Meeting in Person, Studying Online: Designing and Implementing a Hybrid Exchange Program

　This article describes an educational partnership between The American Women’s College (TAWC) of Bay Path University in the United States and Jissen Women’s University (JWU) in Japan. The program featured here comprises three parts. First, a group of six students from JWU traveled to the United States to visit the Bay Path campus and to meet a group of five TAWC students. This was followed by a shared online course in which both groups of students participated. Finally, the TAWC students traveled to Japan to learn about the culture and to reunite with their JWU classmates. This partnership was made possible through the generous support of TeamUp and the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission

Virtual Internationalization: What and Why

In the coming academic year, Jissen Women’s University will partner with the American Women’s College at Bay Path University in the United States to provide a shared course focused on women’s leadership. While this partnership entails students’ visiting each other’s country and campus, the collaborative component, a project for which students explore the topic of women’s leadership from their different cultural perspectives, will take place virtually. To accomplish this, the course design will adhere to the guidelines of COIL, Collaborative Online International Learning, an educational paradigm put forth by the State University of New York (SUNY). The purposes of this paper are to provide a brief description of COIL and to place it in the context of the larger movement of virtual internationalization in education

Nine Practical Measures for Mixed-level Classes

In this essay, I share nine teaching techniques that have proven useful in the English classes I have taught. Though varied, these techniques have in common that they are useful in mixed-level classes. Some are simple practices that instructors can incorporate into their lessons with little preparation. Others include homework assignments that could be used in nearly any type of course. Two overarching themes characterize these techniques. First is that of students defining success through tracking their own progress and making improvements based on their assessments of themselves. The second theme present in these techniques is that of building a supportive classroom culture

Toward a Definition of Study Abroad Success

　This paper presents a rationale and method for collecting critical incidents from university students who have returned from studying abroad. There are three main benefits to this process. First, it appears beneficial for students to record and reflect on their experiences abroad. Second, a collection of critical incidents, through analysis, can yield patterns of student experiences that can, in turn, inform decision making about the study-abroad program at a given institution. Third, critical incidents can be incorporated into training session for students preparing to study abroad. This paper includes a sampling of critical incidents and subjective reflections from students attending a women’s university in Japan

Reflection and Peer Support in the Mixed-Level Language Classroom

This paper on mixed-level language classes includes a brief review of literature on the topic of mixedlevel language education and goes on to present a classroom activity designed to maximize student speaking time in a mixed-level environment while also providing periods of ref lection and peer conversation in L1. This activity is then viewed in the light of Kolb’s (1984) model of experiential learning. In addition, a summary of student response to the speaking activity is presented in the form of survey results