Jerry Schnepp & Corinne Renguette
EASEL (Education through Application-Supported Experiential Learning) is a mobile application that facilitates real-time reflection during experiential learning. Traditionally, students engaged in experiential learning (field trips, professional shadowing, on-the-job training, etc) are often evaluated on their reflection. This usually involves either free-form journaling or short answer questions, which the students complete well after they have finished the experiential learning activity. Problems arise when students’ perception of the events change over time, and their reflection becomes less authentic. EASEL mitigates this issue by allowing students to submit mini-reflections before, during, or directly after, the experiential learning activity. EASEL allows an instructor to deliver reflection prompts based on either time of day, location, or elapsed time of an event. For the student using EASEL, prompts simply appear at the appropriate time during the activity, soliciting just-in-time reflection while the experience is fresh in their memory. What’s more, students can choose to answer using several modalities, including keyboard entry, speech-to-text, audio, photography, or video.