Purdue West Lafayette is transitioning campus-wide from previously required intercultural learning action plans and reports to a new assessment initiative for faculty- and staff-led study abroad. Please read on for an invitation to the pilot phase of the newly designed process.
There is a wide array of potential student developmental outcomes from faculty- and staff-led study abroad (FLSA), including disciplinary, destination-specific, and generalizable intercultural/global learning outcomes. The breadth and depth of these outcomes, in addition to the intensive nature of the experience, are why study abroad is considered a “high impact” practice in higher education. Recent scholarship demonstrates, however, that study abroad is not automatically or necessarily a high impact practice.
FLSA needs to be designed intentionally to foster these three outcome areas:
Purdue's GPP wants to support FLSA program leaders in thoughtfully building towards desired outcomes in these three areas by partnering to gather and reflect on data that can inform curriculum development. In order to offer high quality programs, educators need evidence of what students are taking away from their study abroad experiences, and how those outcomes are related to who students are and what program design decisions faculty make. Faculty time is limited, and assessment processes can be logistically challenging. Purdue can institutionalize data collection for student outcomes in FLSA in such a way that:
This plan pairs two instruments—one for faculty/staff and one for students—that are theoretically aligned and have been deployed together successfully in the past at other institutions.
During the program proposal process, program leaders will complete the Global Engaged Learning (GEL) index, an instrument developed by CoreCollaborative International in a project funded by the Colonial Academic Alliance to measure “high impact practices” in global learning experiences. The survey asks faculty/staff to reflect and report on design elements of their programs that have been demonstrated in research to engage students and enhance their learning outcomes in all three areas (disciplinary, location-specific, and intercultural/global learning). One benefit is that the GEL is broader than the current intercultural learning plan process that focuses only on the third area. Another is that it streamlines the process for faculty by eliminating data reporting after they return from abroad, instead asking faculty renewing a program to reflect on data from its previous iteration during their planning process for the next offering. Finally, program leaders can partner with CILMAR if they would like to submit an exempt IRB proposal and publish on study abroad programs using existing institutional data.
CILMAR will partner with the Study Abroad office to administer the Beliefs, Events, and Values Inventory (BEVI) as a pre- and post-test, relieving faculty of this responsibility (although of course program leaders may also still collect and analyze any additional data, intercultural or otherwise, that will benefit their students, their program, or their own research). The BEVI is a well-researched whole-person transformative learning measure with strong demonstrated validity and reliability that offers many advantages, including:
1) formative assessment potential via automated individual narrative reports returned directly to students and aggregate reports delivered to faculty before departure,
2) cost effectiveness via institutional licensing, and
3) a wide array of constructs measured so to meet needs in diverse disciplines.
Who is involved |
What they do |
Student Data |
|
Pilot phase—Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter 2024 | A. Exploratory SAIL grant awardees | Meet with CILMAR, Study Abroad, and/or college staff for support with GEL and strategic program planning | No |
B. Voluntarily participtating program leaders | Fill out the GEL before departure. Support meetings available but not required. | Yes, unless another instrument is already planned | |
Moving forward—Spring 2025 and beyond | A. All leaders of new program proposals | Meet with CILMAR, Study Abroad, and/or college staff for support with GEL and strategic program planning early in proposal process. | Yes |
B. All leaders of existing program proposals | Consider available data from previous program. Fill out GEL during proposal process. Support meetings available but not required. | Yes |
The more we connect on a deeper level with people who are different from us, the more we expand our experiences of the world and how we want to impact it.
Tara Harvey, PhD