For the past three years, students at National University (NU) have been given the chance to bolster their in-classroom learning with integrated real-world work experience via a partnership between NU and work-based learning platform Riipen.
Dr. Mark Milliron
The partnership, in the form of a pilot program which kicked off in 2021, has allowed NU faculty to use Riipen’s online platform to source employers willing to offer work experience and project opportunities to students and add these projects into their curricula.
This allows NU’s students to gain real work experience and professional skills for college credit as they progress through their academic pursuits, which they can then display on their work portfolios. Through Riipen, these students also receive feedback from their employers.
“As the student starts to build up these experiences, where they have two, four, ten different companies that they worked with over their education pathway,” said Dave Savory, co-founder and vice president of experiential learning at Riipen. “And they can showcase who those companies are, what kinds of projects they worked out, the skills that they demonstrated, and what those companies actually said and validated about that learner's impact.”
Since 2021, the platform has been used in a number of NU’s different departments, from digital marketing and analytics to cybersecurity and healthcare, according to Dr. Errin Heyman, associate vice president of learning experience at NU.
The choice to use Riipen’s platform is left up to faculty, but more than 33 in total have incorporated employer projects into their courses, either requiring a work project as a capstone assignment or earlier in students’ academic journeys. Almost 200 NU students have completed a work-based learning placement with an employer through Riipen-integrated NU courses, Savory said.
“Instead of working on a case out of textbook or something theoretical, we're helping faculty actually embed and connect with lots of different types of real-world employers who have projects that align with the learning objectives of that class,” Savory said. “[Students are] actually working and collaborating on a regular cadence with these employers to build those connections, get that experience, [and] apply the learning, but also develop some of those professional skills.”
