brains, it will be soon forgotten. Reflection helps us make those connections by creating meaning.
• Make sure to build-in opportunities for students to turn new information into meaningful information by engaging in reflection.
• Create opportunities for students to apply their learning: what is the point of learning anything if you don’t get the chance to do something with it? Students are more motivated to learn when they have the opportunity to apply their new knowledge and skills. Presentations, Industry projects and community engaged learning opportunities are great ways for student to apply their learning!

What resources exist for me to learn more?

There are many ways to bring the 12 different types of EL into your courses, and many opportunities to learn more and connect with other experiential learning educators at UM. For example:

• The Office of Experiential Learning hosts a monthly, lunch-hour conversation series on different topics related to EL.
• The Experiential Learning Gathering is an in-person, community-building event that takes place every academic term.
• We also host an experiential learning institute every fall and winter.
• Subscribe to the Experiential Learning Quarterly Newsletter to stay up to date on news, opportunities and events!

To learn more about EL for instructors at UM, visit the Office of Experiential Learning.

A safe place to make mistakes

Giving students a safe space to take on real-world challenges is key for Instructor Katherine Isaac in the Faculty of Architecture’s Environmental Design program. In her Professional Practice course, students create a “request for proposal” (RFP) for an architecture project; they then role play and become the client who is receiving the RFP. This self- and peer-evaluation exercise allows learners to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their work “and to have reality-based conversations,” she says.

Instructor Jenna Tichon, whose statistics classes in the Faculty of Science are often large, shared how she has scaled up experiential learning techniques and uses authentic assessment and student self-reflection to help her learners succeed.

“I value that in university and science, people are able to say, ‘I think I’m making a mistake, I did something wrong, there might be an issue here.’” She believes that if that opportunity isn’t built into the learning experience, “the consequences of people not being able to speak up can be incredibly severe.”

Stepping outside one’s comfort zone

Encouraging students to overcome their reticence has been rewarding for Professor Peter Kulchyski of the Department of Indigenous Studies. His six-week “bush school” in Pangnirtung on Baffin Island is land-based education and community-based learning at its most challenging.

“I’m very deliberate about working with communities and seeing them differently,” he says. Students are encouraged to look for community strengths and avoid colonial-based thinking. His visitors are to be mindful of three things when interacting with community members: impacts on the learner, impacts on the setting being learned in and impacts on those who might receive the learners during the experience. 

We are ‘doing beings’

Senior Instructor Colleen Plumton in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management has been a proponent of experiential learning for more than 20 years, and she has seen how it can ignite students’ curiosity as a result. For those looking to try it, she says, “It comes from believing in our students and ourselves. Our students want this. Remember that we are doing beings, we are not sitting beings.”  

She encouraged instructors to seek out the help available through the Centre and the Office of Experiential Learning. “We have a collection of humans to support one another.”

Compelling stories and useful advice

Attendee Mona Maxwell, Education Developer with the Centre, summed up the value of hearing the panel’s collective knowledge. “I left feeling secure that the enduring impact that a well-crafted experiential learning activity can have on a learner justifies the extra effort and risk-taking needed to overcome the barriers to creating them,” she says. “The panel convinced me that experiential learning binds our discipline content and lifts it off the pages of the text, while creating learners who appreciate the autonomy, self-growth and sense of accomplishment of their experiential learning experience for years to come.”

Since 2017, the Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning has hosted an annual Teaching Café to celebrate teaching innovation at the university. UM educators share their teaching strategies and discuss, in a roundtable format, the lessons they have learned. The Café is open to all UM faculty and instructors, and lunch is provided.

Learn more

Learn more about the Teaching and Learning Certificate.

Learn more about experiential learning.

“I’m entirely self-taught with a healthy dose of trial and error,” Szczerski added.

His journey continued with learning 3D CAD software to modify, design and print his own models. He now actively prints on filament and resin printers, and comfortably designs his own models for various purposes.

One of those purposes is to support faculty like Dr. Joy Stacey in Biological Sciences. Dr. Stacey teaches chordate and invertebrate labs and was intrigued about the potential of 3D printers in her teaching lab.

Dr. Stacey and Szczerski worked together to find high quality scans in public databases and then Szczerski assisted with editing the models to make them ready for printing. They targeted particular skulls that students were having the most trouble with learning. Dr. Stacey then devised a learning activity where students could paint their models as they learned to identify specific bones.

“Acquiring original bones or plastic copies is fairly expensive – usually a couple of hundred dollars each. But with 3D printing, we can get materials at less than two dollars per skull. That makes it feasible even for students to take them home as a good quality study aid,” Szczerski noted.  

Szczerski has also supported Dr. Carla Zelmer in Biological Sicences, who teaches flowering and non-flowering plants, by providing affordable models of plant cell organization. The models were enlarged and simplified in several ways to allows students a better visualization of the material.

Szczerski’s simple 3D printed add-ons also support the Buller Greenhouse with things like plant watering and bait traps to capture slugs.

Szczerski’s advice to others: “I think the best way to live life has always been to follow your passions and find ways to explore your own individuality and creativity. One never quite knows where things will go and many additional opportunities may be out there if you just start.”

Gallery of Carl Szczerski’s painted 3D models on display at the recent 3K Science Spark Pitch Competition from the Science Innovation Hub. Photo Credit: Mike Latschislaw

Get entrepreneurial at UM

For more information about how to bring an entrepreneurial mindset into your learning environment, get in touch with Janine Carmichael, Faculty Specialist: Entrepreneurship.

To spark your entrepreneurial spirit, visit The Stu Clark Centre for Entrepreneurship.

To move your invention or research into a practical application, visit Partnerships and Innovation.

Here’s what some participants had to say about the Gathering:  

The value placed on EL was evident during the first “EL Gathering.” We came together and spoke with passion about the importance and positive impact EL has in our classrooms, communities, and workplaces. Gathering together created a space for the UM EL community to thrive. Being engaged with the positive energy and creative ideas was thrilling. You could feel the devotion and caring of everyone in the room. I am proud to be part of this incredible community! –Colleen Plumton, Fieldwork Program Coordinator, Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management. 

It was so great to connect with other people who are also involved in experiential learning. I appreciated that the diversity of folks who attended-from those just getting their toes wet in EL to others I’ve been collaborating with for years. The breadth of knowledge and program backgrounds made for a rich environment to share– Lisa Mendez, Interprofessional Practice Coordinator, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences.

It was fantastic to connect with other individuals from different departments and faculties who are working towards common goals. The U of M is such a large organization that it’s important for us to stay connected.- Holly Klann, Experiential Learning & Co-op Education Coordinator, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences

 The intention of these gatherings is to build a foundation for an upcoming experiential learning community of practice at UM.  

“Our goal is to create a sustainable and resilient community of practice. Ultimately, that means that relationality is front-and-center in that process. We want faculty members, instructors and staff who are passionate, curious or engaged in Experiential Learning to be part of creating and shaping this community from the start” -Gera Villagran, Faculty Specialist, Office of Experiential Learning. 

Engage with The Office of Experiential Learning

The next Experiential Learning Gathering will take place in the Fall 2023. To stay updated on Experiential Learning events, initiatives and opportunities for faculty, staff and instructors:

• Visit the Office of Experiential Learning’s website
• Subscribe to their quarterly Newsletter
• Email the Office of Experiential Learning at OEL@umanitoba.ca
• Attend the next Experiential Learning event on June 8, 2023 entitled Experiential Learning Institute: Beyond Learning by Doing
  

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’ll want to check out the following events, hosted by the Office of Experiential Learning at the Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning:

The Experiential Learning Gathering: Teaching Experientially in 2023

• May 2, 2023
• 9:30 am -12 pm, light refreshments provided
• Room 200A (The Cloister), St John’s

A growing number of instructors and faculty members are incorporating different forms of experiential learning into their courses. The aim of this series of gatherings is to create a vibrant, supportive and collaborative community of experiential learning practitioners at the UM.

Covid-19, the rise of A.I. and uncertainty about the role of post-secondary education in our rapidly changing world are transforming the way we think about experiential learning. Join colleagues from diverse faculties and backgrounds as we explore emerging trends, challenges, and opportunities for EL in 2023.

Please note, the Experiential Learning Gathering is not a component of the TLC program.

Register for the Experiential Learning Gathering here (only 8 spaces left!)

The Teaching Café: Journeys into Experiential Learning

• May 3
• 10 am -12:30 pm (Doors open at 9:30; lunch from 12:30 to 1:30 pm)
• Multi-purpose Room, UMSU University Centre

This year’s Teaching Café features a panel of faculty members and instructors from Statistics, Indigenous Studies, Architecture and Kinesiology and Recreation Management. The panel will explore the speakers’ unique journeys into experiential learning across their diverse teaching careers.

In addition to the panel, participants will have the opportunity to engage in small group discussions with panelists and connect with other participants over lunch.

Register for the Teaching Café here (only 10 spaces left!)

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’ll want to check out the following events, hosted by the Office of Experiential Learning at the Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning:

The Experiential Learning Gathering: Teaching Experientially in 2023

• May 2, 2023
• 9:30 am -12 pm
• Room 200A (The Cloister), St John’s

A growing number of instructors and faculty members are incorporating different forms of experiential learning into their courses. The aim of this series of gatherings is to create a vibrant, supportive and collaborative community of experiential learning practitioners at the UM.

Covid-19, the rise of A.I. and uncertainty about the role of post-secondary education in our rapidly changing world are transforming the way we think about experiential learning. Join colleagues from diverse faculties and backgrounds as we explore emerging trends, challenges, and opportunities for EL in 2023.

Please note, the Experiential Learning Gathering is not a component of the TLC program.

Register for the Experiential Learning Gathering here (30 spaces available)

The Teaching Café: Journeys into Experiential Learning

• May 3
• 10 am -12:30 pm (Doors open at 9:30; lunch from 12:30 to 1:30 pm)
• Multi-purpose Room, UMSU University Centre

This year’s Teaching Café features a panel of faculty members and instructors from Statistics, Indigenous Studies, Architecture and Kinesiology and Recreation Management. The panel will explore the speakers’ unique journeys into experiential learning across their diverse teaching careers.

In addition to the panel, participants will have the opportunity to engage in small group discussions with panelists and connect with other participants over lunch.

Register for the Teaching Café here (80 spaces available)

Experiential Learning Institute: Beyond Learning by Doing

• June 8
• 9 am -4 pm
• Fort Garry Campus

There is much more to experiential learning than extracting knowledge from experience—from developing an experiential mindset, to acquiring new competencies and a reflective habit.

In this 1-day institute, participants will explore the pedagogy of experiential learning as a holistic approach to teaching that emphasizes the process of learning over its outcomes. Facilitating these holistic experiences for our students requires that we think about experiential learning “beyond learning by doing”–from how to prepare students to learn experientially, to incorporating competency development into the design of experiential learning activities.  

Along with these learning opportunities, the institute offers a space for experiential learning practitioners to come together to exchange ideas, find support and build community around their shared passion for teaching experientially.

To participate in the Experiential Learning Institute, get in touch with the Office of Experiential Learning at the Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning or by visiting their website or emailing gerardo.villagran@umanitoba.ca.