So happy to be back at WISE!

Global Wake Forest’s Workshop on Intercultural Skills Enhancement (WISE) is a yearly highlight for many interculturalists. This year Purdue’s CILMAR staff was represented at WISE by Annette Benson, senior public relations strategist;  Kelsey Patton, intercultural learning specialist; Alankrita Chhikara, post-doctoral research associate; and Aparajita Jaiswal, intercultural research specialist. 

Also presenting at WISE from Purdue University was our colleague Natasha Harris, Associate Director of Diversity, College of Science, and we were happy to make the acquaintance of Rosalba Ledezma, a PhD student, from Purdue's College of Education.

                                                                                          

                                                                        (Kelsey, Annette, Alankrita, Aparajita)                         (One participant said, "I was hanging on Natasha's every word, and that's saying a lot on a Saturday morning!")

Several of the CILMAR slide decks for the presentations given at WISE, along with the additional resources provided, can be found in the HubICL Collections:

• Dynamic Exercises to Shift Debriefing Time from Mundane to Transformative
• Learner Development in Semester Abroad in Intercultural Learning, an overview of the GLUE curriculum which will be available to other institutions through annual license by the end of 2024
• Scaling up Intercultural Learning on Campus: Curricular Innovation for any Discipline, an overview of Portable Intercultural Modules (PIM) which we are beginning to make accessible to campuses beyond Purdue-West Lafayette
• Teaching Intercultural Curiosity that Builds Bridges instead of Barricades

An annual highlight at WISE

One of the many highlights of WISE is getting to be able to put faces with long-time users of the HubICL. That was especially true in 2024 as we gathered together to celebrate a 5-year collaboration between WISE and the Intercultural Learning Hub (HubICL) with birthday cupcakes and prizes for frequent HubICL users.

                                                                 

In preparation for WISE this year, we discovered that 21 of the 180 WISE participants were regular users of the HubICL, with hundreds of days between their first and last login. The number in the third column indicates where these WISE participants rank in HubICL use as of March 1, 2024. They include:

Name	Institution of Higher Learning	Ranking among all other users	# Days between first and last login
Natasha Harris	Purdue University	6	1963
Sue Mathias	Duke University	8	1933
Tara Harvey	True North Intercultural	10	1891
Rachel Fitzgerald	Virginia Tech	72	1473
Kristofor Wiley	James Madison University	73	1457
Tiffany MacQuarrie	Pennsylvania State University	89	1405
Stephanie Guzman	University of North Carolina-Greensboro	99	1332
Melanie Robbins	East Carolina University	102	1325
Jean-Marc Hachey	MyWorldAbroad	118	1260
Erin Smith	James Madison University	130	1215
Mary MacKenty	CEA CAPA	155	1141
Nikki Mattson	Pennsylvania State University	172	1064
Courtney Johnson Fowler	Denison University	184	1009
Sandra Lisle McMullen	Wake Forest University	188	988
Meredith Doran	Pennsylvania State University	243	855
Sarah Kegley	Georgia Institute of Technology	248	833
Lisa Lambert Snodgrass	Purdue University	348	650
Purificacion Martinez	East Carolina University	455	455
Anita Deeg-Carlin	Wesleyan University	522	375
​Iuliia Hoban	Embry-Riddle University	698	200

Of course, these numbers are representative only of visits in which users logged in—which is no longer necessary!

Spotlight on Pennsylvania State University

Present at this year’s WISE conference were three long-time users of the HubICL from Penn State:

Dr. Meredith Doran, Director, English for Professional Purposes Intercultural Center/Associate Teaching Professor

Tiffany Macquarrie, Associate Director for Global Academic Engagement

Nikki Mattson, Teaching Professor, Intensive English Communication Program (IECP)/Experiential Digital Global Engagement (EDGE) Global Learning Coordinator

                            

                           (Left to right: Tiffany, Meredith, Nikki)

All three graciously agreed to be interviewed about how the HubICL assists with their work at Penn State.

Annette: Let’s begin with what might be the most important question of all, regardless of whether you use the HubICL: why is intercultural learning, assessment, research, etc. important to you?

Tiffany: Put succinctly, it forms the foundation for my work in global learning.

Meredith: As a longtime language educator, intercultural learning has always been a central component of my teaching and research.  In more recent years, as director of an intercultural center at Penn State, I have had the pleasure of planning and implementing intercultural learning and intercultural communication initiatives across multiple university units that reach a combination of students, faculty and staff. This work is very gratifying.

Nikki: It is an essential component in all three of my professional roles at the IECP, in the Global Engagement Community, the work that I do for EDGE. I am also committed to the process of intercultural exploration and learning for my own growth and development.

Annette: As you know, the HubICL administrative interface only tells me when people first create an account and the last time that they log in. For example, this could mean that you’ve logged in only twice, Tiffany—once on April 19, 2020 and again on February 23, 2024, with no visits at all in between…or it could mean that you had logged in many times between those two dates. Do you all use the HubICL often?

Tiffany: I have definitely used the HubICL more than twice! My biggest use in the past has been at the beginning of the semester, when I’ve used the HubICL Toolbox to insert activities into my syllabi. However, with my new position in Global Engagement, I will use it more frequently as I plan professional development opportunities and create resources for faculty.

Meredith: When we were drafting a proposal for faculty professional development in Global Learning, and then planning its pilot implementation, we visited the HubICL several times a week over more than a year.

Nikki: I would say that my use of the HubICL goes in waves. For example, I used it quite a bit when I was putting together suggested post-Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) resources for groups that wanted to continue to explore intercultural development on campus. I also consulted HubICL frequently when I was developing an intercultural communication and development course at the Intensive English Communication Program (IECP). And I visit HubICL from time to time to find new-to-me activities for a Global Engagement Seminar Course (APLNG 297) that I teach each semester. In fact, just last week, I found this video about empathy and used it in that class.

Annette: When we originally created the HubICL, we thought that the Toolbox would be the most used feature of the HubICL. Is that true for you?

Tiffany:  The Toolbox has always been my favorite for my classroom. I loved being able to access activities (and complete lesson plans) to help prepare my students for their COIL/EDGE project. I also have the site linked as a faculty resource on our EDGE website.

After attending the WISE conference and seeing other features available, I am eager to explore the Professional Development Zone and Collections.

Meredith: in developing new faculty support programming in Global Learning and Intercultural Learning at Penn State, we have found the HubICL’s Professional Development Zone to be an invaluable source of reference materials, assessment tools and more. We are very grateful for the amazing collection of resources that HubICL offers!

Nikki:  Like Tiffany, I use the Toolbox, but I think I may use it differently. I think the Toolbox is a great resource for finding ideas and tools to support intercultural communication and learning. I also like the Collections – especially if I am looking for curated resources around a certain topic or purposes (i.e., survey instruments, rubrics, toolkits, etc.)

Annette: As we wrap up, would you like to give a shout-out to a 4-legged friend or two who might work alongside you as you search the HubICL?

Tiffany: No, I don't have any four-legged workmates, just the uninvited ladybugs that enter my workspace without permission.

Meredith:  My dear silver lab, Callie, is a great work companion for me!

Nikki: I have a border collie mix, Emma, who is usually very close to my side, especially if there is a thunderstorm! I also have a black and white cat named Daisy who sometimes sits on my keyboard and lets me know that it is time to take a break from working :-).

A Big Thank You to All of Our Users

Thank you to all of our HubICL users! According to Google Analytics, there were more HubICL users in February 2024 than in any February previously, and the HubICL enjoyed a day in February with 96 users, well above the 50 users usually in the HubICL on weekdays.

 

1. CILMAR
2. Global Wake Forest
3. HubICL
4. HubICL Days Club
5. HubICL PDZ
6. HubICL Toolbox
7. Penn State Global