For the majority of students, the ability to work effectively with others is an important part of higher education and future employment. Outdoor adventure education (OAE) courses are therefore used in higher education to provide students with a unique and challenging environment for developing transferrable groupwork skills. Working in an action research setting and informed by the Kirkpatrick model of training evaluation, the aim of this Ph.D thesis was to investigate students' experiences of OAE and the processes that underpin learning and transfer.