Assessment Resources and Rubrics for Experiential Learning
Pre and post assessments are integral part of the experiential learning journey. They empower students to develop ownership of their own experiences making sense and creating meaning of the outcomes of this high impact practice from intentionality to reflection to action.
The outcomes of experiential learning can be varied and unpredictable. How one student chooses to solve a problem will be different from another student, and what one student takes away from an experience may differ for his or her peers. Also, in experiential learning, the process is as important as the final product. Therefore, we need to develop assessments that measure success in both the process and the product—each area may require separate learning outcomes and criteria (Schwartz, M. 2012).
Essential Assessment Questions
To set about creating effective assessment methods, Qualters suggests asking the following:
Why are we doing assessment?
What are we assessing?
How do we want to assess in the broadest terms?
How will the results be used? (Qualters, 2010, p.56)
Empowerment
Assessment also empowers the instructor, the facilitator, the educator.
When thinking about the role of the instructor in the experiential classroom (or any other settings), it can be helpful to ask several critical questions:
Whose experience is it?
Whose definition of success is being used?
What is the goal of the activity for the student?
How invested is the instructor in guaranteeing a certain student outcome?
These questions can help instructors explore any pre-conceptions they might have, or discover areas in which they haven't fully relinquished control over learning (Chapman, McPhee, & Proudman, 1995, p. 243).
These two sets of essential questions can serve as a road map for designing experiential learning assessments. They can facilitate to define connections among experiential learning theory, practice, knowledge and impact.
