Learning can happen anywhere

For more than 50 years, Outward Bound has been leading the charge in experiential education. Our programs are designed to support the social and emotional learning of every student. Just as the challenges of COVID-19 have caused the "traditional" school system to adapt and innovate in order to meet the needs of their students, we too have pivoted to help meet these new demands on education. 

Eager to continue to serve our mission of "changing lives through challenge and discovery," our highly-skilled instructors have spent countless hours writing, practicing, and implementing our lesson plans for online platforms so that students can engage in similar fun, eye-opening experiential education they are used to from our traditional wilderness programs.  

From a recent session with a partner school, here is a sampling of student responses after their course:

Virtual Program Offerings for Youth

  THE VIRTUAL OUTWARD BOUND EXPEDITION

• WHO: Middle and High School Students
• HOW: Four 75-minute sessions designed to be delivered sequentially over an agreed-upon interval (Ex. Every Tuesday for a month or Monday-Thursday of the same week)
• TAKEAWAYS: Connection, teamwork, personal leadership, and confidence

Online learning can be challenging for many schools, field trips just aren’t a reality. While your students won't physically be in the same space, you can still engage them with an exciting Virtual Outward Bound Expedition. These synchronous experiential learning sessions are delivered remotely via video conferencing by our highly-skilled experiential learning educators. 

The Outward Bound Virtual Expedition curriculum is delivered in four, 75-minute sessions delivered sequentially. True to Outward Bound’s spirit, these sessions build upon one another in a progressive nature gradually offering more and more challenge. Students go “on course” with us in “crews” or groups. These “crews” could be intact classrooms, school clubs, groups, or any other variety of students that would benefit from an increased sense of belonging, better teamwork, and personal leadership. 

.  ENHANCING THE CLASSROOM COMMUNITY

• WHO: Middle and High School Students (Intact classrooms, school clubs, leadership organizations)
• HOW: Customizable options to meet the needs of your students
• TAKEAWAYS: Sense of belonging, community, and enhanced engagement in the virtual classroom.

One of the greatest struggles in the virtual environment is creating community and establishing true belonging. Both are vital to successful learning, and Outward Bound can support schools and teachers in these key areas.

Different than the Virtual Expedition, this curriculum is designed to be delivered as individual sessions or in a sequence of sessions and is primarily focused on establishing group norms and agreements, promoting understanding of one another, and increased perspective-taking. Teachers and administrators will work directly with our course directors to establish goals for each session and outcomes that are uniquely generated based on the group's needs. This option provides the most flexibility for our programs to integrate into the classroom and the possibilities are limitless.