Over the last decade the number of students studying abroad has increased 150% to more than a quarter of a million. The programs in which these students participate are no longer seen as simply a campus extension of academic exercise, but as an overall educational experience that develops holistic life skills in the participants. Through their…

Foreign language proficiency and learning are crucial parts of many study abroad programs; especially those whose host culture language is different than that of the native language of students electing to study in them. Indeed, how a program organizes itself regarding pre-departure language proficiency requirements, on site language learning, and…

As international travel has become more commonplace and as the economies of the world have become more interdependent, both students and faculties are recognizing the importance of increasing students' ability to function effectively in a global community. Study abroad programs are seen by many as an effective means to provide students with the…

Short-term study tours are among the fastest growing of study abroad experiences and serve the largest percentage of students choosing to study abroad. Fifty-six percent of students studying abroad go on short-term study trips lasting anywhere from two to eight weeks. These trips have the advantage of being able to provide study travel experiences…

Students today are becoming more interested in international opportunities for study, and are drawn to alternative programs such as international service learning and international internships. These programs, however, must be carefully designed. In this paper, the authors propose using tools that go beyond the traditional understanding of…

Universal Design provides a framework to effectively increase the number of students studying abroad by creating and expanding supportive environments designed to meet a wide range of student needs. While the concept of Universal Design originated with the needs of students with disabilities, its value and application extend to a much wider…

Judging from the recent surge in research on outcomes assessment, many study abroad offices rely on quantitative surveys and measures to collect student outcomes data. This paper presents a multidimensional, qualitative approach to data collection. This approach makes qualitative data easy to collect and encourages students to reflect and…

One concern that merits the attention of the educational research community is the growing trend toward shorter study abroad programs. Study abroad offerings in which students have traditionally enrolled for academic credit were primarily either a semester or a year in length. The recent Open Doors (2005) report reveals that the growth of study…

One faces several challenges when designing an education abroad program. These include engaging non-traditional majors in study abroad experiences; facilitating learning activities that directly align with the learning goals of the courses; assessing specific learning outcomes; and finding ways to close the circle after the study abroad programs…

Study abroad is an expensive, resource intensive activity for both students and their home institution. With an estimated 200,000 American students studying abroad in 2006, and an annual growth rate of eight percent, program administrators and international scholars are increasingly being asked to document the learning outcomes associated with…

Northern Thailand is home to many hill tribes, who have lived for hundreds of years as subsistence farmers or nomadic hunters. In the 1940s, communist insurgencies drove many hill tribes from China, Burma, and other nations south into northern Thailand. Uprooted from their native lands, the hill tribes left behind ties to economic resources and,…

Over the past fifteen years, at least a dozen articles have appeared in the management and marketing literature describing and supporting international study tours as valuable educational experiences. These articles, however, have focused primarily on the design and implementation of such tours, with minimal emphasis given to outcome assessments…

The pressure on academic institutions to develop sustainable programs is felt both internally and externally. Owing to shrinking operating budgets, universities will only support programs that relate directly to their mission and that are financially viable. External expectations come from funding agencies that typically require institutions to be…

This article explores the identity changes that college students with learning disability (LD) and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) report after participating in a short-term study abroad program. The reflections of thirteen short-term study abroad participants, all of whom have been diagnosed with LD and/or AD/HD are presented.…

There are many untested, long-held assumptions within the field of study abroad concerning the impact of program elements such as study duration, language of instruction, program models, and student housing choices. One assumption embraced within the field is that direct enrollment (or full immersion) programs are more effective at achieving a…