Maximize your exchange experience with two new online courses just for exchange students
Going on exchange is a new and exciting adventure, and is a wonderful opportunity for personal and academic growth. To help you make the most of your exchange experience, we have developed two innovative new courses – GS396 and GS397 – designed to enhance and complement your time abroad. Both courses are offered completely online. They are worth 0.25 credits each, so you’ll need to take both courses to get a full 0.5 credit towards your degree, and to benefit from the integrated pre-departure and on-exchange learning experience.
The courses were developed by the Department of Global Studies, which has years of experience preparing students for experiential learning abroad, but they are open to students from all programs!
GS396: Semester Abroad: Pre-Departure Learning
This course will prepare you for your intercultural learning experience and enhance your understanding of your host country and its contexts. You will be introduced to experiential learning and intercultural practice, develop self-reflective skills and techniques, and increase your appreciation of the complexity of global societies and cultures. Through the work in this course, you will explore the multiple and complex meanings of going abroad.
GS396 is offered during the Spring 2019 semester as a compressed three-week online course that runs from July 29 to August 16, scheduled to leave you primed for your exchange
Prerequisites: Acceptance by Laurier International for an academic exchange.
GS397: Semester Abroad: On-Exchange Experience
This course delivers a facilitated program for self-reflection while you are abroad and provides you with tools for critical observations of your host country. You will explore your learning abroad with journaling, reflection and current events analysis at the heart of the course. You will also have an ongoing connection to and feedback with Laurier faculty during your exchange.
GS397 is offered during the Fall 2019 semester as a 12-week course that aligns with your time abroad, allowing you to reflect on the entire span of your experience while on exchange
Prerequisites: GS396
Tuition Information
You will pay tuition for 0.25 Arts credits (GS396) during spring semester. While you are on exchange, you will pay the normal tuition for 2.5 credits for your program as well as for an additional 0.25 Arts credits (GS397). Review the tuition fees chart for more information.
What to Expect in an Online Course
If you’ve never taken a course online before, you might be wondering how it works.
Course content, such as readings, videos and assignments, is accessed through MyLearningSpace and all assignments are submitted through the MyLS dropbox. You will need to progress through the coursework on a pace that is set by the reading and assignment submission expectations, but you do not have to be online at a specific time. GS396 and GS397 have been intentionally developed to provide a supportive, ongoing learning connection to Laurier faculty before and during an exchange.
Each course is worth 0.25 credits and will have the equivalent of 18 hours of class work, as well as reading and assignment completion time.
Register Now!
To register for these courses, or if you have any questions, please contact Vanessa McMackin in the Global Studies office at vmcmackin@wlu.ca. Vanessa can also give you more information about the course syllabus for GS396. The syllabus for GS397 will be finalized soon.