Assessing Experiential Learning

Assessing student learning is an essential part of teaching. Experiential learning (EXL) presents a unique situation for instructors as they need to assess both the process and the product. Meaning, instructors should assess a student’s learning process during an EXL activity as well as the content knowledge acquired from the EXL activity.

In this section, you’ll find information on the following topics on assessing EXL:

• Guide for developing assessment methods for EXL
• Variables instructors should keep in mind when developing assessments
• Examples for assessing EXL activities

Guide for Developing Assessments for EXL

Given the importance of enhancing students’ reflective skills and content knowledge, this guide can help instructors develop assessments that focus on the process of engaging in an EXL activity and the end products that emerge from the EXL activity. Below, you’ll find a brief description and rationale of each part of the model.

Research shows instructors can enhance students’ experiences with EXL when they implement assessments that capture students’ prior knowledge before engaging in the EXL activity, reflections during the EXL activity, and changes in students’ acquired knowledge after the EXL activity. This assessment approach is based on Alexander Astin’s I-E-O Model.

I – Input: Assess students’ knowledge, skills and attitudes prior to the EXL activity

Rationale: A pre-EXL assessment can highlight students’ prior knowledge and misconceptions of the content areas related to the EXL activity. With this information, instructors can adjust their teaching practices to a) build off students’ prior experiences to learn new knowledge, and b) interrogate students’ possible misconceptions. An assessment prior to the EXL activity can also provide instructors with a baseline of students’ knowledge, which can help instructors learn the impact of their teaching.

E – Environment: Assess students during the EXL activity (e.g., journaling and collective reflections)

Rationale: Reflective practices such as journals and class discussions allow students to process and understand their learning in real time. Reflections also provide some structure to EXL activities, which sometimes can have unclear expectations (i.e., internships). Additionally, assessments during an EXL activity can highlight misunderstandings and issues that instructors can address before they negatively impact the student’s experience with EXL.

O – Output: Assess students after the EXL activity

Rationale: This phase can include the same (or a similar) assessment as the pre-EXL assessment (i.e., input) as it will help instructors measure students’ growth due to the EXL activity. An assessment during this phase can also provide instructors with insights on what worked and didn’t work for students, which can inform instructors’ design of future EXL activities.

Factors Impacting EXL Assessments

There are a variety of factors that can make it difficult for instructors to adequately assess EXL activities. Here is a brief list of some factors instructors should consider when developing assessments for EXL.

Variability in students’ backgrounds: With a diverse college like Albertus, we have students with a variety of different experiences, which can negatively or positively impact students’ preparedness, anxiety, and/or motivation related to the EXL activity.

Variability in EXL activities: Another set of factors that can impact EXL assessment is related to the particular EXL activity. Students may be engaged in different EXL activities. For example, students may be placed at different internship sites with different goals. Also, students’ experiences may be negatively or positively impacted by others at the internship site or community (i.e., service learning).

Variability in post-EXL emotions: Students may experience strong emotions (e.g., euphoria, disappointment) soon after the EXL activity. This can make it difficult for instructors to assess students’ genuine, long-term feelings and learning related to the EXL activity.

Examples of EXL Assessments

Here is a list of EXL assessments that are tied to reflection, helping students to focus their learning while also producing a product on the content knowledge:

• Maintenance of a learning journal or a portfolio
• Reflection on critical incidents
• Presentation on what has been learned
• An interview of the learner as a potential worker in the workplace
• Essay or report on what has been learned (preferably with references to excerpts from reflective writing)
• Self-awareness tools and exercises (e.g. questionnaires about learning patterns)
• A review of a book that relates the work experience to own discipline
• Short answer questions of a ‘why’ or ‘explain’ nature
• A project that develops ideas further (group or individual)
• A request that students take a given theory and observe its application in the workplace
• Self-evaluation of a task performed
• An article (e.g., for a newspaper) explaining something in the workplace
• Recommendation for improvement of some practice (a sensitive matter)
• Facilitation of an informed discussion
• A report on an event in the work situation (ethical issues)
• Account of how discipline (i.e. subject) issues apply to the workplace

Additional Resources on EXL Assessments:

Table that can help instructors choose the right assessment for them

Guide on creating rubrics for EXL activities

Rubric for EXL group work

For more resources on student-centered teaching (e.g., EXL, active learning), you can visit the University of Minnesota and the University of Tennessee.