CIEE Conference 2013: Align . Innovate. Educate… Credit Wars:

1. CIEE Conference 2013: Align. Innovate. Educate…Credit Wars: Curricular Integration and Dis-Integration in Study Abroad Programming Chair: Thomas Bogenschild, Vanderbilt University Presenters: Kathleen Opel, University of Notre Dame Kristi Hubbard, Emory University

2. Vanderbilt Study Abroad Overview (credit-bearing) • 745 outbound in 2012 • 46.4% of all graduates • 28% on short-term programs (4 weeks/less) • 120+ options approved by 4 undergraduate colleges • Third party provider • Proprietary fixed site • Faculty-led short term • Leaves of Absence • Hybrid • Direct enroll • Exchange • Proprietary extended curriculum (VISAGE)

3. Geographic and Gender Distribution, 2010-11

4. Program Approval Process • Four undergraduate schools/colleges • Blair School of Music • School of Engineering • Peabody College of Education • College of Arts & Science • Each college has its own approval process ranging from informal to a 2 year multi-committee process • Most SA Programs managed by Global Education Office – reporting to Provost but not directly involved in approvals process • GEO assesses college approvals and makes recommendation to Provost, for final approval • LOAs and Faculty-Led Short Term programs managed by Associate Deans in 4 colleges

5. The “One University” Principle: Programs approved by one college open to students from all colleges • Approved status determines eligibility for Financial Aid, Direct Enrollment (all study abroad courses and grades appear on Vanderbilt transcript) • Program approvals @ collegiate level do not imply approval or credit determinations for any specific course or curriculum abroad • SA courses may not be cross-listed across more than one department • Every course taken abroad is directly evaluated by faculty members in corresponding departments* (generally the Directors of Undergraduate Study (DUS); the process is coordinated by GEO

6. Access to existing course approvals

7. Approvals and Credits: Process

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10. Student Interests Institutional Interests • Value added • Experiences unattainable on campus • Exposure to different pedagogies and perspectives • Academic integrity of SA experience • SA Credits fulfill institutional requirements • Core requirements • Disciplinary requirements • (requires confidence in Program Approvals process) • Academic integrity • Faculty program approvals • Direct transcripting • No P/F option as on campus • Faculty review of all coursework • Conformity to established degree pathways • Institutional Branding • Departmental Branding Harmonies of interest?

11. The Theory of Course Assessments

12. The Occasional Reality: Credit Wars

13. Presumptive challenges: the credit as weapon Course evaluations may be influenced by: • Ongoing dynamics between departmental faculty members (over methods, perspectives, ideologies, manners, etc.) • Clashes of pedagogical or theoretical orientations between colleges and divisions • Unfamiliarity with foreign pedagogical systems • Pressures to make SA experience conform to established academic pathways on the home campus • Economic pressures to maintain on-campus enrollments or to ‘encourage’ students to attend proprietary programs over other forms of SA • Institutional heliocentrism (why would anyone take courses outside of this, the best institution in the entire world/universe?)

14. Examples and challenges • ‘Not this department’ • We don’t ‘do’ this sort of psychology • European Banking is not a Financial Management course, but an Economics course • This geography course is Earth Sciences • This geography course is Anthropology 2) ‘No major or minor credit’ – general credit only 1) We teach the same course in our proprietary program and need to protect our enrollments 2) This course falls outside of the established curriculum pathway in our department (our courses) as clearly outlined in the Student Handbook (or not) 3) ‘Weencourage international engagement in core courses, but only 1 of 3 general ed requirements can be earned abroad’ 1) The breadth and depth of our foreign language and international study course offerings is more than adequate for any student 2) My on-campus course is better than your experiential learning course

16. Vanderbilt Creative Solutions • Streamline and try to control evaluation processes at the program and curricular level • Make students aware of the process and dangers inherent in the system • Educate, educate, educate! • E.g. faculty workshops for DUS faculty • Push for faculty engagement in 3PP programs/programming

17. Notre Dame Study Abroad Overview • Sponsors 40 academic year programs, 8 Summer Programs • direct enrollment • program providers • 2 proprietary programs • 3 hybrid --direct enroll and classes taught by our onsite faculty • 1266 undergrads outbound in 2012-13 • 717 students on OIS semester or yearlong programs • 189 on OIS 6-8 week summer programs • ~50 yearlong undergrads in Architecture • ~75 undergrads on 2 Engineering summer programs • Small number of undergrad faculty-led programs • Limited number of Leaves of Absence • Home school tuition  direct ND credit and abroad grades into ND GPA

18. Notre Dame Course Approval Process • NDI approves new programs with guidelines from Provost’s Office • Every course taken abroad must be approved by a home department and given a unique Notre Dame course number, e.g., HIST 34821 • Students supply advisors with a course approval form in advance of study and all approval forms go to OIS • Courses need not be an equivalent; new courses vetted to see how they will count

20. REGISTRATION REPORT ONLINE TRANSCRIPT Notre Dame Registration / Transcript

21. Notre Dame Challenges • Few options for students who are not accepted into ND-sponsored program • Creating new numbers for every new course taken by a student abroad • Course approvals when there is no departmental “home” • Languages not taught at ND • Courses outside our disciplines, e.g., geography, veterinary science, food science, etc. • Dealing with perceptions that courses taken abroad are not as good as home campus • Where to situate survey classes that don’t have enough history to be a history class; not enough sociology to be a soc class, etc.

22. Why We Need Unique Course Numbers…. Graduation Progress System

23. Notre Dame Creative Solutions • Get an A&L generic # for a general elective course • Request that Department assign a special topics number • Add attributes to courses to make them readable to the GPS • Add a Development staff member to build donations around international efforts

24. Searchable International Course Database

25. Course Details from Database

26. Emory Study Abroad Overview • Approved semester program list – approx. 100 programs, including direct enrollment options, program providers, and 3 of our own programs • Approximately 300 students abroad during Fall & Spring semesters each year (400 on faculty-led summer programs) = 40% of Emory College of Liberal Arts & Sciences students • Home school tuition  direct Emory credit and abroad grades into Emory GPA

27. Emory Course Approval Process • Education Abroad Committee (part of faculty governance) approves programs and Departmental Faculty Study Abroad Reps approve individual courses from abroad • Students have to obtain an Emory equivalent for each abroad course (no equivalent = no credit  F grade) • Blanket approved courses (only certain departments) • Pre-approvals • On-site approvals via email during add/drop period • Students go directly to the designated person in the department; the SAO only gets involved if problems

28. Academic Course Plan

29. Blanket Approved Course Database

30. Registration Screen Shot Transcript Processed Screen Shot Emory Registration / Transcript

31. Emory Challenges & Creative Solutions • Credit and grade translation memos • Language approvals: • For languages not taught at Emory • Worthy of credit, but not part of Emory language sequence • “Special Topics Abroad” courses