Teaching Development Grants
Completed TDG Projects

Experiential Learning

Development of an Experiential Learning Based Course “Transformative Business Immersion in Developing Economics” for Undergraduate Students in the Faculty of Business and Economics


Abstract

This project created the course “Transformative Business Immersion in Developing Economies”, first ran with one subclass in 2014/15 and two subclasses in 2015/16. In this course, students travel abroad to consult with local small businesses while staying with host families. This immersive, service learning based course broadens students’ perspectives about developing countries, and gives them an opportunity to apply educational training to real life problems. The course is credit-bearing (6 credits) and is non-compulsory, takes place during the summer semester, and is capped at 30 students per trip. During the course, students are required to write public blog posts relating to homestay experiences, project progress with the small businesses, and personal reflections. Student consulting teams are also required to write a consulting report for each business. Student groups are required to produce a video about their experience in the course. Students have returned very positive feedback upon finishing the course, and the businesses they consulted with have been unanimously happy for the assistance.

Principal Investigator

Mr. B.L. Lefler, School of Business, Faculty of Business and Economics Contact

Project level

Programme-level project

Project Completion

November 2016

Deliverables

  1. Public facing blog website that includes student reflections: https://businessimmersion.wordpress.com/
  2. An example of a video prepared by students documenting the course work and activities Download
  3. An example of a consulting report prepared by students Download
  4. A scholarly article documenting the course and its value as an example of business education combined with altruism.