User Guide For Students:

Welcome to the Global Scholar Online Course!

This course has been developed by The Center for Global Education including information from students who have studied abroad, the staff who work with them in the U.S. and abroad, faculty who teach students abroad, and researchers in the field who have developed materials to help students like you through the process. You'll benefit from their experience by finding out tips and techniques to prepare for your adventure, how to cope with challenges that may arise while you're abroad, and how to make the most of your study abroad experience while you’re there and beyond.
 Along with content developed by the Center, we have shared some of the best material in the field, including some resources from What’s Up With Culture? , School of International Studies, University of the Pacific, Bruce La Brack, ed. (2003), funding by FIPSE, U.S. Department of Education and Maximizing Study Abroad: A Students' Guide to Strategies for Language and Culture Learning and Use by Paige, R. M., Cohen, A. D., Lassegard, J., Chi, J. C., & Kappler, B. (2002)with permission from the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) at the University of Minnesota. We hope that you delve deeper into these and other materials as you go through this course to begin your process to become A Global Scholar.

There are three separate sections of the course, designed to be of help to you depending on what stage of the study abroad journey you are in:

Course 1: Before you leave

Course 1 is for students who are in the pre-study abroad stage, whether you are thinking about study abroad, searching for a program, or preparing for departure. This course provides you the opportunity to determine your goals for study abroad, know how to search for the program that is best for you, learn what documents you need, and prepare for cross-cultural and language learning.

Course 2: While You’re Abroad

Course 2 is for students who are already abroad on their study abroad program. Whether you have just arrived overseas, are well into your program, or are getting ready to return home, this course will give you the tools to make the most of your experience abroad! You will find out how to cope with challenges that may arise while you're abroad, how you can take care of things you may not have prepared for, and how to get ready for your return home.

Course 3: Once You Return

Course 3is for students who have returned home after their study abroad program. Here you will find tips and techniques to help you with your return home, how to cope with the issues that may arise after you return, and how to continue the learning. This course provides you with the opportunity to continue with reflections on the foreign experience, on the odd, sometimes painful and unexpected process of cultural re-adaptation, on the integration of your intense international experiences with your current intellectual and emotional lives, and on where you go from here personally and in your career preparation. It provides you the opportunity to continue the cross-cultural learning process, to make better sense of your experiences abroad, and to further refine your skills in cross-cultural observation, adaptation, and communication.

Course Components

Completing Assignments

An important part of the Global Scholar Course is answering questions for reflection and doing research to prepare for, make the most of, and make sense of your experience. Not only will you be completing these exercises individually, but you will also be interacting with other students who are on similar journeys as well as administrators and others whose knowledge and experience can be of use to you. Through your individual work and group interactions, we hope that you will gain insight into your experience and help others along the way.

Individual Reflection: Your Information Log (Info Log):

Throughout this course you will be asked to record your thoughts, feelings, opinions, and research in an Information Log (Info Log) for later reference. Your Info Log is a place where you can save your Global Scholar coursework for later reference. You are welcome to add any personal reflections or information which you find helpful. How and where you record this information can vary and is up to your own preferences as well as what framework you are completing the course in. You may feel more comfortable with certain ways to record information than others; perhaps you already keep a personal journal and would like to use that, or maybe posting the information as part of your blog or website is best for you. Students can use the Global Scholar course with different levels of structure; you may be completing this course through your home institution, study abroad provider, independently, or within a different framework, with varying levels of support. While your Info Log can be in whatever format you wish, if you are completing the course within an organized framework your course moderator may require your Info Log to be in a particular format.

Here are some suggestions to help you decide on what format your own Info Log will follow:

1.) Traditional Written Format
         a.  Write in a Journal or on paper that you bind together.
         b. Write on your computer using a program like Microsoft Word and print out your work as you complete the exercises, then print out your work. Keep all papers together in a folder.
 
2.)Independent On-Line Tools
         a.  Your Blog: You can click on this convenient link to take you to the Blogger homepage. There you can create a blog if you do not already have one.
         b. Your Website: You can dedicate your website to your study abroad experience, or you can make a separate section for your experience.

3) Community forums
         a.  Facebook Account or equivalent: You can create an account with one such provider and be able to post your thoughts and learnings using the site. Facebook now allows you to interact with students from other universities. Using their search tool, type in keywords such as ‘study abroad’ or the name of your host country, and choose ‘all networks’ from the drop-down menu.

4)  On-Campus or Study Abroad Program Forum
         a.  Your class or content may be hosted on-campus
         b.  Your class or content may be hosted by your study abroad provider
         c.   Your online course may be framed using Blackboard or Web CT and moderated by an administrator             
 
5)  Hybrid:  Part Personal – Part Structured
         a. You may be required or comfortable with posting certain things for public viewing, while choosing to record other things in your personal journal.

However you decide to set up your Info Log, it is important to record your thoughts, learnings, and experiences in order to be able to reflect on your process for later learning.

Interaction With Others ( Interaction )

You are not alone in your journey! There are many other students who are also planning, are abroad now, or returning from an experience abroad, as well as administrators and others who can also share their own experience. In various parts of the course, you will be asked to look at information and/or reflections that others have gathered, whether it be searching for other students’ Info Logs or blogs, websites, or postings in general. Depending on what framework you are taking the course in, you will be able to choose how you would like to interact with others. For example, you may search for blogs or websites of other students who are currently studying abroad, or, if you are taking the course through your campus or study abroad provider, you may be directed to search through a special website or blog page they have set up for students of the course to interact with one another. It is important to remember that other students can be looking at your Info Log and find it helpful to their own process.

Some suggestions for interacting with others (Interaction) include:

1). Searching for other's blogs: There are many sites where people post their blogs. Using their search tools, try searching on keywords such as Study Abroad, or type the name of the country you're traveling to. Some good sites to start your search are:

                        -http://facebook.com 
                        -http://blogger.com
                        -http://blogsearch.google.com
                        -http://myspace.com
                        -http://toadfire.com
                        -http://blogstream.com

2). Searching other people’s websites: Upon doing an internet search using keywords such as ‘Study Abroad’ or the country you will be studying in, you can find peoples’ personal websites where they may be discussing topics of interest to you, posting personal stories, and submitting pictures of their experience.

 3). Forums: If you are using this course through your campus or study abroad provider and it is in a structured format, you will likely have forums for students taking part in the course to discuss different issues concerning study abroad.

 4.) Newsgroups: Newsgroups are a way for people to connect and interact with each other in a question/answer format. Different from a blog, where people post thoughts for public view, newsgroups aim for people to respond, answer, and comment. To search a newsgroup, you can start at one of these sites, using their search tools to search for groups relating to study abroad. Try using keywords such as Study Abroad, or Traveling :

                        -http://groups.yahoo.com/
                        -http://groups.google.com/

  The goal of this course is to guide you, the future study abroad student to utilize resources on study abroad programs, finances, health/safety, culture and world affairs to build your own Study-Abroad plan.

The plan will be built as you go through each module. The plan can be exported to show parents, friends, teachers, and other students.

Each module will contain several components. Each component will have instructions and resources (like a selection of supporting articles, web links, and text to choose from) for you to create a product like a Profile, List, Essay, etc.

Or, the component will have instructions and resources to help you formulate a thought on a concept such as cultural distinctions, and express that thought in a short essay or through interaction with others. Occasionally, material will be presented with a standard multiple choice/true-false quiz to assess understanding.

If you've traveled before, you'll have opportunities throughout the course to contribute your ideas so that other students may benefit from your experience.

You will be given tasks throughout the course which may include articles to read, quizzes, or questions for reflection. For a detailed description of the tasks and resources, please see the Syllabus.

to go back the page you just viewed, click the Back button on your browser. Use this method throughout the course. Another way to navigate backwards is to click on the each individual task or module link in the navigation bar. When we include external links to websites, a new window will generally open outside of our site.