Assessing Global Learning in Short-term Study Abroad: Population, Environment, and Society in Shanghai

This teaching note suggests that a short-term study abroad program embedded within a longer course can be a tool for enhancing global learning. The work uses the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Global Learning VALUE rubric to evaluate student work from a spring break seminar to Shanghai, China. The seminar was embedded in a semester-long course examining the connections between demographic, environmental, and social change. After exploring the overlap between two dimensions of global learning and the sociological imagination, I describe the semester-long class and the Shanghai seminar. I then use the perspective taking dimension of the rubric to evaluate student work on China’s aging population and the personal and social responsibility dimension to examine student work on consumption. I conclude with suggestions for deepening global learning that might be employed in other classrooms.