Building Global Learning Communities: Developing a Tool Kit for International Course Alignment

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Grant Recipients

Elena Neiterman, School of Public Health and Health Systems

Karla Boluk, Recreation and Leisure Studies

Raushan Alibekova, Nazarbayev University

Hibah Sehar (Research Assistant)

Tierney Boyce (Research Assistant)

(Project timeline: September 2019 - August 2020)

Project Summary

The goal of this project was to examine students’ and instructors’ experiences with integrated curriculum design (ICD) to promote internationalization and enhance critical thinking. Specifically, we aligned a 3rd year undergraduate course offered at the School of Public Health and Health Systems at UW with a graduate course offered in the Master’ of Public Health Program at Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan. Students were able to cultivate local and international collaborations with fellow students and community partners, engage in peer-to-peer learning, and develop student-driven community engagement activities. Adopting Brookfield’s (2015) Critical Incident Questionnaire we examined (a) the benefits/challenges stemming from the implementation of an international ICD for fostering internationalization; and (b) the impact of this collaboration on students’ abilities to think critically about course material and external contexts. Upon completion of this project, we developed a tool kit for course internationalization that can be used by instructors across disciplines.

Project Goals

  1. Align a 3rd year undergraduate course in community engagement and public health offered at the University of Waterloo with a 1st year graduate course on principles of problem solving in public health offered at the Nazarbayev University
  2. Assess in what ways international course alignment can enhance students’ learning, critical thinking, and engagement with course material 
  3. Develop an instructor’s tool kit for international course alignment 

Project Outcomes

  1. Examine the appropriateness of an ICD for international course alignment
    1. How can it be effectively implemented by instructors?
    2. Does it enhance students’ learning and their ability to think critically? 
  2. Identify how does internationally aligned course enhance students’ learning experiences
    1. Do students demonstrate better engagement with the course material?
    2. What new knowledge they develop by communicating with students from abroad?
    3. Does it enhance students’ intercultural knowledge in community engagement and problem solving in public health?
  3.  Develop a tool kit for instructors that can be utilized for an international course alignment
    1. What steps are needed for developing an internationally aligned course?
    2. What challenges can be experienced and how these can be addressed? 

Findings & Insights

Goal 1: We established that ICD fits well with international course alignment. To align our courses, we (a) assigned our students a few similar topic/readings during the term, (b) established an online platform for peer discussion (WhatsApp), and (c) instructed students to work in groups on community engagement projects. We found that this initiative enhanced students’ learning and provided them an opportunity to think critically and to reflect on the role of public health in both countries. 

Goal 2: We used CIQs, students’ reflection papers, and semi-structured interviews with students at both sites to explore how course alignment shaped their engagement with the material and topics discussed. Students reported feeling excited about the opportunity to learn from their international peers. They were surprised to see some of the similarities in challenges faced by public health policy in both countries. Learning about the projects that their peers were working on, students were also able to critically reflect on the cultural context and structural constraints that shape public health practice in both sites. 

Goal 3: We developed a tool kit that outlines a step-by-step process for instructors interested in trying international course alignment. We also identified some of the challenges that arose from our experience and developed some strategies that can help the instructors to overcome these challenges.

References

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