Helpful Tips for Experience
The Experience component of Experiential Learning focuses on what the student does in these opportunities. The four elements of Experience are:
Authenticity
The experience must have a real-world context and/or be useful and meaningful in an applied setting or situation. This means that it should be designed in concert with those who will be affected by or use it, or in response to a real situation. Authenticity can look different across Experiential Learning activities. For more guidance on this, you can contact the Office of Experiential Learning, explearn@unf.edu, who can provide a resource on this topic to faculty.
Time on Task
Experiential Learning requires students to enmesh themselves in an activity for a period of time to understand the problem or issue, have an opportunity to do hands-on work on and test solutions, and engage in critical reflection. A frequent question is what is the minimum threshold for hours. The UNF Experiential Learning Steering Committee recommends that 20-hours of hands-on, real-world activity as a minimum for all Experiential Learning activities, knowing that many types will far exceed this 20-hour threshold. In the end, the Time on Task should reflect any programmatic or accreditation mandated thresholds and align with the authenticity components of the activity. Asking a student to complete 500 hours when at best the activity only permits 200 hours represents a misalignment and either the hours or activity should be adjusted.
Level of Challenge and Ownership
As a student moves into more complex levels of Experiential Learning, the level of challenge and ownership should also increase accordingly. There should be alignment of expectations of the student work (i.e., what they can produce), the authenticity of the activity (i.e., real-world, hands-on application), and time on task (i.e., dedicated time on the activity). Students in 4000 level classes should be capable of taking on higher levels of challenge and ownership for Experiential Learning activities as the course level implies mastery of foundational discipline material. Students in 1000 level classes likely will need more guidance and direction and therefore levels of challenge and ownership should reflect their nascent foundational disciplinary knowledge.
Reflection
Reflection is the element that transforms a simple experience into a learning experience. For knowledge to be discovered and internalized the learner must test assumptions and hypotheses about the outcomes of decisions and actions taken, then weigh the outcomes against past learning and future implications. This reflective process is integral to all phases of experiential learning, from identifying intention and choosing the experience to considering preconceptions and observing how they change as the experience unfolds. Reflection is also an essential tool for adjusting the experience and measuring outcomes.