Dissecting tile adventure camp experleDcel deter IDIDg sueee ful prograna conaponent by Steven HoUenliont ad AJ a Ewert T octay we are seeinl an unpre cedented increase in the num ber of PeOple participating in outdoor adventure proarams In re sponse many organizations including a growiq number of camps are initi ating or expanding into various types of adventure programming The modality these organizations most often emulate is that of Outward Bound whereby the participant is placed into a unique physical and social environment and faced with a seriesof progressively more problema tic tasks If effective a state of cog nitive disonance is replaced with feel ings of mastery or competence which in turn serves to reorganize the mean ing and direction of the participant s life experiences While the constructs of novelty and competence upon which the Outward Bound Process is based has been ex tensively researched little effort has been directed toward determining how various program components or activities contribute to the satisfaction of the individual in the adventure pro gram setting This question of program design is of primary concern to the camp director interested in implement ing an adventure program The purpose of the study was multi faceted 1 to determine which activi ties in an adventure program were considered personally important to the participants 2 to ascertain any changes that occurred during or after the course in regard to importance ratings 3 to identify the demonstrable effects the organization had on the levels of importance placed upon the activities by the participants and 4 Steven Hollenhorst is assistant professor at Appolachian State University in Boone North Carolina Alon Ewert is assistant professor at OhioStateUniversity in Columbus 32 CAM I1 io MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 1985 programs and included rock dimbing and rapellins a solo experience white water activities expeditions into wil derness areas group dynamics and interaction a marathon skills train ing a service project a ropes course pre breakfast activities such as a run and dip closing ceremonies and base camp activities Subjects were asked to rank these activities with respect to how important these activities were to them A ranking scale was utilized with 1 being most important 2 being next most important and so forth To determine any changes in impor tance ratings due to personal intro to determine whether perceptions of staff were similar to those of partici pants in regard to levels of importance Because the Outward Bound model is emulated so frequently by other organizations this particular style of adventure programming was chosen for the study Specifically 155 sub jects 44 staff 111 students from the Voyageur Outward Bound School formerly named the Minnesota Out ward Bound School were asked to complete a questionnaire allowing them to rank in order of personal im portance their course activities These activities consisted of many endeavors typically associated with adventure Diagram Very Importa 1 Summary of WIkoXOD AnalysIs of Coune Aelivides 2 3 Expedition 4 5 Moderately 6 Important 7 I Not at All ImpOrtlnt pDyn Solo oro oek u GliJDtiing 8 IDI cs SkillsTraining MotninaAe tivities Whitewater Marathon spection or effects of the orpnization subjects were asked to rank their course activities just prior to the course implyina how important they thought the activities would be im mediately after their course and three months later Because of the ranking nature of the data a non parametric analysis Friedman two way analysis of variance was utilized to determine any significant differences between rankings of selected course activities The Wilcoxon chi square analysis was conducted to determine which specific course activities differed from each other The Friedman analysis indicated a significant change in the ranking struc ture of course activities within the pre post and follow up time periods Further analysis with the Wilcoxon technique is reflected in Diagram 1 As can be observed from the dia gram patterns exist in the ranking structure with the constructs of ex peditions group dynamics and solo consistently ranked most important Conversely base camp activities clos ing ceremonies service projects and the ropes course ranked least impor tant The skill oriented constructs of rock climbing whitewater prebreak fast activities marathon and specific skills training were consistently ranked as moderately important The histogram also reveals a high degree of congruence between staff and student rankings the only signifi cant disparities being the higher degree of importance instructors placed on the ropes course and the lower degree of importance they placed on skills training In terms of hypothesis test ing however the results of this study indicate that a similar systematic rank ing structure did exist for both the students and the staff and that this ranking structure was relatively stable I mplieations for camp directors The Outward Bound model has been and continues to be a viable type of adventure program Given this fact and considering the ever increasing popularity of adventure programs it seems reasonable to assume that camp directors contemplating the implemen tation of such programs should be en couraged to do so Within these para meters and considerina the results of the study the fonowin implications for camp directors can bedrawn I Students participatin in this ad venture program came with a speci fic set of expectations which re mained relatively unchanged Al though this can be attributable to the high degree of congruence that existed between the students and staff in regard to importance rank ings it may also indicate a low level of effectiveness of the organization with respect to altering the student s perceptions 2 Within the organization there exists a high degree of congruence between the importance perceptions of the staff provider and the stu dents consumers This could indi cate a high level of awareness on the part of the organization with re spect to the needs and expectations of the student and may also reflect to some extent the organization s effectiveness in satisfying these needs Additional research with the Importance Performance analysis would be useful at this point In terms of design and implementa tion of this style of adventure program ming the following suggestions re garding specific course components should be considered by the camp director I Emphasize