University Provides Virtual Option To Study Abroad Programs Suspended During Pandemic
As American colleges and universities continue to suspend study abroad programs to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, officials at Purdue University say they've developed a viable virtual option.
Virtual Experiential Intercultural Learning (VEIL) is designed to give students the opportunity to consume information from different cultures from other regions of the world. It covers a variety of academic studies.
Ten programs that include around 100 students are currently taking place in the new program this fall on campus.
"They can work together with individuals who probably think differently than they do, approach problem solving differently, and it helps them develop these strong intercultural skills of learning how to adapt to different styles and different ways of thinking," said Purdue's Dean of International Programs Mike Brzezinski.
Students in John Sheffield's applied thermodynamics class at the Purdue Polytechnic Institute, for example, are working with faculty and students at the University of Engineering and Technology and the National University of Engineering in Peru for a semester team project on renewable energy.
"The traditional final exam for Applied Thermodynamics will be replaced by this semester-long project," Sheffield said.
The Black Cultural Center on campus will also host an interactive program this academic year in lieu of a scheduled trip in May to Brazil.
Brzezinski set out in May with his staff to find ways faculty and students could still have intercultural learning experiences. He says the program won't be limited to just one semester.
"Only about 30 percent of our students who graduate from Purdue at the undergraduate level, ever do study abroad. There is a large number you know 70 percent that don't. So this virtual experience will be I think something that will be with us into the future and will be very beneficial and helpful to the student experience here at the university,," he told CBS affiliate WLFI.
