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Planning, Organizing, and Conducting a 2-Week Study Abroad Trip for Undergraduate Students: Guidelines for First-Time Faculty Stephen K. Koernig Journal of Marketing Education 2007 29: 210 DOI: 10.1177/0273475307306886 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jmd.sagepub.com/content/29/3/210
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Planning, Organizing, and Conducting a 2-Week Study Abroad Trip for Undergraduate Students: Guidelines for First-Time Faculty Stephen K. Koernig
This article provides specific recommendations to help faculty members organize, plan, and conduct a short-term overseas study tour. Specifically, strategies are presented to help with managing student anxiety in the pretrip sessions, acclimating the students to their new environment in the early part of the trip, balancing academic content with cultural activities, selecting types of learning activities, and facilitating a student exchange with a local university. A secondary goal of this article is to discuss common on-theground problems that the faculty leader may face in the host country. Strategies are presented to help the faculty leader respond to these problems (or prevent them from occurring in the first place).
Keywords: study abroad; company tours; learning activities; cultural activities; rapport There is a flickering spark in us all which, if struck at just the right age . . . can light the rest of our lives, elevating our ideals, deepening our tolerance and sharpening our appetite for knowledge about the rest of the world. Educational and cultural exchanges . . . provide a perfect opportunity for this precious spark to grow, making us more sensitive and wiser international citizens. —Ronald Reagan
International knowledge and experience have become increasingly important for students in today’s global economy (Open Doors, 2006). The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) requirement of an international focus for the business curricula in its accreditation standards underscores the importance of this for business and marketing students. As a result, many universities have intensified their efforts to expose students to other cultures. Currently, 60% of all 4-year institutions provide students with an opportunity to study abroad (Marklein, 1999). The number of students who take advantage of the opportunity to study abroad is rapidly increasing. In the 20042005 academic year, a total of 205,983 U.S. students studied
in a foreign country (an increase of 7.7% from the previous year), and over the past 8 years the number of students studying abroad has doubled (Open Doors, 2006). Western European countries dominate as the preferred choice for students, with the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, and France accounting for more than 45% of the destinations of choice of American students (Open Doors, 2006). Although European countries have long been the most popular locations in which to study abroad, students are increasingly choosing more geographically diverse destinations. In fact, since the mid-1980s, the proportion of students studying in Europe has decreased by 15%, but the number of students studying abroad in Latin America has doubled in the same time period to 15.3% (Open Doors, 2006). Non–Western countries are also becoming especially popular. For example, the number of students visiting China increased 35% over the past year, and it now ranks as the eighth most popular destination (Open Doors, 2006). Experts agree that one cause for the dramatic increase in the number of students who study abroad is the availability of shorter and less expensive programs (Marklein, 1999). According to the Association of International Educators, there has been a 50% increase in the number of students who choose short duration study abroad programs. Recent figures indicate that 56% of American students who study abroad do so over the short term, including summer break, winter break, or other programs less than a full semester (Open Doors, 2006). Developing, planning, and executing a study abroad tour is a difficult and time-consuming venture for faculty. The major logistical considerations for planning a study abroad
Stephen K. Koernig, PhD (University of Illinois at Chicago), is an assistant professor at DePaul University. His research interests include the physical environment of service firms, e-commerce advertising, and the gay market. His research has been published in academic journals including Journal of Advertising and Psychology & Marketing. The author thanks the guest editor, Terri Barr, and the two anonymous JME reviewers for their helpful comments on previous versions of this article. Journal of Marketing Education, Vol. 29 No. 3, December 2007 210-217 DOI: 10.1177/0273475307306886 © 2007 Sage Publications
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tour that have been discussed in the literature include pricing the tour (Gordon & Smith, 1992), airline and hotel selection (Gordon & Smith, 1992), and scheduling tours in one city or multiple cities (Brokaw, 1996). The pros and cons of different in-country learning activities as they relate to tour location, time spent on the tour, and course credit have also received attention in the literature (Duke, 2000). Gordon and Smith (1992) presented a detailed itinerary of tour activities, but they offered no guidance on what worked well and what did not. Generally, an in-depth discussion of the more tactical considerations of planning and organizing a study abroad tour is absent from the literature. Based on student feedback from previous study abroad tours (see Table 1) as well as the experience of the author, this article expands on the previous research by discussing strategies to help the faculty leader plan, organize, and conduct a short-term study abroad trip. Specifically, strategies are presented to help manage student anxiety in the pretrip sessions, acclimate the student to his or her new environment in the early part of the trip, balance academic content with cultural activities, select types of learning activities, and facilitate a student exchange with a local university. Although meant as a roadmap for the first-time faculty member planning a study abroad tour, this article may also help the seasoned veteran fine-tune his or her existing study tour. A secondary goal of this article is to discuss common on-the-ground problems that the faculty leader may face in the host country. Although Gordon and Smith (1992) briefly listed a few potential problems, these are generally not discussed in the literature, and no guidance is offered as to how to respond to these issues. This article fills this gap by presenting important tactical problems regarding day-to-day logistics of the study tour and offering strategies to respond to these problems (or prevent them from occurring in the first place). BACKGROUND INFORMATION The strategies offered in this article are a result of experience from planning, organizing, and conducting a shortterm (10 days to 2 weeks in duration) study abroad course. The primary objective of such a course is generally to help students develop an understanding of the differences in business practices between U.S. and foreign companies in relation to their cultural, political, economic, social, and technological environments. Another objective could be for students to develop a better understanding of a different culture through living in and experiencing day-to-day life in a foreign country. The course described here is open to all undergraduate students and is capped at 20 students. It consists of two parts. The first part includes four classroom sessions (3 hours each; once per week) that take place prior to the trip to discuss the
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TABLE 1 STUDENT EVALUATIONS FROM STUDY ABROAD TOURS % Recurring student comments about what they liked the best includeda Free time to explore the city on their own Using local transportation instead of tour buses Guided tour and dinner with alumnus Factory tours Learning how to get around on public transportation Balance of company visits and cultural activities Learning about what the trip entails (pretrip) Learning about the culture in pretrip sessions Recurring student comments about what they liked the least includeda Company tour on the first day Too many company tours Final paper requirement Hard time getting to know other students before the trip Too much pretrip academic focus Not enough cities visited Too many cities visited
92 87 80 74 73 63 59 56
65b 58 55 49 31 28 23
a. Percentage of students mentioning the topic. b. Responses limited to one class.
culture, business environment, and academic focus of the trip. One posttrip meeting is also held to reinforce how the trip achieved the learning objectives. The second part of the seminar consists of the in-country portion, which includes scheduled company tours and visits to places of interest from a cultural and historical perspective. PREDEPARTURE PLANNING AND ORGANIZING The following section details five major planning and teaching-related issues that can be used to help faculty members organize, plan, and conduct an overseas study tour. 1. Facilitating Group Interaction and Anxiety Reduction in Pretrip Meetings
Despite their importance, a discussion of what should be included in pretrip class sessions has been largely ignored in the literature. Duke (2000) focused exclusively on the tour activities within the host country, and Gordon and Smith (1992) limited their discussion of pretrip class sessions to brief examples of what could be included (e.g., videos/ presentations from locals from the country, review of an international textbook, and discussion of possible companies that students can visit). Brokaw (1996) discussed pretrip activities such as using maps and library research to learn about the geography, history, transportation, and local businesses. In addition to the aforementioned, pretrip meetings are an important vehicle that faculty leaders can use to reduce
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anxiety and uncertainty in students. Gordon and Smith (1992) stated that pretrip meetings “help build a spirit which can be useful when stresses and tensions increase during the overseas portion of the trip” (p. 49). Pretrip classes allow students to learn from each other and promote student interaction before leaving for the foreign country (Brokaw, 1996), but the previous literature does not address how to promote this interaction. This is an important omission to address as undergraduate students feel like too much time is spent on the academic portion of the study tour at the expense of getting to know one another in these classes (Table 1). It is important to facilitate student interaction with a number of their classmates so that they feel comfortable interacting with more than just one or two students. In-class exercises can help the students meet their classmates and reduce anxiety about the trip. Some class activities that can help facilitate student “bonding” as well as acclimate the students to the culture to which they will be exposed might include: • • • • •
student interviews of one (or two) other classmates and an oral introduction of that person to the rest of the class, two- or three-person team oral presentations of one aspect of the culture of the country, two- or three-person team oral presentations about the history and marketing strategies of one of the companies to be visited, a discussion of each student’s anticipated favorite company and cultural event, a discussion of previous experiences traveling or living overseas.
These class sessions not only serve as a way for the students to learn about each other but also for the faculty member to get to know the students before leaving on the trip. Research has demonstrated that as the time spent between people increases, stronger rapport is more likely to occur (Davies & Prince, 2005). Rapport between faculty and students leads to greater trust, which is important because the faculty tour leader is “for at least some period of time, the students’ sole source of information and reassurance” (Brokaw, 1996, p. 92). Additional benefits of student–faculty rapport are enhanced student learning and willingness to learn (Huff, Cooper, & Jones, 2002; McCombs & Whistler, 1997). In light of the aforementioned, multiple pretrip class sessions are preferable to the single pretrip session advocated by Schuster (1993) to maximize the rapport among all participants. Research has demonstrated that three main factors are important in building rapport—approach factors, personality factors, and homophily (Granitz, Harich, & Koernig, 2007)—and faculty leaders should take an active role in managing these three factors to build rapport. Approach factors refer to the physical and psychological approachability of the professor (Faranda & Clarke, 2004). Frequent communication and accessibility (being available through office hours, phone, and e-mail) are important to help the student feel comfortable asking questions of and
seeking guidance from the faculty tour leader. Approachability can also be increased by sending frequent predeparture e-mail messages to students that count down the number of days remaining before the trip, present current weather conditions in the foreign country, and include other fun “teasers” about the trip (e.g., historical facts, information about companies that will be visited, etc.). Personality factors refer to respect, caring, and empathy toward the students (Granitz et al., 2007). Viewing students as individuals with unique personal situations and interests will help build rapport through this factor. For example, the tour leader can ask questions such as “How comfortable do you feel traveling to a foreign country?” and “What are other concerns you have about traveling to a foreign country?” The responses to these questions will help the faculty leader to understand each student as an individual. They will also help the faculty member to address and manage the anxiety of students, and the discussion of these issues will help demonstrate caring for the students. This is important as a majority of students report a high degree of anxiety before leaving on a tour. The top three concerns of undergraduate students typically include (a) not being able to communicate in the host country language, (b) antiAmerican sentiments of residents of the host country, and (c) not having enough time to fully experience the culture of the country. By discussing what to expect and how to overcome these fears, the students will be better prepared to visit the foreign country and will feel more at ease doing so. Homophily is the principle that individuals bond with and trust similar individuals. Faculty leaders could increase the degree of homophily by explicitly sharing commonality with students (e.g., let them know about your personal and professional background; share your own fears, anxieties, and triumphs from your early travel experiences; speak their language; share your values, attitudes, and beliefs). I tell my students about my first trip outside of the United States and share with them the concerns that I had, the problems I encountered, and (most important) how it changed my life in a very positive way. The class sessions also help the faculty member gauge student interest in the specific activities scheduled for the trip and may allow for some adjustment of the study tour based on the needs and wants of the particular group of students. An initial exercise that could address these issues is to ask the students the following questions: “What do you expect to get out of this seminar?” and “Ideally, what would you want it to include?” The responses to these questions allow the faculty member to make last-minute adjustments to the trip so that it can be customized based on the unique needs of the students in the particular course. This also provides a starting point to manage the expectations of the students. Some students may view the trip as more of a vacation than an academic course, and the faculty member should make it clear early on that the primary purpose for the tour is academic in nature.
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JOURNAL OF MARKETING EDUCATION 2. The First Day: Group Walking Tour and Using Local Transportation
The first day of the study tour is often the most challenging. Students and the tour leader are jetlagged, in need of a change of clothes, and generally exhausted from the long flight. However, everyone is also excited to start the adventure. Before this adventure begins, the group will need to check into their hotel, dormitory, or hostel to deposit their luggage. Arrival at the study abroad city should be timed for the late morning or early afternoon. If the group arrives too early, it is possible that the facility might not be prepared to lodge the entire group at once. I typically give students about 2 hours to get settled in their rooms and to freshen up and change clothes. I discourage the students from napping during this time to minimize the impact of jetlag. In fact, the first day is structured so that the students are constantly on the go and do not have time to sleep until bedtime. I have found that the best way to accomplish this is through a walking tour of the city. A walking tour also serves two other purposes. First, it is an effective strategy to help the students acclimate to their new environment. On the walking tour, I point out (and we visit) some of the major cultural sites. I have each student follow our path on a city map so that they develop a feel for the layout of the city and to help the student gain confidence in getting around on his or her own. Discussion of the sites of interest also is intended to reinforce what the students learned about the culture of the country in the pretrip classes. If the faculty leader is not familiar with the city, companies can be found in many cities that provide walking tours with professional tour guides for a very reasonable cost. Examples of cities with companies conducting these tours include Berlin (http://www.berlinwalks.de/), Lisbon (http://www.lisbonwalks .com/general_info.html), London (http://www.walks.com/), and Tokyo (http://5.pro.tok2.com/~tcgc/english/). The main train station in the city often has information centers that can help the faculty member locate a professional tour guide. Alternatively, if the faculty leader has any contacts in the city, a city resident could conduct this tour. On all of my trips, I now employ the help of the university alumni association to locate an alumnus who might agree to take my group on a city tour. This has been extremely effective. The alumnus enjoys reminiscing about his or her alma matter with current students, and the students are able to learn about the culture and history of the city from a native of the country. The second function of the walking tour is to teach the students how to use public transportation such as the subway and buses. Gordon and Smith (1992) stated that public transportation helps to immerse the students in the new culture as well as allowing students to “conduct small transactions, calculate foreign exchange equivalents, and become participants in the local economy� (p. 49). Using public transportation allows the group to see more of the city, and students have indicated that this is much preferable to taking
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a tour bus. More important, forcing students to use local transportation has been an extremely successful method at instilling confidence in the students’ ability to navigate a foreign city (Table 1). This serves them well when they venture out on their own. In addition, students often return from the study tour and begin planning a subsequent trip to a foreign country with newfound confidence in their ability to get around as a result of their experience on the study tour. In conjunction with (or instead of) a walking tour of the city, a scavenger hunt is also an effective way to get students comfortable in their new surroundings and with using public transportation. On the scavenger hunt, students are required to use the subway and/or buses to find specific cultural sites (e.g., churches, government buildings, historical monuments, museums, etc.). A modification of the scavenger hunt is a treasure hunt. Instead of seeking out cultural sites, in the treasure hunt students search for common, everyday products and record information about the store selling the product, the location of the product within the store, the price of the product, and the brand of the product (Duke, 2000). In addition to acclimating students to their new surroundings and with the public transportation system, the treasure hunt helps students learn about the day-to-day shopping activities of people in the new culture. At the end of the first day, the students should have a good working knowledge of the city layout and a basic understanding of how to get around the city on their own. A good way to end the first day is with an early group dinner during which the events scheduled for the next day are discussed. The guest tour leader and any university alumni (if living in the area and available) might also be a nice addition to the dinner. The alumnus who helps with my tours was born and raised (and now lives) in one of the cities we visit. Students have commented that his guided tour and a group dinner afterwards was one of the highlights of the trip (Table 1). After dinner, it is important to get everyone to bed relatively early so that they are fresh for the first full day of the tour. 3. Balancing Academic Content With Cultural Activities
Duke (2000) discussed the effectiveness of different learning activities (tests and lectures, company visits, journal writing, treasure hunts, written projects, and simulations) as they relate to the choice of location, tour duration, and tour integration with course credit. Although exams, student presentations, and written projects are desirable as a part of the academic requirements of the class, they are better suited for the pretrip (or posttrip) class sessions. Exams are stressful for students and detract from time that could be spent learning about the new culture. Written projects and simulations will also take time away from other activities, and it may be difficult to find resources for the students to complete these projects (Duke, 2000). A heavy academic focus in the pretrip class sessions allows for more time to be spent on company visits and cultural activities in
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the new culture instead of spending time in the classroom. For my study abroad course, students are required to attend four pretrip class sessions that are 3 hours in duration. In these class sessions, I present lectures on topics related to the academic focus of the study tour. Students are tested on this material through weekly quizzes and are required to make presentations about class topics as they relate to the country and companies to be visited. Once in the foreign city, I limit the academic content to company tours and related discussions. We visit companies to learn about the company and their business strategy and then meet for approximately an hour in an informal setting where we discuss how the company’s strategy relates to the pretrip class lectures. The final academic requirement for the course is a 10- to 15-page paper in which the student analyzes the marketing strategies of the companies that we visited and discusses the impact of environmental factors on these firms. It is a delicate task for the faculty leader to balance the demands of the academic portion of the trip with the cultural component of the tour. Gordon and Smith (1992) and Schuster (1993) advocated study tours that make heavy use of group time with numerous speakers and factory visits. Brokaw (1996) presented an alternative method for a study tour with limited company visits and group meetings limited to only 1 hour per day. This approach allows the students a significant amount of time on their own to explore the new culture but also reduces the academic rigor of the course. I have found that a balance between these strategies works the best. I strive for approximately 40% of the trip to include company tours and other related academic activities, 40% for structured cultural activities, and 20% for students to explore on their own. This balance of academic and cultural activities came about through trial and error. My early approach was to schedule two company tours per day and to limit the group visits to cultural sites. However, a major criticism of the students of my early trips was that the large number of company visits was overwhelming (see Table 1). I have found that one company tour per day provides a sufficient level of rigor while allowing enough time to include a group activity to experience the culture of the country. Regardless of the country visited, there will be an abundance of cultural activities from which to pick for the study tour. To narrow down the choices, before leaving for the trip I require students to purchase a country guide (Fodor’s, TimeOut, Lonely Planet, etc.) and ask them to read about the cities we will be visiting and to make a list of five cultural sites they would like to visit. I also ask them to include the “one thing” they would want to do to make their trip complete. Sometimes these lists overlap with what I have already planned; however, I leave open time slots in the schedule to adjust the itinerary based on this feedback. If I cannot incorporate these ideas into the trip, I try to see if there are similar interests among the students and try to help them coordinate side trips to these locations.
In the spirit of Brokaw’s (1996) method of allowing students a great degree of freedom to explore the city on their own, for a 2-week study abroad trip I provide students with at least one or two “free days” (typically a Saturday and/or Sunday) to enjoy the city on their own. I also encourage students to explore the city after we are done with the group activities for the day. The adventurous students will have little trouble planning their own excursions, but other students may feel overwhelmed by all of the possibilities. For example, on one trip I gave students an entire Saturday to explore on their own, and I found out the next day that four students stayed in the hotel and watched DVDs on their laptop computer. To help students like this, I now provide them (if necessary) with a handout that lists three to five options, including a description of the site, its cultural significance (why it is a “must-see”), and directions to get there. This strategy has made a dramatic impact on helping motivate students to maximize their experience in the foreign city. 4. Company Tours
In my experience, company tours are the most effective and fun method to help students understand the differences between the business practices of the foreign country compared to those in America. The company tour is also a dramatic way to help students better understand how marketing works in an actual setting (Moncrief, Shipp, & Lamb, 1995), and a company visit coupled with a traditional lecture increases active learning (Gordon & Smith, 1992). In addition, student feedback indicates a preference for factory tours compared to other learning activities (see Table 1). An important consideration for this type of learning activity is whether the tour should take place on the factory floor, a conference room, or a blend of the two. For the undergraduate student, the boardroom presentation often creates a room full of bored students. Walking the factory floor is a more interesting and visual way to learn about the company; the students will also gain a better understanding of what the day-to-day responsibilities of the workers are (Duke, 2000). There are a few important issues to consider when seeking out international companies to visit. First, undergraduate students seem to prefer large, well-known companies. For example, in a trip to Germany, the favorite firms are consistently those with which students are familiar (BMW, Audi, Siemens). These companies are also more likely to have the resources to accommodate large groups of people. In practice, however, even the largest company often limits the size of the group to about 20 people. Another type of company that works well on a study tour is one that relates to a unique industry of the country (e.g., a brewery in Germany, a winery in France, a florist in Holland). The critical question is: How does the faculty leader go about finding companies to visit? Unfortunately, the most difficult part of the planning process for a study abroad trip
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will likely involve finding companies to visit (Duke, 2000). If faculty members have extensive experience traveling to or working in the target country, they may already have a significant number of company contacts from which they can choose to arrange company visits. However, if the faculty member has few (or no) contacts in the target country, scheduling company visits can be an extremely overwhelming task. Brokaw (1996) suggested that pretrip course meetings can be used to ask students to identify the companies that they would most like to visit. This strategy is not advisable for several reasons. First, company visits can be quite difficult to organize and can take several months to plan. The class sessions will likely be held too close to the departure date for the faculty member to realistically schedule company visits. Second, the companies that students are interested in may not be aligned with the academic goals of the course. Finally, if the students become mentally invested in these companies, they may be disappointed if the companies they select are not available or willing to host students. One relatively easy source of company contacts is other tour leaders who have previously gone on similar trips to the country selected. Even if these individuals have not been to the target cities, they might be able to provide ideas from their own experience to help get the faculty leader started. A more time-consuming alternative is to scour external resources to find companies that allow company tours. For example, the Commerce Division at the U.S. Embassy (http://usembassy.state.gov) is a good starting point to locate companies to visit. Many foreign cities also have Web sites that highlight their major businesses (e.g., Munich, Germany, at http://www.muenchen.de/; Paris, France, at http://www.v1.paris.fr/EN/). Another valuable resource in this regard is travel books about the city/country that are targeted toward vacationers. These contain information such as where to stay, cultural sites of interest, where to eat, and so on (examples include Fodors, TimeOut, and Lonely Planet). Large, well-known companies with a presence in the city often are highlighted in these books, including information as to whether or not the company allows factory tours and the nature of the tours. Finally, contacting the Alumni Offices on your campus for names of alumni living and working in the cities/countries you are to visit is often the easiest way to arrange such activities. General Internet searches can also be used to identify companies that are friendly to student visits. There are two approaches to using this method. A general Internet search may be conducted on search engines (e.g., http://www .google.com or http://www.msn.com) using terms like factory tour, plant tour, and company tour along with the name of the city or country. For my first overseas tour, most of my plant visits were gleaned from this method. Unfortunately, it is an extremely time-consuming method and often results in many wild goose chases. If the tour leader has some knowledge of companies that are located in the city of interest, a
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more targeted search could be done on company Web sites to determine if the company is willing to conduct factory tours. 5. Student Exchange With a Class From a Local University
An effective strategy to facilitate student understanding of the new culture is to have them interact with their peers from the host country. This can be accomplished by arranging an “exchange� with a class from a local university. This class exchange enables students to meet with their peers in similar fields of study and to learn about the culture of the country from natives of the host country. If the faculty member’s university has any sister schools in the host country, faculty from these institutions might be willing to help arrange this exchange. In fact, it has been surprisingly easy to set up these cross-cultural exchanges, and students really enjoy meeting other people their age (see Table 1). Many students end up joining their new friends out for dinner in the days following the exchange. POTENTIAL ON-THE-GROUND PROBLEMS Despite all of the aforementioned planning, no amount of preparation can fully prepare the faculty leader and the students for the study tour, and unexpected logistical problems will invariably occur. Unfortunately, a discussion of commonly encountered on-the-ground problems is largely absent from the literature. One exception is Gordon and Smith (1992), who mentioned student overindulgence (and getting up early after a late night out), romantic entanglements, and lost luggage/tickets as challenges. However, there is no guidance in the literature that outlines possible solutions to these problems. To fill in this gap, in the following section I discuss the three most significant on-theground problems that I have encountered when teaching undergraduate overseas study tours. I also present strategies to mitigate or avoid these problems. 1. Keeping Track of the Entire Group
One of the most significant problems that the faculty leader is likely to encounter on a trip with even a moderately large number of students is keeping track of all of the group members. The more unstructured the tour activity, the more the tour leader relies on public transportation, and the busier the location, the more difficult this task becomes. In my first few trips I used the buddy system, which entailed roommate pairs looking out for one another and notifying me if he or she could not locate his or her buddy. Unfortunately, I quickly realized this was an ineffective strategy if both buddies wandered off together! A strategy that may help keep the group together (especially on walking tours of the city) is for the faculty leader to wear an outfit that will stand out in crowded areas. Some possibilities include wearing a bright hat or a bright shirt or
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jacket (this might not be possible if the group is visiting a company). The tour leader can also carry something that is visible from a distance, such as balloons or a walking stick. Periodically holding up a brightly colored umbrella has been especially effective at keeping the group together. Invariably, somebody will end up inadvertently separated from the group. Meeting in the morning during or immediately after breakfast is a good time to discuss a backup plan in case someone gets lost. For example, while riding the subway one of my students did not realize that we were getting off at a particular station, and she failed to exit the subway car. Because we had discussed conducting a head check before and after getting on/off a subway train and waiting at the station if someone missed the stop, she did not have to worry about how to reconnect with the group. She simply got off at the subsequent station and returned to us on the next train. However, it is also essential to have a failsafe plan in case a student is completely separated from the group with no easy way to reconnect. In the previous example, if the next train stop was in a different city an hour away, the aforementioned plan would not have been feasible. An effective “worst case scenario” plan that works well is for the student to return to the hotel and wait there. The lost student and the faculty member can communicate through the hotel by leaving messages on the room phones or through the front desk. Unfortunately, none of these strategies will work if the student gets “lost” on purpose. To prevent this from occurring, there are a few strategies that can help keep students focused and engaged so that they want to stay with the tour leader and their classmates. First, investing the time necessary to plan and organize a high-quality, exciting trip can help prevent this from becoming a major problem in the first place. It cannot be stressed enough how time-consuming the planning process can be, but the pay-off is a rewarding educational experience for the students and the faculty member. Second, a major concern of students is that they have adequate free time to explore the city on their own (see Table 1). I provide the students with a complete timetable of all group activities, and I include blocks of time in this schedule (in half-day or full-day increments) for students to venture out on their own. If the students know they will have this opportunity in advance, they are less likely to sneak away from the group. Third (and on a more tactical level), I conduct frequent headcounts of the number of students to ensure the group is together. It is also important to frequently interact with each of the students to gauge their levels of interest, motivation, and/or exhaustion. I periodically ask them how they are doing to determine if they need a break from all of the walking, need a washroom stop, or just need time to collect their thoughts. If this is the case, a brief stop to a coffee shop or a park does wonders for morale and can prevent students from straying from the group.
2. Students Arriving Late to Departure Times
I give each student a handout that fully describes each activity we will do as a group. This includes a summary page with a daily calendar of all group events and meeting times. It also includes a more detailed itinerary with addresses, times, maps, and a brief description of each event. This provides the student with a clear idea of what we will do on a day-to-day basis and also serves as a souvenir that students have used to revisit their favorite sites on a subsequent trip to the country. Unfortunately, despite the detailed itinerary, in every study abroad tour I have conducted at least one student has arrived late to a prearranged meeting. This usually happens in the morning as the group assembles to start the activities for the day. When I first started conducting these tours, I used to wait patiently for the tardy student(s) to arrive. Once everyone was present, I would pull the tardy students aside and reprimand them individually. I also have talked to the entire group and stressed the importance of arriving to our meeting places in a prompt manner after the late student arrives. This strategy also works, but the students who arrived on time end up feeling punished for doing nothing wrong. Over time, I found a different strategy to be more effective. I inform the students multiple times (e.g., in pretrip meetings, in the syllabus, in the airport) that the meeting times listed for our various activities are when the group is leaving. I make it very clear that they should arrive to the meeting site well before this time and that the group will leave at that time (and we do). This serves two purposes. First, it is a powerful way to convey the importance of being prompt to the tardy student. The student(s) who are left behind are disappointed about missing the event and are never late again. Second, leaving behind the late student underscores the importance of being prompt to the other students without directly penalizing or punishing them. A related (and initially unexpected) benefit of this strategy is that the students start to self-police one another. If they realize that someone is close to missing our departure time, they locate that student and help get him or her there on time. 3. Students’ Overindulgence of Alcohol and Hotel Parties
As noted by Gordon and Smith (1992), overindulgence of alcohol by students on the tour is a very real possibility. Much like parents of a child, the tour leader cannot watch the tour participants 24 hours a day. I employ a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and simply advise the students to behave responsibly and to respect the privacy of others when they return to the hotel. On some trips, students will return from a night out drinking (or have a party in a hotel room), which typically results in complaints from other hotel guests to the front desk. If I can hear these disturbances or if the front desk calls me in response to complaints by other guests, I go to the room in question and remind the students about
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respecting the privacy of other guests. The next day I have a follow-up discussion with the unruly students and reinforce the fact that they are attending an academic course—not on a vacation. To underscore this, 50% of the students’ course grade is based on participation and contribution in all sessions, meetings, and deportment throughout the trip. An alternate strategy to address student misbehavior on the trip, whether it is arriving late to designated meeting times or problems with overindulgence of alcohol, is to immediately send the student back to the home country of the university. This threat, and the use of this threat, can be extremely effective in dealing with (and preventing) these behavioral problems. BENEFITS OF CONDUCTING AN OVERSEAS SEMINAR Developing, planning, and executing a study abroad tour for the first time is a difficult and time-consuming venture. Planning subsequent trips however will be much less taxing, especially if the same country is visited. All of the time invested in the planning of a study abroad trip is well worth the effort, and the faculty member will benefit from the tour in two important ways. First, the time spent teaching the study abroad course will be a fulfilling experience for the faculty leader. The faculty tour leader will gain exposure to and experience in a different culture, and this knowledge can be used in the classroom to enhance teaching for any course with an international focus. Second, the large amounts of time spent with the students during the trip will result in a better professor–student relationship compared to a traditional course and can result in lifelong relationships.
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