This is Learning Experience Design: What it is, how it works, and why it matters.

Chapter 4

Experiential learning

ESSENTIALS

The only source of knowledge is experience. You need experience to gain wisdom.

— ALBERT EINSTEIN, PHYSICIST

How do we learn from experience? This is a key question for learning experience designers. The answer can be found in the field of experiential learning.

When I studied graphic design, I had an art teacher who was feared by his students. He was an angry man who was very strict. If you were one minute late, which could easily happen to me since I traveled by train, you were not allowed to enter the studio. Nobody liked him, and half the time we didn’t really know what we were doing. In the first lesson we had to draw dots and lines for hours (FIGURE 4.1). If you joked about it, he exploded and ...