Adventure Learning: Theory and Implementation of Hybrid Learning

Adventure Learning (AL), a hybrid distance education approach, provides students and teachers with the opportunity to learn about authentic curricular content areas while interacting with adventurers, students, and content experts at various locations throughout the world within an online learning environment (Doering, 2006). An AL curriculum and online environment provides collaborative community spaces where traditional hierarchical classroom roles are blurred and learning is transformed. AL has most recently become popular in K-12 classrooms nationally and internationally with millions of students participating online. However, in the literature, the term "adventure learning" many times gets confused with phrases such as "virtual fieldtrip" and activities where someone "exploring" is posting photos and text. This type of "adventure learning" is not "Adventure Learning" (AL), but merely a slideshow of their activities. The learning environment may not have any curricular and/or social goals, and if it does, the environment design many times does not support these objectives. AL, on the other hand, is designed so that both teachers and students understand that their online and curriculum activities are in synch and supportive of the curricular goals. In AL environments, there are no disparate activities as the design considers the educational, social, and technological affordances (Kirschner, Strijbos, Kreijns, & Beers, 2004); in other words, the artifacts of the learning environment encourage and support the instructional goals, social interactions, collaborative efforts, and ultimately learning. AL is grounded in two major theoretical approaches to learning - experiential and inquiry-based learning. As Kolb (1984) noted, in experiential learning, a learner creates meaning from direct experiences and reflections. Such is the goal of AL within the classroom. Additionally, AL affords learners a real-time authentic online learning experience concurrently as they study the AL curriculum. AL is also grounded in an inquiry- based approach to learning where learners are pursuing answers to questions they have posed rather than focusing on memorizing and regurgitating isolated, irrelevant facts. Both the curriculum and the online classroom are developed to foster students' abilities to inquire via "identifying and posing questions, designing and conducting investigations, analyzing data and evidence, using models and explanations, and communicating findings" (Keys and Bryan, 2001, p 121). The union of experiential and inquiry-based learning is the foundation of AL, guiding and supporting authentic learning endeavors. Based on these theoretical foundations, the design of the adventure learning experiences follows seven interdependent principles that further operationalize AL: researched curriculum grounded in inquiry; collaboration and interaction opportunities between students, experts, peers, and content; utilization of the Internet for curriculum and learning environment delivery; enhancement of curriculum with media and text from the field delivered in a timely manner; synched learning opportunities with the AL curriculum; pedagogical guidelines of the curriculum and the online learning environment; and adventure-based education. (Doering, 2006).