scholarly journals Global U: Exploring Curricular Development and Outcomes in Three University of Utah Experiential Learning Abroad Programs

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-45
Author(s):  
Lisa H. Gren ◽  
L. Scott Benson ◽  
Caren J. Frost

The University of Utah is a publicly funded, R1 university located in the United States, with a mission statement that includes recognition of its global role, asserting that “. . . we engage local and global communities to promote education, health, and quality of life.” As part of that engagement, the University of Utah has offered learning abroad opportunities since 1967. Approximately 1 in 10 students participates in a global learning experience, and 80% of programs are short term (defined as 10 weeks or less). The pedagogical theories that guide these short-term programs are experiential learning, authentic learning, and intentional targeted intervention. We describe three short-term learning abroad programs in public health and social work—for students at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate level—connecting the reported benefits to the pedagogical model and theories used to develop the specific curriculum for these short-term programs. Faculty use a variety of reflective tools to help students learn to function in their new setting (experiential learning); explore and meaningfully construct concepts and relationships as they address real-world problems (authentic learning); and facilitate intercultural growth (intentional targeted learning). The University of Utah has adapted a three-stage model for learning abroad that incorporates principles from these theories to drive program activities: Plan (predeparture), Learn (program participation), and Integrate (postprogram). Immediate benefits to students of participating in a global-learning experience include intercultural learning, personal, and career development. Benefits to faculty include scholarly products in the domains of education and service learning, community-engaged participation, and research.

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethan Pohl ◽  
Emily Liatsis ◽  
Jessica Riddell

This case study discusses an experiential learning course comprising a 12-episode podcast series dedicated to transformative learning in higher education. The three-credit course, which was designed by two student leaders (station managers at the university radio station) in collaboration with a faculty collaborator, was informed by the 10 design principles of authentic learning. The central premise of the podcast series hinged on two key questions: What are the ideal conditions where students build their souls as they build their CVs?; What are the conditions for transformative learning whereby students reflect on their learning experience as collaborators with their professors and with one another? The case study offers recommendations to students, faculty, and educational developers who might integrate this model into their own practices. 


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (7) ◽  
pp. 5-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lata A. Krishnan ◽  
Christi Masters ◽  
Jennifer M. Simpson

Service learning (SL) is a form of experiential learning in which students are involved in community service activities that are related to academic course objectives. A key aspect that separates SL from other forms of experiential learning is the mutually beneficial nature of the service activities. Much of the SL and international SL (ISL) literature has focused on positive learning outcomes for students, with much less focus on the benefits of SL to the community. Speech, Language, and Hearing Services (SLHS) in Zambia is an intensive SL short-term study abroad program. This paper describes the benefits to the community via the SLHS in Zambia program.


2013 ◽  
Vol 94 (10) ◽  
pp. 1501-1506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley G. Illston ◽  
Jeffrey B. Basara ◽  
Christopher Weiss ◽  
Mike Voss

The WxChallenge, a project developed at the University of Oklahoma, brings a state-of-the-art, fun, and exciting forecast contest to participants at colleges and universities across North America. The challenge is to forecast the maximum and minimum temperatures, precipitation, and maximum wind speeds for select locations across the United States over a 24-h prediction period. The WxChallenge is open to all undergraduate and graduate students, as well as higher-education faculty, staff, and alumni. Through the use of World Wide Web interfaces accessible by personal computers, tablet computer, and smartphones, the WxChallenge provides a state-of-the-art portal to aid participants in submitting forecasts and alleviate many of the administrative issues (e.g., tracking and scoring) faced by local managers and professors. Since its inception in 2006, 110 universities have participated in the contest and it has been utilized as part of the curricula for 140 classroom courses at various institutions. The inherently challenging nature of the WxChallenge has encouraged its adoption as an educational tool. As its popularity has grown, professors have seen the utility of the Wx-Challenge as a teaching aid and it has become an instructional resource of many meteorological classes at institutions for higher learning. In addition to evidence of educational impacts, the competition has already begun to leave a cultural and social mark on the meteorological learning experience.


Author(s):  
Beth J Thompson ◽  
Rebecca A Baugnon

A collaborative oral history project was recently completed at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) by students enrolled in a Spanish seminar course and library faculty and staff members at the University. The course, ‘Hispanics in N.C.: Service Learning and Research,’ was created and offered as one component of a public programming grant awarded to UNCW by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association through these institutions’ initiative called ‘Latino Americans: 500 Years of History.’ The course provided students with an opportunity to interview individuals in the southeastern North Carolina Latino community about their experiences in the United States. Students captured an audio recording of the interview which they later transcribed and provided a photograph of the interviewee. Library faculty and staff members were tasked with creating a digital collection to highlight the oral histories. Working within a limited time frame and with no funding for the project, the planning and implementation for the digital collection was completed by librarians in the library’s Information Technology and Systems, Special Collections, and Technical Services departments. Utilizing technology, systems, and skill sets that were already in place at Randall Library, a final product titled, ‘Somos NC: Voices from North Carolina’s Latino Community,’ was created. This article seeks to provide a practical discussion of the oral history project, outlining the Library’s processes and project workflows as well as assessment and reflections. Synthesizing knowledge gained through the experience, the intent is to provide an example of how, through collaboration and innovation, small to midsized libraries can accomplish similar projects.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 875-894 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miftachul Huda ◽  
Dedi Mulyadi ◽  
April Lia Hananto ◽  
Nasrul Hisyam Nor Muhamad ◽  
Kamarul Shukri Mat Teh ◽  
...  

Purpose This paper aims to explore service learning with its insights in empowering corporate responsibility awareness. Attempts to build corporate responsibility widely in incorporating into the sustainability engagement could be demonstrated in fostering the transformative experiential learning with extensive evaluation and reconfiguration of existing programs. The focus on enhancing the learning experience in emphasizing the community engagement would be applied with strengthening the actual performance in encompassing the ability raising awareness about the environmental issues. Design/methodology/approach The approach used in this paper refers to develop the conceptual framework about the service learning with various strategies to give insight on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Incorporating the approach of conceptualizing the basis of service learning, key consideration was generated into particular enhancement of service learning in contributing to the CSR. Findings The finding reveals that getting benefit to serving into the community engagement may take beneficial outcomes with its valuable insight to assist in the progress of program designed with associating to enhance corporate responsibility and sustainability awareness. The advancement of the social control among the companies would be deployed within empowering service learning for CSR where sustainability awareness-based community service as embodiment of CSR should be enhanced through nurturing corporate responsibility-based transformative experiential learning. Moreover, this initiative refers to an attempt to strengthen the basis of corporate responsibility and sustainability awareness-based experiential learning, which could enlarge creative thinking with envisioning sustainability and corporate responsibility. Originality/value This study is expected to contribute to the experiential learning to enhance the sustainability within the learning setting engaged in achieving what to contribute to the environmental concern. In creating the situation where the balance between serving and learning can be achieved, attempts to encourage them in joining the service learning program should be collaborated with orienting both personal and social community oriented comprehensively in underlying the responsibility awareness, the sustainability-based moral values. These aim to enhance the understanding stage about the care for protecting the environmental concern within learning experience with the goal to produce responsible awareness especially by economic agents such as shareholders, managers, regulators and active participants to promote sustainable benefits.


Author(s):  
Joellen E. Coryell ◽  
Trae Stewart ◽  
Zane C. Wubbena ◽  
Tereza Cristina Valverde-Poenie ◽  
B. J. Spencer

International Service-Learning (ISL) is a structured service-learning experience in another country where students learn from interaction, cross-cultural dialogue, and reflection. This humanistic pedagogy was utilized at the University of Canterbury after earthquakes rocked Christchurch, New Zealand (NZ) in 2010 and 2011. The present comparative-case study examined United States (US), European Union (EU), and Kiwi students' transformative learning through working together in a university-based ISL course designed around re-building Christchurch. Data were analyzed through the Kiely's (2005) Transformative Service-Learning Model. The findings of this study contribute new elements to the dimension of the model and argue that the concept of global citizenship may better explain a mixed cohort of international students' service-learning experiences in a post-disaster setting. Implications to the study's findings and recommendations for future research are briefly discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (5) ◽  
pp. 579-597
Author(s):  
Rosane Dal Magro ◽  
Marlei Pozzebon ◽  
Soraia Schutel

In this article, we examine the value of combining transformative and service learning pedagogical practices in management education programmes to encourage management students to be more critical and reflexive regarding serious contemporary issues like social inequality and sustainability. We draw on a long-term management education experience conducted in the northeastern region of Brazil, where international students learn how to develop a real-time community-based project with local inhabitants. We argue that while service learning approaches promote pragmatic action-based principles, transformative learning acts at the epistemic level, contributing to change in values. In addition, Paulo Freire’s ideas are integrated to reinforce critical and reflexive dimensions of the learning experience. Our results offer a process-based model showing how a critical experiential learning pedagogy might lead to the development of community-based competences, which, in turn, might lead to changes in the deeply held values of the participants. Freire’s emancipatory ideas are applied not only regarding the relationship between teachers and students, but also to the distinction between Western and non-Western societies, going beyond questioning of the destructive consequences of financial capitalism to question the hegemony of one worldview over all other possible ones.


Author(s):  
Monir K. Parikh ◽  
Robert W. Hitchcock

The University of Utah offers a two semester capstone biomedical engineering design course (bioDesign) where products are developed and prototyped using the guidance of FDA Design Control mandates. During the two semesters, students are required to develop a project plan, marketing requirements, specifications, test plan, results and working prototype. Additionally, design reviews are regularly held in order to provide student teams with constructive feedback from clinicians, coaches, and course instructors. To foster a rich environment for innovation and to better instruct students in problem based learning, we partner student teams with design ideas that have been conceptualized by clinical advisors. This collaboration creates high value relationships maximizing the students’ learning experience while exposing them to best practices. This course offers unique challenges to the students; they must balance the creativity and innovation of design work with the documentation and regulations mandated by the FDA and other regulatory agencies. Since the inception of this course, we have identified various problems with student learning. Over the past 25 years, educators have begun to understand the importance of hands-on, interactive learning experiences in the undergraduate engineering curriculum [1,2]. Therefore, by overcoming the teaching and learning issues associated with this program, we hope to develop a course that empowers student teams to become effective, innovative engineers.


Sibirica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Jane F. Hacking ◽  
Jeffrey S. Hardy ◽  
Matthew P. Romaniello

This special issue of Sibirica is devoted to exploring Russia’s complicated relationship with Asia. Along with an edited volume (Russia in Asia: Imaginations, Interactions, and Realities, forthcoming), it is an outgrowth of the “Asia in the Russian Imagination” conference that was held at the University of Utah in March 2018. This conference brought together an interdisciplinary body of scholars from the United States, Canada, and Russia to discuss how Russians imagined and interacted with the peoples of Eurasia. Chronologically this conversation spanned the Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and post-Soviet Russia, and included not just the geography and peoples possessed by Russia but also the bordering states of Japan, China, and the Ottoman Empire. This is certainly not a new line of inquiry, but there is still much to be understood about these complex relationships, both real and imagined.


Curationis ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Staja Q. Booker

Background: The unprecedented global growth in older adults merits high-quality gerontological nursing care. As gerontological nursing grows in visibility in developed and developing countries, nurses must possess a broader worldview of ageing with knowledge of physiological, psychosocial, and cultural issues.Purpose: The purpose of this article is to: (1) highlight lessons learned on differences and similarities in ageing and care of older adults in the United States of America (USA) and South Africa (SA); and (2) provide recommendations on how to advance gerontological nursingeducation in SA.Methods: A two-week international service-learning project was undertaken by visiting SA and learning about their nursing system and care of older adults. Service-learning is an innovative teaching-learning-service method that provided reflective and hands-on experience of gerontological nursing. This article provides a personal reflection of lessons learned about ageing and gerontological nursing during the service-learning project.Findings: Care of older adults in SA is in many ways different from and similar to that in the USA. Consequently global nurses should recognise those differences and provide culturally appropriate care. This service-learning experience also demonstrated the need for gerontological nursing education in SA. Based on this, recommendations on how to infuse and advance gerontological nursing education in SA are provided.Conclusion: Caring for older adults in a global context requires knowledge and understanding of cultures and their values and practices. With a growing population of diverse older adults, there is a need for incorporation


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