Learning By Doing

Learning By Doing

Mackenzie Alcorn and Dr. Chandra Clark

At The University of Alabama, the Learning in Action Quality Enhancement Program incorporates experiential learning into classrooms and co-curricular activities so that undergraduate students gain real-world, problem-solving skills before heading into their desired field of work. Through experiential learning opportunities (ELOs), faculty and staff immerse students in real situations where they can use their academic knowledge and gain invaluable understanding.

Mackenzie Alcorn, a telecommunications and film student, enrolled in one of QEP’s experiential learning opportunities, TCF 335: New Media. This course quickly became Alcorn’s favorite class as she learned how to work with new clients, prepare media and marketing plans, create social media accounts and design websites. She also learned how to contribute to a common goal in a group setting, which is crucial for many jobs.

In New Media, Alcorn worked with Fight 4 Life Fitness and Boxing Ministry, a nonprofit in Birmingham that helps inner city youth learn how to process anger and emotions through boxing. The owners, Greg and Dorothy Young, worked with Alcorn and four other students to create a vision for its social media platforms, branding strategy and website. This opportunity allowed Alcorn to put what she learned in New Media to work. She was able to design the website and bring the company’s vision to life. Before this class, Alcorn was unaware she possessed the design skills for websites.

“I never knew I could do it,” Alcorn said. “Students get a little bit of what I call the real world with this class and taking it senior year before you graduate is even more of a plus.” In addition to working with Fight 4 Life, Alcorn applied the lessons learned in New Media to her reporting position at Crimson Tide Productions.

“I believe every student should take an experiential learning course,” Alcorn said. “It’s also something you can put on your résumé and show potential interviewers.”

As Alcorn pursues interviews for a job after graduation, she is confident experiential learning will help her land the position she wants.

Experiential learning enables students to actively learn, while allowing faculty and staff to engage with students in a unique and rewarding way.

Professor Chandra Clark teaches the ELO New Media in addition to reporting, advanced broadcast news and other courses in the telecommunication and film and journalism departments. “It’s how I learned best and what helped me advance in my career in the industry,” Clark said. “I watched, observed, and then did the task, craft or skill I was challenged to do.”

Clark incorporates new ways for students to engage in real-world settings each year. For many teachers, this is made possible through QEP mini-grants. Grant applications in the fall and spring semesters provide recipients with special professional development opportunities and funding for travel.

In New Media, all students work in a group with a nonprofit. These nonprofits are handpicked by Clark depending on their need for a stronger social media presence and a more efficient website. Clark works with students throughout the semester to develop strategies for these nonprofits to give them a voice in the community. Over the last four years, opportunities in New Media have led to more than 30 partnerships in which students develop finished projects to add to their résumés, and clients receive new and strategic communication plans.

Through her ELO, Clark prepares students for their future by pushing them to pay attention to the big picture and how every word, action and story is a way of communicating with the public. Clark encourages them to see how valuable their skills are and how they can implement them into any job.

“In all my classes, I try to teach students how to use their skills as a broadcast journalist to market themselves for a job, whether they work as an entrepreneurial journalist or for a traditional company,” Clark said.

As a teacher, Clark finds it rewarding to set her students up for success. She helps develop her students’ problem-solving skills through opportunities in experiential learning, which prepares them to be successful in their first jobs.

“They say the thought process that I put them through to realize the value of their skills and how they can use them in everything they do is what helps them in numerous situations in their job,” Clark said.

Grant applications for the 2016-2017 academic year and informational sessions about Learning in Action will be posted soon. For more information about the Learning in Action QEP, email Dr. Heather Pleasants at experience@ua.edu.