Medical education may lack experiential training on authentic community engagement (CE). Employing a human-centered design approach with medical faculty and students to identify goals, opportunities, needs, and barriers to implementing CE research, we developed an Experiential Community Engagement Learning Series (EXCELS) pilot program. EXCELS…

In higher education, online students are often precluded from research assistantships that are more accessible for campus-based students. At a highly ranked institution for online learning, we developed the Undergraduate Research Program (URP) to address this gap in opportunities for online students. The URP is designed to engage fully distanced…

There is an increasing interest in the field of experiential education to move beyond simply documenting the value of experiential education programs and, instead, develop more evidence-based models for experiential education practice (cf., Gass, 2005; Henderson, 2004). Due in part to the diversity of experiential education programs, participants,…

Initial results of the national Evaluation of Experiential Learning Project are extremely positive, showing high correlation among teachers' and students' positive perceptions of 20 outcome items. The overall research design will include project designed instruments, systematic observations, self reports, unobtrusive measures, theory, other…

Calls for further research evaluating corporate adventure training (CAT) programs. Reviews activities and benefits associated with CAT, summarizes studies conducted on the efficacy of CAT programs, describes appropriate research designs for investigating how and why CAT programs work, and addresses barriers to producing meaningful research. (LP)

Uses a study of an Australian Extended Stay Outdoor Education School Program as an example to examine the rationale and methodology for conducting outdoor education research. Discusses qualitative versus quantitative methods; case studies; location and arrangements; conducting of interviews; data transcription; type of analysis (grounded theory…

Suggestions for evaluating experiential learning programs, especially the effects of various forms of experiential learning on different types of learners, are discussed. Evaluation designs currently in use involve a four-tier hierarchy: (1) participant responses; (2) use of measurement instruments; (3) attribution of measurable effects to a…

The assessment of secondary school students' learning which results from experienced-based public school programs is associated with three types of problems: (1) psychological--educational practitioners may fear the evaluation process; (2) conceptual--including unclear requirements for student outcomes, lack of appropriate strategies for achieving…

A model for research and evaluation in outdoor education is presented in this paper which includes a bibliography of representative research in outdoor, experiential education. The model stresses close interaction between program designers and evaluators and rests on the premise that the strength of outdoor education--interaction between people,…

A two-year evaluation of an experience-based curriculum in bilingual education is described in parable style. The proposal for this research design was developed around the question of first-hand field experiences. A review of the first-year project revealed some of its weaknesses and reasons for poor results. For the second year, the public…

This article focuses on the research and scholarship dealing with the assessment of the experiential approach in both its computer-based and human-based forms. It covers two forms of assessment. First it covers explicit attempts to assess the validity of experiential learning, and second it focuses on measuring the effectiveness of the…