Faculty-Led Spring Break Study Abroad Programs Assess Student Learning Outcomes

February 13, 2023
Categories: Uncategorized

As the Office of International Programs (OIP) builds back more offerings for study abroad programs, OIP introduced a pilot project to assess students’ learning outcomes on global citizenship and intercultural competence through faculty-led study abroad programs. In Spring 2023, faculty members joined OIP’s pilot effort with programs to the Netherlands, France, Croatia, Singapore and Malaysia.

The Student Learning Outcome (SLO) project was initiated in 2019 Faculty Development Studio, organized and sponsored by OIP. Through a series of online and in-person workshops and professional development on global and intercultural learning, UNC Charlotte faculty members developed four student learning outcomes for faculty-led study abroad programs:

  • Articulate the global relevance of your academic discipline through education abroad programs
  • Engage in cultural similarities and differences
  • Critically reflect on one’s own cultural situatedness
  • Explain the global interconnectedness of people and places

The Office of Education Abroad recruited faculty leaders for study abroad programs to join this pilot program and offered two workshops for the faculty leaders in Fall 2022 and Spring 2023. The Fall workshop included theoretical concepts of global learning and intercultural competence; faculty leaders were also introduced to two possible assessment tools for measuring students’ learning: the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (IES) and the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). The SLO workshop provided faculty members with the rationale and tools to assess students’ learning in their respective programs.

The first of Spring 2023 SLO workshops was customized for the Spring Break faculty-led programs. During the workshop, facilitators introduced a variety of reflection strategies and hands-on activities to embed in their respective programs. Faculty directors also chose their assessment tool for the SLO pilot project. OIP will offer another workshop for Summer faculty-led programs later in the Spring semester.