Welcome to “Learning for the Real World: Simulations, Gaming, and Service Learning”
Experiential Learning emphasizes the central role that experience plays in the learning process. In this workshop, presented by the Tennessee Teaching and Learning Center, participants will explore their own understandings and experiences of experiential learning, with a focus on three models in the following three sessions.
Session 1: Simulations
Dr. Ernest (Ernie) Cadotte, Professor of Marketing
Dr. Cadotte will discuss the use of simulations as a learning tool and explain the process by which he moved from low-tech simulations to the creation of Marketplace Live, a business simulation program. This program recently received a Brandon Hall Silver Award for Excellence in Learning Technology in the category of Best Advance in 3-D or Immersive Learning Technology. “I wanted to create a new way to engage students, blending 
textbooks, lectures, games, and movies. It is a ground-breaking approach to learning that involves students in familiar ways,” said Cadotte in an interview with the College of Business Administration. He continued, “students can touch and feel the products they manufacture, envision the ads they design, see inside the sales outlets they build, and visualize the factories they manage.” To see a preview of the program, visit the Marketplace Live website.
For further resources, visit our page, Simulations and Gaming for Experiential Learning.
Session 2: Service Learning
Dr. Sherry Cable, Professor of Sociology
Service-Learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities (National Service Learning Clearing House).
Dr. Cable has provided the following materials for the workshop:
Timeline for designing a service learning component in a course
495 Syllabus
Course summary and reflection essays
Grading Criteria for essays
TIPS ON FIELDWORK
Directions for 1st draft and final report
495 Student Comments
Articles for reference:
Schumer, Robert. Service learning research: What have we learned from the past
Dionne, E. J. and Drogosz, Kayla. The Promise of National Service.
Successful Service Learning Strategies
For more on service learning and for links to major websites, see our service learning and civic engagement page.
Session 3: Gamification
Dr. Brandon Horvath: Assistant Professor, Department of Plant Sciences
Dr. Horvath will discuss gaming models in education, including his own gaming course design, modeled on work by Lee Sheldon at Indiana University at Bloomington (see Gaming the Classroom).
Gamification refers to using game dynamics for structuring learning, rather than using games (such as video games) per se.
For more on gamification, see the article in elearn magazine, “Gamification: using game mechanics to enhance elearning.” For Dr. Horvath’s presentation material, see Gamification.
For further information and links, visit the Simulations and Gaming for Experiential Learning.