Global Learning Experiences
Cross-cultural connections can deepen student engagement in the world around them and encourage their creativity about the course material. Such connections can happen in a UT classroom if the student body is particularly diverse, or if students participate in study abroad programs. Global connections are also being created through the Global Classrooms Initiative that connect UT students with students at universities from other countries through classroom activities, conversations and projects intentionally designed to encourage collaboration. Yet for many faculty members, designing a global learning experience can be a daunting task. This PTF project attempts to address two challenges to expanding global learning experiences at UT. The first challenge focuses on the current Global Classrooms Initiative. The initiative is relatively new, so we know very little about the impact on student learning or best practices for making the global learning experience successful. What do students gain from the experience? What techniques improve the effectiveness of the experience? This is a crucial time to collect reliable information from faculty members and students about the impact of the program and lessons learned. The second challenge focuses on faculty members. While ten faculty members are supported through the Global Classrooms Initiative, many more faculty members may be interested in experimenting with global learning experiences. How do we identify and support interested faculty members who are not in the Global Classroom Initiative? Can we design resources that could outlive the Global Classroom Initiative to provide long-lasting resources for interested faculty members? Through my PTF project, I hope to work with the International Office and Center for Teaching and Learning to strengthen data collection from current Global Classrooms, identify key lessons learned about how to make global connections effective, and to support faculty interested in designing new global connections.
Impacts from This Initiative

Team-Based Learning in the Political Science Classroom (Journal of Political Science Education)
Former PTF chair Stephanie Holmsten published this article in the Journal of Political Science Education in September 2023, which is partially informed by findings and experiences from her PTF initiative.
FInd the complete article <here,> or read a summary below.

Measuring Impactful Teaching Practices in Global Virtual Exchange (International Virtual Exchange Conference)
"Measuring Impactful Teaching Practices" was presented at the International Virtual Exchange 2022 Conference on October 26-28, 2022, in Valencia, Spain. The paper explored Global Virtual Exchange (or GVE) at the University of Texas at Austin in the previous academic year to measure the impact of the faculty-led program.

Global Virtual Exchange and Course Design (American Council on Education)
Former PTF chair Stephanie Holmsten co-presented a session on her global virtual exchange initiative at the American Council on Education virtual conference on March 24-25, 2021. With international collaborators from Ecuador and Venezuela, Holmsten discussed their 2019-20 international collaboration between (US)-ESPOL(Ecuador)-UAM (Venezuela), and provided evidence of the COIL model for course design in achieving student outcomes. Their experiences with icebreakers, collaborative projects, and assessment tools were also shared.

Sustaining and Scaling Up Virtual Exchange at an R1 University (International Virtual Exchange Conference)
The International Virtual Exchange Conference (IVEC) is the largest and most prominent international event on virtual exchange, providing a forum for an audience of deans, directors, faculty, instructional designers, administrators, and professionals from institutions around the world interested in technology, international education, and new pedagogies.