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EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING MODEL

Experiential learning is learning that helps learners engage in real-world experiences and allow learners to reflect on those experiences before being able to apply them in the real-world. Learners engage in scenarios that are similar to what they will encounter in the real-world. Experiential learning can be used in a variety of fields and encourages learners to think critically and how to effectively problem solve. 

LEARNING SCENARIO 

Army Education Counselors are required to know how to perform various important duties but one of the most important is being able to create degree completion memos for active duty service members. They must know how to to identify what is needed in order to successfully input the required information so that the service member can provide the degree completion memo to their administration officer so that they receive the appropriate promotion points and their record is updated to reflect their current education level.

 

Newly hired Army Education Counselors are doing their onboarding and need to learn how to complete a degree completion memo by learning what information is required to be provided from the service member and how to identify the needed information to input for the creation of the memo.  

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT 

The newly hired education counselors are working on an online module doing case-based learning where they are given three mock soldier profiles along with a template for the degree completion memo that has blanks which require them to examine each soldier profile, the accompanying documents and insert the information in the blanks that need to be filled. They will submit their attempts and get immediate feedback within the online module, highlighting what is correct or incorrect, give a reasoning behind why the information was correct or incorrect. 

AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT 

The education counselors in training are provided with two memos and the accompanying documentation needed for the memo. One of the memos has various errors on it but the correct accompanying documentation while the other memo has the correct information but the accompanying documentation isn't acceptable to use. The education counselors are tasked with reviewing the memos and documentation to find the errors, make corrections. They must be able to identify the errors and create correct memos. Through this they will learn what documentation must be used, is acceptable for future memo creations and how memos should be created to avoid issues with service members information. 

Connection to Experiential Learning 

Having the Army education counselors go through experiential learning that is specifically case-based learning scenarios where they encounter mock scenarios that mimic what they will encounter when they are assisting service members in creating degree completion memos. The education counselors are active learners by completing the tasks of analyzing the service members information and being able to identify incorrect information in memos so that they can successfully and independently complete the memos on their own. The authentic learning experiences and being able to get immediate feedback is helpful so that they counselors feel confident and can easily transition to their new roles. 

References 

© 2025 by Maria Jacobs  and secured by Wix. This work is licensed under CC BY 4.0

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