Without Crossing a Border: Exploring the Impact of Shifting Study Abroad Online on Students’ Learning and Intercultural Competence Development during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yingjie Liu ◽  
Thomas Shirley
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
Cultural Exchange ◽  
Competence Development ◽  
Study Abroad Programs ◽  
Online Study ◽  
Curriculum Redesign ◽  
Online Format ◽  
The Impact

While all higher education was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, study abroad programs were uniquely challenged by the associated restrictions and limitations. This case study integrates a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) pedagogy approach and virtual reality (VR) technologies into the curriculum redesign process to transform a business study abroad course into an online format. Using VR technology, U.S. students and their international partners in Germany, Brazil, and India created and shared cultural exchange virtual tours. The redesigned online study abroad course engaged students in active learning activities and cultivated students’ intercultural competence development.

scholarly journals Development and Validation of the Wesleyan Intercultural Competence Scale (WICS): A Tool for Measuring the Impact of Study Abroad Experiences

2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Stemler ◽  
Toshie Imada ◽  
Carolyn Sorkin
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
External Validation ◽  
Developmental Theory ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Study Abroad Programs ◽  
Competence Scale ◽  
Study Abroad Program ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

One of the most frequently cited aims of higher education institutions is to help students develop intercultural competence. Study abroad programs are a primary vehicle for helping to achieve this goal; however, it has been difficult to quantify their impact as most existing measures of intercultural competence rely on subjective self-report methods that are easy to fake and that suffer from ceiling effects when attempting to measure change over time. Building on Bennett’s (1986) developmental theory, the current paper describes a new test–the Wesleyan Intercultural Competence Scale (WICS)–that uses a situational judgment testing approach to measure the development of intercultural competence within the context of a study-abroad experience. A total of 97 study-abroad students from Wesleyan took the WICSalong with eight external validation measures and a background questionnaire. Thirty participants took the test at two time points–once at the beginning of a study-abroad program and once at the end. The results indicate that the WICShad strong evidence in support of its content, construct, and criterion-related validity. In addition, the WICSwas capable of detecting changes in the development of intercultural competence over time in a way that none of the other validation measures were. The substantive findings revealed that the amount of time spent speaking the local language and the number of different situations experienced were strong predictors of the development of intercultural competence. Implications and future directions are discussed.

scholarly journals Relationship of Foreign Language Proficiency to Study Abroad Outcomes and Inputs

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Savicki
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
Study Abroad Programs ◽  
Foreign Language Proficiency ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Even though we might expect foreign language proficiency to have an effect on intercultural competence and other study abroad outcomes, the research findings are uncertain. Part of the inconsistency between expectation and research findings with regard to the impact of language proficiency may lie in the different methodologies of language proficiency assessment. The current study seeks to address two related issues. The first is to examine the relationship between three different measures of language proficiency. The second is to discover the relationship between these measures and study abroad outcomes and inputs. Different measures of language proficiency may be useful for different purposes, and the potential predictive connection to outcomes and inputs may be instructive in designing and implementing study abroad programs. 

scholarly journals The effect of study abroad on intercultural competence: Results from a longitudinal quasi-experimental study

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 187-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sybille Heinzmann ◽  
Roland Künzle ◽  
Nicole Schallhart ◽  
Marianne Müller
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Study Abroad Programs ◽  
Short Term Study ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
Post Test ◽  
The Impact

This study analyses the impact of short-term study abroad experiences on upper secondary school students’ intercultural competence by means of an experimental design including an intervention and a control group who are studied longitudinally by means of a pre-test, post-test and delayed post-test. In recent years there has been an increasing effort to evaluate the success of study abroad programs not only in terms of number of participants, but in terms of academic, intercultural and linguistic development. Nevertheless, few studies have employed the experimental designs needed to gauge the impact of study abroad programs and even fewer have included a delayed posttest which may shed light on the sustainability of identified effects. The present study includes a broad range of study abroad programs which differ in terms of certain key characteristics, such as duration, type of accommodation or target language. In this way, it is possible to analyse the effect of different parameters on the student’s intercultural development and, ultimately, to identify key factors for successful programs. The paper starts by discussing different models of intercultural competence before outlining the model used in this study. This is followed by a presentation of the participants and the key characteristics of their individual study abroad programs. Analyses of covariance are used to examine the intercultural competence of the students in the control group and the intervention group at the time of the post-test and the delayed posttest and to identify key factors that contribute to the explanation of their intercultural competence. The findings indicate that short-term study abroad experiences have a positive influence on young people’s intercultural competence both short-term and longer-term. The most crucial factors for the explanation of the participants’ intercultural competence are their starting conditions, the duration of their stay, the amount of interaction with representatives of the target culture, and the regular use of the target language. The paper finishes with a discussion of implications for program design and of the limitations of the study.

scholarly journals Understanding How Program Factors Influence Intercultural Learning in Study Abroad: The Benefits of Mixed-Method Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-45
Author(s):  
Andrea Paras ◽  
Michael Carignan ◽  
Ashley Brenner ◽  
Jane Hardy ◽  
Jodi Malmgren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Study Abroad ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
Intercultural Learning ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Study Abroad Programs ◽  
Term Study ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Short Term Study ◽  
The Impact

With the proliferation of short term study abroad programs at institutions of higher education, there is a need for more rigorous assessment of how these pr ograms contribute to intercultural learning. This article presents a multi institutional comparative study of students’ intercultural learning in six short term study abroad programs in Canada and the U nited S tates , employing both quantitative and qualitat ive methods. The study combines pre and post IDI survey scores with a qualitative analysis of student writing to present evidence about the impact of specific program features on students’ intercultural learning, as well as an analysis of how the students themselves make sense of their experiences abroad. We argue that the extent of pre departure intercultural training has a positive relationship with intercultural learning outcomes. Additionally, we present evidence that service learning opportunities and intra group dynamics contribute to students’ intercultural competence. We conclude that mixed methods analysis provides the most effective way of identifying how different program factors contribute to intercultural growth, when that growth occurs in a pr ogram cycle, and how program leaders can provide effective intercultural interventions to best facilitate student learning abroad.

Emplacing Berlin: Digital Itineraries and Short-term Study Abroad in the City

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard B. Apgar
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Study Abroad Programs ◽  
Term Study ◽  
Digital Maps ◽  
Short Term Study ◽  
The City

As destination of choice for many short-term study abroad programs, Berlin offers students of German language, culture and history a number of sites richly layered with significance. The complexities of these sites and the competing narratives that surround them are difficult for students to grasp in a condensed period of time. Using approaches from the spatial humanities, this article offers a case study for enhancing student learning through the creation of digital maps and itineraries in a campus-based course for subsequent use during a three-week program in Berlin. In particular, the concept of deep mapping is discussed as a means of augmenting understanding of the city and its history from a narrative across time to a narrative across the physical space of the city. As itineraries, these course-based projects were replicated on site. In moving from the digital environment to the urban landscape, this article concludes by noting meanings uncovered and narratives formed as we moved through the physical space of the city.

Maximizing Recall of Gruesome Images for Health Effects Advertising: An Experimental Investigation

2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 112-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brennen W. Mills ◽  
Owen B. J. Carter ◽  
Robert J. Donovan
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Body Part ◽  
The Body ◽  
Advertising Effectiveness ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Online Study ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Video Images ◽  
The Impact

The objective of this case study was to experimentally manipulate the impact on arousal and recall of two characteristics frequently occurring in gruesome depictions of body parts in smoking cessation advertisements: the presence or absence of an external physical insult to the body part depicted; whether or not the image contains a clear figure/ground demarcation. Three hundred participants (46% male, 54% female; mean age 27.3 years, SD = 11.4) participated in a two-stage online study wherein they viewed and responded to a series of gruesome 4-s video images. Seventy-two video clips were created to provide a sample of images across the two conditions: physical insult versus no insult and clear figure/ground demarcation versus merged or no clear figure/ground demarcation. In stage one, participants viewed a randomly ordered series of 36 video clips and rated how “confronting” they considered each to be. Seven days later (stage two), to test recall of each video image, participants viewed all 72 clips and were asked to identify those they had seen previously. Images containing a physical insult were consistently rated more confronting and were remembered more accurately than images with no physical insult. Images with a clear figure/ground demarcation were rated as no more confronting but were consistently recalled with greater accuracy than those with unclear figure/ground demarcation. Makers of gruesome health warning television advertisements should incorporate some form of physical insult and use a clear figure/ground demarcation to maximize image recall and subsequent potential advertising effectiveness.

Promoting international learning outcomes during a study abroad: the moderating role of internationalisation at home

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joris Boonen ◽  
Ankie Hoefnagels ◽  
Mark Pluymaekers ◽  
Armand Odekerken
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
Competence Development ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Home Institution ◽  
Internationalisation At Home ◽  
International Learning ◽  
At Home

PurposeThe authors examine the role of internationalisation at-home activities and an international classroom at a home institution to promote intercultural competence development during a study abroad.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use large scale longitudinal data from the global mind monitor (GMM) (2018–2020) to examine change over time in both multicultural personality (MPQ) and cultural knowledge (CQ) among students in Dutch higher education institutions. The authors analyse the moderating effect of the preparation in the home institution by looking at the added value of both intercultural communication courses and international classroom setting for intercultural competence development during a study abroad.FindingsThe results show that particularly courses on intercultural communication significantly promote intercultural competence development during a stay abroad. Frequent interactions with international staff also seem to be beneficial for this development.Research limitations/implicationsThis study was conducted in the Netherlands, in one of the most internationalised educational systems in the world. Therefore, it is difficult to generalise these findings to other contexts before any further empirical research is conducted.Practical implicationsBased on the findings, the authors formulate practical advice for higher education institutions that aim to get the most out of the international learning outcomes of a study abroad.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to assess the moderating effect of preparatory internationalisation at home initiatives on the intercultural learning effects of international experiences later on in a study program. Other studies have proposed that these effects will exist but have not tested them empirically with longitudinal data.

scholarly journals The Practice of the Fieldbook: Facilitating and Evaluating Field-based Learning

2002 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Brandt ◽  
Thomas Manley
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
Field Study ◽  
Applied Research ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Study Abroad Programs ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Study Programs ◽  
Improving Student Learning

Our purpose is to elucidate a writing technique devised for experience-based study abroad programs. Known as the Fieldbook, the technique has been used with significant success on field study programs offered through Pitzer College. We believe the applied research offered in our case study contributes in critical ways to our understanding of pedagogical practices and suggests positive new directions for improving student learning.

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