Expansion of Summiting Mount Everest for Classroom and Online Delivery; An Experiential Learning Application for Organizational Behavior

Abstract

Organizational behavior, often included as core business curriculum, instructs students how individuals and teams successfully work within organizations. This theory-based course, which often utilizes case studies, can be challenging to transform into a hands-on, applied learning approach. In 2016, an experiential course design for an organizational behavior was presented with the theme of summiting Mount Everest. This model utilized a variety of activities, along with a short computer simulation, to allow students to experience the challenges of ascending the famous mountain. This current paper presents an expanded version of the Mount Everest design with a new “trek to basecamp” component in the early course stages and a fully flipped design for both classroom and online delivery. The expanded model allows students to be fully immersed into the Everest environment to allow students to apply and test approaches, discover solutions and personalize the task to bring greater meaning and learning to organizational behavior theory. The students encounter what it is like to maintain individual motivation, communicate effectively, develop trust within their team, build a culture, and experience conflict and change, all while negotiating the demanding environment of the Himalayas and Mount Everest. This paper provides a background, summary of the original model, details of the expanded design for both online and classroom, as well as assessment of all the models.