CEL facilitates multi-institutional research on engaged learning topics. Participants from institutions around the world collaborate over three years, producing scholarship that shapes research and practice globally.
CEL is home to two book series. In addition, CEL research seminars and other initiatives have produced 100+ publications (to date).
CEL’s concise guides offer research-informed practices for engaged learning.
CEL’s concise guides offer practical strategies for studying engaged learning.
CEL brings together international leaders in higher education to develop, synthesize, and share rigorous research on central questions about student learning.
The CEL Scholar role and CEL Student Scholars program enable Elon faculty and students to deepen their understanding of and professional development in scholarly activity on engaged learning.
Berdrow, Iris, Rebecca Cruise, Ekaterina Levintova, Sabine Smith, Laura Boudon, Dan Paracka, and Paul M. Worley. 2020. "Exploring Patterns of Student Global Learning Choices: A Multi-Institutional Study." In Mind the Gap: Global Learning at Home and Abroad, edited by Nina Namaste and Amanda Sturgill, Stylus.
A combination of institutional and individual factors matter in making choices to pursue study away. A holistic approach to global learning including both classroom and co-curricular opportunities is superior to efforts only to increase study abroad numbers. These holistic approaches can benefit both students who do study abroad and those who do not.
Deardorff, Darla K., and Dawn Michele Whitehead. 2020. "Expanding the Perceptions and Realities of Global Learning: Connecting Disciplines Through Integrative Global Learning and Assessment." In Mind the Gap: Global Learning at Home and Abroad, edited by Nina Namaste and Amanda Sturgill, Stylus.
This chapter provides a broad perspective on assessing global learning. Whitehead and Deardorff suggest having input on assessment from a variety of sources including students, educators, administrators, and staff and designing holistic models of assessment that extend beyond the learner’s college or university years.
Drake Gobbo, Linda, and Joseph G. Hoff. 2020. "Approaching Internationalization as an Ecosystem." In Mind the Gap: Global Learning at Home and Abroad, edited by Nina Namaste and Amanda Sturgill, Stylus.
A Global Learning Ecosystem comprises administrative, curricular, and co-curricular efforts within a college or university. Internationalization, including enrolling international students who join in creating global learning for themselves and for students who do not leave campus, is a useful way of considering global learning. Faculty and staff development and attention to programming across the ecosystem can enhance global learning both on and off campus.
Engle, Lilli, and John Engle. 2003. "Study Abroad Levels: Toward a Classification of Program Types." Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad 9 (1): 1-20.
In basic terms, this article is helpful in how it describes study away experiences using five levels, with full immersion representing the highest level of learning engagement. More importantly, the article does a good job of demonstrating comparable differences in the range of study away experiences that a typical college student might have. The authors suggest that deeply immersive experiences, such as ones that involve home stays, language challenges, and/or community-based interactions or professional internships, provide students with deeper levels of learning engagement on a variety of fronts than ones in which students live in co-housing or take classes in their primary language. The article also discusses the value of authentic cultural engagement and the need for guided reflective processing to help students make sense of potentially dissonant experiences.
Hartman, Eric, Richard Kiely, Christopher Boettcher, and Jessica Friedrichs. 2018. Community-Based Global Learning: The Theory and Practice of Ethical Engagement at Home and Abroad. . Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.
Hartman et al. make a strong case for responsible community-based learning of all forms, but specifically for engagement that takes place between students and universities and their international community partners. And, although this book does not explicitly focus on immersive practices, there are numerous examples of deeply immersive learning experiences throughout many of the chapters. Many of the examples provided demonstrate many of the components of immersive learning as defined in this resource including authentic, place-based engagement, the need for heightened student agency, students reckoning with dissonant experiences, and the need for reflection as a method of sense–making.
Holgate, Horane, Heidi E. Parker, and Charles A. Calahan. 2020. "Assessing Global Competency Development in Diverse Learning Environments." In Mind the Gap: Global Learning at Home and Abroad, edited by Nina Namaste and Amanda Sturgill, Stylus.
This chapter presents three short scales assessing civic engagement, intercultural knowledge and intercultural competence, all based on AAC&U VALUE rubrics. These scales, which are free to access and use, are suitable for assessing a variety of global learning contexts.
Layne, Prudence, Sarah Glasco, Joan Gillespie, Dana Gross, and Lisa Jasinski. 2020. "#FacultyMatter: Faculty Support and Interventions Integrated into Global Learning." In Mind the Gap: Global Learning at Home and Abroad, edited by Nina Namaste and Amanda Sturgill, Stylus.
Like their students, faculty are also global learners. As such, scholars need to investigate the impact of teaching in disorienting settings on faculty and that colleges and universities need to provide professional development in pedagogy appropriate to these contexts and to facilitate opportunities for faculty to reflect on and process the experiences.
Levintova, Ekaterina, Sabine Smith, Rebecca Cruise, Iris Berdrow, Laura Boudon, Dan Paracka, and Paul M. Worley. 2020. "Have Interest, Will NOT Travel: Unexpected Reasons Why Students Opt Out of International Study." In Mind the Gap: Global Learning at Home and Abroad, edited by Nina Namaste and Amanda Sturgill, Stylus.
Some factors like military experience, family responsibilities, health concerns, and being a student athlete can preclude international study for some students. Universities can help students integrate previous experiences like military deployment or international family travel with other high-impact practices like internships and service-learning. They can also ameliorate some of the scheduling and responsibility concerns for students who do want to travel for study.
Manning, Scott, Zachary Frieders, and Lynette Bikos. 2020. "When Does Global Learning Begin? Recognizing the Value of Student Experiences Prior to Study Away." In Mind the Gap: Global Learning at Home and Abroad, edited by Nina Namaste and Amanda Sturgill, Stylus.
When you ask students to describe valuable experiences in preparing for study away, previous travel and encounters with diversity matter and should be considered when developing pre-departure experiences. Institutions and instructors can use a strengths-based focus to help students to transfer what they have learned from previous domestic and international experiences.
Moore, Jessie L. 2020. "Epilogue: Global Learning as High-Quality Engaged Learning." In Mind the Gap: Global Learning at Home and Abroad, edited by Nina Namaste and Amanda Sturgill, 189-194. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Namaste, Nina, and Amanda Sturgill. 2020. "Introduction." In Mind the Gap: Global Learning at Home and Abroad, edited by Nina Namaste and Amanda Sturgill, Stylus.
Key issues in understanding study away today include: the artificial silos between international and domestic off-campus study and the need to understand study away in the context of the changing world of higher education in general. In particular, study away is no longer the extended time abroad that has been the focus of earlier studies. This volume explores factors related to students, faculty and programs that provide off-campus learning at home and abroad.
Namaste, Nina, and Amanda Sturgill. 2020. "Opportunities and Challenges of Ethical, Effective Global Learning." In Mind the Gap: Global Learning at Home and Abroad, edited by Nina Namaste and Amanda Sturgill, Stylus.
Quality study away needs to address a set of ethical imperatives including rejecting colonialist models in favor of seeking reciprocity, using high-quality research findings to maximize learning from both domestic and international off-campus experiences, and intentionally integrating both kinds of study away with the larger college and university experience.
Namaste, Nina B. 2017. "Designing and Evaluating Students' Transformative Learning." The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 8 (3). http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cjsotl_rcacea/vol8/iss3/5/.
Paras, Andrea, and Lynne Mitchell. 2020. "Up for the Challenge? The Role of Disorientation and Dissonance in Intercultural Learning." In Mind the Gap: Global Learning at Home and Abroad, edited by Nina Namaste and Amanda Sturgill, Stylus.
Experiences of cognitive dissonance can help explain shifts in development of intercultural competence. Quality global learning experiences should embrace opportunities to encounter and be made uncomfortable by difference and encourage students to recognize dissonance when it occurs.
Rathburn, Melanie, Jodi Malmgren, Ashley Brenner, Michael Carignan, Jane Hardy, and Andrea Paras. 2020. "Assessing Intercultural Competence in Student Writing: A Multi-Institutional Study." In Mind the Gap: Global Learning at Home and Abroad, edited by Nina Namaste and Amanda Sturgill, Stylus.
When working with short-term, faculty-led programs, written reflective writing and opportunities for working with local communities enhance global learning. Service-learning, which can be done in both international and domestic contexts, causes greater shifts in perspective and enhanced demonstration of ability to adapt behavior and manage emotions in different contexts.
Sturgill, Amanda. 2020. "Crossing Borders at Home: The Promise of Global Learning Close to Campus." In Mind the Gap: Global Learning at Home and Abroad, edited by Nina Namaste and Amanda Sturgill, Stylus.
Learners don’t have to cross geopolitical borders to be global learners, which is good news for students whose degree plans, life factors, or finances preclude international travel. This chapter explores some of the types of global learning possible without even leaving the town, offering results that suggest that quality domestic off-campus study CAN produce change towards intercultural competency.
Vandermaas-Peeler, Maureen, Joan Ruelle, and Tim Peeples. 2020. "Mapping Understandings of Global Engagement." In Mind the Gap: Global Learning at Home and Abroad, edited by Nina Namaste and Amanda Sturgill, Stylus.
To define global engagement requires “intentional integration of three critical foundational domains: learning/knowledge, skills/behaviors, and attitudes/dispositions.” Under this definition, global engagement occurs in both international and domestic contexts as students have mentored off- and on-campus experiences.
Vercamer, Bert, Linda Stuart, and Hazar Yildrim. 2020. "Global Competence Development: Blended Learning within a Constructivist Paradigm." In Mind the Gap: Global Learning at Home and Abroad, edited by Nina Namaste and Amanda Sturgill, Stylus.
This chapter examines the use of an online preparatory curriculum for study abroad that mixes informative materials, peer learning, and cultural mentoring. The authors find that this type of curriculum improves both culture-specific and culture-general learning.
