Study Abroad Experience

Catalog description

One of the Student Learning Outcomes of our Spanish and French programs is "Intercultural Competence: Integrate knowledge, skills, and dispositions in an experiential, intercultural context." We assess this SLO through the Study Abroad semester required of all our Spanish and French majors during their junior year. In order to assess this SLO the students need to undertake a series of tasks that require them to write a statement of purpose before leaving, a reflection upon their return, and a series of diary entries while abroad (refer to shared materials). These materials are assessed through a rubric (see shared materials). Currently, these tasks are not credit-bearing and are not attached to any particular course. As a result, we can't link the assessment to any specific course in the curriculum map on TaskStream. In order to make these tasks a requirement for our majors and to be able to link them to a course in the curriculum map, the Registrar suggested creating this one-credit pass/fail "Study Abroad Experience" course as part of the requirements for the Study Abroad.