Outcomes Assessment


Historically, the field of education abroad has lacked extensive data demonstrating its outcomes – educational, professional, and personal.  The Forum's Outcomes Assessment and Research Committee addresses this need by encouraging and supporting research on and providing resources about the assessment of outcomes in education abroad.

 

The Outcomes Assessment and Research Committee seeks to assist administrators and faculty in identifying, assessing, and fostering positive outcomes in students’ academic, intercultural, and personal development through education abroad.

 

As part of these efforts, the committee provides the following resources:

 

Outcomes Assessment and Research Committee:

Kelly McLaughlin, Yale University, Chair

Janna Behrens, Amherst College

Elizabeth "Betsy" Brewer, Beloit College

Dennis Doyle, Central College

Michelle Gere, Northwestern University

Nick Gozik, Boston College

Cheryl Matherly, University of Tulsa

Victor Savicki, Western Oregon University

 

 
Bibliography of Outcomes Assessment in Education Abroad

 

The Forum's Outcomes Assessment Committee is pleased to make available a Bibliography of Outcomes Assessment in Education Abroad.

 

The Bibliography is not intended to replace other databases featuring research in the field of international education. Instead, it focuses on studies assessing education abroad outcomes, with the aims of disseminating information about education abroad outcomes assessment to the Forum membership, and encouraging new research and practice. The bibliography is an on-going project to be updated twice yearly by members of the Outcomes Assessment Committee. In the future, the committee hopes to add searchable keywords. For now, members may conduct queries using the search features ion the Forum website. Feedback and suggestions for the bibliography are welcome and can be submitted to: info@forumea.org.

 

Accessing articles:  Where possible, URLs have been included. In some cases journal subscriptions are required for access. In the absence of a journal subscription, it may be possible to access an article via interlibrary loan.

 

The committee had earlier compiled a chart of research studies on student learning abroad by members. The READ database provides more extensive listings.

 

The Guide to Outcomes Assessment in Education Abroad, provides tools for implementing outcomes assessment at your institution, is available for purchase.

 

In addition, the Forum sponsors research studies for its members.  For example, underway since 2007, the Forum BEVI Project, is a special collaboration with the International Beliefs and Values Institute (IBAVI).  This project offers Forum member institutions the state-of-the-art opportunity to work with the Beliefs, Events, and Values Inventory (BEVI), an innovative assessment measure that examines the processes and outcomes of international, multicultural, and transformative learning, broadly defined. In 2010, the Forum-IBAVI Working Group on BEVI Implementation was established in order to further this project and pursue a range of assessment, research, and applied issues.

 

In another research opportunity for members, the Forum-SAGE Partnership, the Forum collaborated with a research team at the University of Minnesota to offer members the opportunity to participate in Beyond Immediate Impact:  Study Abroad for Global Engagement (SAGE), a research project that documented the long-term impact of the education abroad experience by surveying and interviewing education abroad alumni.

 

The committee has developed four Position Papers discussing major issues and trends in assessment research.

 

The Forum's commitment to education outcomes of abroad experiences includes sponsorship of the Undergraduate Research Awards. At the Forum's 8th Annual Conference in Denver, CO, March 21-23, 2012, conference participants received a publication detailing the current lives of past winners of the Forum's Undergraduate Research Award: Lasting Lessons: Following up with Recipients of the Forum's Undergraduate Research Award .