Purdue University continually explores the future of interactive learning in an effort to find effective and engaging content delivery methods for it’s faculty and students. On August 28th Purdue’s Vet School invited Illumen Group along with Dr. James “Butch” Rosser of The Stealth Learning Company to present the topic of Experiential Learning and how it’s shaping both academic and corporate learning environments. Over three sessions, the trio provided insight on Experiential Learning’s past, present, and future. Audience members consisted of faculty from Purdue’s Vet Sciences, Nursing, Engineering and Agriculture Departments.

Mr. Okamoto kicked off the four-hour session by bringing the audience up to speed on the state of Experiential Learning in today’s business and academic learning environments. Using Illumen’s tools and processes, he discussed and demonstrated the evolution of content delivery; the proven effectiveness of how interactive experiences can make learning “sticky”; and today’s ability to create blended learning environments that fuse live instructor teaching methods with interactive curriculum.

Dr. James “Butch” Rosser then brought academic science to the table that showed how he leveraged technology to expand training to scale at Nasa, in medicine, and in student education. Central to Dr. Rosser’s theme was how he has developed a process that integrates competition, technology, and gaming into a program known as Top Gun 4 Surgeons (TG4S). This program has helped over 5000 surgeons worldwide become more efficient and accurate with their surgical skills. A renowned Endoscopic/Laparoscopic surgeon, Dr. Rosser related how the lack of appropriate technique training was literally killing patients requiring laparoscopic surgery in the 80’s and early 90’s, and how the Top Gun program helped turn the numbers around and save lives. Dr. Rosser was quick to point out that one of the keys to TG4S was the process by which it was developed, implemented and vetted, and how a similar process is being used by K-12 institutions to greatly enhance their educational impact.

Mr. Denz provided the seminar’s wrap up by offering examples of how universities have initiated the transition from traditional to experiential learning platforms. From funding to the art of championing and managing change; from the 10 thousand foot perspective of universities and their schools to the 10 foot perspective of a single instructor developing a single course or learning concept. Answering the question “why?” and “how?” Mr. Denz provided the diverse audience with specific ideas and steps for getting started and building momentum.

The seminar was followed by a lunch hosted by Purdue’s Discovery Learning Center , and the afternoon and next day were spent in breakout sessions with teams from each of the attending schools and departments. While the seminar served to inform and inspire, the breakout sessions proved invaluable. Participants were encouraged to identify their biggest challenges, formulate quantifiable objectives, ask curriculum specific questions and discuss their ideas for bringing experiential learning to their students. The results were tangible marching orders for everyone involved along with a grounding sense of inspiration, excitement, and empowerment.