As a pilot course for the recently implemented Integrative Experience initiative at UMass Amherst, the Span 394 and 494 sequence has been going through an extensive assessment process. Students filled three different evaluations – the standard UMass course evaluation (SRTI), an on-line evaluation sponsored by the General Education Council, and a third evaluation created by the office of Community Engagement and Service-Learning (CESL). I have been looking forward to the results, and yesterday received the SRTI. I am very pleased that students reacted very positively to the class. I was very happy teaching the class, and expected positive results, but I was overwhelmed by students’ reactions. They appreciated the opportunity to have a safe and open environment to reflect upon their personal life experiences in relation to their majors, and the sense of community that was created in the classroom. Less-experienced students found their interactions with those who had already traveled extensively or had engaged in serious service projects to be very informative and inspiring. Also high in several students’ evaluation were the visits to our class by Ellen Correa of CESL, Caroline Gould of Career Services, and Cristina Sosa of International Programs. These visits introduced them to resources that are available to all students, but who many simply miss in a large campus like ours. Giving a human face to these “offices”, as well as phone and email contacts, opened up important channels of communication.
Another result of this first assessment that positively surprised me was the way in which many students identified the centrality of service-learning. As I mentioned in an earlier post, service-learning came in as a necessary, but less-desirable, alternative for those who were unable or unwilling to study abroad. Yet, despite the fact that the vast majority of the class has plans to go abroad, many emphasized the service-learning discussions, with several actually recommending a service component to be added to the class.
As in any evaluation, students made recommendations to improve the class in the future, and I will be giving all of them careful consideration. Some have to do with content – was the requirement to follow international news on a weekly basis too much, for example? -, while others recommended alternative ways to help students keep focused in a particular end-of-semester project. Another concern raised by some is the three-part nature of the IE program – one semester of preparation, one semester in service, an internship or abroad, and one final semester of reflection. I personally consider this format the most pedagogically sound, basing my assessment on the curriculum of UMass’ Commonwealth Honors College’s International Scholars Program – a program I have been honored to be affiliated with since its origins. Yet, the three-part sequence does create some logistical obstacles to some. What to do, for example, with the student who discovers she may participate in a program abroad for her entire senior year, but is forced to forego this opportunity to complete the final reflection credit? I do hope that most students are able to return for the reflection credit. I am convinced that they will realize the beauty of having a group of close peers with whom to unpack all of their experiences. Experiences that, as we discussed in class, are too many to simply share with family and friends who easily get fed up of listening after a while. The reflective class should also provide us a whole group of students who – as part of the current curriculum – will be expected to be mentors for new cohorts.
I hope that this blog will give us the opportunity to continue the close dialogue we began last semester, that it will be an archive of experiences for future generations, and that, perhaps (in combination with the new web page that I am developing), it might give us the opportunity to incorporate into the reflective component those few students for whom, because of special opportunities, returning for the final credit might not be the best alternative.
I remain in the lookout for the two other assessments, and will keep you posted as to what I learn from them.

Update (July 2, 2013): I just received the CESL evaluations and I am happy to see that the majority of students appreciated the service-learning discussions of the class. Several also recommended actually engaging in some service projects rather than just discussing them. I will certainly be looking into this.