Process of Transforming Regular Courses Into I-Courses

The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the possible factors that determined a relatively relaxed process of transforming the author's two courses into i-courses. The argument is that some GGC's institutional mechanisms smoothed the process. To support the argument, the chapter first introduces a conceptual framework, followed by the presentation of other scholars' findings on factors of internationalization of the curriculum. The introduction of GGC's process approach to internationalization and the author's intrinsic motivation were the major institutional arrangements and natural factors, respectively, that explain the relatively relaxed process of transforming the author's two courses into i-courses. The chapter concludes with a description of venues for future research and some student evaluations of the two i-courses.

Grounded Globalism

This chapter explores the internationalization of higher education at four-year institutions in the Rocky Mountain West (Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico) through the lens of James Peacock's grounded globalism. As global forces increase and impose upon higher education, administrators and faculty must remain mindful of best practices in internationalizing curriculum. This chapter draws on surveys of senior international officers at four-year colleges in the Rocky Mountain West states. It examines existing literature to apply Peacock's concept of grounded globalism. The authors provide shared characteristics of states in the Rocky Mountain West to add context to the challenges and strengths of internationalization in this region. The authors provide recommendations for future research and best practices in internationalizing curriculum.

Internationalizing a Course on the Cultural and Intellectual History of the Ancient World

This chapter investigates the process of internationalizing a course on ancient history. It suggests ways that a course can be created, examines important issues, and provides examples of assignments to help meet course, discipline, and institutional outcomes. Informed by the work of Fink, it commences by arguing for the significance of course outcome goals, disciplinary outcome goals, and additional institutional goals related to internationalizing the curriculum. Without these various outcome goals as building blocks for the course, it will be both difficult to assess the educational effectiveness of the class and challenging to organize the content. The chapter next discusses pedagogical issues before moving into internationalizing the course. It then investigates the work of two ancient authors, Herodotus and Tacitus, who commented upon foreign cultures. Their histories support exercises designed to help learn outcome goals. Contrary to what some may think, internationalizing a course on ancient history is easier than one might initially anticipate.

Using International Content in an Introductory Human Geography Course

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an example of internationalizing an Introduction to Human Geography course. This mostly consists of translating the material normally found in such a class into the explicit language of internationalization. This is accomplished by modifying the course to include less theoretical descriptions and more concrete examples of globalism at work. Topics normally found in an introductory Human Geography course are well suited for this. Religion, global development, foreign direct investment, immigration, language, and political conflict are avenues of investigation that overlap between geography and international or global studies.

From Teaching Software Engineering Locally and Globally to Devising an Internationalized Computer Science Curriculum

Software development is the process to produce an information technology solution to a real-world problem. Teaching and integrating non-technical software engineering skills into the curriculum is considered one of the most challenging tasks in an academic environment. This becomes even more challenging when the curriculum is supposed to be internationalized and applied in different countries because of the cultural difference, policy difference, and business model difference. In this chapter, the authors present their experience of teaching a software engineering course both locally and globally, where two universities of USA and China are chosen for this study. Specifically, they describe how they adjust homework assignments and student performance evaluations to reflect different government policies, different business environment, and different real-world customer requirement. The chapter shows that it is possible to create an internationalized computer science curriculum that contains both common core learning standards and adjustable custom learning standards.

Beyond Curriculum Internationalization

Curriculum internationalization (CI) has shifted from U.S. student and faculty mobility, foreign language offerings, and interdisciplinary programming to the delivery of content and the role of international students in the method of delivery. Although CI is still about developing students' international and intercultural perspectives, it is not only about teaching or students. Broadly speaking, it is about learning and involves every member of the campus community through purposeful curriculum planning and campus programming. Curriculum internationalization is also about exposing American students, scholars, faculty, staff, and administrators to their overseas counterparts as well as to international settings and perspectives through co-curricular programs. This chapter discusses Georgia Gwinnett College's path towards campus internationalization through a quality enhancement program, education abroad programming, international students and partnerships, and campus programming—a purposeful blend of an internationalized curriculum and a co-curriculum.

Creating a Vibrant STEM Study Abroad Program With a Cultural Component

In 2014, the authors of this chapter joined forces to create a unique STEM study abroad experience for Georgia Gwinnett College students, and that experience grew into a model worthy to be examined and replicated. The model addresses the main objectives of U.S. Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Program Act to bring the demographics of study abroad participation to reflect the demographics of the United States undergraduate population and to implement the study abroad programs in nontraditional study abroad destinations, and in particular in developing countries. Further, the model contains six important components (bundle setup, faculty led, interdisciplinary academic content delivery, undergraduate research, low cost, and cultural component added). The characteristics of all of which are explained in details in the paper. Finally, the successes and challenges of the program are discussed through the prism of it successful implementation in the summers of 2015 and 2016.

Transforming a Beginner's Foreign Language Course Into an Internationalized Course

To internationalize the campus, a Language Exchange Pal Project was developed to enhance students' cross-cultural experiences in a beginner's Chinese foreign language course. The Language Exchange Pal Project, using Skype or QQ (similar to Skype), is a great tool to increase students' global perspective by working in communities of practice with individuals in China who are learning English as a foreign language. Through the technology, students enjoy the opportunity to use the target language in an authentic communicative context and collaborate with their international partners. These two groups collaborate about their language and culture through messages and/or live connections via Skype, chat, or other software systems such as QQ. This chapter shares the process of transforming Chinese 1001 into an i-course, present the Language Exchange Pal Project, describe its challenges, and discuss the preliminary results of the research findings of the Language Exchange Pal Project based on students' survey and interview.

Fieldwork in Developing Countries

Twenty-first century teachers can become more culturally competent through thoughtfully planned opportunities designed to develop global perspectives. Cultural competence can be cultivated through service-learning experiences such as study abroad, thus maximizing pre-service teachers' global preparation and future success within diverse classrooms. In this chapter, the authors discuss preparing undergraduate and graduate students for fieldwork in Liberia, South Africa, and Belize. The purpose of trips to developing countries is to teach and serve but also requires planning that acknowledges issues experienced by pre-service teachers such as anxiety and low efficacy. Upon completion of the Mercer on Mission trips, several pre-service teachers expressed their views about the usefulness of the preparation activities, which are explored within student narratives. Ultimately, the goal of the service-learning program is to support the completion of fieldwork requirements in exceptional contexts while adequately preparing students to be effective across a variety of diverse settings and activities.

How Is Mathematics Humanistic, Culturally Rich, Relevant, and Interesting?

This chapter focuses on the redesign of a traditional History of Mathematics course as an internationalized course and its early implementation. This redesign of the course incorporates significant learning experiences and includes the learning goals of both the college and the discipline. The design of these learning experiences using the backwards design model, the framework based on a blended taxonomy of Bloom and Fink, are elaborated on. How these learning experiences are supported by active learning strategies and forward assessments is also presented. The pilot implementation by an author not involved in the design process provides for an objective perspective of this redesign. The chapter elaborates on the learning experiences within the initial implementation and concludes with ideas for future iterations of the course.