Skip to main content

Global Learning Course Designation

Deadline to submit: Fourth Friday of Fall or Spring Semesters

Submission Materials:

Contact:

HIP@ucf.edu

Definition of Global Learning (GL)

The University of Central Florida defines Global Learning (GL) courses as those that offer students a chance to explore symbiotic, international systems and their impacts on humanity from multiple points of view.  AAC&U defines global learning as “a critical analysis of and an engagement with complex, interdependent global systems and legacies (such as natural, physical, social, cultural, economic, and political) and their implications for people’s lives and the earth’s sustainability.  Through global learning, students should:

  1. become informed, open-minded, and responsible people who are attentive to diversity across the spectrum of differences,
  2. seek to understand how their actions affect both local and global communities, and
  3. address the world’s most pressing and enduring issues collaboratively and equitably.”

GL courses at UCF will prepare students to consider issues from multiple perspectives, and to ethically and collaboratively contribute to discussions about and finding solutions to issues faced by international organizations and the people impacted by their activities.

There are several academic activities that are central components of a GL course:

  • Intercultural competencies—whereby students learn to think and act appropriately, and to communicate and work with people from different cultural backgrounds.
  • High-Impact Practices (HIPs)—in which students participate in educational experiences that demand considerable time and effort, facilitate learning outside of the classroom, and require meaningful interactions with faculty and other students.
  • Metacognition—in which students develop self-awareness and the ability to reflect and learn from their experiences.

For more information about HIPs, visit HIP Information for Faculty.

Why have a GL Designation for your Course?

  • To enhance students learning by making learning objectives intentional, high impact, and connected to real-world and civic contexts.
  • To document global learning experiences taking place in the university classroom.
  • To promote a standard of excellence for global learning experiences in university courses.
  • To set student expectations for the rigor of a GL course.
  • To support UCF strategic plan to “innovate academic … models to transform higher education.”
  • To acknowledge, through its official university designation, the innovative work and accomplishments of students and faculty engaging in GL courses.

Criteria

The basic criteria for designating a Global Learning (GL) course at UCF is that through the course students will accomplish the following:

  1. Complete structured assignments that allow students to articulate their consideration and understanding of interdependent systems
  2. Adapt and apply intercultural, discipline-specific skills, abilities, theories, or methodologies to solve difficult problems or explore complex issues
  3. Connect core knowledge and skills of the course to real-world professional and civic contexts
  4. Participate in meaningful interactions that include diverse experiences and/or perspectives
  5. Articulate knowledge, skills, and qualifications to diverse audiences both within and beyond the university
  6. Engage in structured reflections that connect course experiences to the development of global citizenship.

Please review the GL Evaluation Rubric.

Note: Because study abroad opportunities are already high impact practices, study abroad courses are not eligible for the GL designation.

Procedure to Submit

  1. Submissions are accepted each semester, due by the fourth Friday of the start of classes, for course designation beginning the following semester.
  2. Review the GL Course Designation Rubric, making any necessary changes to your syllabus to meet these requirements. Note that to qualify a course must contain all six of the criteria, though courses may focus primarily two areas, with secondary focus on the others.
  3. Complete the HIP Course Designation Form to demonstrate how your course meets the evaluation criteria for GL designation.
  4. Submissions will then undergo committee review, with approved course designations being implemented the following semester. Should a submission require any revisions, the faculty member will receive feedback and may submit again the same semester; courses requiring substantial revisions may choose to submit materials the following semester.   

Designation Levels

The HIP Courses Designations (Global Learning, Research Intensive, Service Learning, and Integrative-Learning Experience) can all be obtained at either the instructor or course level. Course sequences may also be considered for IE course designations; please contact HIP@ucf.edu to discuss options.  

Instructor-Level Designation

This type of designation follows the instructor who has submitted their course section for designation. If there are multiple faculty members teaching this course, only the faculty member’s course with an instructor-level designation will have the Integrative-Learning Experience course attribute.

Course-Level Designation

Departments may submit courses to be designated at the course level. This means that all instructors for the course, whether there is one or multiple instructors, will teach the course in accordance with the Integrative-Learning Experience designation requirements.

Course-level designation means that all sections have common learning outcomes, final outcomes, and similar assessment practices that meet all required components of the IE Rubric. Additionally, course-level designations require that all sections are taught and graded by a content expert in the field with a terminal degree and/or permanent faculty appointment.  

If there are multiple instructors, but everyone uses the same syllabus, then only that syllabus needs to be submitted. If the content varies, sample syllabi must be submitted as one PDF.

Example: If a careers course contains the same learning outcomes and end-of-term deliverable (e.g. mock interview or professional website), but each instructor teaches those outcomes using a variety of strategies and formative assessments, sample syllabi are needed.

To request a course-level designation, select this option on your submission form, which will populate a Course-Level GL MOU to be routed to your department chair to sign.

Global Learning Syllabus Statement

(required for GL designated courses):

Global Learning Course Description: This description and the bulleted components of a GL course should be placed after the general course description in the syllabus.

This course will be a Global Learning-designated course.  The University of Central Florida defines Global Learning (GL) courses as those that offer students a chance to explore symbiotic, international systems and their impacts on humanity from multiple points of view.  AAC&U defines global learning as “a critical analysis of and an engagement with complex, interdependent global systems and legacies (such as natural, physical, social, cultural, economic, and political) and their implications for people’s lives and the earth’s sustainability.  Through global learning, students should 1) become informed, open-minded, and responsible people who are attentive to diversity across the spectrum of differences, 2) seek to understand how their actions affect both local and global communities, and 3) address the world’s most pressing and enduring issues collaboratively and equitably.” GL courses at UCF will prepare students to ethically and collaboratively contribute to discussions about and finding solutions to issues faced by international organizations and the people impacted by their activities.

There are several academic activities that are central components of a GL course:

  • Intercultural competencies—whereby students learn to think and act appropriately, and to communicate and work with people from different cultural backgrounds.
  • High-Impact Practices (HIPs)—in which students participate in educational experiences that demand considerable time and effort, facilitate learning outside of the classroom, and require meaningful interactions with faculty and other students.
  • Metacognition—in which students develop self-awareness and the ability to reflect and learn from their experiences.

Global Learning Course Objectives: This description and the six (6) bulleted objectives of a GL course should be placed after the general course objectives in the syllabus.

This course will be a Global Learning-designated course.  The University of Central Florida defines Global Learning (GL) courses as those that offer students a chance to explore symbiotic, international systems and their impacts on humanity from multiple points of view.  As such, the work you complete will address all of the four objectives below:

  • Global Learning Criterion 2.1: Demonstrate understanding of a global aspect of a natural or manmade system, issue, practice or process and its influence on human life. 
  • Global Learning Criterion 2.2: Explain perspectives different from their own of a global natural or manmade system, issue, practice, or process. 
  • Global Learning Criterion 2.3: Address a cross-boundary problem or issue: Apply core course concepts to a natural or manmade global system 
  • Global Learning Criterion 2.4: Encounter interactions that include diverse experiences or perspectives outside the classroom 

Additionally, students will complete work that addresses one or both of these objectives during the term:

  • Global Learning Criterion 3.1: Communicate lessons learned, new knowledge or perspectives to a wider audience 
  • Global Learning Criterion 3.2: Reflect on growth/change in personal appreciation for global systems and application to career and life goals.”

Resources

UCF Resources

Faculty Center for Teaching & Learning (FCTL)

Office of Diversity & Inclusion (ODI)

Library

Center for Distributed Learning (CDL)

Current GL-designated Courses & Materials

Outside Resources

The resources listed below are provided to help faculty members who are interested in earning the Global Learning (GL) designation for their courses gain a better understanding of GL and how its tenets are applied to GL courses from other universities.

AAC&U

AAC&U Publications

Florida International University

Online Journal Articles:

Global, international, and intercultural learning in university classrooms across the disciplines (2020): https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1745499920901947

For additional resources, consider searching for “Global learning in (name of your field)”

Sample syllabi and worksheets

Please email HIP@ucf.edu for examples of applications that were approved for the GL course designation.

Contact

For questions or to schedule a one-on-one appointment to discuss your course and the GL application, email HIP@ucf.edu.