The Global Learning Experience (GLE) is DePaul University’s award-winning virtual exchange program, aimed at facilitating interactions between its student population and the student populations of international partner institutions, through the innovative collaboration between respective faculty members. GLEs aim to increase the number of valuable, transformative intercultural experiences to which students are exposed through the use of web-based instructional technologies, expanding students' access to global opportunities, and helping them improve their virtual global collaboration skills, which many employers require. In this program, DePaul faculty connect with an international partner who teaches in a similar discipline, attend a professional development workshop, develop a GLE project with concrete goals and deliverables, and implement it in one of their existing courses. GLE projects vary in scope and duration, but typically last between five and eight weeks. Funds to support GLE projects is available.
All full- and part-time faculty are eligible for this program.
Since the program launched in 2013, we have offered numerous courses with GLE components across a variety of disciplines, many of which are showcased here.
For more information about the program, please visit here or email gleprogram@depaul.edu.
Interaction between students is aimed at maximizing the richness and intensity of intercultural exposure with meaningful and thoughtful experiences. Opportunities for empathy-building (ice-breakers) and reflection in a multicultural context are required. Several implementation models are possible and creativity is encouraged. Some examples include:
- Case study simulations: students act as international teams, responding to a crisis, completing weekly tasks and delivering professional reports.
- Joint research and problem solving: students collaborate on a UN Sustainable Development Goal (SGD) project, analyzing impact.
- Media and culture production: students work together to produce joint deliverables, exploring different educational systems.
- Industry/Policy projects: students create joint policy recommendations.
- Synchronous lectures delivered jointly with mixed, small group discussions and follow-up group assignments.
- Multimedia assignments and group presentations.
- Peer review of student work.
- Group assignments resulting in jointly prepared presentations (delivered either synchronously or via multimedia) or case studies.
- Structured (a)synchronous discussions: online debates, student-led discussion on content, student-generated case study discussions.
- Recorded, short presentations by guest speakers as a catalyst for (a)synchronous follow-up discussions in small or large groups, with assigned final deliverables.
- Shared subject matter analysis: students conduct research and produce a joint research paper or conference presentation.
Any two faculty members, one from DePaul and one from an international partner institution, can propose a GLE.
The Office of Curriculum Internationalization (gleprogram@depaul.edu) can assist with the communication between the two institutions and with facilitating faculty pairings.
Once identified, each pair of faculty chooses one DePaul course and one course at the partner institution that they are already scheduled to teach (or can request to teach with reasonable probability of success) in the near future and whose respective level, expected student population, content, and learning goals overlap or complement one another.
The typical duration of a GLE project is 5-8 weeks (in a 10-week DePaul term). GLEs can vary from one shared assignment all the way to an entire co-taught course. Given the frequent disparity in calendars between the quarter-based system at DePaul and the semester-based system at most other institutions, it may not be possible to share an entire course from beginning to end. Faculty should agree in advance on the objectives, scope, and exact duration of the shared experience.
DePaul University's Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) will assist faculty with the design, development, and implementation of the shared experience. One learning experience designer (LXD) will be assigned to each pair of faculty. The LXD will attend an initial meeting with the two faculty members in order to identify the scope, type, and duration of the shared interaction and will suggest the best teaching strategies and technologies to support the objectives of the interaction.
If you are a DePaul faculty member, please email gleprogram@depaul.edu.
If you are a professor from an international partner school, interested in collaborating with a DePaul professor on a GLE project, please take a moment to complete our Expression of Interest form. A GLE representative will review your submission and contact you with more information.
If you are a representative from a domestic or international partner school and are interested in exploring professional development opportunities for virtual exchange/COIL offered by DePaul, visit https://go.depaul.edu/veforyou. For further inquies, please email the GLE team at gleprogram@depaul.edu.