Learn by doing — and make it stick forever
The Academy of Experiential Learning gives educators, coaches, and professionals a complete, research-backed system — from Kolb's learning cycle to live facilitation skills to a fully launched program of your own — so you can replace passive sit-and-listen training with experiences people actually remember and use.
"I don't want you to understand experiential learning — I want you to feel what it's like to be inside it, and then go build that for someone else."
— Valdas Samonis
What you'll learn
What you'll be able to do
- Design and facilitate experiential learning cycles using the Kolb model — from concrete experience through reflection, conceptualization, and active experimentation.
- Apply hands-on, project-based techniques to any subject or professional training context to dramatically improve knowledge retention.
- Build structured reflection practices — journals, debriefs, and peer dialogues — that transform raw experience into transferable insight.
- Assess and adapt learning environments (physical, virtual, or hybrid) to maximize engagement, safety, and authentic challenge.
- Coach individuals or groups through experiential activities, asking the right questions to surface learning without over-directing.
- Create and launch a fully designed experiential learning program — complete with activities, debrief guides, and outcome assessments — for your own audience.
How it works
A school that adapts to you
This isn't a set of static videos. Every lesson is generated live and tuned to where you actually are.
We learn your level
A quick placement check tailors your starting point so you're never bored or lost.
Lessons adapt as you go
Each lesson is written for your pace and your goal, adjusting as your skills grow.
Your AI coach keeps you moving
Checkpoints, feedback, and gentle nudges turn progress into a real result.
The curriculum
What's inside your school
6 modules · 28 lessons
The Science and Soul of Experiential Learning
Establishes the foundational theory behind why experiential learning works and how it differs from passive instruction.
- 1.1Why Passive Learning Fails — and What the Research SaysIncluded
- 1.2Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle UnpackedIncluded
- 1.3Learning Styles, Preferences, and the CycleIncluded
- 1.4Mapping Real-World Challenges to Learning OpportunitiesIncluded
Designing Experiential Learning Activities
Gives learners a practical toolkit for creating hands-on, project-based activities that drive deep skill-building in any subject or context.
- 2.1The Anatomy of a Well-Designed Experiential ActivityIncluded
- 2.2Project-Based Learning: Structure, Milestones, and DeliverablesIncluded
- 2.3Simulations, Role-Plays, and Case ChallengesIncluded
- 2.4Adapting Activities for Physical, Virtual, and Hybrid SettingsIncluded
- 2.5Sequencing Activities Into a Coherent Learning ArcIncluded
The Art of Reflection — Journals, Debriefs, and Peer Dialogue
Builds structured reflection practices that convert raw experience into transferable, lasting insight.
- 3.1Why Reflection Is the Hinge of the Learning CycleIncluded
- 3.2Reflective Journaling: Prompts, Formats, and HabitsIncluded
- 3.3Facilitating Powerful DebriefsIncluded
- 3.4Peer Dialogue and Learning PartnershipsIncluded
- 3.5Building Reflection Into Organizational and Program CultureIncluded
Facilitation and Coaching in Experiential Contexts
Develops the human skills needed to guide individuals and groups through experiential activities without over-directing or undermining discovery.
- 4.1The Facilitator vs. the Instructor — Shifting Your RoleIncluded
- 4.2Asking Questions That Surface LearningIncluded
- 4.3Reading the Room — Managing Energy, Safety, and Group DynamicsIncluded
- 4.4Coaching Individuals Through Experiential ChallengesIncluded
- 4.5Handling the Unexpected — When Activities Go Off-ScriptIncluded
Assessment That Matches the Experience
Replaces passive testing with authentic assessment strategies that measure real capability and reveal genuine growth.
- 5.1Rethinking Assessment for Experiential ProgramsIncluded
- 5.2Designing Rubrics for Skills, Behaviors, and MindsetsIncluded
- 5.3Self-Assessment and Learner-Driven Feedback LoopsIncluded
- 5.4Measuring Retention and Transfer Over TimeIncluded
Design and Launch Your Own Experiential Learning Program
Integrates every prior skill into a capstone project: a fully designed, ready-to-run experiential program built for the learner's own audience.
- 6.1Defining Your Audience, Context, and Learning OutcomesIncluded
- 6.2Building Your Activity Sequence and Facilitation PlanIncluded
- 6.3Writing Your Debrief GuidesIncluded
- 6.4Creating Your Outcome Assessment SystemIncluded
- 6.5Piloting, Gathering Feedback, and IteratingIncluded
Who it's for
Is this you?
Corporate L&D Professionals
You're tired of death-by-PowerPoint onboarding and want to redesign your organization's training programs with activities, debriefs, and outcomes that actually show up on the job.
Educators Rethinking Their Practice
You've sensed that lectures aren't cutting it and want a structured, research-backed method for turning your subject matter into experiences your students genuinely grapple with and remember.
Coaches and Facilitators
You already work experientially in one-on-one or group settings and want a complete framework — the Kolb cycle, debrief mastery, and Socratic questioning — to sharpen your craft and design more intentional programs.
Instructional Designers
You build learning content for a living and want to move beyond slide decks into project-based structures, simulations, and assessments that measure real skills and behaviors.
Team Leaders and Managers
You run meetings, lead projects, and develop your team — and you want to transform those everyday moments into deliberate learning experiences that build capability without adding extra hours.
Lifelong Learners and Self-Directed Educators
You've always learned best by doing and want a full intellectual toolkit — grounded in real research — for designing your own rich learning experiences and helping others do the same.
Questions
Frequently asked
Your teacher
A note from your teacher
Valdas Samonis
If you're reading this, I'd guess you've sat through one too many trainings where someone clicked through 47 slides and called it learning. Or maybe you're the one standing at the front of the room — the coach, the trainer, the teacher — and you have this nagging feeling that there has to be a better way. That the people in front of you are capable of so much more than absorbing what you say and repeating it back.
You're right. And that nagging feeling? That's intellectual honesty. It's the thing that brought you here.
I built this academy because I believe learning is fundamentally an active process — not a spectator sport. The research is unambiguous on this: people retain more, transfer more, and develop genuine confidence when they encounter a real challenge, struggle productively with it, reflect on what happened, and try again with new understanding. The Kolb cycle isn't just a nice diagram. It's a description of how human beings actually grow. And when you learn to design for that cycle intentionally, everything changes — for your learners and for you.
What I want for you in this academy isn't just exposure to experiential learning ideas. I want you to come out the other side as someone who can sit across from any audience — a corporate team, a graduate seminar, a community workshop — and design an experience that genuinely moves them. That means knowing how to build an activity with the right structure and the right stretch. It means knowing how to ask a debrief question that opens a room up rather than closes it down. It means being comfortable when an activity surprises you, because you trust the process and you trust your learners.
The curriculum here is the full arc. We start with the science and the theory, because understanding why something works makes you endlessly more adaptable than someone who only knows what to do. We move through designing activities, building reflection practices, developing your facilitation presence, rethinking assessment, and finally — putting it all together into a real program you design for your real audience. Every section asks you to reflect on your own experience as a learner, not just absorb concepts. That's intentional. The best way to teach this is to live it.
Whoever you are — teacher, trainer, coach, L&D professional, or someone who simply cares deeply about how people learn — I'm glad you're here. Pull up a chair. Let's figure this out together, by actually doing it.
— Valdas Samonis
Start your journey today
Get instant access — learn at your own pace with an AI coach in your corner.
$97/mo
Recurring billing · cancel anytime
Secure checkout · Instant access
- 6 modules, 28 lessons
- AI-adaptive lessons tuned to your level
- Quizzes & checkpoints to lock in progress
- Your own AI learning coach
- Learn on any device, at your pace
- Full access for as long as you're subscribed