The Advantages of Virtual Work-Integrated Learning

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• Educators face three primary challenges in their classrooms: motivating and engaging students, creating and sourcing content, and overcoming administrative burdens.
• Virtual work-integrated learning, or WIL, builds on the principles of experiential learning to support richer educational experiences, while also helping instructors streamline their workflows.
• Simulation-based learning is a form of WIL that helps educators more easily keep their courses current and offers students a way to practice their skills in realistic scenarios without real-world consequences.

How can higher education institutions identify and address the unprecedented challenges they face in the current dynamic environment? This is a question explored in our recent report, The State of Experiential Learning and Higher Education 2024. Informed by a comprehensive survey conducted by The Boedecker Group, a Colorado-based market research firm, this resource provides valuable insights into the evolving educational landscape and offers practical solutions for universities and colleges.

In the fall of 2023, the Boedeker Group surveyed 85 instructors at 77 institutions to better understand how edtech companies can support instructors in attracting, retaining, and engaging students. According to the survey, educators and institutions shared that they face three primary challenges:

• Motivating and engaging students
• Creating and sourcing meaningful content
• Overcoming administrative burdens

One way that educators can overcome these challenges is to adopt virtual work-integrated learning (WIL) in their courses. But what do these three issues entail? And how can virtual WIL help instructors address them? We explore both questions in more detail below.

Challenge No. 1: Motivating and Engaging Students

Today’s tech-savvy, digitally connected students need more than a 50-minute lecture and assigned readings to get engaged and succeed. They need to tap into what lies at the core of engagement—their own motivation. To make this happen, educators must demonstrate the curriculum’s value and offer career-relevant learning opportunities that clearly connect classroom activities to students’ future employability.

But achieving this goal can be a significant challenge to educators. One reason for this is that they are still facing the repercussions of shifting to emergency remote learning during pandemic lockdowns in 2020. It was a time when, as Esther Castro and Jessie George put it in a 2021 paper, “Many learners found themselves distracted, less interested, and less engaged in their courses.” Even now, as traditional learning modalities resume, the struggle to regain pre-pandemic levels of student engagement continues.

Educators must find ways to demonstrate the relevance of academic tasks by linking them to real-world applications.

The evolving job market adds another layer of complexity. A significant number of employers now prioritize experience over formal education. In fact, a November 2023 survey finds that 40 percent of job advertisements for entry-level positions no longer include a college degree requirement. This shift in the job market means that students are increasingly questioning the value of their coursework in relation to their objectives.

In this context, educators must find ways to demonstrate the relevance of academic tasks by linking them to real-world applications. This concept is known as task valuation, which refers to how well students believe a course prepares them for their future interests or goals. When students see the direct connection between their coursework and their career aspirations, they are more likely to engage deeply with the material.

Challenge No. 2: Creating and Sourcing Meaningful Content

Developing an engaging and up-to-date curriculum requires educators to invest a substantial amount of their time and resources. Staying current with industry trends in these fields is crucial, but it also can be overwhelming for educators—especially those in dynamic fields such as marketing, business, and communication.

As they design and update their courses, instructors must consider factors such as instructional strategies, learning environments, the depth and breadth of content, and students’ prior knowledge. Additionally, they must create experiential learning opportunities that resonate with students and align with course objectives. Taking all these factors into account can be particularly challenging without adequate resources.

Challenge No. 3: Overcoming Administrative Burdens

The third challenge revolves around administrative tasks such as manual grading, preparing lessons, managing peer review groups, and communicating with students. These activities can be time-consuming and detract from other essential teaching responsibilities. In our 2023 survey, instructors ranked manual grading as their most burdensome task, particularly in courses with high enrollments.

Administrative responsibilities do not just significantly reduce the time instructors have available for research, student mentorship, and other critical activities. They also contribute to educator burnout, which has negative effects on the quality of instruction.

What is Virtual Work-Integrated Learning?

Experiential learning, a fundamental educational philosophy, emphasizes the importance of “learning by doing.” As educational theorist John Dewey articulated, “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” 

Proponents of this pedagogical approach assert that students learn more effectively when they directly engage in experiences than when they passively receive information. According to an instructional guide created by Northern Illinois University’s Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning, experiential learning engages students in direct experiences tied to real-world problems and situations, which significantly boosts their motivation and engagement.

Virtual WIL builds on the principles of experiential learning, combining academic studies with practical work experiences that are facilitated through digital platforms. Unlike traditional internships or co-op programs that require a physical presence in a workplace, virtual WIL leverages technology to provide students with meaningful work experiences that can be completed remotely.

Experiential learning engages students in direct experiences tied to real-world problems and situations, which significantly boosts their motivation and engagement.

Such hands-on, interactive learning experiences are more engaging than traditional lecture-based methods. This approach not only makes work experiences more accessible in the classroom, but also prepares students for the increasingly digital nature of the modern workforce.

The Key Components of WIL

Effective virtual WIL encompasses four key components:

Real-world projects. Students engage in projects, often provided by partnering organizations, that simulate real-world tasks and challenges. These projects are designed to align with course objectives, ensuring that students apply theoretical knowledge in practical scenarios.

Mentorship and feedback. Students receive guidance and feedback from industry professionals, fostering a deeper understanding of professional standards and expectations. This mentorship is typically facilitated through video calls, emails, and other digital communication tools.

Collaborative tools. Project management software, communication apps, and virtual meeting tools play crucial roles in enabling seamless collaboration among students, educators, and industry partners.

Assessment and reflection. The instructor assesses students’ performance based on their contributions to projects and their ability to reflect on their experiences. This reflection process helps students identify strengths, areas for improvement, and the practical application of their academic knowledge.

Together, these four components can make learning more dynamic and interactive. When incorporated into learning experiences, they help students see the direct application of their studies, increasing their motivation and involvement.

Aligning Learning With Course Objectives

Virtual learning comes in many forms, ranging from online courses and virtual classrooms to sophisticated simulations and remote internships. Simulations, however, offer several advantages that make them stand out among these emerging formats.

By partnering with subject matter experts from both academia and industry, simulation developers can create immersive experiences that align closely with course objectives and current industry standards. This alignment ensures that students are learning relevant skills that will be directly applicable in their future careers.

Simulation-based learning provides a controlled environment where students can practice applying their knowledge and skills in realistic scenarios without real-world consequences. After tackling workplace tasks and challenges in simulated environments, students can better understand the professional applications of their coursework, enhancing their task valuation and motivation. Simulations can be highly effective in helping students develop complex skills, critical competencies, and greater confidence in their abilities. 

One area where simulated learning can be especially valuable involves internships. A real-world internship can be a powerful way for students to develop real-world skills. However, the tasks students perform in their work experiences might not align with course content or learning objectives.

Simulations can be highly effective in helping students develop complex skills, critical competencies, and greater confidence in their abilities.

As Fatimah Lateef puts it in a 2010 paper, “The most challenging parts of professional skills must be intentionally practiced in a systematic manner. Students face some of these challenging tasks very rarely or never during their practice periods, which makes them difficult to learn.”

Moreover, in the real world, even students enrolled in the same course will have varied real-world internship experiences—and even varied access to internships. This makes aligning course content with these experiences difficult for any instructor.

However, by supplementing coursework with simulated internships, educators can ensure their students put classroom concepts into practice, have the same opportunities to practice their skills, and prepare for the rigors of their real-world internships and careers.

Addressing Challenges With Virtual WIL

Among the tools that can help educators accomplish these goals are Simternships offered by Stukent, an edtech company that designs courseware, resources, and educational simulations. Simternships provide students with internship-like experiences across a range of industries. These virtual internships can help instructors address the three critical challenges we have discussed so far in several ways:

Enhance student motivation and engagement. Simternships ask students to practice applying knowledge and skills in real-world contexts. These simulations increase task valuation, cultivate motivation, and foster deeper, more profound understanding of the course material.

“As a professor, finding a resource that connects working-world experience with the classroom is so valuable,” says Dana Cassell, a professor from Meredith College. “And that’s exactly what Stukent's Social Media Marketing Simternship is doing in my BUS-362 class.”

Create meaningful content. Simternships and other Stukent courseware are ways for instructors to keep their curricula current and build immersive, authentic learning experiences, even with limited resources. Each courseware pairs an annually updated text, written by educators and industry professionals, with hundreds of instructional resources, making it easier for instructors to teach relevant, up-to-date courses.

Reducing administrative burdens. Virtual WIL can provide digital platforms that can automate administrative tasks such as grading. Stukent’s resources feature multiple auto-graded components, such as chapter quizzes, engagement checks, and skill-building exercises.

These features integrate with a preferred learning management system, allowing instructors to assess students’ progress at a glance. For professors who prefer a blend of automatic and manual grading, Stukent’s courseware also includes subjective, manually graded assignments that help enrich the learning experience.

We invite instructors who would like to learn more about the challenges faced by higher education institutions to download The State of Experiential Learning and Higher Education 2024 report. Those who would like to learn more about Stukent Simternships and courseware, or to receive instructor access to Stukent materials, can visit stukent.com.