Global learning: Definition, assessment, and approaches

Global learning has become a fundamental aspect of international education. Yet, a clear understanding of global learning and how to develop it remain unclear. Using the dynamic systems approach, this paper analyzed the reasons, methods, and knowledge, skills, and attitudes(KSA) of global learning in higher education. Global learning is the higher education institutions’ critical response to globalization. It is the essential learning outcome of comprehensive internationalization of curriculum requiring students to develop KSA about the external world and their internal selves in their daily lives across local and global communities. With survey results from 142 undergraduate students in one U.S. university and a global learning rubric and publication, this paper demonstrated how global learning is interpreted and approached differently at various levels and further proposed pedagogical approaches to enhance global learning in higher education.

Integration of Big Data with International Graduate Ideological and Political Education

Nowadays, colleges and universities have a large amount of information about political thought and education in addition to complex student data. Like big data, it has the characteristics of large capacity, high speed, and diversity. The ideological and political education in colleges and universities urgently needs scientific decision-making and the ability to predict possible problems ahead of time. It also perfectly matches the technical advantages of big data technology that can efficiently process data, analyze and extract information, as well as propose solutions. The traditional higher education model can no longer meet the needs of current international higher education. Under the new background, universities must explore a new model of postgraduate international education, which is practical, multi-channel, and comprehensive, on a deeper level. According to data on graduate students’ interest, psychology, and behavior, higher education teachers can purposefully innovate the methods and approaches to higher education. The integration of international graduate education with big data has been examined in this research, and a series of cultural exchanges has been carried out for foreign students at Central South University. This kind of introduction seems to have effectively boosted the attractiveness of ideological and political education, improved the research level of international graduate students, and deepened the role of campus cultural activities in educating people on a deeper level.

Transnational Education and e-Learning during a Pandemic: Challenges, Opportunities, and Future

Higher education institutions are globally facing unprecedented disruptive trends, which have rapidly changed the landscape of global higher education due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While transnational education (TNE) is increasingly becoming popular as a provision for internationally recognised education at the doorstep of students, the temporary shift from traditional classroom teaching and learning (T&L) to remote online T&L caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging for all stakeholders to provide the similar student experience as previously. Regarding TNE programmes, the emergency replacement of traditional classrooms with virtual ones has also raised significant challenges of both equity and pedagogy. However, given the current crisis in higher education, TNE can be a cornerstone in rebuilding the post-COVID-19 international education system. This chapter explores the challenges faced by the TNE programmes based on a systematic literature review and information gathered informally from various stakeholders and discusses the opportunities and future impacts in teaching, learning, and student support as the post-COVID-19 educational landscape emerges. It also provides an insight into how a sustainable transnational learning community can be developed for the quality and sustainability of international higher education in this new decade.

A Correlation Analysis of Education for Sustainable Development in Pre and Post Covid Scenarios

Education for sustainable development (ESD) has become a focus of international education attention, for its multidisciplinary character and for the interest in caring for the environment due to their degradation and environmental impact. This study compared two tests, one was conducted before confinement on 325 participants with 3545 responses, and one in confinement on 350 participants with 3832 responses. Surveys were conducted using Google Forms, based on 11 questions with its items verified by ANOVA and Bonferroni. The COVID-19 lockdown significantly influenced the results of both tests. The results indicated increased awareness of the environment during confinement. At the educational level it was intended to take an initial test and a year later perform a second test to compare them. The first test was carried out online at school, and the second one was held a year later in confinement due to COVID-19. This unexpected circumstance became an opportunity to value and compare them in different circumstances. Surveys were conducted using Google Forms. The results indicated a more significant concern for sustainability. The conclusion has been that students behave more sensitively to sustainable development in confinement circumstances.

Dreams of Flight

In Dreams of Flight, Fran Martin explores how young Chinese women negotiate competing pressures on their identity while studying abroad. On one hand, unmarried middle-class women in the single-child generations are encouraged to develop themselves as professional human capital through international education, molding themselves into independent, cosmopolitan, career-oriented individuals. On the other, strong neotraditionalist state, social, and familial pressures of the post-Mao era push them back toward marriage and family by age thirty. Martin examines these women’s motivations for studying in Australia and traces their embodied and emotional experiences of urban life, social media worlds, work in low-skilled and professional jobs, romantic relationships, religion, Chinese patriotism, and changed self-understanding after study abroad. Martin illustrates how emerging forms of gender, class, and mobility fundamentally transform the basis of identity for a whole generation of Chinese women.

COVID-19's Impact on Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria and Its Effects on the Economy

This chapter addressed Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) impact on tertiary institutions in Nigeria, its effect on the economy, and possible coping strategies in a time of global pandemic and national disaster. COVID-19 was reported as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020, discovered in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, spread to several nations, forcing the closure of tertiary institutions all over the world. The effect has also disrupted the school academic calendar at tertiary institutions, decreased international education, Suspension of local and international conferences, etc. And the economy, leading to job losses, revenue loss in the informal sector, business closure, agricultural production and food insecurity, a sharp drop in oil revenues, and economic uncertainties. Which, thus, harms the economy. This chapter makes recommendations to assist Nigeria's government and the educational institutions in coping with the effect of the outbreak and similar pandemics soon.

Leveraging Interdisciplinary Collaboration to Improve Technology Dependency and Intercultural Competencies

In this chapter, the authors discussed the use of virtual exchange (VE) courses in a global context to prepare college students, including journalism students and pre-service teachers, for technology dependency and intercultural competencies through the faculty-librarian-instructional designer collaboration. They shared the pedagogical and technological issues encountered when implementing the VE courses with their international partner professors and described their journey of an ongoing process of collaboration and problem solving prior to and during the pandemic. Concrete examples were provided to demonstrate how they used VE to produce meaningful student learning outcomes and to expand accessible international education. The authors also discussed future research and further implementation of the VE courses.

Intercultural Competence Development Through Co-Curricular and Extracurricular At-Home Programs in Japan

The rapid development of international education has occurred alongside a growing demand for higher education institutions to educate globally competent graduates. Yet, mobility remains a distant opportunity for most students, and Japanese undergraduate students often cite financial, safety, and job-hunting concerns as obstacles to studying abroad. Internationalisation-at-home has emerged as a viable alternative to mobility in Japan through government-funded internationalisation programs. This article will discuss the impact of co-curricular and extracurricular programs on the development of intercultural competence among 164 first-year Japanese students at two Top Global universities in Japan. Results from a one-year longitudinal, mixed methods study reveal that while formal programs positively affect intercultural competence development, informal intercultural contact on campus negatively affects students’ intercultural attitudes. Findings also indicate that student perceptions of intercultural competence at the pre-intervention stage affect engagement with intercultural opportunities on campus, suggesting the importance of introducing interventions prior to higher education.