Learning and the mode in which learning happens has been the talk of the town forever! Whether the Gurukula system or the modern day professional education imparted by premier institutions such as Siva Sivani Institute of Management, the only thing that has been consistent is Learning – the ultimate objective of all these systems and organizations.
While the whole world is talking about Learning by doing and Learning by reflecting upon one’s experience, Siva Sivani Institute of Management has been practicing the art of Experiential Learning over the years. However, before understanding how experiential learning has been practiced on Siva Sivani’s campus, it is important to understand what exactly we mean by Experiential Learning.
What is Experiential Learning?
Almost half a century ago, a famous American businessman and visionary, Alvin Toffler, predicted that “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” Experiential learning is a philosophy where the students are exposed to direct experiences. The students are expected to learn by reflecting upon their own practical experiences and these experiences are further validated by the theoretical understanding of the classroom understanding. They are also trained to add skill, upskill, reskill and also the art of learn, unlearn, and relearn to manage every situation in their life effectively, efficiently, and obviously happily.
How is Experiential Learning practiced at Siva Sivani Institute of Management?
The faculties and the management at Siva Sivani Institute of Management have a natural inclination towards adopting the experiential method of learning for the students. This is practiced even during regular course teaching is in progress. Real life case scenarios are used to explain normal theories across all the subjects and courses. Mock sessions of interviews and meetings are held to give a practical feel of real life situations to the students. Role plays are done regularly to make the students understand and analyze the situation and find effective solutions for real scenarios.
Apart from this, the students are engaged in activities such as industrial visits, shop/supermarket/retail outlet visits, company visits and even visit the organizations involved in social work to actually involve with real people and scenarios to gain experience and learn from reflecting upon such experiences. At the end of each term, the students have to showcase their experiential learning gained throughout the term across various courses during their term-end viva. This term end viva is usually conducted by a faculty member and an external corporate personality from the industry. The experiential learning demonstrated by the students are further validated by this external judge. Therefore, the students are exposed to a holistic experiential learning mechanism throughout their course tenure, even after completing it successfully.
However, the experiential learning of the students doesn’t stop there. The students also require to participate in the various events happening on the campus such as Samanvay – The inter-college management fest; Samaroh – The annual research conference; Satakshi – The Women’s Day Celebration; and Sangosthi – The Discussion, among others. The students are involved in all the activities from the beginning to the end, thereby giving them a practical exposure to various aspects of life such as Event Management, Fund Management, Coordination among team members, and other aspects of management.
The students at Siva Sivani Institute of Management also learn a lot through the fun activities that they engage in. The students are members of different clubs such as the Marketing Club, the Entrepreneurship Club, the HR Club, and the Peer Counselling Club depending upon their interests. These clubs help them pursue their interests while networking with like-minded peers who get along to discuss on various impending issues. These clubs prepare monthly newsletters where they compile whatever they observed and learnt in their area of interest in order to make their fellow classmates and the members of the staff and faculty aware of such events. Further, they also undertake various activities such as quiz competition, storytelling competition, and picture comprehension competition to spread the awareness among other students too!
The students are also taken out of their campus for Out Bound Training camp at a resort where they are divided into groups and are involved in various management games played at individual and at group levels. This way they learn quite a few management fundamentals by practicing them in real life.
The students at Siva Sivani Institute of Management are exposed to a holistic learning process where they have fun, activity, experience, and learning all at the same time. This is what prepares these students for a grueling stressful competitive world waiting to embrace them after their course completion. Happy Experiential Learning Students!!!
Author name is Samarpita Roy, Assistant Professor, SSIM