Experiential Learning Components in Online L anguage Cl asses:

1. Experiential Learning Components in Online Language Classes: Community Engagement in First-Year Spanish Tobin M. Hansen, MAIS & Michael R. Woods, MA Ecampus Faculty Forum May 5th, 2011

2. Objectives • Suggest a framework for experiential learning • Invite participant discussion • Discuss first-year Spanish Encuentro cultural assignment What do we want to accomplish?

3. What are four key components of Experiential learning? • 1) The student is aware of the processes which are taking place, and which are enabling learning to occur. • 2) The student is involved in a reflective experience which enables him/her to relate current learning to past, present, and future, even if these relationships are felt rather than thought. • 3) The experience and content are personally significant: what is being learned and how it is being learned have a special importance for the person. • 4) There is an involvement of the whole self: body, thoughts, feelings and actions, not just of the mind; in other words, the student is engaged as a whole person" (Woolfe 1992).

4. Can Experiential learning be brought into the classroom? • "The approach is well-known in various settings of informal learning, such as internships in business and service organisations, work and study assignments, clinical experience, international exchange and volunteer programmes, etc. However, the principles and practices can be used both in formal learning (institutional) contexts and in informal learning" (Kohonen 2011). * Experiential learning scope in first-year Spanish.

5. Personal experience as learning? • "In experiential learning, immediate personal experience is the focal point for learning" (Kohonen 2011). • "...personal experience gives the life, texture, and subjective personal meaning to abstract concepts" (Kolb 1984). • "Experiential learning leads us to question the assumptions and conventions underlying many of our practices. It turns us away from credit hours and calendar time toward competence, working knowledge, and information pertinent to jobs, family relationships, community responsibilities, and broad social concerns" (Chickering 1977).

6. experiential learning as a wholeperson approach? * "...experiential learning is an educational orientation which aims at integrating theoretical and practical elements of learning for a wholeperson approach, emphasising the significance of experience for learning" (Kohonen 2011). * Integral orientation and specific course components. * Experience outside the classroom.

7. Participantengagement • What are examples of experiential components you've incorporated or seen incorporated in language curricula? • How effective were they at encouraging student learning? What worked well? What didn't work? • What experiential learning components could you implement or adapt in your online (or onsite) courses? • What would the challenges to implementation be? What structure (description, examples, etc.) would you put in place to support an experiential learning component in your course?

8. Bibliography Chickering, A. W. (1977). Experience and learning: An introduction to experiential learning, New York: Change Magazine Press. Hansen, R. (1998) Kohonen, V. Learning to learn through reflection--an experiential learning perspective. Available online at http://archive.ecml.at/mtp2/Elp_tt/Results/PagEF/e05.html Last accessed on 04/28/11. Training teachers to use the European Language Portfolio. Kolb, D. 1984. Experiential learning. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.  Woolfe, R. 1992. Experiential learning in workshops. In Hobbs, T. (ed.) 1992. Experiential training: practical guidelines. London: Tavistock/ Roudledge, 1-13.