Go Abroad – Laurea University of Applied Sciences

Laurea University of Applied Sciences offers its students various opportunities to study abroad. Exchanges are supported by preparation courses that can be taken in person or online. In addition, students are supported by the international coordinators and faculty of Laurea and the host institution.

Laurea's previous prep-course for outgoing exchange students however did not meet their needs. Feedback collected from all outgoing students after their return stated that they were not fully satisfied with the preparation for their exchange. The development project started in January 2007 by analysing two questionnaires of needs returned by former exchange students.

It became clear that some more preparation before the exchange and much more support during the exchange were needed and the conclusion was that the prep-course should last from the preparation to the evaluation of the exchange. Instead of a prep-course it should be a study unit “support of international mobility”. In addition to the contact with tutor teachers, contact with other exchange students was also found to be very important. Blended learning, a combination of e-learning and contact sessions, was found to be an optimal method of implementation.

Based on these ideas the “Go Abroad” pilot study unit for supporting international student mobility was created and put into use in May 2007 with the first group of students, continuing until the end of the autumn term exchange. A second group of students started in the pilot in autumn 2007 and continued to the end of their spring semester abroad in 2008.

The course includes an interactive online discussion forum for students before, during and after the exchange and the possibility for e-tutoring and e-support during the exchange. Students are also required to do several assignments. The course is delivered using blended learning, in the e-learning platform called Optima.

The course received positive feedback from the students who evaluated the pilot. Students were clearly more satisfied with the support they got from their home institution.

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