Presented by:
Scott Butler
Key Statement:
Mixed methods approaches are the key to understanding core outcomes and student success. Come to learn valuable lessons and strategies for your campus!
Keywords:
Assessment, Global, Core
Abstract:
In order to prepare students to confront the ongoing challenges of a globalized world, many institutions have incorporated global learning as curricular components of undergraduate education. The present workshop outlines efforts to assess an institution-wide global perspectives program within a liberal arts university. Using a mixed methods approach, the presenter surveyed student opinions regarding global attitudes and instructor performance, conducted focus groups with students, surveyed faculty online, and conducted on-on-one interviews with instructors. In addition to these findings, attendees will be given practical recommendations to design, implement, and evaluate similar programs as well as strategies for overcoming barriers.
Learning Outcomes:
1.Summarize the role of global learning in the core curriculum within liberal arts institutions.
2.Describe the benefits of using a variety of mixed methods assessment strategies for core initiatives.
3.Identify key recommendations for creating, implementing, and assessing, a campus-wide global learning program at your institution.
Hear it from the author:
TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to my presentation, I’m Dr. Scott Butler Professor of Public Health at Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville Georgia.
The title of my presentation is “Assessing Global Learning Using a Mixed Methods Approach.” Looking at the objectives and outcomes of my presentation I’m hoping to summarize the role of global learning in the core curriculum within liberal arts settings and describe the benefits of using mixed methods assessment methods. I’ve conducted a series of studies over the last seven years that are both quantitative and qualitative in nature and I believe that this method is highly beneficial in nature. I’m also going to identify key recommendations for creating, implementing, and assessing these programs.
Georgia College & State University has a program we call “GC2Y.” GC2Y is a sophomore-level global learning program. Basically, all students at Georgia College have to take a 4-credit, globally-based class. The course has to have an outside the class experience, is writing intensive, and is interdisciplinary.
As I’ve mentioned over the last seven years I have been evaluating the program. I’ve collected survey data from 354 students about their perspectives of the course, the course objectives, and faculty performance. I’ve also conducted, with my colleague, one-on-one interviews with 21 faculty who taught within the program. We’ve done four focus groups with students who have taken 18 different GC2Y courses, and we have done online surveys with 18 different faculty. We also created a year-long mentorship program.
Overall, the plan is to give you lessons learned from all of these different initiatives and talk about the challenges we’ve had, and successes that we’ve had including the role of faculty mentorship and the benefits of having a mixed methods assessment.
Looking forward to seeing you at the conference!
REFERENCES:
Association of American Colleges & Universities. (2008). College learning for the new global century. Washington, DC: AAC&U.
Butler, S. M., & Reinke, A. (2020). Global Perspectives in the Core: Student Attitudes and Instructor Performance. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 14(1), 4.
Doscher, S. & Landorf, H. (2018). Universal global learning, inclusive excellence, and higher education’s greater purposes. Peer Review 20(11), 4-7.
Reinke, A., & Butler, S. (2022). “It Seems Like a Chore”: A Qualitative Analysis of Faculty and Student Perceptions of Global Learning in the Core. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 22(4).