Designing Experiential Learning Programs with Nikki James

IMPACT LEARNING

Production team:

Host : Maria Xenidou

Producer: Julie-Roxane Krikorian

Introduction Voice: David Bourne

Contact us:

[e-mail]

Music credits:

Like Lee performed by The Mini Vandals

Transition sounds: Swamp Walks performed by Jingle Punks

Where to find Nikki James and Practera:

On LinkedIn

Practera

Mentioned in this episode:

Constructive Alignment Design Theory on Wikipedia

John Biggs, the lead thinker on this theory

Listen to this episode and explore:

Nikki’s childhood: studying ballet, giving to the community and staying focused on her education (3:33)

Getting a bachelor’s degree in health science (8:16)

Nikki’s first job as an outdoor educator (10:34)

Becoming a youth manager at a charity in Australia (11:30)

Building public-speaking skills and learning about social justice (12:50)

Setting-up a volunteering branch in China after the Sichuan Earthquake (15:52)

What Nikki learnt about herself in China (20:47)

Returning to Australia to develop volunteering programs for university students (22:00)

Her trip to Tanzania that changed everything (24:24)

Joining Practera as an Instructional Designer (28:30)

Practera: an experiential learning online platform (30:36)

Using collaborative project learning to scale experiential learning and help students develop 21st-century skills (32:34)

What goes into designing an experiential learning experience that creates the desired outcomes (36:14)

How Nikki leverages experts when designing an experiential learning experience (38:52)

The business model of Practera: who covers the cost of the programs (41:23)

How experiential programs work for the students (42:15)

How Practera matches the students with the industry professionals and their projects (43:29)

Creating an ecosystem where students, educators and industry professionals collaborate (45:03)

What the program managers’ role is at Practera (47:51)

How to get involved with Practera as an educator (48:58)

Who the mentors are and how they support students (51:26)

How Practera triggers reflective learning for the students (53:28)

Practera programs: a combination of online and in-person activities (55:43)

Nikki’s reflection on scaling the impact of her work while dreaming of making the Practera technology available in low-resource economies (57:29)

Nikki’s PhD in Education: aggregating learning data analytics and learning theories in the experiential learning field (59:34)

How Nikki sees the future of experiential learning (1:01:40)