Experiential Learning for Circular Operations Management in Higher Education
Abstract
:1. Introduction
- To identify the key topics of circular economy and sustainable operations management for learning experiences in HE;
- To propose an active pedagogical approach to enhance this type of learning experience for student engagement;
- To assess how this type of learning experience impacts students’ learning achievements.
2. Background
2.1. Operations Management and the Circular Economy
2.2. Learning Circular Economy in Higher Education
2.3. Experiential Learning for Circular Operations Management Education
- CE involves real-world applications and requires students to see the direct impact of circular practices on operations and understand the challenges and opportunities associated with implementing circular economy strategies in organizations. This can involve field visits, simulations, or hands-on activities to directly experience challenges and issues.
- RE considers that students should critically evaluate circular economy-related situations in operations management to deeply understand the underlying principles, identify potential barriers and challenges, and reflect on possible implications. Possible pedagogical alternatives in this case are class discussions, group reflections, or self-assessments where students can analyze and interpret their experiences and identify key insights and lessons learned.
- AC refers to students who should generate new ideas, make connections, and develop innovative solutions for the operational challenges of the circular economy. This proposition can involve designing circular economy strategies for specific operations management scenarios, developing circular design solutions, suggesting circular economy performance metrics, or creating circular business models.
- AE involves engagement and encourages students to design, test, and validate circular economy strategies in real-world contexts. This active engagement can take the form of implementation plans, demonstrations, practical implementations, presentations, debates, role plays, or simulations.
3. Materials and Methods
- Select an operations management-related course linked to a real-world circular economy situation to develop relevant intended learning outcomes;
- Develop a research design of a learning experience based on experiential learning;
- Collect, organize, and analyze data, and make descriptions of the learning experience;
- Evaluate and explain/interpret the learning experience results, and reformulate statements and claims, if required;
- Report the discoveries and take further action by re-visiting the results from step 3.
4. Results
4.1. The Operations Management Course
4.2. The Experiential Learning-Based Learning Experience
4.2.1. Concrete Experience
4.2.2. Reflective Observation
4.2.3. Abstract Conceptualization
4.2.4. Active Experimentation
- Logistic strategies for glass bottle recovery from end-consumers and marketing events;
- Re-use processes of glass bottles for marketing promotion activities;
- Logistic strategies for packing and packaging material recovery from retail points and warehouses;
- Inventory management procedures to deal with expiration dates and damaged products;
- Product forecasting analysis and marketing strategies for demand seasonality and low-demand products.
4.3. Sustainability Education and Pedagogical Results
- A link of specific disciplinary content with circular economy themes was implemented in a way not indicated/explored in the course design or the existing literature. This prompted instructors to identify practical relationships between theoretical concepts and teaching and learning practice, aligning them with sustainability principles;
- The implementation of learning activities beyond the disciplinary course scope to understand their personal and professional responsibility towards the sustainability of their communities;
- The implementation of learning activities with a transdisciplinary sense of sustainability education;
- Collaboration and teamwork in multidisciplinary settings;
- The integration of the course activities with the local business environment as educational partners to develop real-world live case-study-based education.
4.4. Students’ Results and Achievements
5. Discussion
5.1. Evaluation and Interpretation of Results
- Strengths:
- The use of experiential learning as the guiding pedagogical approach to provide a methodological framework;
- Relationship with an educational partner, who provided access to facilities, information, and assigned personnel to attend to students;
- Pedagogical experience of the faculty members in carrying out experiences of this type in other courses and institutions;
- Selection of a study topic that could be clearly identified in the company’s operations and, at the same time, be evident in the daily lives of the students,
- Participation and interest of students in developing practical activities with an impact on the community;
- Students’ independent research work and contextualized, reflective and hands-on learning;
- The integration of interdisciplinary topics in the course to address multifaceted real-world challenges.
- Weaknesses:
- The pedagogical design required to make time available to address sustainability topics in the course due to the formal time allocation in the analytical program. This was addressed by treating each sustainability theme as an inherent requirement in each disciplinary topic;
- Available time was necessary for course planning. It was addressed with dedication and commitment from the faculty beyond their standard work commitment;
- An assessment of the impact on student learning and the development of their learning outcomes was not conducted. Although the course results were satisfactory in surveys and grades, a precise evaluation and analysis of the effect on the achievement of learning outcomes, knowledge, and skills of the students are still pending;
- As the course did not have an additional budget to support student activities, this condition limited the coverage of stores and student visit schedules and times. However, this condition was not reported in students’ opinions.
- Opportunities:
- Explore other sustainability topics related to the course, such as gas emissions, food safety, traffic congestion, and energy consumption, among others. This possibility is now under review in the course;
- Expand the study to other courses in engineering programs; however, this possibility is not yet under evaluation as it requires expanding collaboration;
- Incorporate other teachers for their training and familiarization with sustainability education in future developments;
- There is an opportunity to establish ongoing collaboration with the company and other local companies depending on future course designs;
- Soft and hard skills, such as problem solving and decision making, offer opportunities for the personal and professional development of students. Future pedagogical designs can reinforce this proposition.
- Threats:
- Losing the connection with Bodegas Alianza or not having access to other companies. New collaborations should be developed with other educational partners;
- Losing the collaborative relationship between the course instructors (Universidad Panamericana–Aston University). A formal partnership must be developed.
5.2. Findings
5.3. Limitations and Further Actions
5.4. Future Work
6. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
Variables | Scale | Instrument |
---|---|---|
Final course mark (individual) | 0–100 | Weighted mark calculation |
Final summative exam (individual) | 0–100 | Mark calculation |
Report mark (teamwork, including presentation) | 0–100 | Rubric |
Level of interest (initial and final) | 1–5 | Survey |
Level of motivation (initial and final) | 1–5 | Survey |
Level of learning relevance (initial and final) | 1–5 | Survey |
Level of citizenship commitment * (initial and final) | 1–5 | Survey |
Marks | N | Mean | StdDev | Min | Q1 | Median | Q3 | Max | IQR | Mode |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Final (100%) | 50 | 8.3 | 0.93 | 5.0 | 7.85 | 8.4 | 8.99 | 9.6 | 1.14 | NA |
Exam (30%) | 50 | 7.8 | 2.15 | 0.0 | 6.35 | 8.6 | 9.3 | 10.0 | 2.95 | 10 |
Report (40% including, presentation) | 49 | 9.0 | 0.46 | 8.0 | 8.66 | 9.0 | 9.33 | 9.7 | 0.67 | 8.33 |
Question | N | Min | Q1 | Median | Q3 | Max | IQR | Mode | N Mode |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. How RELEVANT is doing circular economy learning activities in this course to your studies and professional practice? | 42 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 23 |
2. What level of INTEREST do you get from doing circular economy learning activities in this course to benefit your future professional practice? | 42 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 19 |
3. What level of MOTIVATION do you get from this course’s circular economy learning activities? | 42 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 16 |
4. How do you now consider the level of development of your CITIZENSHIP COMMITMENT ability? | 42 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 13 |
Question | N | Min | Q1 | Median | Q3 | Max | IQR | Mode | N Mode |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. How RELEVANT was doing the circular economy learning activities in this course to your studies and professional practice? | 15 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 9 |
2. What level of INTEREST did you get from doing the circular economy learning activities in this course to benefit your future professional practice? | 15 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 8 |
3. What level of MOTIVATION did you get from conducting the circular economy learning activities in this course? | 15 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
4. How do you consider the development of your CITIZENSHIP COMMITMENT ability in the circular economy learning activities in this course? | 15 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 11 |
Question | N | Min | Q1 | Median | Q3 | Max | IQR | Mode | N Mode |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Utilizes pedagogical strategies and resources to support learning | 40 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 29 |
Contextualizes course learning topics within professional practice | 40 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 37 |
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Experiential Learning | Activities Description |
---|---|
Concrete experience (CE) | Gather and classify quantitative data in retail points and warehouse operations regarding solid waste generation (type and quantity); Collect and organize qualitative data from retail points and warehouse operations regarding solid waste generation (characteristics and related descriptions); Examine key variables affecting solid waste generation linked to retail and warehousing operations; Define problems or issues of concern to improve waste generation regarding circular economy actions. |
Reflective observation (RO) | Collate and analyze collected data, using descriptive and inferential statistics, to identify patterns, correlations, and relationships; Link the problem or issues of concern to operations management, sustainability, and circular economy theories and methods; Examine and diagnose the situation to identify solid-waste root causes in operations. |
Abstract conceptualization (AC) | Design and propose operations changes in retail and warehousing operations to overcome the existing problems based on circular economy actions; Validate proposals with company staff to ensure applicability; Obtain formative feedback on the application of operations management concepts and methods. |
Active experimentation (AE) | Summarize, present, and discuss circular operations management proposals; Write up and present a proposal report. Obtain summative feedback on circular economy proposals and their business value, relevance, applicability, and long-term impact. |
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Salinas-Navarro, D.E.; Arias-Portela, C.Y.; González de la Cruz, J.R.; Vilalta-Perdomo, E. Experiential Learning for Circular Operations Management in Higher Education. Sustainability 2024, 16, 798. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16020798
Salinas-Navarro DE, Arias-Portela CY, González de la Cruz JR, Vilalta-Perdomo E. Experiential Learning for Circular Operations Management in Higher Education. Sustainability. 2024; 16(2):798. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16020798
Chicago/Turabian StyleSalinas-Navarro, David Ernesto, Claudia Yohana Arias-Portela, José Rubén González de la Cruz, and Eliseo Vilalta-Perdomo. 2024. "Experiential Learning for Circular Operations Management in Higher Education" Sustainability 16, no. 2: 798. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16020798