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Workplace-based learning provides participants with a valuable experiential learning opportunity to apply knowledge from the classroom to a real-world business or industry location. Yet despite calls to invest in or expand WBL opportunities in two-year institutions, no standard language or definitions appear to exist. Literature and research on WBL in two-year institutions is scant, and what is available suggests a lack of a common lexicon but does not address why it persists. This mixed-method study, using the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program as its sample, addresses this gap and provides further insight into WBL language. Study results confirm that the language used to define and describe different types of WBL lacks standardization; ATE projects use various terms for WBL opportunities, with no clear pattern of characteristics distinguishing among types of WBL. The choice of terms for particular types of WBL opportunities is driven not by the opportunities' goals and characteristics but by external factors. The response to whether language in WBL matters also varied across the study population. This article concludes by reviewing the potential implications of these findings for research and practice and suggesting what can be done now to capture the impacts of workplace-based learning. 

In 2018, the Center for Renewable Energy Advanced Technological Education (CREATE) received funding from the National Science Foundation to administer an Energy Storage Project with the overarching goal of advancing the renewable energy sector by facilitating integration of energy storage technology into existing two-year college programs. The goals for this project included gathering expertise, conducting job task and curriculum gap analyses, producing instructional materials, implementing pilot energy storage courses, and providing professional development for college instructors. The project's initial task was to work with educators to gather knowledge and expertise around energy storage technologies and energy education. Widespread adoption of energy storage is only beginning in the U.S. and, subsequently, energy storage-related educational programs are few; conversely, energy storage education efforts have already been pioneered and established in Europe, most notably in Germany. As a result, CREATE leveraged its history of improving energy education through international cooperation and organized a study tour to Germany for nine renewable energy educators to examine innovations in renewable energy and energy storage and to research how these technologies are incorporated into German workforce preparation. In the planning and conducting international professional development opportunities for educators, two distinct challenges arise: that of ensuring academic rigor and of anchoring and capturing learning, especially given the additional cognitive load presented by being abroad. CREATE employs an evidence-based, international collaboration model - developed and improved over the course of two previous study tours - to meet these challenges. The learning plan consists of pre-travel online activities, knowledge capture and collaborative sharing during travel, and post travel reflection. These activities combine to support educators in gathering and preserving knowledge gains and to facilitate collaborative knowledge-building that leverages the expertise and skills of the participant cohort. While this paper presents the results of the CREATE professional development model, however the findings are not limited to energy storage or to the energy sector. Indeed, this analysis and the resulting set of recommended practices should be of interest to anyone interested in creating a meaningful educator professional development opportunity, especially if international travel is incorporated.