An Instrument for the Assessment of Learning Dimensions: A Progress Report on the Learning Dimension Scale (LDS)

Abstract

The use of experiential materials by instructors in various learning situations has established itself as more than a passing instructional fad. In the area of management, as with many other business areas, although relatively few experientially oriented texts were published in the more distant past (19), an in-creasing number has appeared in the more immediate (1, 9, 14) and very recent pasts (5, 8, 22). During this same time frame, the focus of experientially related research and other scholarly works has seemed to shift somewhat from “should an instructor use various experientially oriented versus non-experientially oriented pedagogic devices (2, 4)”, to “how should one best use and/or design experiential materials (13, 23)”. In line with this trend, the purpose of this paper is threefold: 1) to summarize a movement over the past few years to access and use individual learning dimensions in the design and conduct of experiential learning materials; 2) to present an intended step forward by introducing a proposal for the development of the Learning Dimension Scale (LDS), an instrument which will better enable instructors to evaluate and use individual learning dimensions to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of experiential learning materials, and; 3) to encourage others to pursue similar instruments due to the worthwhileness and high need for such measurement tools.