Scaffolding Creativity: Integrating Generative AI Tools and Real-world Experiences in Business Education

TL;DR

This study explores how integrating Generative AI tools with experiential learning in business education enhances creativity, accelerates skill development, and highlights interaction challenges for designing better AI educational tools.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into the use of diverse AI modalities alongside real-world experiences in a business education setting, highlighting new pedagogical approaches.

Findings

AI integration helps overcome creative barriers

Accelerates students' skill acquisition

Identifies interaction challenges like prompt engineering

Abstract

This exploratory study investigates the intersection of Generative AI tools and experiential learning in business education. Through a case study of an innovative undergraduate course, we examine how students interact with and adapt to various AI modalities-from text-based tools to image generation-alongside real-world experiences. Our findings reveal how this integrated approach enables novice users to overcome creative barriers, accelerates skill acquisition, and creates a dynamic interplay between AI-generated insights and real-world validation. We identify critical interaction challenges, including prompt engineering patterns and the need for more intuitive AI interfaces in educational contexts. These insights inform the design of future AI tools for creative learning and contribute to broader HCI discussions about human-AI collaboration in educational settings.