Introductory Video

About this Module

You have probably heard about how studying abroad is a transformative and enriching experience. It is an opportunity to learn about yourself, the world around you and your place in it! This module is about helping you to achieve the full potential of your study abroad experience. To this end, we are proposing a number of activities and prompts to help you to immerse yourself in your host country community and culture and also to critically reflect on those experiences. The reflection element of this process is crucial to ensure that you can truly learn from your time abroad and are then able to leverage that international experience for your professional, social, and personal development.

You are encouraged to document your experiences and to reflect on your learning using a Digital tool of your choice (for example Padlet, WordPress blog or you can just use this Canvas Course!).

Your experiences, reflections and learnings can be documented in a variety of ways so for instance you may want to use video, photos, written text etc. depending on your own preferences. Remember that this is your personal space, only available to you. It is like keeping a Journal online, your E-Journal of your time abroad! You may want to refer to it in the future to remember your experience studying abroad and what you learnt from it!

Time required to complete this module

It will take approx. 2-3 hours to undertake the recommended activities within this module and to produce the reflective media content. However, please do think about some of the reflected prompts from the “Making the Most of your Time Abroad” section daily throughout your entire study abroad experience.

Learning Outcomes

This module will help you to:

Identify key global citizenship skills and develop an awareness of how much those skills have improved as a result of the study abroad experience.
Develop self-awareness and cultural awareness.
Appreciate and understand cultural differences by critically reflecting on aspects of the host culture and society.
Articulate the skills gained as a result of the experience abroad and the active reflection on that experience.

Target Audience

Students on mobility and students who have returned from a mobility abroad.

Module Structure

Introduction
Global Citizenship Skills Questionnaire
Making the Most of Your Time Abroad - Panel of Activities "Board game"
Final Reflection

Keywords

Visible culture: Most obvious aspects of a cultural identity. It includes symbols, and practices for example art, architecture, language, social etiquette, traditions, food, etc. As per cultural iceberg analogy, the visible culture is only small part of the cultural identity (the small tip above the water)
Critical reflection: Process whereby we question our own actions, feelings, beliefs and assumptions and by doing so, we learn from our experiences and are able to apply that learning in the future.
Cutural stereotypes: Generalizations about a cultural group, they can be positive or negative
Self-awareness: Refers to being aware of your own assumptions and behaviours, being able manage your emotions and feelings, and understand correctly how others perceive you.
Global citizen: someone who is aware of and understands the wider world - and their place in it
Personal effectiveness: Making the best use of your time and making use of the resources at your disposal, in order to perform to the best of your ability
Intellectual and personal autonomy: A willingness and ability to think for oneself

About the Developers

Esther Sanz (University College Dublin)
Niall Watts (University College Dublin)
Justine Seran (University of Edinburgh)
Chelsea Ferguson (University of Edinburgh)
Elena Fontana (University of Pavia)
Aidan Curran (University College Dublin)
Eduardo Alias Gómez (University of Granada)
Shane Lordan (University College Dublin)
Claudio Santagostini (University of Pavia)

About License and Version

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 international license

The European Commision's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Comission cannot be held resposible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Version 1.0.0