Experiential Learning (EL) isn’t new at the University of Windsor. Our campus boasts an abundance of both curricular and co-curricular EL opportunities, which provide rich learning opportunities within the classroom, the community, the workplace, and in virtual spaces, to advance learning outcomes and foster a positive student experience and career development. (See UWindsor's Curricular EL Definitions for a complete list of course-based EL.)
Experiential Education is a pedagogical approach to help facilitate learning through the application of theory to a concrete experience and requires individuals to reflect upon their learning. Experiential Education provides rich learning opportunities, advancing the learning outcomes of a course or academic program while fostering a positive student experience and student career development.
Students engage in Experiential Learning when they participate in a concrete experience and reflect on that experience, making connections to disciplinary theory, their own performance, learning outcomes, and future applications.
Psychologist David Kolb defines experiential learning as “the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combinations of grasping and transforming experience” (Kolb,1984, p.41).