Internationalizing the Curriculum
Ready to Internationalize Your Curriculum? Trinity faculty create world-class curriculum. But even the best syllabi can be made even better by incorporating new ideas to further prepare students for the rapidly-evolving world around them. As part of our mission to internationalize campus, Trinity’s Center for International Engagement has compiled the below list of best practices and tips for faculty interested in how to internationalize their courses, from beginner to advanced level. CIE staff are eager to support you in these efforts through workshops, collaborations, and more!
Beginner
Beginner
- Give students extra credit for attending lectures on international topics (e.g. MAS’s Alvarez Seminar).
- Invite CIE staff to come pitch Trinity study abroad programs to your class.
- Encourage your students to study abroad.
- Assign readings written by authors from international or under-represented backgrounds.
- Assign students to watch TED talks or videos by professionals from international or under-represented backgrounds. There are English captions available on most videos, so you can even assign videos spoken in different languages.
Intermediate
- Invite guest speakers into your classroom who can bring a different perspective to the topics you teach (e.g. consider perspectives that are not Western, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic).
- The global is local! Collaborate with local partners and take your class into the San Antonio community and show students how your curriculum is connected to the world around them.
- When assigning literature reviews or research papers, encourage and guide students in finding sources that represent multiple worldviews beyond Western-centric perspectives.
- When creating assignments, think of how you can require or encourage students to engage with and learn from people from international or under-represented backgrounds in order to successfully complete their work (e.g. if students are writing about a certain region of the world, encourage them to talk to international students right on our campus to get their authentic perspectives rather than just reading books/online -- you can even invite international students to your class to speak from their own perspectives).
Advanced
- Add COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) components to your course.
- Take your class Beyond the Classroom -- add a study abroad component to your course.
- Work with CIE staff to invite an international Fulbright scholar to campus, either as a longer-term scholar-in-resident or as a shorter-term guest lecturer.
- Share your own ideas for internationalizing Trinity in collaboration with staff in the Center for International Engagement and widen your impact.
Would you like to incorporate into your courses global knowledge for your students? If so, you are in luck! Check out the CIE's T-Learn page where you can learn more.