Copyright (c) 2013 Utah State University All rights reserved. http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cuenr/Sessions/Abroad Recent Events in Study Abroad en-us Wed, 15 May 2013 18:03:03 PDT 3600 http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cuenr/Sessions/Abroad/3 http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cuenr/Sessions/Abroad/3 Sat, 27 Mar 2010 13:30:00 PDT International educational experiences have the ability to promote cultural understanding, cooperation and interaction with global society. In a period of reduced financial and administrative resources it is more difficult to promote these experiences. Auburn University (AU) and the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences (SFWS) has partnered with International Student Volunteers, Inc. (ISV) to provide academic oversight and credit for study abroad volunteer service experiences. ISV is an international volunteer travel organization who sends over 3,000 students abroad each year and whose participants have contributed over 250,000 volunteer hours in the fields of natural resource conservation and community development. ISV works with local agencies and non‐ governmental organizations to develop long term volunteer service projects in eight different countries. Students travel abroad for two weeks of volunteer services gaining hands‐on practical research or work experience generally followed by two weeks of nature and adventure travel. The SFWS has worked with ISV to develop two 3 credit hour academic courses (Natural Resource Management and Community Development) to be administered during the two week volunteer service projects. With input from the SFWS, ISV provides in‐country project leaders with the academic credentials (M.S. or Ph.D.) necessary to lead the field portion of the course. Students seeking academic credit complete a number of project relevant readings prior to departure. In addition to conducting two weeks of volunteer service in‐country, students participate in group discussions and maintain a field notebook, each of which are graded by the ISV project leader. Upon return, students prepare a 10 page academic paper based on their readings, additional research, and their personal experiences. The AU instructor of record will grade final papers, integrate project leader in‐country grades and post final grades. Students from any university can apply to ISV programs and to SFWS for academic credit. Students pay ISV for all aspects of the trip and tuition to AU. The SFWS portion of the tuition will be used to hire and provide travel funds for a full time instructor for in‐country oversight of academic programs, to monitor student reviews of ISV project leaders, and to teach one course in the SFWS each semester. Any additional funds generated will be used to develop scholarships for SFWS students to travel abroad. Benefits to ISV include a recognized institutional partner to provide students academic credit and funding to support the academic portions of their programs. Benefits to AU and the SFWS include international coursework, funding for an instructor to grade and oversee the courses, two new courses taught per academic year and scholarship funds for students. Benefits to students include opportunities for volunteer service projects that meet rigorous academic standards and credit that can be transferred to their home institution.

]]> Wayde C. Morse et al. http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cuenr/Sessions/Abroad/2 http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cuenr/Sessions/Abroad/2 Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:00:00 PDT In 2001, the University of Georgia Foundation made a significant commitment to expanding the opportunity for study abroad at UGA when it purchased a 155‐acre farm and built a new education and research center in San Luis de Monteverde, Costa Rica. UGA Costa Rica collaborates with departments and schools across the University to offer study abroad programs that offer courses directly related to major areas of study and that also integrate service‐learning as a central component of the overall study abroad experience. “Global service‐learning is a course‐based form of experiential education wherein students, faculty, staff and institutions a) collaborate with diverse community stakeholders on an organized service activity to address real social problems and issues in the community, b) integrate classroom theory with active learning in the world, c) gain knowledge and skills related to the course content and advance civic, personal and social development, and d) immerse themselves in another culture, experience daily reality in the host culture and engage in dual exchange of ideas with people from other countries” (Kiely, 2007:2). UGA Costa Rica and the UGA Office of Service Learning have developed an international service‐learning protocol and training workshops which provide guidance and tools for faculty to effectively incorporate service‐learning into their courses taught on UGA Costa Rica study abroad programs. As Kiley and Nelson (2002) note, effective service learning programs require established community partnerships and participation in the field activities students and faculty undertake. The UGA Costa Rica campus staff work closely with community organizations to maintain a database of projects and local contacts, and help facilitate these “participatory education in the living classroom” experiences, and community members actively participate in projects alongside students and faculty. In addition to the service‐learning emphasis, UGA Costa Rica has also worked with the Franklin College of Arts & Sciences, the College of Education, the Odum School of Ecology, the College of Environment and Design, and the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute to build semester‐ long programs which offer multiple courses required for their majors. Such initiatives are helping these UGA academic units to integrate study abroad into their degree programs and attract students to these majors. This presentation will describe global service learning as presented by Kiley (2007) and how UGA Costa Rica has adapted this theoretical framework to develop meaningful service learning opportunities and train faculty to lead them as part of study abroad programs. Examples of service learning activities will be further described, as will the service learning protocol. The presentation will also review how UGA Costa Rica has worked to shift the perception of study abroad from an add‐on experience to an integrated part of degree programs at UGA.

]]> Quint Newcomer http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cuenr/Sessions/Abroad/1 http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cuenr/Sessions/Abroad/1 Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:30:00 PDT Study abroad programs taking students from the U.S. to other nations have grown in recent years, both in terms of the number of programs and participants. As international education becomes more extensive and popular, approaches to teaching and learning have evolved as well, including various approaches to reflection as a learning tool. Student reflection in general and the DEAL Model (Ash & Clayton, 2009) in particular appear to be well suited to generate, deepen, and document learning in nature‐based study abroad courses. International education typically exposes students to places and cultures different from their own. In the context of natural resources education, experiences abroad can contribute significantly to their understanding of and appreciation for the role played by cultural norms and history in shaping attitudes toward and practices in natural environments. Critical reflection is a powerful tool to help students move beyond the simple recognition of obvious differences they are experiencing in the host culture and to facilitate deeper learning whereby they can make connections and actively consider the meaning of what they are experiencing as individuals and for their home culture. Without such reflection, students in study abroad programs may have memorable experiences, but ones that are far more superficial than might otherwise be the case. By coupling the excitement and dissonance typical of international education with intentionally designed nature‐based service experiences and reflection, more significant impacts can be achieved, particularly related to civic engagement and global citizenship. This session will examine a 3.5 week, 6‐credit multidisciplinary course, “Sustaining Human Societies and the Natural Environment in Australia,” which examined the ecology, natural resource management, conservation efforts and related social history in northeastern Australia. Student oral and written reflection exercises were incorporated into the course in 2006, and refined in 2007 and 2008 based on scholarly collaborative analysis of the resultant student products in light of the desired learning objectives. In 2008, students were asked to write a reflective essay on course expectations during their first day in country and participated in guided reflection exercises during the course. In addition to objective questions designed to assess lower levels of learning (e.g., identification and description in Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956)), a written reflection essay was included a written final examination. These essays enabled instructors to assess students’ understanding of course concepts and issues surrounding sustainability of human cultures and the natural environment in northeastern Australia, up to the levels of synthesis and evaluation in Bloom’s Taxonomy. Having experienced a progression in the use of reflection as a learning tool, instructors plan to continue its use as a means to stimulate long‐term learning and impacts.

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