According to American educator Mark Prensky, today’s students are different from prior generations having grown up using technology. In turn, they’re programmed to think differently. Today’s higher education professors can actively engage these students in learning and address diverse needs via flipped classroom pedagogy, active learning strategies, and 21st century technology tools. Join us as we share findings from our research on the use of these innovative teaching strategies. We’ll also examine what flipped classrooms entail and various teaching techniques and technologies that promote collaboration, critical thinking, and engagement among today’s students.

Collaboration between Glenville State College in West Virginia and Spain’s University of Oviedo demonstrates that using technology to connect students in two countries can be an effective, affordable, and scalable way to deliver global learning. Faculty who pioneered this partnership using the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) method will share their experiences developing a joint syllabus, designing assignments for U.S. and Spanish students, navigating cultural differences, assessing outcomes, and developing their own strengths as globally-engaged faculty. The collaboration began in 2014 as part of the American Council on Education (ACE)–SUNY COIL Center Internationalization through Technology Awards Program.

Many university faculty are now embedding into existing courses an effective teaching strategy called Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) to provide all students with direct experiences in problem-solving on global teams. This panel will present a case study from a COIL course called "The Great Debates East and West,” which discusses how students combine online discussions, live video conferencing, and student-produced videos to co-produce final products based on their small team global collaborations. Two of the three panelists will be video-conferenced in to demonstrate application of some of the principles for doing this work effectively in the classroom. You will leave this session with practical examples and models for how to tailor the COIL teaching strategies to a wide range of course departments and discipline.

This session looks at how transformations in global markets and new technologies are giving birth to binational learning models, and specifically, the collaboration of U.S. and Mexican institutions in creating new educational paradigms. Pima Community College (PCC) has been part of the growing economic interdependence and multidimensional integration between the U.S. and Mexico and has strengthened its relationship with local communities of Mexican origin and developed strong connections with Mexican institutions. Participants will discuss these binational collaborative efforts and discover ways to ensure successful outcomes, procure binational grants, and achieve cross-cultural learning and global solidarity in education on study abroad programs.

Public policy development in the United States remains unpredictable and very challenging, especially for the international exchange community. Forces within the Administration continue to pursue an aggressive overhaul of immigration policies, while promoting an “America First” message internationally. Control of Congress also hangs in the balance. Come hear an update on immigration policy changes, the potential impacts from the mid-term congressional election, and how you might help shape exchange policies in 2019 and beyond.

The future is accessible! That is the expectation as more people with disabilities - the world’s largest minority community - continue to enter mainstream spaces, assume leadership positions, and identify and advocate for full inclusion. Education abroad serves to create a pipeline of emerging leaders with disabilities equipped with the global competencies necessary to further social justice at a greater scale. This session will explore and demonstrate the principles of Universal Design and examine models from institutions and organizations that proactively address disability access in international education programming, from assessing accessibility at overseas sites to participant evaluation, and more.

An increase in global incidents has led to duty of care becoming a top priority for universities with students traveling abroad. Recent legal cases involving student safety, such as the Hotchkiss Case, have heightened awareness within the wider academic community. A lack of a travel risk management not only affects faculty and student safety, but also opens academic institutions up to legal, financial, and reputational risks. After this session, the audience will walk away with best practices to better protect their students.

Why does the rhetoric in education abroad increasingly vilify popular destinations and the students who choose them? Locations with an established profile, perceived familiarity, and allure present unique challenges in terms of student expectations, curriculum, and program design. Rather than discount or write off such destinations, educators should challenge themselves to create innovative and provocative programs that challenge students, subvert assumptions, and deny cursory experiences. The University of Minnesota programs in Dublin and Florence seek to engage with and interrogate the popular appeal of the locations while simultaneously challenging stereotypes and notions of educational tourism and travel. Presenters will discuss the process of developing these programs and share lessons learned along the way.

This session illuminates the extensive range of networking opportunities that immersion-based educational environments provide. Educational exchange programs offer portals between worlds by facilitating further opportunities for translation. Utilizing emerging technologies (such as Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR)) within cultural exchange programs enhances capabilities for connecting cultures around the globe, changing how technology reaches people. This session will link students, teachers, and administrators within ecosystems of global communities, universities, and industries through a range of immersion-driven topics. Participants can expect live demos using VR and AR technologies, Immersive Pedagogical Strategies, DIY Interdisciplinary Research Cultures, Pragmatic Budgeting Approaches, and more.

As evidenced by our 2017 session, many program leaders, advisors, and site directors feel ill-informed about the ramifications of students' use of dating apps while abroad and ill-equipped to address the challenges and uncertainty this phenomenon presents. Our findings also called into question some assumptions about how and why students use dating apps while abroad. For this sequel session, we will build on our original research, presenting more qualitative data, including case studies. Through discussion, we will more deeply explore student motivations and the effects of dating app use while abroad, as well as examine new trends and latest best practices.

View a summary of last year's Swiped Out session.

Universities and third-party providers consistently list making study abroad more inclusive and accessible as one of their top priorities. As a community, we are making great strides when it comes to certain minorities and special interest groups. However, en bloc, study abroad programs are still largely inaccessible to deaf and hard of hearing (deaf/hoh) students. How can we leverage technological and legal resources - in both the U.S. and host country - to support deaf/hoh students abroad? Participants attending this session will leave with the ability to advise deaf/hoh students on their journey abroad and ensure programs are adequately adjusted to meet their needs.

For faculty across the globe, new pedagogies are both exciting and intimidating. Instructional innovations such as live polling, flipped lectures, backward design, and peer learning are well-suited for globally-mobile and tech-savvy Generation Z students, yet professors rarely have the opportunity to experiment with these techniques in order to determine which may best support their course goals. This session will serve as a professional development opportunity for study abroad instructors and provide dedicated time for practicing active learning strategies, thereby empowering educators to use these tools in their own classrooms.

This session explores the educational benefits of a transdisciplinary approach within student cohort and curriculum for study abroad. Through a partnership with faculty from the University of South Florida College of Public Health and College of Nursing, University of Exeter Medical School in England, and CIEE, an innovative model was developed to encompass a global approach from pre-departure, to onsite experience, to post-program student reflections. Essentially, this program expanded the timeframe for international exchange beyond in-country experiences to encompass active learning as a holistic process before, during, and after departure.

This session offers an overview of the theoretical importance of establishing values for study abroad programs, as well as specific applications of the discernment process. You will learn how to use these values to drive program curriculum development and strategies for effective marketing and recruitment.

How can we foster a critical understanding of global citizenship through intentional and scaffolded courses in the core curriculum and study abroad offices? In this session we will offer an outline of the Elon model, which seeks to foster critical examination of the meaning and role of Global Citizens in the interdisciplinary first year seminar, through study abroad courses (one of 5 Experiential Learning experiences), and finally in the Core Capstone taken during their third or fourth year of study.

How are we, as study abroad professionals, preparing students to study in non-traditional locations with less-developed technological access? Join us and learn about the phenomenon of “technology culture shock” as it relates to Gen Z - often referred to as the generation that is “all technology all the time.” We will first examine Gen Z’s use of technology abroad, and then outline opportunities for study abroad professionals to better prepare and manage the expectations of these students as they pursue international education in countries that have technological challenges.

This session focuses specifically on students raised in the U.S. with exposure to their family’s native language (“heritage speakers”) who study abroad in a country where that language is widely spoken. The experiences and needs of these heritage speakers can differ quite substantially from those of second language learners, including issues related to stigmatized features of their linguistic varieties and their identities as bilingual, bicultural individuals in the U.S. After a brief overview of the increasing population of U.S. heritage speakers studying abroad, two presenters will discuss Spanish programs and one will focus on Chinese, with the aim of maximizing study abroad benefits for this diverse population.

Research of student intercultural engagement has focused primarily on translingual and transcultural acquisition; far less attention has been paid to sojourners’ emotional experiences in unfamiliar lingual environments. This presentation will document our use of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence Mood Meter app to examine an eight-week, team-taught course in Spanish language and culture in Bilbao, Spain. We will present the emotional meter data, how emotions are associated with intercultural experiences, and document the relationship between day-to-day experiences and long-term change.

This session presents a strategy for integrating multiple disciplinary perspectives into the international studies curriculum. It follows the model introduced in Crossing Borders: International Studies for the 21st Century (Harry I. Chernotsky and Heidi H. Hobbs, CQ Press, SAGE Publications, 2018, 3rd edition). It suggests four analytical themes that might frame the curriculum and ways to apply them through case briefs. It also features a group activity, Our Global Village, that emphasizes the idea of global citizenship. The session offers a blend of substantive material and hands-on guidance and speaks directly to the challenge of encouraging collaborations between international offices and faculty engaged in campus internationalization initiatives.

In this session, we’ll problematize processes and outcomes related to the experience of planning a study abroad program (Saldaña, 2012) to increase student consciousness about the impact of their travel on the host country. Participants will discover ways to create programs where students critically analyze their experiences in a relevant and meaningful way; one that leads to increased understanding of the self (as an individual and representative of their societies) and “Others” (Delpit, 2006).

This session is for study abroad administrators seeking to add an academic component to their global internship programs, potentially through online or hybrid delivery. Global internships are a popular way to help students prepare for the changing world of work. Using CIEE and University of California Berkeley’s Global Internship programs as case studies, we will explore how to add an academic component to internships to support students’ learning while giving them the opportunity to receive academic credit and financial aid.

This panel offers multiple strategies, through varied disciplines, for expanding international education on campuses. Helen Myers (Dance) will discuss the value of “bringing the world to campus” with invited global artists and scholars. Carmen S. Rivera (World Languages) will present a strategy that prepares students for study abroad using preliminary “mini courses.” Jeanette McVicker (English) will explain how she “mapped” London to highlight critical locations that would serve as the backdrop for exploring literary and national identity. Paul Murphy (Music) will offer a model for international education centered on direct, extended engagement with persons from less-developed locations.

The pertinent and sensitive challenges of policing are concurrently global and local for many students, requiring study abroad leaders to consider student demographic and subjective position when choosing a study abroad location. Join us as we examine actual study abroad programs in London, Belfast, and Cape Town and show how an interdisciplinary focus on policing connects studies of peace and conflict, global citizenship, and social justice. We’ll also review how policing provides an insightful reflective learning opportunity whereby minority and majority demographic students can draw critical and nuanced parallels between policing in the UK, policing in South Africa, and policing in the U.S.

This session will focus on how our assessment of student experiences abroad has evolved from a narrative-driven, subjectively assessed reflective process to a hybrid that entails both subjective assessment and objective analysis of textual emphasis and trends. This novel approach enables us to promote meaningful student reflection, while using systemic analysis to create a feedback loop that will continue to enhance our students' experiences abroad.

Study abroad provides an opportunity for self-exploration and intercultural awareness. Navigating a new environment and experiencing a new culture fosters a sense of globalization and a love for travel. Unfortunately, many minority students have only a passing knowledge of other cultures based on direct contact, while their counterparts immerse themselves in other languages and cultures through study abroad programs. This session will provide innovative ways to create a more inclusive environment in order to increase the number of underrepresented students that engage in study abroad.

The question is not if an undergraduate student will encounter a challenge in an internship placement, but rather how they will lean into that adaptive trial where there are no easy answers. This session will focus on a successful partnership between the University of Minnesota and the Academic Internship Council where students enroll in an 8-week, 3-credit course that includes a 6-week internship in NYC. This innovative program model leverages technology platforms such as Moodle, Flipgrid, and online discussion forums to support students in pre-departure expectation setting, onsite challenges, as well as unpacking the experience following their return to campus.

In recent years, there has arisen a rich literature of ethical inquiries about service-learning as practiced in international contexts. A relatively underexplored area has been the practice of transnational service-learning: programs in which students engage in comparative service-learning with domestic and international community partners within the same program. In this panel, three representatives from the University of Michigan will present an experimental approach to transnational service-learning, co-located in Detroit, Michigan and Ishinomaki, Japan.

Through Tulane University’s Altman Program in International Studies and Business, students earn degrees in both liberal arts and business, gain professional-level fluency in a foreign language, and undertake two study abroad experiences. A cornerstone experience of the Altman Program is month-long study abroad in Hanoi, Vietnam, which includes a short-term service experience in remote Mai Chau. In this session, we’ll use this service project as a case study to better equip study abroad directors with the tools necessary to maximize student efficacy, enhance intra- and interpersonal benefits, and encourage student adaptability and team-based collaboration during short-term international service projects.

The emerging trend to internationalize the curriculum and produce “global citizens” has placed great emphasis on developing our students’ intercultural competence. In the field of study abroad, this often means shifting perspectives between U.S. and host country “national” cultural frameworks. Join us as we explore ways to help students reflect on their cultural communities and power and privilege vis a vis their host communities by applying techniques of ethnography and cultural studies.

How can professors help college students become co-producers of their own learning experience, to not only deepen understanding of course materials, but to hone critical thinking and sharpen skills employers want? Furthermore, how can academic technology further enhance education to promote multinational experiential learning opportunities? In this session, participants will look at a UK-Italy cross-border module designed for an elective in CAPA and the University of Pittsburgh’s Global Business Institute, and discover how this innovative exercise interweaves traditional teaching methods with technology-assisted simulation, so students can step into the role of business professional and collaborate with colleagues across borders.

This session focuses on the role of compassion in study abroad. First, we’ll offer a working definition of compassion that lends itself to the design and delivery of curriculum. Once we have a clear understanding of the transformative potential of compassion as a skill to be developed and practiced in intentionally designed, experiential learning, we’ll discuss templates for embedding compassion-focused learning in study abroad before, during, and after the study abroad experience. Finally, we’ll offer frameworks for conducting compassion-learning activities both in person and online, and rubrics for assessing student work.

In spite of institutional and governmental campaigns, the international education community struggles to achieve even representative participation in global programming. In this session, we will make the case that in order to grow and diversify participation in education abroad, offices need to use data to rethink their relationship with students and their role within the academic institution.

Preparing students to go abroad is a regular rite of passage for study abroad offices, but our content and delivery must align with the way today's students consume information. In this session we’ll look at the ways study abroad offices engage increasingly diverse Gen Z, smartphone-savvy, hashtag-happy students. In addition, we’ll discuss innovative uses of online learning platforms that can help study abroad offices better adapt to an evolving higher education landscape and allow students to self-pace their information exploration. This session challenges the way we think about pre-departure orientation, uses a design thinking approach to identify student needs, and provides a framework to "upload" your orientation into the #digitalage.

Digital interfaces are challenging geopolitical boundaries. How can we leverage these digital resources to address “Diaspora Divide” and the ways in which Black people and the African Diaspora remain disconnected? Historically divided by colonialism and slavery, Black diasporic groups have further embraced these multilayered divisions in contemporary times. This panel features scholar-practitioners committed to helping educators learn about diasporic communities. With the help of experts in African diasporic education and international education peers, participants will identify ways to implement and sustain culturally responsive practices in schools and develop strategies for making today’s classrooms inclusive and globally aware spaces.