Development, Management, and Evaluation of Undergraduate Experiential Learning: Recommendations for Best Practices

Experiential learning provides undergraduate students rich opportunities to enhance their knowledge of core concepts in kinesiology. Beyond these outcomes, it enables students to gain exposure to, build empathy for, and affect the lives of individuals from diverse populations. However, the development, management, and systematic evaluation of experiential learning vary drastically across programs. Thus, the purpose of this review was to critically evaluate the experiential-learning programs at Auburn University and Oregon State University with respect to best practices outlined by the National Society for Experiential Education. The authors provide examples of lessons learned from these two programs to help others improve the implementation and impact of undergraduate experiential learning.