ACADEMICS: The “study” in study abroad! Programs: Costa Rica Language & Culture; Costa Rica Nursing PAs: Mikayla Russell, Lauren Fleming Introduce self; programs you coordinate/role in office, etc Although you are embarking on a cultural experience, you also embarking in on a academic experience. We do not want you to get so caught up in the cultural and travel part of study abroad, that you forget the study part of study abroad. So for the next few minutes, we are going to focus on academic issues that are unique to study abroad. Just remember that much of this information is in your study abroad handbook and program guide.

Talk with your academic advisor before you go. Talk with your academic adviser: Hopefully, you have already discussed what you are going to take abroad with your academic adviser. Can I see a show of hands who has already discussed with their adviser what courses they are going to take abroad? If not, you should make an appointment to do so. If you are going for fall semester, you will also want to discuss registration for the spring when you come back, so that you have a plan of action when your registration time opens in spring.

To register at UWEC for your time abroad, sign your PPA. What do you need to do to register at UWEC? Not much as the CIE takes care of most of it. But you do need to sign your online PPA. Sign your PPA: Who knows what the PPA is? That is all you need to do, and it takes 15 seconds. There is a Learning Content in your online study abroad account that shows you exactly where to go in CampS. But one student not doing it holds up study abroad registration for that entire program group. Because you are going on a summer program, you should already have signed your PPA! If you have not, do it as soon as you leave orientation! We, and your group members, will thank you!

Once your PPA is signed, we will get you registered! Costa Rica Language & Culture: INTA, 8 credits Costa Rica for Nursing & Healthcare Professionals: INTA ____, 8 credits This is what your original UWEC registration will be. Once the grade report from Costa Rica arrives, the actual classes, credits AND GRADES you took abroad will be posted to your UWEC transcript. More about that in a few minutes.

To find out what credits you can earn, go to the study abroad website. You can find the classes available on the Costa Rica programs on the Academics page of the CIE webpage for the program. Here is the language and culture page as an example.

You already registered for your specific classes in Costa Rica. You registered for your classes in Costa Rica by filling out and uploading the Course Information Sheet to your online study abroad account. If you forgot what you registered for, go to your online study abroad account. In the bottom left of your screen, you’ll see the Attached Document section. This example is blank, but you would actually see the documents you uploaded.

True or false? Your grades and credits from abroad appear on your UWEC transcript and count into your UWEC GPA. TRUE! GRADES: True or False: Your grades and credits from abroad count in your UWEC GPA? TRUE! Your grades count. This is study abroad, after all. You can find an explanation on why UWEC makes that decision in the Study Abroad Handbook.

Costa Rican grades are converted to an A-F grade using this scale, before being posted on your UWEC transcript. CRSA Grade UWEC Equivalent How? Here is the grading scale. Can anyone tell me where can you find the grade conversion information when you want to review it again? (In your online program guide!) Credits and grades: Once we receive your transcript from abroad, credits and grades are converted and posted on your UWEC transcript., What you will see is the UWEC course equivalency and U.S. credit and grades. Anything that appears on your transcript the UWEC Registrar is required to add to your UWEC transcript. Questions?

If you are under the new liberal education core, you can fulfill an Integrative Learning (I1) requirement through study abroad. An exciting new option for those of you under the new liberal education core if fulfilling an Integrative Learning outcome through study abroad. What is the Integrative Learning Outcome? Integrative Learning is about making simple connections among ideas and experiences and transferring your new connections and learning to new, complex situations within and beyond campus. Study Abroad is an experience all about integrative learning. For those of you still under general education requirements, semester study abroad fulfills the foreign culture requirement EXCEPT for students earning a BA, BFA or BM degree in the College of Arts & Sciences. The amount a summer program fulfills varies; see the CIE Academics webpage for your program for details!

There are 3 elements to the Integrative Learning outcome. Connections to Experience Connections across Disciplines Transfer between Contexts Element A: Applying your own experience to new information you are being exposed to. Element B: Connections across Disciplines Applying knowledge, concepts, or theories from one discipline to another discipline problem or situation. A discipline is an academic field of study like Psychology, Sociology, Chemistry etc. Element C: Transfer Between Contexts This means communicating what you know to a new audience or applying it to a new problem. The emphasis is on new.

You need to “opt in” to the Integrative Learning requirement via a questionnaire that appeared today in your online study abroad account! If you do not choose “yes” on the questionnaire by Monday, March 27, the questionnaire will close; no further enrollments in I1 will be allowed for Summer, Fall or AY 2017. You can’t retroactively opt in- after you return from study abroad or the semester before you graduate. If you want I1, you need to decide that now.

You need to complete one pre-departure assignment and three assignments while abroad to fulfill the requirement. Once you opt in, you will be invited to an informational meeting that gives an overview of the assignments and given access to a D2L site with instructions. You will upload all of your assignments to the dropbox on the D2L site. Questions? Another thing to consider is differences in academic culture. Oftentimes we focus on the broader cultural issues that impact how people perceive time, hierarchy, gender, etc. However, every country also has a academic system that is influenced by cultural and the development of the countries educational system. That means, things you take for granted in the U.S. like having a lot of homework and tests may not be the same abroad. Now, your peer adviser is going to talk with you about four things: A typical class Host-country expectations on academics Assignments and test Doing well in a new system You will have a few minutes to discuss each topic, starting with . . .

What is a typical class like? PAs: answer the questions for students in your group. (Give roughly 5 minutes/slide, assuming that you finished the first slides in ~ 5 minutes.) Who taught the classes? How many students were in an average class? Where were they from? How long was the class period? How many days a week did classes meet? What happened in a typical class session?

What are the academic expectations? Was there a syllabus for each class? What type of outside-of-class work was expected? Was attendance and/or class participation important?

What are assignments and tests like? What types of assignments did you submit for grading? Were the professor’s expectations clear? If not, how could you get them clarified? What were exams like?

What are the major adjustments US students need to make to do well? What academic support is available? What are the major adjustments most US students need to make in order to do well in the new academic system?