Assessing Academic Outcomes

By Alexandra Wood

In an effort to develop strategies that allow us to continually improve academics and student learning on Study Abroad programs, twice a year, CIEE creates an Academic Outcomes Report to take a detailed look into the student academic experience. This report analyzes data, draws conclusions (where sufficient sample size allows), and offers recommendations about course enrollments, student feedback, student grades and class schedules, intercultural development, online learning, and other ongoing initiatives. At this time, the Academic Outcomes report is an internal CIEE document, although we circulate many of its findings via conference presentations and I will share with you some highlights of the most recent mid-year report, published in March 2019, that compares all terms since the baseline academic year 2017.

I am proud to report that academics ratings on Student Program Evaluations continue to increase across program models and regions. We see consistently high academics ratings across terms and locations for the Open Campus Block model, in fact, during Fall 2018, Open Campus ratings surpassed the “exceeds expectations” benchmark (8.0) for academic satisfaction.

The report also showed an increase in Environmental Science majors studying in the Open Campus block model, thanks to the addition of a STEM-focused Open Campus Track in Fall 2018. With the launch of new Global Institutes in four locations, as well as expanded STEM + Psychology course offerings, we expect to see increased enrollment by STEM majors in academic year 2020.

In addition, the report revealed that the  top-enrolled course worldwide is Intercultural Communication and Leadership, while Internship, Business, and language learning courses also remain popular.

Watch this space for findings from our upcoming CIEE Academic Outcomes Reports, including our comprehensive annual report that will be published later this year