Assessing Global Awareness over Short-Term Study Abroad Sequence: A Factor Analysis

Abstract

Over the past 10 years, U.S. undergraduate participation in study abroad has increased dramatically.  The majority of these study abroad experiences have durations of less than eight weeks.  Due to the rapid growth in both of these areas, there has been increased interest in assessing student outcomes associated with short-term study abroad (STSA) programs.  This paper investigates the impact of an STSA experience on undergraduate students' levels of global awareness over the entire STSA sequence: pre-preparatory course, post-preparatory course, and post-STSA program.  We adopt and extend the measures constructed in Chieffo and Griffiths (2004),by implementing a longitudinal study across 23 separate STSA courses. Findings indicate that students’ global awareness does not change significantly after the preparatory course, but that students' levels of global awareness experience statistically significant increases along several dimensions  after completing the STSA program.  We also find that students who have completed a previous study abroad experience still benefit from an additional STSA course.