I recently attended the Graduate Management Admissions Council annual conference in Denver and met many MBA program managers and admissions officers with whom we discussed Experiential – Learning (E-L) trends on B-School campuses. It was really enjoyable to spend time with these committed professionals and learn more about what they are doing on their campuses.

Yet, during our conversations we were struck by the oft-shared challenge that Admissions has when trying to differentiate their E-L programs to prospective students. Many shared that difficulties exist within their School to produce accurate and timely reports about their experiential programs. This included even basic information like how many students and companies participate in E-L at their school, and most especially the value that students derive from these programs. The admissions officers spoke passionately about wanting to share their School’s successes in E-L with prospective students, and yet not having a way internally to get data and stories that would support their work in differentiating their School from their competitors.

In our work with clients, we always hear about how valuable E-L is to students and companies. The faculty and E-L program managers and our corporate partners are clear on the value of E-L to students, and companies, and share feedback like this with us regularly:

• Students who participate in E-L projects express higher levels of satisfactions with their MBA program than those who do not
• Companies value the quality of work performed by students and see E-L projects as a way to identify top talent for their organizations
• Faculty share that student learning is deepened through the completion of casino E-L projects

So how can Schools, and especially admissions officers, better position and differentiate themselves to prospective students by highlighting their E-L programs? Well, one of the most beneficial features of the EduSourced platform is the ability to track and report out on student projects in a timely manner. With EduSourced, schools can identify which students are completing E-L projects by type, location, industry, and project sponsor satisfaction. Admissions can then use this information to identify student bloggers and ambassadors, and create data-driven collateral, talking points, and other marketing materials for use in recruitment efforts.

With growing student and corporate interest in experiential programs within business schools, can your school afford not to be able to share your story effectively?

DC is the CEO of EduSourced, the premier software provider supporting experiential learning programs within higher education. Our cloud-based application creates one central repository for faculty, staff, students and industry partners to better manage business-to-classroom projects. Take our interactive continuum for a spin to see how everything relates. To learn more about EduSourced’s products click here