Internationalising Course Design

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This module addresses the role of educational developers in the development, embedding, and critical appraisal of intended international learning outcomes (IILOs) in the higher education curriculum. The module focuses on the constructive alignment of IILOs for Intercultural and Global Competences with teaching and learning activities and assessment.

The module begins with a reflective group exercise regarding the key concepts of constructive alignment and their implications for an internationalised course design. The concepts are taken forward in a series of interactive activities that guide the participants to develop an understanding of challenges, strategies and resources to support the formulation, mapping, and critical appraisal of IILOs in different courses or programmes of studies. Participants reflect on real-life teaching contexts by discussing an authentic video case study of a lecturer seeking support in aligning IILOs with her teaching and assessment activities.

The final part of the workshop provides participants with time for individual reflection on their experiences and challenges in their own context, as well as focusing on the support given to each other during the earlier activities. This sharing of experiences helps participants to develop an individual plan to make a positive impact on the internationalisation of course design within their own working practice.

In this way, the module integrates pedagogical and didactic concepts with specific challenges for internationalising course design and aligning IILOs, teaching and learning activities, and assessment methods.

This Internationalising Course Design module builds on the conceptual underpinnings of the Introduction to the International Classroom module. Subsequently, it provides a framework for internationalising group work within the Intercultural Group Dynamics workshop and facilitates a platform for experiential learning, encouraging participants to challenge their own preconceptions about designing and delivering programmes that embody intercultural graduate attributes.

Internationalising Course Design is the second of five modules in the full EQUiiP programme for educational developers, but it may also be organised as a stand-alone one-day workshop for a wider audience and can be modified to target different levels of experience and expertise.

In the full EQUiiP programme, participants will have the opportunity to apply the content of this module to the issues described in their own cases. Part of this application takes place in the Feedback & Reflective Processes module.

Target group

The target groups for this module are educational developers (EDs) as well as senior staff such as directors of study, course coordinators, and other leadership team members responsible for international programmes in their higher education institutions.

Intended learning outcomes

At the end of this module, participants should have raised their awareness of the factors characterising the international classroom and should be able to:

  • Critically reflect upon and appraise the role of Intended International Learning Outcomes (IILOs) for graduate attributes within disciplines, institutional and other relevant contexts;
  • Support the formulation, mapping and embedding of IILOs in different programmes of studies;
  • Support the alignment of the assessment, evaluation criteria and teaching / learning activities to achieve the IILOs while taking into account cultural diversity;
  • Design professional development activities to facilitate peers to constructively align learning activities and assessment to achieve IILOs.

Timeframe

If this module is organised as the second of five in the full EQUiiP programme, it may be completed as a workshop of 4.5 hours (3 x 1.5 hours). It may also be organised as a stand-alone workshop with (preferably) 2 x 3 hours.

Resources

In the right-hand menu you will find a thematic introduction to this module and workshop activities, including videos.