Hey there, Reader-
Have you noticed it, too?
Experiential learning (EL) is everywhere in higher ed right now.
It’s in your strategic plan.
It’s in your president’s speeches.
It’s on your to-do list for “someday soon.”
But here’s the truth:
Most campuses haven’t figured out how to move beyond the pilot phase.
They’ve launched something—a course, a grant, a summer program.
But the momentum doesn’t always last.
Why?
Because scaling EL isn’t just about adding more courses and programs.
It’s about designing the systems to support them.
And that’s why I’m featuring a tool built specifically for institutions making this leap.
Featuring...
A platform for the messy, multi-office, everyone’s-involved
reality of scaling experiential learning.
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Why I’m spotlighting this tool
✅ Yes, this is a paid partnership.
✅ No, I don’t feature every product I come across.
✅ My filter: If it’s in this newsletter, it’s solving real problems I hear from clients every week.
Here’s what I’m hearing:
“We’re under pressure to grow experiential learning…
but our current systems can’t support it.”
Whether you're in the “What even counts as EL?” phase or knee-deep in design, this edition is for you.
So before we dive into how to scale it, let’s talk about why experiential learning matters—and why it’s worth the effort.
Why EL matters (and why it’s worth the effort)
If you're in early conversations about experiential learning, you might be hearing questions like:
“Is this really worth the effort?”
“How do we know it works?”
“Isn’t this just one more thing on our plate?”
Valid questions. But the research makes a compelling case.
Students who engage in experiential learning are more likely to persist, perform, and connect what they’re learning to the world around them.
Here’s what we know:
Persistence and retention
Students who participate, especially first-years involved in service learning, are more likely to stay enrolled and graduate from their institution.
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Academic outcomes
Experiential learning increases students’ ability to apply course content to real life. It improves higher-order thinking, strengthens problem-solving skills, and leads to deeper understanding.
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Personal & social development
Students report stronger motivation, self-esteem, and sense of purpose.
They’re more likely to take positive actions and less likely to disengage when challenges arise.
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This is about more than programming.
It’s about creating the conditions where learning sticks—intellectually, personally, and professionally.
Thinking about scaling EL? Start here:
1. Don’t skip the definition work
Before you scale, you have to align.
Try this:
- Ask: “What do we want students to get out of these experiences—career clarity, belonging, transferable skills, better relationships with employers?”
- Draft a working definition of EL with faculty and staff from across campus
- Communicate it clearly in your advising materials, websites, and onboarding sessions
🎯 With Career Forge:
Your definition drives the whole process—customize everything from workflows to reporting to approvals.
2. Treat it like a campus-wide strategy
If EL is everyone’s responsibility but no one’s job, you’ll stay stuck.
Try this:
- Start small: Invite 6–8 cross-functional leaders to a working group
- Map where EL already lives (career center, student life, academic departments, community partnerships)
- Co-create goals that serve multiple units—not just your own
🎯 With Career Forge:
Career Forge can route tasks and approvals to the right people with the appropriate visibility across departments--without duplicating work.
3. Make the student experience frictionless
Most students won’t opt into something they don’t understand.
Try this:
- Build a “Start Here” page for students that demystifies EL
- Create short videos or testimonials from peers to show what’s possible
- Embed reflection questions throughout—not just at the end
🎯 With Career Forge:
Students can track their experience, submit forms, reflect on competencies, and even get reminders—all in one place.
One campus told me: “Students used to ask, ‘Where do I start?’ Now they say, ‘I didn’t know I could do all this.’”
4. Design workflows that don’t require a hero
If your EL process depends on that one person who knows where everything lives, it’s not a system. It’s a bottleneck.
Try this:
- Identify one recurring process (e.g., internship approval) and document every step
- Look for where students get stuck or forms fall through the cracks
- Automate where you can, especially emails and status updates
🎯 With Career Forge:
Flexible workflows adapt to your processes, not the other way around. Even better? No more emailing spreadsheets at midnight.
One Career Forge client said it best: “We were trying to track internships in a shared drive. Career Forge gave us a system we could actually build on.”
5. Collect data you’ll actually use
You don’t need 80 metrics. You need the right ones—disaggregated, actionable, and aligned with your goals.
Try this:
- Track participation and outcomes by population
- Look for equity gaps: Who’s missing? Who’s not completing?
- Connect EL data to career and student success outcomes, coaching, or other participation data
🎯 With Career Forge:
Real-time dashboards and NACE-aligned reporting help you answer the big questions—without fumbling through exports or VLookups.
And because Career Forge integrates with your student information system, you can tie EL participation to enrollment, retention, and degree progress—no data silos required.
From pilot to platform
Whether you’re just starting to explore experiential learning or trying to bring existing efforts under one umbrella...
You don’t need more programs.
You need more support.
Career Forge gives you the structure to move from “we’re trying this” to “this is how we do things here.”
As CEO, Dave Nicol puts it:
“Experiential learning is no longer optional. It’s central to how students discover their purpose, prove their potential, and prepare for what’s next.”
Final thought—
You don’t have to be fully ready to scale.
But you do have to start thinking like a systems builder.
If you’re exploring what it takes to grow experiential learning, I’d love to hear what you’re working on, and what’s still unclear.
And if you want a no-pressure look at what Career Forge can do, just reply.
Happy to connect you.
Things you might want to read:
Keep on rockin' it!
P.S. This inquiring mind wants to know - what's your biggest challenge getting EL off the ground?
P.P.S. Did someone forward this to you? Join our community here!
