Together We R.I.S.E. (Quality Enhancement Plan): Collaborative Experiential Learning

Bethune-Cookman University's Quality Enhancement Plan focuses on Collaborative Experiential Learning. The subtopic is Using Experiential Learning and Transferable Competencies and Skills, and three pairs of skills are isolated and emphasized.

• reasoning and argumentation

• teamwork and collaboration

• flexibility and adaptability. 

Additional information about each pair can be assessed by hovering over the small arrow in the Collaborative Experiential Learning tab.

Collaborative Experiential Learning

The creation of a learning environment where the participants would learn in community...replacing the competition between individuals for knowledge with a pedagogy that placed emphasis on knowing and learning as communal acts requiring many voices and experiences. 

Supporting teacher education through a combined model of philosophical, collaborative and experiential learning by Roisin Donnelly

Collaborative experiential learning is a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together. Unlike individual learning, people engaged in collaborative experiential learning capitalize on one another's resources and skills (asking one another for information, evaluating one another's ideas, monitoring one another's work, etc.). More specifically, collaborative experiential learning is based on the model that knowledge can be created within a population where members actively interact by sharing experiences and take on asymmetric roles. Put differently, collaborative experiential learning refers to methodologies and environments in which learners engage in a common task where each individual depends on and is accountable to each other. These include both face-to-face conversations and computer discussions (online forums, chat rooms, etc.). Methods for examining collaborative experiential learning processes include conversation analysis and statistical discourse...Thus, collaborative experiential learning is commonly illustrated when groups of students work together to search for understanding, meaning, or solutions or to create an artifact or product of their learning. Furthermore, collaborative experiential learning redefines the traditional student- teacher relationship in the classroom which results in controversy over whether this paradigm is more beneficial than harmful. Collaborative experiential learning activities can include collaborative writing, group projects, joint problem solving, debates, study teams, and other activities.