Synchronous discussion can emphasize interpretive possibilities about experiential learning, connections of this experience to other dimensions of students’ lives, and anticipations of the relevance of the experiences to post-university life trajectories;
If students are collaborating across multiple time-zones, ensure that synchronous engagements do not exclude or unreasonably inconvenience participants;
Encourage students to speak from the depths of experience to promote rich and meaningful engagements.
Confront difficult dimensions of the experiential interface openly and with compassion;
Ask students to reflect on the difference between an ideal they might have and certain realities that come to pass in the course of the experiential learning opportunity;
Ask students to reflect on the different kinds and dimensions of “knowledge” that are relevant to and emergent from the experiential learning element of the class.
How do different students value and experience “knowledge” in different ways?
Is this an opportunity to explore issues of race, gender, faith, cultural/linguistic background and other aspects of identity that factor into the valuing and pursuit of different kinds of “knowledge”?