International students face unique challenges in their transition to post-secondary studies, including integrating and building strong relationships with their campus communities. To address this, Georgian College developed a series of six educational modules to help faculty foster a culturally inclusive learning environment within their classrooms. Using a two-phased, mixed-methods approach, our independently contracted evaluation team assessed the content and interface of these modules. In the first phase, n=12 Georgian College and ILAC faculty completed think-aloud interviews about the comprehensibility, breadth of subject matter, strengths, gaps, and applicability of the content across different modes of teaching. Georgian College international students (n=16) participated in focus groups to provide their perspectives on module content. Georgian College’s content developers used this feedback to revise the modules accordingly. In the second evaluation phase, modules were distributed to the population of Georgian College faculty. Faculty users completed module-embedded surveys to report on user satisfaction, comprehensibility, and breadth of content. Phase I qualitative data showed that the modules’ strengths included their intuitive interface, comprehensibility, and the suitability of content for faculty of all experience levels. Faculty appreciated the self-paced study that modules provide, but desired in-depth training opportunities that are tailored towards working with specific student populations. Phase II quantitative data provided seldom-available, independent quality assessment of the modules that is of use to other post-secondary institutions considering the resource. Taken together, data suggest that Georgian College’s new culturally-inclusive learning modules have the potential to be part of an evidence-informed institutional strategy to better support international students.

Authors: Hafsa Siddiqui, Chris Armiento, Deborah Scharf

Published in: Canada International Conference on Education, 2024

• Date of Conference: 23-25 July, 2024
• DOI: 10.20533/CICE.2024.0069
• Electronic ISBN: 978-1-913572-65-5
• Conference Location: Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Canada