Digital reflections from the field : online forum and reflective diaries for collaborative sustainable transformative learning

Visitor management strategies, site control mechanisms, education and interpretation have been advocated as strategies for sustainable tourism. However, the rhetoric on educational and learning outcomes derived from tourism experiences has been exiguous. Tourism experiences have the potential to facilitate meaningful and transformative learning outcomes enabled through a cyclical process involving affective, reflective and action oriented activities. This study explores the use of participant reflective diaries on an online forum as tools for sustainable transformative learning following active learning in the field. Specifically, it investigates the effectiveness of such learning tools in achieving experiential learning and critical reflection outcomes within the action-reflection-transformative process. The use of the online forum encourages collaborative participation and engagement in peer-learning interactions through dialogue, reflective learning and sharing.