Overseas Study Program Evaluation Policy
Role of OSAC
The Overseas Study Advisory Council, appointed by the Dean for International Programs and chaired by the Director of Overseas Study, is authorized by the President of Indiana University to review and approve all proposals for programs from any IU campus involving Indiana University students abroad.
This quality control ensures that programs have appropriate planning, implementation and oversight.
Program Types
There are three types of programs that fall under the purview of the Overseas Study Advisory Council:
- System-wide programs administered by Overseas Study which include exchanges, faculty-led* programs and direct enrollment arrangements that fall exclusively under the responsibility of Overseas Study.
- System-wide programs co-sponsored through Overseas Study that are administered by external organizations or institutions with which IU is affiliated.
- Autonomous programs which are campus or school-specific that are administered by other offices or units at IU. Some of these are non-credit educational experiences.
Types of Evaluation
In order to ensure ongoing quality assurance, OSAC has a Review Committee that works with the Overseas Study staff to determine procedures for ongoing evaluation of all IU programs.
Given the number of programs and the diversity of their administrative structures, the Review Committee has determined three levels of evaluation for IU programs:
- Monitoring involves assessing a program through required resident director reports, student evaluations and debriefings of directors and students.
- Site visit involves Overseas Study staff and/or IU faculty members who visit a program site and write a follow-up report.
- Review consists of an individual or a team, usually comprised of faculty member(s) and professional staff who systematically evaluate a program on-site using an established protocol.
All three levels of evaluation focus on the four critical aspects which have been recommended by the Institute for the International Education of Students’ (IES) Model Assessment Practice (MAP) for study abroad. These include:
- Student Learning Environment
- Student Learning: Assessment and Intercultural Development
- Resources for Academic and Student Support
- Program Administration and Development
Evaluation Guidelines
Monitoring
At the very minimum, all programs must be evaluated by a periodic monitoring process.
In order to monitor a program, Overseas Study collects written resident director reports (for faculty-led programs), student evaluations and, where possible, conducts debriefings with the director and/or the students.
All directors of faculty-led programs, either administered or autonomous, receive guidelines for resident director reports www.indiana.edu/~overseas/policies/director.shtml. They are asked to submit a report within a month of the end of the program describing it in detail, including a description of the participants, the pre-departure orientation, the academic program (description of courses, teaching methods, impact and influence of the overseas setting on the academic experience, etc.), grade distribution, description of student housing and meal arrangements, issues concerning student health and safety and recommendations for the program in the future. They are also asked to provide a detailed program schedule, course syllabi, handbooks or handouts distributed to students prior to departure and student evaluations.
Co-sponsored, exchange or direct enrollment programs are monitored through student evaluations and student debriefings, as well as close contact with the program administration (in the U.S. and/or abroad, depending on whether there is a third party provider).
Site Visits
Overseas Study staff and IU faculty routinely conduct site visits to administered and co-sponsored programs. These site visits are conducted in a methodical way and always entail a detailed report. In recent years Overseas Study has requested that all site visit reports be based on a template that has been adapted from the
IES MAP.
The template questions vary, depending on the type of program (direct enrollment, special courses, etc.).
Overseas Study welcomes site visits by faculty who plan to be in a country or city where IU has a program in operation. In these cases, Overseas Study will contribute an honorarium and per diem, as long as the faculty members submit detailed reports to document their visits.
Reviews
On occasion Overseas Study organizes a formal review of a program, usually an administered program, often in conjunction with consortium partners. Programs are reviewed in pre-determined cycles, or the need for a review might be determined by issues that arise during the monitoring process or a site visit.
The review team is comprised of one or more faculty and/or professional staff. For IU programs, the template from the
IES MAP has guided these reviews.
Co-sponsored programs are systematically reviewed by a formal process organized by the agencies themselves and often include IU staff or faculty. In all cases IU has access to the written reports resulting from co-sponsored program reviews.
NOTE: All IU programs are subject to monitoring, as a condition of their approval by OSAC. Should program organizers not submit required reports or supporting materials, they will be subject to losing OSAC approval which would automatically result in the cancellation of the program.
*faculty-led in this context refers to any IU staff who has been approved by a unit or department to provide academic or administrative services for the program.
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