Faculty-Led Program Proposal Considerations
Offering a faculty-led study abroad program can be an enriching experience for both you and your students. However, the decision to offer a faculty-led program should not be taken lightly. Please ask yourself these important questions when considering a program proposal.
Is your department supportive of you being away from campus in order to lead the program?
- Your program may be several weeks in length. Is your department supportive of you being away from campus for this length of time?
- Your department will pay your salary for the course(s) you teach abroad.
How will your intended program location reinforce the curricular content and make the site a learning laboratory?
- It doesn't make sense to take a course you teach on campus and simply plop it down in an international location without any consideration of the surroundings. Your program will be more impactful for students if you incorporate components of your international location – so take this opportunity to get creative your teaching and curricular design!
Is this a viable program?
- Is your course content relevant and interesting to a broad number of students?
- Does this program offer a core course that is suitable for all students, or a course that is only pertinent to majors/minors within your department? How does this impact your potential pool of students?
- What competition will you face when promoting the program? Are there other faculty-led study abroad programs in your department that will be recruiting from the same pool of students? There is something to be said for having too many similar options – analysis paralysis is real!
- How many students are in your department/College? How many majors/minors does your department have? Do students from your department generally study abroad? Review the Study Abroad Participation Statistics to determine how many students are taking courses from your academic area abroad.
- Has this program operated before? If yes, has it always met minimum enrollment? Courses taught on faculty-led study abroad programs are subject to the same enrollment minimums as courses taught on campus.
- In what international location will you host your program? If students have to use Google Maps to figure out where you're leading them, this might not be the best choice! We encourage you to push your students to consider study abroad locations off the beaten path but you may need to adjust your marketing plan if your students have never heard of your location of choice. Review the Study Abroad Location Statistics to learn more about where Texas Tech students are studying abroad.
Do you have the necessary time to develop a faculty-led study abroad program?
- Previous faculty leaders have stated it takes up to 150 hours to develop and market a faculty-led program. Are you able to manage this considering your other commitments?
To discuss your faculty-led program ideas, please contact the Assistant Director of Study Abroad.
Study Abroad
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Address
601 Indiana Avenue, Lubbock, TX 79409 -
Phone
806.742.3667 -
Email
studyabroad@ttu.edu