William A. Ruch

Orchestrating an Experiential Lab

This article is about another variation of using the class as an organization.’ This approach reflects our collective experience of some fifteen years with over 2,000 students and contains some important advantages over traditional methods of teaching OB. First, the accountability for learning is put squarely on the shoulders of the learner. Second, OB is experienced at the visceral as well as the cognitive level. And third, the teacher is freed to observe what happens and make the connections to theory. Our approach is not free of drawbacks yet its use has been gratifying to us. We use a class project approach in a course called