School of Business and Technology

""As more guided study abroad interventions move online, and into a collaborative format, it is important to examine the influence of students’ social interactions as related to their intercultural development and experiences in the interventions, as well as understand which variables influenced the success of an intervention.  The purpose of this study was to identify factors that influenced students’ intercultural development and experiences in a collaborative online international learning pre-departure study abroad intervention.  To explore these questions I designed a collaborative online international learning intervention for pre-departure study abroad students. 

Pre-departure U.S. study abroad students going abroad and international students coming to study abroad in the U.S. attended an online, collaborative seminar together over the course of six weeks in the fall and five weeks in the spring.  Garrison et al.’s (2000) Community of Inquiry model influenced the seminar design and data analysis.  A mixed-methods approach was used to gather data needed to study the intervention outcomes.  Data was obtained from: (1) a needs assessment; (2) pre and post IDI® scores from intervention and comparison groups; (3) focus groups; and (4) online discussions.  The three forms of data analysis used in this study, the IDI®, Community of Inquiry framework, and phenomenological review of participants’ text, provided a layered understanding of the research questions.  Data analysis suggested that designing sustaining a successful Community of Inquiry, and a successful online collaborative learning environment, is not without its challenges.  This research demonstrated several technical and social challenges of building a Community of Inquiry and how a redesign of an intervention can influence outcomes.  Several challenges of collaborative learning and creating online communities identified in CSCL research were also apparent in this study.  Overall, this study underscored several variables that influence learning outcomes and experiences within a collaborative online international learning intervention.  ""

Job automation, digitization, and increased global competition all suggest shifts in the economy and the nature of work.  Indeed, in a survey conducted by management consulting firm McKinsey and Company, 66 percent of global executives regarded reskilling or upskilling their employees as a major priority, yet only 16 percent felt ready to address such a challenge. Beyond general market shifts, employers believe that graduates have not been well prepared to achieve the learning outcomes valued in their workforces. Universities that leverage a combination of high-impact practices (HIPs), such as collaborative projects, internships, undergraduate research, and global learning, create holistic learning environments for students, as well as provide tools for skills building and career readiness desired by employers. The traditional study abroad model may not cultivate all the needs of both the academy and the employer. Thus, universities must design programs that intentionally connect academic experiences with the 21st century skills that enhance employability, as well as provide guidance to assist students in actualizing and articulating these skillsets.

Chapter in The Guide to COIL Virtual Exchange: Implementing, Growing, and Sustaining Collaborative Online International Learning

Many, if not most, research universities worldwide have announced their support of internationalization and the outcomes attainable through this course of action; yet, collaborative online international learning (COIL) as a means to realize such outcomes is underutilized (Wit & Merkx, 2012; Sterns, 2009; & Hemsley-Brown & Goonawardana, 2006; Whitehead, 2015, Olson, Greene, & Hill, 2005; Green, 2005; Montgomery, 2009; Lantz-Deaton, 2017). Through case studies of institutions world-wide, this chapter explores why research universities may be slow to adopt COIL as part of their internationalization efforts. The authors identify broad challenges experienced by research designated and aspiring research institutions engaged in COIL initiative and examine the unique approaches taken to leverage opportunities for both implementation and institutionalization the pedagogy. An understanding of these promising practices will allow higher education administrators to effect increased utilization of COIL in their institutions’ internationalization efforts.

Intercultural competencies are often cited as essential 21st Century skills, yet there are no generally accepted standards or ways to show that students have attained these competences.  SUNY’s establishment of badges and milestones have created defined skill areas for global learning along with assessment criteria and characteristics that provide evidence of skill attainment.  Development of these badges involved community colleges, research universities and comprehensive colleges and universities across the SUNY system in an effort to develop global learning standards system-wide.  This session will address the rationale for developing badges for global learning at a system-wide level; the selection of specific intercultural skills to credentialize; development of assessment criteria and characteristics; how skill based global learning badges fit into institutional internationalization strategies; and how to ensure multiple pathways to earning these credentials so that students from every institutional type have the ability to achieve them.  Badges and their criteria and characteristics will be presented and discussed. As an additional way of recognizing the development intercultural competencies, the University at Albany confers a Global Distinction Milestone to undergraduate students in recognition of their successful completion of a structured set of integrated, intentional academic experiences that are distinctly global in scope and purpose. These milestones appear on the student’s transcript. The rationale for and process of developing this milestone will be discussed. These micro credentials can be scaled across institutions and can be replicated at other institutions and systems.

As university leaders develop strategic plans and commit to internationalization, campus staff and faculty are challenged to balance institutional goals with a changing global arena.  How can U.S. based Senior International Officers (SIOs) support and advocate for international education in these turbulent times?  Grounded in the “normal stuff,” this session provides an opportunity for early career SIOs to revisit the literature, and converse with leaders at various stages in their careers.  Participants will reflect upon their role in the institution, and begin to design a realistic internationalization strategy grounded in operational reality.

Co-presenter at the 2019 Association of International Education Administrators Meeting. San Francisco, CA

At the highest levels of leadership, across all major industry sectors, women are under-represented. Fortunately, the percentage of female SIOs is growing. Gender parity is fundamental to the success of societies, and higher education must play a vital role. Explore personal narratives of senior women leaders and share the driving and resisting forces that have affected your own leadership journeys, leading to a discussion about how we collectively can create a new path forward.  Presentation given at the Association of International Education Administrators conference, January 2019.

The purpose of this study was to identify factors that influenced the intercultural development of U.S. and international study abroad students and their experiences in a collaborative online international learning pre-departure study abroad intervention.  Garrison, Anderson, & Archer’s (2000) Community of Inquiry model influenced the seminar design and data analysis.  Data gathered included scores from Intercultural Development Inventories (IDI®), the Community of Inquiry framework, and a phenomenological review of participants’ text.  This research demonstrated several technical and social challenges of building a virtual exchange Community of Inquiry and how a redesign of the intervention can influence outcomes. 
Keywords: virtual exchange; collaborative online international learning; intercultural awareness; study abroad; Community of Inquiry; Intercultural Development Inventory®

The global Covid-19 health pandemic, which is striking the world hard at this moment of writing and which is having a huge impact on student mobility, forcefully drives home the limitations of this predominant mobility model of internationalization (World Health Organization, 2019; Martel, 2020; Leask & Green, 2020). In less than a month, universities worldwide underwent lockdown, pivoted to emergency online education delivery, restricted mobility and recalled their students home from abroad (Burquel & Busch, 2020; Martel, 2020). All educational and international education activities have been affected by this crisis, including international collaborations, student mobility and staff exchange, and other capacity building projects, and its effects will be long lasting (Burquel & Busch, 2020). In the spring of 2020, 88% of American institutions surveyed by the Institute of International Education (IIE) reported evacuating spring study abroad students and 81% of the total spring student abroad student population returned to the U.S. (Martel, 2020). Most survey respondents then cancelled their summer programs and institutions are now grappling with if student mobility should resume in the 2021 academic year, or at some other unforeseeable time. Indeed, experts postulate it will take at least five years for global student mobility rebounds, with lessened demand for an experience abroad if a global recession occurs (Marginson, 2020, as cited in Mitchell, 2020, para. 30; Martel, 2020). It is clear, as Hudzik (2020) asserts, COVID-19 has created a new normal to which institutions of higher education and international educators must adapt. "Globalization and internationalization are not going away, but neither will look 'tomorrow' as they did 'yesterday"' (Hudzik, 2020, para. 1). Similar to higher institutions as a whole, after addressing students' health and safety one of the main responses of international offices was to provide the remainder of spring study abroad students' international education experiences online, with plans to develop future in

Personalized evidence of the ability to apply these skills can be linked to the digital badge Allows students to customize their skills portfolio based on their career and personal goals Micro -credentials are trending in higher education Higher education in bite sizes: badges, certifications and the boom in 'microcredentialing'.

As more guided study abroad interventions move online and into a collaborative format, it is important to not only examine the influence of students’ social interactions as related to their intercultural development and experiences in the interventions, but also understand which variables influenced the success of an intervention. The purpose of this study was to identify factors that influenced students’ intercultural development and experiences in a collaborative online international learning pre-departure study abroad intervention. To explore these questions I designed a collaborative online international learning intervention for pre-departure study abroad students. Pre-departure U.S. study abroad students and international students coming to study abroad in the U.S. attended an online, collaborative seminar together over the course of six weeks in the fall and five weeks in the spring. Garrison et al.’s (2000) Community of Inquiry model influenced the seminar design and data an...

Study abroad participants need to receive guided education and training if they are to successfully navigate new cultures, as well as recognize and understand their own cultural beliefs and values as related to their experiences abroad. To address this need, some study abroad programs offer intercultural interventions before, during, or after the study abroad experience

Nanotechnology has been identified as an important new growth area for industry, government, and the education community, embraced by both the public and private sectors. Yet, an abiding impediment to its progress is the dearth of trained practitioners. Engineering teams composed of engineers, technologists, and technicians, typically support experimentation, fabrication, and testing in the nanotechnology arena. There are recognized shortages of these skill levels, and the problem threatens to become more acute as time goes on.

Starbuck’s Corporation, is a name that is known and recognized in every household in the United States and growing within international households. The company started from a small coffee bean importer, roaster and seller; and has grown to an international based coffee house. A growth that was not easily attainable or even sometimes sustainable when coupled with market conditions, competitors, and internal environments. This case study will analyze where Starbuck’s has been, current conditions, and its retransformation that it took in 2008 when back under the control and guidance of once CEO Howard Schultz.

Communication is at the heart of everything that we do as a person, employee, and manager. For a business, communication is also at the heart of how it functions and operates. Without communication, an individual cannot interact with another person, customer, employee, manager. A corporation, through its people, communicates internally and externally. With the need of communication throughout this global enterprise, it is the leadership at all levels that needs to ensure that the communication is effective and applied at a situational level. This paper will address how a manager’s choice and style of communication interact, and ultimately provide the means of leading through the Situational Leadership II Model by Ken Blanchard (Blanchard, Zigarmi, & Zigarmi, 2010).

Formative Classroom Assessment Techniques (CAT) have been well-established instructional tools in higher education since
their exposition in the late 1980s (Angelo & Cross, 1993). A large body of literature exists surrounding the strengths and
weaknesses of formative CATs. Simpson-Beck (2011) suggested insufficient quantitative evidence exists on the utility of CATs
for increasing the quality of student learning. Two quantitative studies by Simpson-Beck (2011) and Cottell and Harwood
(1998) indicated no such correlation. We suggest that these deficiencies as applied to adult non-traditional programs may be
due to a lack of rigor in the construction of many formative CATs, as well as a failure to properly match assessments to real
learning objectives. In this article, we propose a nine-step framework to facilitate proper selection of formative CATs with appropriate rigor and implementation in the classroom.