Realising the Educational Potential of Student Tours

Learning how to be a business manager has limitations if confined to the classroom and educators have long been aware that students learn best when they are actively engaged. Supplementing formal classroom activities with farm and industry visits has been used as a strategy to bridge academic learning and industry practice in management education. By taking students on tour to observe, interview and listen to practising managers opens up a whole new dimension for learning. The experiential nature of the tour has provided students with the opportunity to explore more about the concept of management, discover new things and learn more about themselves. This degree of 'reality' helps to engage the student in the learning process as they reflect on what happened, how it happened and why. Constructive alignment between curriculum, assessment and tour design is critical in achieving learning outcomes. Otherwise, a tour just becomes 'a nice day out'. This paper outlines the experiential nature of the learning associated with student tours within a university management education curriculum. The paper explores not just the learning outcomes for the student but also for the academics involved in organising the tour and, very importantly, the industry co-operator that is visited. It is this tripartite involved in the whole tour experience that creates a more meaningful learning experience for all.