“You don’t understand anything until you learn it more than one way.”

Keeping it simple has always been my philosophy when developing a course or professional development seminar. I learned this early on in my professional career. Many are intimidated by numbers, and as a director of finance, articulating the information in a non-intimidating and clear fashion was essential. I recall a situation with a general manager new to his role asking, “explain it to me like I was a three-year-old.”  Sounds amusing. Still, when designing a learning instrument, no assumption should be made on how the learner will process the knowledge. Recall the humanistic approach where Carl Rogers emphasizes the uniqueness of the whole individual. Everyone learns differently. Even in a one-on-one situation, I am always prepared and have multiple examples or approaches available, if necessary, whatever it takes to help the knowledge transfer.

Before beginning this doctoral program, my design knowledge was limited. The way I designed courses was the way I thought about accounting. There was always a journal entry that led to posting to the general ledger, leading to a trial balance that led to a departmental statement rolling up into a summary operating statement. There was a logical flow; you started small, amassed information, consolidated the information, sorted it into the right area, and then reported it to make sense to the user of the information. So, as I designed courses, I drew from my personal experience, and the way information was presented was logical. It never occurred to me to think about how the learner might interpret the information or if there was a new approach to improving understanding of certain concepts. My focus was on making sure the information was accurate and current.   

As part of our college strategic plan a few years back, it was decided that every professor, tenure, or non-tenure track, would be a certified hospitality educator (CHE). The certification is from the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AH&LA), and it consists of a one-week seminar on how to present information, followed by a 100-question exam. A portion of the certification also includes being filmed in the classroom. The recording aims to ensure that the concepts are being applied in a classroom setting. For example, was there an introduction at the beginning, are there handouts, is there an outline to detail what will be covered in that session, was there time for questions and was there a conclusion that recaps what was presented. The foundation of the certification is to make sure that we offer information in a professional manner where the students would be engaged but could clearly understand what was being presented. Not a lot of theory on learning was provided; it was more about delivering and how to show content but not necessarily how to help students learn.  

When I joined ADT, part of the membership fee included a book on learning design. From there, I began to understand that there were different ways of presenting the information. The content I have learned in this doctoral program thus far has made my courses improve significantly. They are more sound, make more logical sense, and incorporate different learning theories, and I see the result of that in my student evaluations.  

Learning by doing or experiential learning theory (ELT) has been my approach to developing several courses within the hospitality curriculum. In designing several of the capstone and graduate courses at the Hilton College this has been my approach.  David Kolb (2014) published a model on experiential learning theory (ELT) where four stages are discussed: 1) concrete learning, 2) reflective observation, 3) abstract conceptualization, and 4) active experimentation. In the first two phases, the focus is understanding concepts and the last two phases is application - putting what you learned into practice and creating an experience. ELT proved to be an effect way to link the theory and practical application of the material presented. The students were engaged throughout the course and gained a solid understanding of the course concepts.

The examples provided in this section will demonstrate various learning theories and designs. Since OER is a focus area, all the courses I have developed in the past three years incorporate open resource materials. No textbook is required unless it is an OER textbook. I am proud of my portfolio of courses. They have all benefited from what has been presented in this doctoral curriculum.