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Exercises, Not Assignments—Is It Just Semantics?

Experiential Exercises continue to be the most popular type of article published in Management Teaching Review (MTR). More than 60% of the original manuscripts submitted and more than 70% of the articles published in MTR are Experiential Exercises. This issue is no exception. It presents six articles that describe experiential exercises or activities for teaching motivation, design thinking, cognitive schemas, emotional intelligence, leadership, and coaching. However, among the many submissions we regularly receive, we often find manuscripts that are better defined as assignments, not exercises. What is the difference? How does the editorial staff of MTR distinguish between exercises and assignments? And why does it matter? In this editorial, I define these terms, clarify their differences, and hope to convince you that they are distinct from one another. The MTR Experiential Exercises section is a forum for discussion of innovative methods and techniques of management education. This section of the journal maintains a publication tradition previously housed in the Journal of Management Education (see Bilimoria, 1999; Bowen, 1995; Herman & Schmidt-Wilk, 2005). By publishing new and original experiential exercises or activities and new applications of previously published activities, MTR supports instructors and coaches who wish to provide their students with “visceral, emotional, practical, team-based experiences that address skill building, situational assessments, attitude adjustment, and theoretical and/or practical knowledge” (Herman & Schmidt-Wilk, 2005, p. 671). Thus, experiential exercises have student learning as their primary purpose. The exercises are usually conducted during class time and engage students in small group, team, or breakout room activities. A successful exercise will assist students in gaining the intended learning clarified in the objectives. Ideally, exercises will be intrinsically motivating; students will usually want to participate (Debnath et al., 2007; Erickson et al., 2020).