Bringing next-generation international programming to students is sometimes a heavy lift, with discussions weaving nuances of mission and student engagement together with considerations of budget, enrollment, and return. A foundational starting point in navigating these questions rests in an institution’s commitments to growth and success.
This series will appeal to international educators who are especially eager to explore entrepreneurial strategies and savvy approaches to maximizing student learning and engagement in a new era.
It’s been said that higher education doesn’t turn on a dime.
And for the most part, this is true despite calls for new approaches, greater collaboration, and innovative strategies that would impact student success in the competitive higher education market. University leaders’ perception of actionable ideas rests on how those ideas might affect institutional performance metrics such as financial impact, recruitment, retention, and student engagement. In other words,
With so many U.S. universities explicitly prioritizing global engagement and preparing skilled leaders for the global stage, it’s important for higher education institutions to also perceive the impact of the equation in the opposite direction. That is, innovative programming is an opportunity to amplify the missional and operational intersections that matter to the culture, development, and identity of an institution.
The previous four articles of this series explored the impact that The Global Tech Experience offers students, and by extension, faculty and staff. They have discussed the importance of establishing a diverse global experience for students, providing an equitable opportunity for students to extend their learning, and developing students’ critical executive functioning skills that will be in demand in their future careers.
There are five aspects of The Global Tech Experience that resonate with institutional questions about new programming, its potential to provide students more options, and in the end, how the institution might emerge as not only innovative, but mindful of each student’s future.
An extension of department-level programming, The Global Tech Experience provides engaging programs with interdisciplinary opportunities for students curious to engage in real-world applications of career skills and to explore the compelling intersections between professional development and intercultural learning. The network effects of programs like The Global Tech Experience not only enhance individual impacts on students as enrollment grows, they also serve as a critical enrollment and retention tool, leveraging the student’s perception of return-on-investment with energized The Global Tech Experience experiences.
Great faculty continually look for new ways to energize and expand programming, building curricula that find the balance between meaningful content, engaging pedagogy, and student-facing learning goals. And great students look for exciting and accessible experiences, whether through general education, majors, or co-curricular exploration.
The Global Tech Experience engagements in interdisciplinary classrooms–with students from around the world–build meaningful student engagement through high-impact practices such as global learning and collaborative assignments and projects. Such student engagement and interest have the net effect of energizing all programs by enhancing retention, inspiring new creative programming, and graduating students ready to embrace their careers.
Student success is the reason for everything we do as higher education leaders. The Global Tech Experience‘s core pivots around critical outcomes as it opens the doors to all students regardless of identity, and embraces inclusive pedagogy where intercultural competence outcomes are improved and expanded.
Critical, career-ready outcomes for students, discussed in Article #4 of this series, create an active framework in next-gen programs, preparing students for the intersections of intercultural communication, competence, and the career skills that employers seek in the twenty-first century. The Global Tech Experience builds success of students into their pedagogical approach, placing student success at the forefront.
Whenever institutions build thoughtful online programming and processes with invested partners such as Podium Education, everyone benefits–not just students enrolled in the programs. Podium’s Global Tech Experience gives institutions the opportunity to offer innovative, next-gen programs without adding additional burden to already stretched staff. And this means that all students gain more choice, institutions offer engaging programs, and staff won’t feel the impact on their valuable time..
As is always the case, partnering with forward thinking, next-gen innovators has a ripple effect on the energy around bold ideas. And this effect increases when partners share missional goals of recruitment and student success. To be successful in the emerging higher education market, universities must join with forward-thinking partners to move quickly enough to meet the needs of Industry 4.0. Savvy institutions (and students) see these opportunities to engage in programs that bridge higher education with success in the emerging work world.
The multifaceted successes of The Global Tech Experience programs become a catalyst for new ways of thinking about achieving the mission of the university. The Global Tech Experience serves as an intersection for missional priorities by providing sustainable, scalable, and flexible international programming that becomes an innovative approach to engaging students so that they can thrive both in their studies and in their future careers.
And The Global Tech Experience outcomes such as increased enrollment, persistence, career readiness, and cultural empathy impact both students and institutions in ways that matter.
Next-gen experiences stand as the future of higher education, and as we emerge into new perceptions and approaches to career-ready (and career-making) experiences for students, we see The Global Tech Experience amplifying the mission and vision of forward-thinking institutions.
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