By Robin Matross Helms
A few years ago my former ACE colleague Barbara Hill coined the following definition of internationalization: globalization is the movement of people, ideas, goods, capital, services, pollution, and diseases across borders, and internationalization is higher education’s engagement with that reality.
Diseases, indeed. And we certainly are engaged with that reality.
For the last four years or so, the international education field has been grappling with a political landscape that unquestionably has had tangible impacts on our work—travel bans, visa restrictions, and an overall need to justify our work to audiences on campus, in our local communities, and beyond. These challenges are by no means limited to the United States—as Philip G. Atlbach, Hans de Wit, and many others have written, the rise of nationalism in many countries and contexts is changing the state of play for international education around the world.
So we’ve adapted. We’ve learned to be creative in our messaging. We’re seeing the need to view internationalization not as an end in itself, but as a means to achieving the broader missions and goals of our institutions, serving our communities, and—as we discussed at the recent ACE/AIEA Internationalization Collaborative meeting—contributing to the greater global social good. In my blog post last spring, “Going, Golden, Gone: Internationalization’s Past, Present, and Future,” I tried to balance acknowledging our challenges with expressing cautious optimism about the future and applauding the grit and commitment of the professionals in our field. We’ve kept at it—students going back and forth, partnerships flourishing, and global learning still happening.
And then came coronavirus.
While policies and rhetoric may have slowed us down, it’s a virus—perhaps the ultimate manifestation of the downside of globalization—that is stopping us in our tracks. Campuses are closed, study abroad programs have been canceled, and research conferences are in question. Like many colleagues, I’m wondering about my own spring travel—tickets and hotels are booked for Amsterdam and Brasília, but who knows if I’ll actually end up getting on the plane.
But what about student global learning? Coronavirus, ironically enough, illustrates exactly why we need internationalization—we need students who understand global phenomena, can see xenophobic and culture-bound reactions for what they are, and are prepared to work with colleagues around the world to address global crises in the short term, and contribute to long-term solutions through research and the advancement of knowledge.
Study abroad, bringing international students to campus, and developing international partnerships have long been seen as the primary (and best) way to get our students ready for a globalized world. This is reflected in ACE’s 2017 Mapping Internationalization on U.S. Campuses study, which identified the top priority activities for internationalization among U.S. colleges and universities:
The current damper on international mobility is unfortunate, to be sure. But here’s the good news: the most powerful lever for student global learning is not moving people back and forth. It’s what’s happening on our own campuses—namely, our efforts to internationalize the curriculum and co-curriculum, and how we engage our faculty.
Many of us in the field have been saying this for a while. But I have concrete, quantitative data to back it up.
ACE’s Mapping study asks administrators to identify their institutions’ internationalization efforts and activities. The National Survey on Student Engagement’s (NSSE) optional global learning module asks students to identify their own activities and what they have learned. Three years ago, I partnered with NSSE’s Jillian Kinzie to do joint analysis of the data from 56 institutions that had completed both the NSSE global module and the Mapping study. Our goal was to explore the relationship between what institutions say they are doing in terms of internationalization and what students at those same institutions say they are experiencing and learning.
In other words, what institutional efforts are most effective in producing student global learning? The crack team of analysts and NSSE did a rigorous round of number crunching, the details of which we’ll have to wait to explain when we get around to writing the journal article.
There are a variety of caveats to be made about causality, but the results are striking. The punchline: what actually drives student global learning are curriculum internationalization and engaging faculty. When we look at the six pillars of ACE’s Model for Comprehensive Internationalization, the pillars that make the biggest difference in producing student global learning—as reported by students—are “curriculum, co-curriculum, and learning outcomes,” and “faculty policies and practices”:
The six broad categories along the bottom are a composite of indicators from the Mapping study. “Curriculum” includes questions about requirements for students to take globally focused courses and foreign languages, whether there are global learning outcomes specified, and what types of internationally focused co-curricular programs are offered. “Faculty” includes policy-related questions (hiring, tenure, and promotion) as well as whether professional development opportunities are available. There is a positive relationship between investing in curriculum internationalization and student global learning gains, and between faculty policies and practices and global learning gains.
The latter is particularly interesting. Rewarding and incentivizing faculty—policies that seem, at face value, fairly removed from the student experience actually have the greatest impact on student learning. Notably more so than sending students abroad, for example, which is the locus of our current worry.
So, what to do with this information in light of coronavirus?
In the immediate term, we are, warranted or not, in crisis mode. We’re scrambling to assess risks and make sound decisions for our students and our campuses. We need to heed CDC guidance as it emerges, and for many of us, our time and energy are consumed by these tasks. At ACE, we’re working on compiling resources and considering how best to support your efforts—we’ll be housing content and convening discussions on the ACE Engage platform. Stay tuned for more information shortly.
But as the dust settles, we need to be sure we don’t lose sight of student learning. The entire coronavirus situation is a huge potential global learning moment for our students—it touches biology, medicine, cultural studies, communications, public health, politics, policy, and an array of other fields. Encouraging our faculty to incorporate related content into their courses and collaborate with colleagues to provide integrated learning opportunities for students would be a great place to start. Imagine a jointly taught special-edition class session comparing the physical spread of a virus (biology) and the word-of-mouth spread of information (communications).
In addition to promoting immediate subject-related learning, for some campuses, now might be the right time to get serious about Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). Who better to involve in virtual exchange than a cadre of students who had intended to be abroad this semester, but are now back in our classrooms and eager for global learning? And beyond COIL, there are projects large and small in the curriculum/co-curriculum and faculty realms that we might tackle. How about connecting with the student affairs team to develop a series of residence hall discussions on international issues? Or going further—beginning the process of modifying general education requirements or tenure and promotion policies to include global components?
No doubt about it—coronavirus is a blow. But let’s be sure we and our students find the global learning opportunities inherent in the current situation. And if our trips abroad are canceled, let’s use this found time to our advantage to double down on campus projects. Who knows, maybe I’ll even get that article written.
Lindsey Myers
“But as the dust settles, we need to be sure we don’t lose sight of student learning.” That’s the crux of it! I appreciate the pragmatic approach you took here, focusing on the pandemic as a teachable moment. My mind is spinning with possibilities for contextualizing and integrating general education curricula around this transdisciplinary theme. Creating learning communities of linked courses around complex social problems like coronavirus serves to contextualize, integrate, and render meaningful general education courses that can feel disjointed and irrelevant to learners. Redesigning curricula in this way also creates a logical space in which to incorporate career-relevant skills. In addition to improving the student learning experience, it’s also worth noting the potential for such efforts to provide faculty with opportunities to refine our craft, as well as actually pointing to measures to address the wicked problems our global society faces.
Mark Hertlein
This is an excellent article Robin.
Lucia Greve
Excellent article! This is the perfect time to highlight that this coronavirus situation is a huge potential global learning moment for all of us!
Robert Schultz
I very much appreciate the quantitative data supporting the “front line” impact on global/internationalization provided by faculty and the curriculum. My experience has been that faculty who engage with others from the perspective of “we learn the most from people least like us” and do it with care and panache provide the human touch so needed to bridge cultural and societal beliefs and assumptions.
Thank you, Robin, for providing a powerful tool (based on evidence beyond my anecdotal experiences!) to use to further the approach of implementing global/internationalization initiatives close to home rather than relying on study away program development. Hooray for you!
Robin Helms
Thanks so much for this comment, Robert – you’re pointing out the bridge between global/international learning and broader intercultural learning – the point about learning the most from people least like us is such a good one. And a great direction to focus on as we keep this work going forward.
Mirjam Hauck
… thank you Robin. Not only is “moving back and forth” NOT the most powerful lever for student global learning, it also contributes to another challenge we need to address urgently:
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200108084344396
Robin Helms
Absolutely, Mirjam – such a great point. ACE’s Internationalization Collaborative in February, which now feels like a very long time ago, focused on the climate impact as well as other societal impacts (good and bad) of internationalization. I’ve been thinking about the environmental impacts of the COVID-19 crisis more broadly as well – e.g. we’re collectively driving a lot less, but I for one am using more disposable cups, paper towels, plastic bags etc. Important conversations on all this to come, I think. Thank you!
Leeanne Dunsmore
Well said Robin. Thank you for so clearly articulating, what many of us on the front lines of managing this disruption have been thinking. It gives us a valuable resource to share with our leadership as we plan ahead.
Robin Helms
Thanks Leeanne! We’re thinking about how best to support institutions in their internationalization work as we move through and past this crisis – looking forward to our continued work together.
Minghui (Hannah) Hou
Thank you Robin. It is great to see how can/will coronavirus shift international education in the near future. Thank you so much for providing the positive sides: How ca we react and how can higher education react. I’d love to see how will international education be shifted due to the global coronavirus.
Mackenzie Rehe
Coronavirus is obviously a big deal, but the media is definitely overplaying it to make it seem worse than it is and create widespread panic, which is not good for anyone. I think, like you mentioned, this is a great learning opportunity for students. Comparing the biology of the virus and the communication because of it. Now, many schools are closing or are moving to online classes for the next few weeks or remainder of the semester. I know from my experience in college, many of the older professors do not use the internet as much (like blackboard for schools) as other professors do. How do you think this is going to affect the learning of students who have professors like this who do not know how to use their school’s online community?
Mark A. Ashwill
Your comment is from 12 March and it’s now 30 March. Do you still think the media are “overplaying” COVID-19 now that the US has 142,178 confirmed cases and 2,484 deaths, as of this writing? Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has predicted that the total number of cases will be in the millions and the number of deaths in the low six figures. The view among many US Americans that the media are (were?) “overplaying” COVID-19, that it’s “just like the flu” or, for MAGA supporters, a “hoax,” is one of a number of reasons why Viet Nam, where I live, is doing a much better job of containing the coronavirus than the US. The government started to take it seriously in December, a month before the first cases. Today, Viet Nam has 194 cases (52 have recovered) and ZERO deaths. In case you’re counting, that’s fewer cases than in 42 states in a densely populated country of 97+ million. The US, under the official leadership of a malignant narcissist-in-chief who is clearly out of his intellectual and temperamental depth, wasted valuable time and missed the containment boat; it’s now all about mitigation – trying to catch a horse that left the barn a while ago.
Thomas Ochs
With the majority of institutions closing and utilizing online classes for their students, do you think that more students will be inclined to remain with online learning rather than to return to the traditional classroom environment?
Robin Helms
Thanks Thomas – what an interesting question. I think it also speaks to the question posed by Mackenzie above – just how fast can faculty ramp up their capacity on this, and will it shift mindsets and practices for the longer term. I can say for just myself, with the sudden shift to full-time telework, I’ve amped up my systems very quickly, and my team and I have made conversions to things like shared files in the cloud versus on a server that we should have made a long time ago. On the other hand, I think this is also highlighting for many of us that there is tremendous value in being together in person – whether on campus, or in terms of international mobility of students. My guess is that we’ll end up with a combination – we’ll be better at the distance piece and do it more – and more effectively – but I think we’ll also return to in person. Time will tell!
On the pivot to distance learning, we have a growing number of resources (including a recording of a webinar from a couple of weeks ago) available on the ACE Engage platform – engage.acenet.edu. You can sign up for free then join the conversation!
Raymond Terry, Sr. , Ph.D
Excellently stated and presented. The article is on time and on target in reference to insights provided.
Let all reading this article take heed through a change agent systemic perspective to develop and implement strategies which we collaboratively can enhance the learning experiences of students, the learning experiences of short term and long-term Global mentoring Initiatives.
Raymond T. Terry,Sr.
Coordinator Office of Global Health Initiatives
Morgan State University School of Community
Public Health and Policy
Robin Helms
Thanks so much, Raymond – and I think your point about systemic change is exactly right. In this moment we need to get ourselves through the immediate issues of the crisis, and perhaps this will be the catalyst we need to take on the broader culture shifts many of our campuses need in order to make global learning an integral part of every student’s experience and really how we do business. Let us know how ACE can support your work!
Krishna Bista
highly useful article! Thank you!
Robin Helms
Thanks Leeanne! We’re thinking about how best to support institutions in their internationalization work as we move through and past this crisis – looking forward to our continued work together.
Mark A. Ashwill
Nationalism is nothing new to the US. It has a long and bloodstained history. (If you believe that the US is “the greatest nation on earth,” you’re a nationalist.) Trump’s opponent in the 2016 election was/is a dyed-in-the-wool US nationalist (exhibit A: https://time.com/4474619/read-hillary-clinton-american-legion-speech/), as are most of its political leaders and a majority of its citizens. What’s new is a shift to nativism and a US president who actively promotes racism and xenophobia. FYI:
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20160317005217625 (This is something that “the profession”, at least in the US, does not want to talk about, for some of the reasons I mention.)
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20170116192441402
Daysi Rueda
Under the scenario of the covid19, the international international focused on the interaction and coexistence in different virtual academic spaces. The virtual intercultural learning will allow students to development of: multicultural skills, linguistic skills, positive attitudes towards diversity and learning scientific knowledge using digital tools to face the challenges of the contemporary world.
David
This is a great article. This COVID-19 has opened up new opportunities especially in e-learning and appreciation of e-learning platforms.