Lesson 5 — Meet ExperienceFinder

Estimated time: 20–25 minutes

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

  • understand the purpose of ExperienceFinder;
  • understand why ExperienceFinder is the capstone of the Finder pathway;
  • create reflection sections and questions;
  • use life experiences as evidence rather than treating them simply as memories;
  • bring results from the other Finder instruments into one reflective portfolio;
  • help respondents identify recurring themes across their results and experiences;
  • use the completed portfolio to move from self-discovery toward possible action.

Section 1

What is ExperienceFinder?

ExperienceFinder is different from the other Finder activities.

SelfProfile asks respondents to reflect on their personal characteristics.

PassionFinder explores what attracts, interests and energises them.

SkillsFinder helps them recognise abilities and competencies they believe they possess.

PersonalityFinder explores preferences in how they tend to relate, respond, organise and contribute.

ExperienceFinder brings these different pieces together and asks:

What does my own life story tell me?

It is therefore the capstone activity in the Finder pathway.

Rather than measuring another characteristic, ExperienceFinder helps respondents look backwards at their experiences and across the results they have already generated.

The objective is to discover recurring themes.

For example:

  • Where have I repeatedly done well?
  • What have I repeatedly enjoyed?
  • What kinds of problems have I repeatedly helped solve?
  • What kinds of people have I repeatedly enjoyed helping?
  • What have difficult experiences taught me?
  • Where do my strengths, interests, competencies, personality preferences and experiences seem to reinforce one another?

EXPERIENCEFINDER PERSONALITYFINDER ---/ ↓ LIFE EXPERIENCE ↓ DISCOVERY PORTFOLIO ↓ POSSIBLE NEXT STEP This should visually communicate that ExperienceFinder is the capstone rather than simply "Finder number five". Suggested width: 950–1050 px. ========================================================= -->

Your future contribution may be hidden in the intersection between what you have consistently done well, what you have consistently enjoyed doing, and what life has taught you.

Section 2

Installing ExperienceFinder

You can obtain ExperienceFinder in two ways.

Option 1

Download the latest version from Moodle.org.

Option 2

Download the plugin ZIP file from the Resources section of this course.

The Resources section also contains:

  • README.md
  • example reflection frameworks
  • demonstration reports
  • future updates

Install the plugin in the normal Moodle way via:

Site administration → Plugins → Install plugins

Section 3

Experience is Evidence

We often think of experience as simply the collection of things that have happened to us.

ExperienceFinder asks us to look at experience differently.

Our experiences may contain evidence.

Suppose someone says:

"I think I am good at explaining complicated things."

That is useful self-perception.

But now suppose the person remembers:

  • helping classmates understand difficult subjects at school;
  • training new employees at work;
  • being asked repeatedly to explain technical matters to customers;
  • helping colleagues learn new software;
  • making instructional videos that other people find useful.

A pattern begins to appear.

The person's life experiences provide evidence that strengthens, qualifies or sometimes challenges what appeared in the earlier reflection instruments.

This is why ExperienceFinder does not simply ask:

"What has happened to you?"

It encourages deeper questions:

"What keeps happening?"

and:

"What might that pattern be telling me?"

Section 4

Building an ExperienceFinder Reflection

ExperienceFinder allows the activity creator to build a reflection framework using sections and questions.

Unlike a conventional questionnaire, the teacher is not restricted to one predetermined set of questions.

The framework can be designed around the purpose of the course or programme.

Reflection Prompt Lists

A teacher may provide lists of experiences simply to stimulate memory.

For example:

  • life experiences;
  • family experiences;
  • educational experiences;
  • spiritual experiences;
  • career experiences.

These prompts help respondents remember experiences they might otherwise overlook.

Experience Inventories

The teacher may also create selectable lists of experiences.

For example:

  • previous leadership roles;
  • volunteer experiences;
  • work experiences;
  • service opportunities;
  • projects;
  • community involvement.

These selections can become part of the respondent's portfolio.

Reflection Questions

The teacher can then ask open questions such as:

What experiences have shaped your life most significantly?

What have you consistently enjoyed doing?

What strengths appear repeatedly in your story?

What kinds of people do you enjoy helping?

Responses can be revisited and edited, allowing reflection to develop rather than forcing the respondent to produce an instant answer.

Section 5

Bringing the Finder Results Together

This is where ExperienceFinder becomes substantially different from an ordinary reflection journal.

It can bring information from the previous Finder activities into the respondent's reflection.

SelfProfile

What personal strengths and characteristics appeared?

PassionFinder

What interests, motivations and sources of energy stood out?

SkillsFinder

Which competencies and abilities emerged most strongly?

PersonalityFinder

What personality preferences or patterns may influence how the respondent works and contributes?

ExperienceFinder allows the respondent to consider these findings alongside evidence from real life.

This creates an important opportunity.

Instead of treating each instrument result as a separate conclusion, the respondent can ask whether the different sources of information converge.

For example:

My SelfProfile suggests that I see myself as encouraging.

PassionFinder suggests that I am energised by helping people learn.

SkillsFinder identifies teaching and explaining among my stronger competencies.

PersonalityFinder suggests that I tend toward relational interaction.

When I examine my experiences, I notice that people have repeatedly asked me to teach, explain and mentor.

No single observation proves what the person should do next.

But several independent clues pointing in the same direction are worth investigating.

EXPERIENCE + REFLECTION / PersonalityFinder result Highlight the idea of "converging evidence". Suggested width: 1000–1100 px. ========================================================= -->

The aim is not to find one result that tells you what to do. The aim is to notice when several different clues begin pointing in the same direction.

Section 6

Confirm, Challenge and Add Context

ExperienceFinder should not merely display previous results and ask the respondent to accept them.

The respondent can be invited to:

  • confirm a result that feels accurate;
  • challenge a result that does not seem to fit;
  • add context that helps explain a result;
  • record observations from real experience;
  • identify recurring themes across several sources.

This is important because self-report instruments are imperfect.

A respondent might see a SkillsFinder result and think:

"Yes. I have seen this ability repeatedly in my work and volunteer experience."

Another result may prompt:

"I selected this competency, but when I think about my actual experience, I cannot remember many situations where I have used it successfully."

A PersonalityFinder result might prompt:

"This describes me well at work, but I behave quite differently with family and friends."

That is not a problem with the reflection.

That is the reflection.

The respondent is interpreting information rather than merely receiving a score.

Section 7

The SHAPE Discovery Portfolio

The final output of ExperienceFinder is a personal SHAPE Discovery Portfolio.

The portfolio can bring together:

  • life experiences;
  • service experiences;
  • reflection responses;
  • SelfProfile results;
  • PassionFinder results;
  • SkillsFinder results;
  • PersonalityFinder results.

Where appropriate, it may also include visual information from the earlier instruments.

For example:

  • SelfProfile strength information;
  • PassionFinder visualisations;
  • SkillsFinder competency results;
  • the PersonalityFinder matrix.

The important outcome, however, is not the collection of graphics.

The value lies in seeing the information together.

A respondent can now begin asking questions such as:

  • What themes appear more than once?
  • Which findings are supported by real experience?
  • Where do my interests and abilities overlap?
  • What kinds of contribution appear to give me energy?
  • What kinds of people or problems repeatedly attract my attention?
  • What have difficult experiences taught me?
  • Where might there be an opportunity worth exploring?

Section 8

ExperienceFinder is not JSON-driven

You will notice an important difference between ExperienceFinder and the previous Finder activities.

ExperienceFinder does not use JSON to define its reflection framework.

This is deliberate.

SelfProfile, PassionFinder, SkillsFinder and PersonalityFinder contain structured instruments that lend themselves particularly well to portable JSON definitions.

ExperienceFinder performs a different job.

It is primarily a Moodle-native framework for bringing results, experiences and written reflection together.

Configured ExperienceFinder activities can therefore be shared using Moodle's normal course and activity tools, including:

  • backup;
  • restore;
  • duplicate;
  • course import.

This means there is no ExperienceFinder equivalent of the JSON import/export exercise used in the previous lessons.

Section 9

From Discovery to Possible Action

Self-discovery has limited value if it ends with:

"That is interesting."

ExperienceFinder therefore encourages respondents to move from reflection toward possible contribution.

Questions might include:

  • What themes appear repeatedly in my life?
  • What gives me energy?
  • What kinds of contribution have repeatedly been satisfying?
  • What opportunities should I explore next?
  • Who might benefit from something I already know or can do?
  • What is one small experiment I could try?

The word experiment is useful here.

The portfolio does not need to tell someone:

"This is what you should do with your life."

It can instead help them say:

"There is enough evidence here to make this worth trying."

Someone who repeatedly discovers evidence of teaching ability, enjoyment of explaining ideas and experience helping beginners might:

  • offer to teach a short workshop;
  • mentor one person;
  • create an instructional video;
  • write a useful guide;
  • volunteer in a training role;
  • test a small online course.

The experiment creates new experience.

That new experience creates new evidence.

The person can then reflect again.

A useful reflection process should not merely describe the past. It should help the respondent decide what may be worth trying next.

Section 10

Using AI with the Completed Portfolio

Although ExperienceFinder is not JSON-driven, AI can still become useful at the end of the discovery process.

The respondent now has something much richer than a single questionnaire result.

They may have:

  • personal characteristics from SelfProfile;
  • motivational patterns from PassionFinder;
  • competencies from SkillsFinder;
  • personality preferences from PersonalityFinder;
  • significant life and work experiences;
  • their own reflections on all of these;
  • examples from their actual life.

An AI assistant can help the respondent examine this material for recurring themes.

The AI should not be asked to make a life decision for the respondent.

It can instead be asked to act as a pattern finder.

Example Prompt

The information below comes from a personal reflection process. It includes my reflections on personal characteristics, interests, competencies, personality preferences and life experiences.

Do not treat any of these results as a diagnosis or fixed description of me.

Look for recurring themes and areas where several different pieces of evidence appear to reinforce one another.

Identify:
1. recurring strengths;
2. recurring sources of motivation or energy;
3. competencies supported by examples from experience;
4. kinds of people or problems I repeatedly appear interested in helping;
5. contradictions or uncertainties that deserve further reflection;
6. three possible areas of contribution worth exploring;
7. three small, low-risk experiments I could try to gather better evidence.

Explain the evidence behind each suggestion. Do not tell me what career, ministry or business I "should" pursue.

This is a fundamentally different use of AI from the earlier Finder lessons.

Earlier, AI helped the teacher create instruments.

Here, AI can help the respondent interrogate their own collected evidence.

Section 11

Reading ExperienceFinder Carefully

ExperienceFinder is not designed to produce a final verdict about a person.

It does not attempt to say:

"This is your type."

or:

"This is the role you should perform."

Instead, it helps the respondent assemble clues.

Some clues may reinforce one another.

Some may contradict one another.

Some may become more meaningful when viewed in the context of actual experience.

Some may turn out to be less important than they first appeared.

This makes ExperienceFinder particularly useful in conversation with:

  • a teacher;
  • a mentor;
  • a coach;
  • a pastor;
  • a volunteer coordinator;
  • a career advisor;
  • a trusted colleague.

The aim is interpretation rather than assessment.

And ultimately, the respondent remains the most important interpreter of their own experience.

Summary

You have learned that ExperienceFinder:

✓ is the capstone of the Finder pathway

✓ brings together SelfProfile, PassionFinder, SkillsFinder and PersonalityFinder

✓ adds evidence from real life experience

✓ uses reflection prompts and questions

✓ helps respondents confirm, challenge and contextualise earlier results

✓ helps identify recurring themes

✓ creates a personal Discovery Portfolio

✓ is Moodle-native rather than JSON-driven

✓ can use AI to help identify patterns in the completed reflection

✓ encourages small experiments rather than fixed prescriptions

✓ aims to move the respondent from self-discovery toward contribution.

Final Mini Activity

This is the final activity in the mini-course.

Create or open an ExperienceFinder activity.

Examine how it brings together the work completed in the previous Finder activities.

Then complete the ExperienceFinder reflection yourself.

Do not rush this activity.

Look particularly for places where your actual experiences support or challenge what appeared in the previous instruments.

When you have finished, review your Discovery Portfolio and ask:

  • What appears repeatedly?
  • What am I consistently good at?
  • What consistently gives me energy?
  • What do other people repeatedly seem to value in my contribution?
  • What kinds of people or problems repeatedly attract my attention?
  • Which conclusions are supported by actual experience?
  • Which conclusions still need testing?

Then choose one small experiment.

Do something that will give you better evidence.

Teach something.

Help someone.

Create something.

Volunteer for something.

Solve a problem.

Start a conversation.

Then come back to your reflection with one more piece of real-world evidence.

Where to from here?

You have now completed the Finder pathway.

You have reflected on:

  • who you are through SelfProfile;
  • what energises you through PassionFinder;
  • what you can do through SkillsFinder;
  • how you tend to operate through PersonalityFinder;
  • what your experience may be telling you through ExperienceFinder.

The purpose was never to produce a perfect description of you.

The purpose was to gather better clues.

Those clues become useful when they help you answer a much more practical question:

Whose life can I improve, and what can I contribute?

Last modified: Tuesday, 18 August 2026, 3:31 PM