Plan and Implement an Experience
What is experiential education at UBC Okanagan?
At UBC Okanagan, experiential education (EE) is a purposeful approach to teaching and learning. EE fosters academic learning, personal growth and competency development. It does so by engaging students in the direct application of theoretical knowledge in diverse contexts. EE reinforces growth by pairing that experience with intentional reflection.
Guided by the Association for Experiential Education, we understand EE as both a philosophy and methodology wherein:
Educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, clarify values, and develop people’s capacity to contribute to their communities.
Why choose experiential education?
EE aligns with UBC’s priorities
At UBCO, EE aligns with both the UBC Strategic Plan and UBC Student Strategic Plan, including:
- fostering holistic personal and professional growth,
- creating inclusive and equitable learning environments,
- and preparing students to thrive in and shape a rapidly changing world.
EE advances applied learning
UBCO faculty and staff are central to advancing experiential education across academic programs. Whether through work-integrated learning, community-service learning, undergraduate research, field experiences, or other forms of experiential learning, educators create transformative opportunities for students to connect theory with practice—and learning with purpose.
Criteria for EE recognition
UBCO-led experiential education occurs in both curricular and co-curricular settings. For an experience to be formally recognized as EE, it must meet all five of the following criteria.
Experiences should be deliberately designed using active, experiential learning models. They incorporate and respect diverse worldviews, teaching philosophies, and learning styles to ensure relevance and accessibility for all learners.
Clearly articulated learning and/or competency development outcomes are embedded in the course or program design. These outcomes guide the experience and provide a basis for evaluating its impact.
Learning takes place in a structured environment—such as a classroom, lab, workplace, community site, digital environment, or land-based context—and includes guided supervision or mentorship to support and facilitate student learning.
Experiences foster reciprocal relationships with people, communities, and places. Learning is socially and ethically grounded, promoting accountability, knowledge exchange, and communication across diverse perspectives.
Learners are actively engaged—posing questions, investigating, experimenting, demonstrating curiosity, solving problems, assuming responsibility, and exercising creativity—to co-construct meaning through their experiences.
Students participate in structured reflection to critically examine their experiences, synthesize learning, and connect insights across academic, personal and professional domains. This process supports integration of learning and long-term competency development.
Developing your activity
Key development considerations
As you begin planning an experiential education opportunity, you will need to be mindful of several key considerations
Experiential education opportunities must be intentionally designed to ensure equal access for all students. When planning off-campus or non-traditional learning experiences, it’s important to anticipate and address potential accessibility needs from the outset.
Consider the physical, sensory, cognitive, and systemic barriers that might affect student participation. Build your understanding of accessibility practices related to teaching and learning, event planning, and accommodations – both for students and for any staff or faculty involved in the experience.
The accessibility hub offers a range of guides and self-paced learning modules to help you design inclusive experiences that meet accessibility standards and support full participation.
Some experiential education opportunities may unintentionally create barriers to student participation. Integrating principles of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) into the design of an opportunity ensures all students can fully engage and benefit.
As you plan your experience, consider the following questions:
- Will students incur additional costs (e.g., travel, materials, certification?)
- Is special equipment, apparel, or other resources required for participation?
- What financial supports might be available to help students offset these costs?
- Will the opportunity take place during evenings or weekends, when students may have work or caregiving responsibilities? If so, can accommodation be offered?
- Does the partner organization have equity, diversity, or human right policies in place? Is it a welcoming and inclusive environment for all students?
- What supports or reporting protocols will be in place if a student experiences discrimination, exclusion, or harassment?
The UBCO Equity & Inclusion Office works to remove systemic barriers and support members of our community in fulfilling their academic, research and professional goals. Visit the University’s Equity & Inclusion page for links to these supports:
“Diversity in itself does not create inclusion – an inclusive environment must be intentionally designed, nurtured and supported”
—Great Place to Work
For additional strategies, see the guide co-authored by Pride at Work Canada and Great Place to Work. Beyond Diversity: An LGBT Best Practice Guide for Employers which outlines 12 practical approaches to fostering inclusive environments.
Designing an impactful experiential education opportunity involves careful consideration of the entire student journey. This includes recruiting and onboarding students, as well as ensuring their ongoing engagement and retention.
Even when activities are less structured, it is critical to consider how students are welcomed into and supported within the learning environment.
The Equitable Hiring Practices Guide created by UBC’s Career Centre focuses on how to centre equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility in the experiential learning cycle. Particularly as it relates to hiring, onboarding, retention and engagement practices.
LEARN PRACTICES FOR EQUITABLE HIRING AT UBC
The intended audience for this guide is employers or professionals who hire for experiential and work-integrated education placements (co-op, work study).
When designing an EE opportunity, consider how course content and disciplinary learning outcomes will be meaningfully integrated into the experience. Intentional integration helps students make connections between theory and practice, deepening their understanding and enhancing the overall impact of the opportunity.
As you plan, consider the following questions:
- How can I best prepare students for this experiential education activity?
- What background knowledge or context will students need in advance?
- What reflective exercises or discussions can help students draw connections between course content and their experiences?
Taking time to scaffold the experience—before, during, and after—helps ensure students are not only participating, but learning in ways that align with your course or program goals.
Strong relationships with external partners are essential to the success of partnership-based experiential education opportunities. Early and intentional engagement with the right partners helps create meaningful experiences that benefit both students and the organizations involved.
As you plan your experiential education opportunity, consider:
- What types of organizations or sectors align best with your learning objectives?
- How will you identify and reach out to potential partners?
- How will you connect students with these organizations?
You can also consult the Experience and Involvement Hub for guidance on building and sustaining community partnerships that support student learning and community impact.
Community-engaged learning is rooted in partnership. This is important when developing a collaborative program with any community, non-profit, or public organization.
Partnerships require mutual respect, shared goals, and a commitment to reciprocity. This means addressing not just learning outcomes and project goals, but the priorities of the community partner as well.
To support meaningful and ethical engagement, consider connecting with your Dean’s office to identify the right unit or contact to provide you with guidance and support.
Reflection is a critical component of experiential education. Thoughtfully designed reflective activities and assignments are ongoing, integrated, and help students make sense of their experiences. Reflection helps them explore how their experience relates to their area of study, identify the skills they are developing, and critically examine how their perspectives may shift because of the experience.
The Experience and Involvement Hub platform provides structured student reflection:
Map curriculum to your program
The Office of the Provost and Vice-President Academic has created a website to support you in mapping curriculum to your program. The page allows UBC users to map and visualize the alignment between course learning outcomes, assessment methods, and teaching and learning strategies, as well as the alignment of courses to program learning outcomes.
Explore the competency framework
The experiential education competency framework is designed to support UBCO faculty and staff in intentionally guiding and assessing student learning across a wide range of experiential opportunities. This framework provides a shared language and structure to identify, develop, and reflect on the skills students are gaining.
Publish your experience in the EIH
Enhance student learning with online reflection opportunities and digital portfolios. Publish your activity or event in the Experience & Involvement Hub.
The EE Endorsement is a designation applied to all EIH experiences that meet UBC’s experiential education criteria.