Risk Management
Risk Management for Experiential and Engaged Learning
Introduction
Experiential and engaged learning helps students bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and real-world experience by providing them with hands-on opportunities to apply knowledge, collaborate with others, and develop critical skills. Engaged learning often provides students with real-world experiences with other professionals and community partners. However, these activities often come with inherent risks that must be identified, planned for, and managed to ensure everyone’s safety and well-being. Examples of experiential and engaged learning can include activities such as: - Internships,
- Student teaching,
- Practicums,
- Fieldwork,
- Study abroad experiences, and
- Service-learning/community-engaged learning.
Identifying, addressing, and mitigating risks may seem overwhelming and scary, but fortunately there are systematic steps that we can follow to effectively manage them.
Effective Risk Management Involves:
- Risk Assessment: Identify potential risks and evaluate their likelihood and impact using tools like risk matrices.
- Safety Protocols: Develop and communicate clear safety guidelines.
- Training and Support: Provide comprehensive training and ongoing support.
- Monitoring and Adjustment: Continuously monitor and adjust risk management plans. By adopting these practices, we can help create safe environments that enhance students' learning experiences and academic success.
Overview of Risk Content Area
What is Risk?
Risk in experiential and engaged learning refers to the potential for both positive and negative outcomes that may arise from engaging in activities outside the traditional classroom setting. Consider a group of students in an agriculture, marketing, or nutrition course who partner with local farms and food producers to host an outdoor market that highlights locally sources seasonal produce. These students may be disappointed when heavy rain the day of the market leads to low participation or damaged promotional materials; however, these same weather conditions provide significant benefits to produce farmers while also providing numerous real-life lessons for the students who planned the event. Adopting a mindset that embraces the fact risks are ever present encourages us to take steps to address the uncertainties that could impact the safety, well-being, and success of everyone involved in your experiential and engaged learning opportunities.
Why Risk Management is Important?
Educational experiences beyond the confines of the traditional classroom environment inherently pose risks, including environmental, organizational, logistical, legal, and participant factors. With so much uncertainty that is outside our control, how can we be reasonably certain the decisions we make and the actions we take will lead to the desired outcomes? This is the ultimate goal of risk management. Risk management is the proactive process of identifying, assessing, and addressing risks to minimize negative impacts and to maximize beneficial outcomes. Enabling students to focus on their learning without undue concern for their safety fosters a more engaging and effective educational experience.
Compliance with institutional policies and legal regulations protects the institution's resources, builds trust with stakeholders, and enhances the institution's reputation for providing high-quality, safe and innovative educational experiences. Proactive planning promotes preparedness and resilience, enabling institutions and students to quickly adapt to and recover from adverse events. Lastly, risk management supports ethical and responsible practices by encouraging the safety and success of students, educators, and community partners. A framework that proactively identifies, assesses, treats, and monitors risks encourages informed decisions, strengthens the resilience of service-learning initiatives, and empowers all involved to leverage risks as catalysts for innovation and success.
Often, our tendency is to jump right into the identification of risks, but we need to first understand the context and critically consider whether each experiential or engaged learning experience is worth pursuing.
It can be helpful to start by asking:
- Why are you proposing the specific experiential or engaged learning experience?
- What are your goals and objectives for the experience? How does the experience support Texas A&M University’s goals and objectives? How does the experience support the students’ goals and objectives?
- What guiding boundaries are applicable to the experience? These could include:
- Local, State, and Federal Laws
- TAMU Rules
- College and Departmental Requirements
- Site/Community Partner Rules and Requirements
- Governing Bodies (e.g. professional associations, etc.)
- What resources are needed for this experience to be a success? Do you and the students have these resources? If not, can the needed resources be reasonably and appropriately secured?
- The basic risk management framework is presented below. While it appears to be a sequential, step-by-step process, risk management is iterative and should be integrated into decision-making and throughout all aspects of an experience’s planning, execution, and review.
The purpose of risk identification is to determine, recognize, and describe risks that might help or prevent the accomplishment of your goals. If the experiential or engaged learning will occur off campus, it is important to conduct a site visit with a site visit checklist to identify any possible risks. It is also important to consider special student circumstances such as how students with disabilities or international students will engage in the learning experience. Common sources of risks include:
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Environmental factors include natural, physical and ecological conditions. Examples may include the location and condition of the site, accessibility, and possible environmental impacts of the project.
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Organizational factors refer to internal elements of an organization, including policies, culture, processes, and structure.
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Participant factors refer to the characteristics and behaviors of individuals involved in the learning activities, including the students, TAMU employees, site contacts, and the community involved in the project. Examples may include demographics, health and well-being, motivation, experiences, skills, and behaviors.
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Logistical factors refer to the elements and processes involved in the organization and execution of the learning activities. These could include transportation, travel, resource availability, scheduling, communication, and coordination.
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Legal and Compliance Factors refer to the regulatory and ethical standards that impact the learning activities. These include TAMU, local, state and federal laws, partner protocols and requirements, liability and insurance. Ethical considerations include privacy and confidentiality, power dynamics, and transparency.
- Physical – Impact to a person’s body or health.
- Reputational – Impact to public perception, including that of the individuals involved, the partner organization/site, and Texas A&M.
- Emotional – Impact on the range of emotions that could be experienced by students and others involved, including vulnerability, fear of failure, interpersonal dynamics, resilience, empathy, and self-awareness.
- Financial – Monetary impacts, including financial losses or gains and potential financial barriers to access or participation.
- Facilities – Impacts to the spaces utilized, including damages and enhancements, as well as potential impacts posed by the physical space
The risk treatment phase moves beyond identifying and assessing the risks to actively taking steps to make the experiential and engaged learning experience safer, more sustainable, and more impactful for all stakeholders. A critical aspect of this phase is recognition that a "one size fits all" approach is not feasible. Because experiential learning encompasses a wide array of activities with diverse inherent risks, risk treatment strategies must be tailored to the specific context, objectives, and risks of each project or activity. That said, the strategies below are encouraged for all experiential learning opportunities because of their broad application.
- Pre-program training/orientation
- On-site orientation
- Establish clear communication channels
- Regular check-ins
- Documentation and reporting
Additional treatment strategies should be employed based on the likelihood of the risks’ occurrence and the significance of their impact on the participants, stakeholders, and the goals and objectives.
Modify/Enhance Risk
Some risks present opportunities to be creative in our efforts to actively influence them to reduce their likelihood, minimize their potential impact, or to enhance potential positive outcomes. These strategies move beyond simply accepting or avoiding risk and seek to shape the learning environment in a way that optimizes both safety and educational value. The key distinction of this approach is the emphasis on proactivity. Instead of passively accepting risks and relying upon responding to incidents, we actively seek ways to adjust the activity, the environment, stakeholder and participant preparation, and other factors to encourage success.
Transfer/Share
The impact of addressing some risks ourselves can be overwhelming or unreasonable. In these situations, transferring the burden of potential losses and sharing resources that will help to leverage opportunities are useful strategies. Common risk transfer/sharing strategies include.Contracts
Before entering into any experiential learning program, the obligations and any applicable guidelines should be clearly set forth in writing so all parties understand their respective rights, responsibilities, and limitations. This includes agreements between Texas A&M and the community partner, and between the student and the community partner.
- Precise and clear expectations of all parties,
- Clearly stated goals, methods, and expected outcomes,
- Terms/Timeframe of agreement and how the agreement can be terminated,
- Method used to select students for the learning experience,
- Community partner policies to which the student will be subject during the experience,
- Communication protocols and points of contact,
- Procedures to follow if any party fails to perform as promised,
- Conditions under which a party has the right to alter or eliminate the program as needed,
- Specificity as to whether the student will be considered a volunteer, with or without a stipend, a contractor, or a paid employee,
- A statement regarding insurance coverages, including what insurance coverages are expected to be in place and which of the parties is providing the various types of coverage,
- Compliance expectations regarding federal, state and local laws, including identifying those that are the responsibility of the community partner, Texas A&M, and the student,
- Consequences of a breach of contract, and
- Responsibility for harm or injury to third parties by students and for harm or injury to students.
The Texas A&M Department of Contract Administration has developed templates that should be used when TAMU units are entering agreements for experiential and engaged learning opporutninites. Visit TAMU Contracts for more infomraiton.
Insurance
There are several insurance factors to consider when planning community engagement experiences, including but not limited to the location, the students’ responsibilities and tasks, and any community partner requirements. For example, students partnering with a medical care provider may need student professional liability insurance in case their actions result in patient injuries. Insurance options could include:
- Workers' compensation or other accident medical coverage,
- Gereal liability,
- Student professional liability for medical and allied health fields, and other professional programs ultimately requiring a license to practice,
- Auto liability,
- Life, health and disability insurance, and
- Speciality insurance depending on the nature of the experience, including aviation, watercraft, cyber liability and many others.
The Texas A&M Office of Risk and Compliance Advisory Services (ORCAS - Insurance Services - Division of Risk, Ethics and Compliance) is available to advise on insurance considerations and options.
Waiver Forms
Certain activities may require that students sign a liability waiver before they can participate. Waivers and assumption of risk forms educate students about the risks associated with the experiential learning program and document the student’s assumption of those risks. There are some important considerations regarding the use of waivers in experiential learning and community engagement, including:
- Waivers, assumption of risk forms, and other related documents are supplemental tools. Priority should be placed on preparing the students for the community engagement experience through orientations, information sharing, and other proactive steps. Waiver forms should then be used to further communicate the nature of the activity, the known and inherent risks, and the potential consequences should negative outcomes materialize.
- Students should not be required to sign a Texas A&M waiver form if the community engagement experience is a requirement of their academic coursework. Community partners may require these students to sign waivers in this situation, but a Texas A&M waiver should not be used.
- If the student is a minor, parents or a legal guardian should also sign the waiver form.
- When a Texas A&M waiver is implemented for volunteer participants, only the following forms should be used: (Participants over 18 years of age; Participants under 18 years of age)
Avoid/Exploit
You will likely identify risks that are likely to occur and will have a significant impact when they materialize. Avoiding these risks by deciding not to proceed with the activity or specific aspects of an experience is a critical tool for eliminating unacceptable risks where the potential for harm is too great. For example, Exploitation, on the other hand, involved intentionally leaning into situations where a bit of uncertainty or risk is likely to result in incredibly valuable and impactful learning. It's not about being reckless, but about recognizing that sometimes, controlled exposure to manageable risks is likely to help students grow and develop. For example,
The takeaway is that we "avoid" unacceptable risks where the potential for harm is too great. "Exploit," on the other hand, is a more nuanced strategy that's primarily about leveraging manageable uncertainties for significant learning and growth. The key is intentionality and ensuring that any potential downsides are controlled and outweighed by the educational benefits.
Accept Risk
The assessment of each risk helps to determine which are worth accepting, particularly those with a low likelihood or little to no impact on achieving the shared goals and objectives. While we may choose to accept these risks, it is crucial we don’t ignore them. Unforeseen and low priority risks can still arise. Having plans in place to capitalize on new opportunities and established emergency and contingency measures allows for effective responses and ultimately contributes to our success. The Texas A&M Office of Emergency Management offers a number of emergency preparedness resources that can be easily tailored to your community engagement experience. These include emergency procedures (Emergency Procedures | Texas A&M University) and Texas A&M, the BCS community, and State and Federal emergency resources (Emergency Resources | Texas A&M University).