Guidelines for Required Faculty Narrative Interim 2007 Reports

Reports of off-campus Interim courses not only document educational experiences, but also provide IOS and IDOCS with key information for program assessment as well as easy reference for future leaders. Different formats are acceptable, i.e., either in narrative or list format, but please provide information about the following issues:

1. SELECTION PROCEDURES AND COMPOSITION OF GROUP:

Comment on the composition and approach to selecting the Interim group.

2. ORIENTATION/PREPARATION:

Comment on what either helped or was counter-productive in terms of:

  • Your own instructor-led orientation sessions for your students
  • Work with IOS liaison

3. ACADEMIC ISSUES:

  • What worked well on your interim in terms of pedagogical issues, level of rigor/challenge, particularly good assignments, and quality of learning demonstrated?
  • What could be done to improve this academic experience the next time this Interim is offered?

4. ACADEMIC USE OF THE OFF-CAMPUS SETTING

  • Did teaching off-campus especially enhance learning for your student group?
  • Describe how you made good use of the particular setting of your interim course to address any or all of the following areas of learning:

Cross-Cultural Learning – efforts to encounter and analyze the way of life of a different group of people in order to promote both self-awareness and understanding of cultural differences.

Experiential Learning – how did the course incorporate direct experiences and use critical reflection on these experiences as a method of gaining knowledge or skills?

Site-Based Learning – if the study of culture is not a central focus of the course, e.g. a science course, how did use of the specific site location enhance learning in other ways.

5. LOGISTIC ISSUES:

  • Comment as needed on changes necessary on each of the major stops in the itinerary. Please feel free to incorporate these suggestions directly onto a copy of your itinerary.

    Accommodation
    Laundry
    Meals
    Transportation
    Host Agent(s)
    Guide(s) (It helps future programs to note names of guides)
    What was the ratio of scheduled to free time? Please recommend changes if necessary.

6. FINAL THOUGHTS

  • Please provide any further advice you have for future leaders (and students) on this particular Interim.

Narrative reports are due to the Director of International and Off-Campus Studies on March 1, 2007. If your interim is offered for the first time in January 2007 and is being re-submitted for January 2008, you must submit both the budget and the narrative report by February 15, 2007.