Experiential Learning Through Research in a Mobility Project-Based Development Economics Course

This study is a reflection on course design and student learning outcomes in an experiential learning-based development economics course at a university in Australia. Following an intensive period of coursework in development economics, undergraduate students go to a developing country (such as India or Nepal) and undertake a two and a half to three-week period of fieldwork, nested in an international mobility project. The coursework, assessment and fieldwork are for the purpose of facilitating student research projects of benefit to local placement organizations. Informed by an interdisciplinary perspective, this study connects teaching and learning theories in education, psychology, and economics as explanatory frameworks for the learning experiences in courses of this nature, where students “learn by doing” complex economic concepts and data-analytic techniques. More importantly, students, as well as instructors, learn from “mistakes” in the field. Learning outcomes and experiences over several years of offering the course are documented, to serve as informative resources for others embarking on the design of courses that are similar in scope