Profile of Katherine Yngve, CILMAR's In-House "Data Whisperer"
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 An integral component of the Intercultural Learning Hub (HubICL) is promoting best practices in teaching and learning. Katherine Yngve, Associate Director of Intercultural Outcomes Assessment at Purdue University's Center for Intercultural Learning, Mentoring, Assessment, and Research (CILMAR) understands that "learning doesn't just happen," and her professional mission is to conceptualize how assessment can make students' intercultural learning experiences deeper and more meaningful.
Upon arriving at Purdue in 2014, some of her first major accomplishments included co-designing and facilitating the Semester Abroad in Intercultural Learning (SAIL) mentoring course now overseen by Dr. Dan Jones and developing the faculty Intercultural Pedagogy Grant (IPG) training curriculum alongside Dr. Kris Acheson-Clair, who is now Director of CILMAR.
Yngve credits her success in landing the position at Purdue to the time she spent at the University of Minnesota's prestigious International Education doctoral program. It was at the University of Minnesota where she was first exposed to a variety of assessment instruments, but her interest in intercultural research stemmed from her experiences as a study abroad advisor. Yngve observed that her interventions weren't necessarily making a difference in what students got out of her study abroad programs, so she realized that there was more she needed to know about how learning occurs.
Yngve characterizes her current role at CILMAR as assessment consultant and “data whisperer.” Her main concern is always with the learning outcomes and the connections between the numbers represented in a piece of data and the people they represent.
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She likes to emphasize that data is “much more than numbers and statistics. It’s a little pattern recognition, but it’s also thinking about the human side.”
Critical to Yngve’s human-centered assessment philosophy is the concept of backwards design, which requires educators to develop curricula and learning experiences with goals and outcomes as the starting point.
Yngve characterizes backwards design as “the soil that nurtured” the HubICL, because all the activities uploaded to the Digital Toolbox are curated with the outcomes from the AAC&U Intercultural Knowledge and Competence VALUE Rubric in mind.
The tools in the Toolbox can also be sorted by type, one of which is assessment. Yngve has uploaded and curated a majority of the 72 assessment tools available on the HubICL. Several of those tools—including the Effective Listening Inventory, the Content Analysis Rubric, and the Behavioral Rubric for Intercultural Competence—were created or adapted by Yngve herself.
However, it is her Assessments collection that she is the most proud of because of the variety it provides to users who are looking for an assessment to fit their context and learning outcomes. For her next contribution, she plans on creating a collection of research studies that would benefit from replication, particularly for K-12 educational research.
Beyond the HubICL, Yngve is also co-authoring a chapter on equity, assessment, and study abroad. Additionally, she, along with Acheson-Clair, Dr. Aletha Stahl, and Dr. Lan Jin, are guest editors for a special issue on assessment as pedagogy in education abroad for Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad. Proposals for the issue will be accepted until July 31, 2020.
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Resources for Adapting Intercultural Learning in the Wake of COVID-19Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, educators at all levels are experiencing an unprecedented challenge to provide virtual/distance learning experiences normally designed for face-to-face environments. To help ease the stress of this abrupt transition, the HubICL team has created several collections with resources and learning activities for online learning:
COIL (Collaborative Online Intercultural Learning) a.k.a. Globally Connected Teaching and Learning a.k.a. International Virtual Education
- This collection is geared toward educators who are interested or already involved in collaborative global learning. It includes activities that can be used in a collaborative online environment as well as resources to help facilitate learning.
Domestic and International Responses to COVID-19
- This collection features news articles and videos that demonstrate how various cultures have been responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. If you are teaching an intercultural learning course—or are looking to incorporate intercultural experiences into your teaching—you can use these sources as the basis for discussions about how culture affects reactions to the pandemic.
On-Line Intercultural Learning Curriculum Resources
- This collection includes links to intercultural certificates and massive open online courses (MOOCs) that can be completed at a learner's own paces. It also spotlights resources for assessing and transitioning to online learning.
Research on Virtual Intercultural Learning
- This collection provides links to peer reviewed studies that address online intercultural exchange, eGroups collaboration, online learning environments, online learning design, online mentoring, and online intercultural courses.
Tools for Distance Learning
- The 97 HubICL tools featured in this collection are either specifically designed for online learning or can be easily adapted to online learning environments. Each post in the collection provides an overview of the tool and how it can be implemented virtually.
Virtual Exchange and Summer 2020 Ideas and Resources
- Since study abroad experiences have largely been cancelled, this collection provides alternatives so students can still get some of the benefits of immersion in another culture. It includes resources on facilitating virtual exchanges and global learning experiences.
New Toolbox Tools from CILMAR WorkshopsThe HubICL is a collaborative space where members can share the intercultural learning activities they have designed and/or used for their own teaching. Periodically, CILMAR hosts workshops that encourage participants to develop and submit their own tools to the HubICL Toolbox. Below you’ll find tools that were submitted by participants of several workshops held in 2019 and 2020.
| Thiagi Tool Creation Workshop—July 2019 |
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Synthesis Through Song
Created by Nastasha E. Johnson, Purdue Libraries & School of Information Studies
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Synthesis Through Song is a think-pair-share activity where students work together to analyze and discuss the cultural norms portrayed through song lyrics. The activity simulates the process of synthesizing resources based on relationships, concepts, and themes.
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Speed Friending
Adapted by Terry Ham, Purdue College of Science
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Adapted from NAFSA and used frequently as an icebreaker activity in a variety of contexts, this version of Speed Friending encourages participants to ask questions that help them recognize the similarities and differences between each other and grow their cultural curiosity.
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Intercultural Development Orientations Classification Card Game
Adapted by Dr. Kris Acheson-Clair, CILMAR
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Adapted from Janet Bennett’s Mindsets paragraph activity, Intercultural Development Orientations Classification Card Game asks participants to associate various statements about culture with the orientations on the Intercultural Development Continuum. As they match the statements with orientations, they will also reflect on their own life experiences and where they may fall on the continuum.
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Study Abroad Advice Card Game
Created by Dr. Kris Acheson-Clair & Lindsey Macdonald, CILMAR, and Purdue Study Abroad Advisers
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In Study Abroad Advice Card Game, participants are provided with a set of cards that each include a piece of advice for students to consider either before, during, or after they study abroad. The object of the game is to narrow down the cards until they have chosen one that they feel offers the most important advice. They will then be asked to explain why they chose that card over others as well as the thought process they used to eliminate cards.
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Universal Cultural or Personal Card Game
Adapted by Dr. Kris Acheson-Clair & Lindsey Macdonald, CILMAR
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Human behavior is complex. While it may be tempting to attribute someone’s actions to “human nature” or some sort of individual quirk, it’s usually not so simple. Therefore, the Universal Cultural or Personal Card Game—adapted from the University of the Pacific’s What’s Up with Culture? modules—aims to get participants thinking critically about three dimensions of human behavior (universal, cultural, and personal) and the nuances between them.
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| HubICL Workshop: Best Practices in Intercultural Learning Tool Creation and Adaptation—December 4, 2019 |
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Where Do You Go When…?
Created by Kristen Seward, Clinical Assistant Professor, Associate Director of the Gifted Education Resource Institute (GERI), Purdue University
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Where Do You Go When...? asks participants to identify and reflect on their “true selves” by considering what a “true self” even means in relation to “other selves” they may enact in different situations. They will also think about when and where they have felt most like themselves and the contexts in which their identities shift.
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Conversation Starters: 200 Questions to Get to Know Someone
Uploaded by Carol Jungman, Intercultural Consultant
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The conversation starters featured in this activity will not only help participants get to know each other but also increase their level of curiosity and enable them to develop active listening skills.
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Mental Mapping
Created by Dr. Nathan Swanson, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Honors and International Programs, Purdue University
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In Mental Mapping, participants gather in small groups to draw, share, and compare their mental maps of a shared space. The goal is to help them better understand how other people experience the same space differently.
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| WISE Pre-Conference Workshop: Best Practices in Intercultural Learning Tool Creation and Adaptation—February 12, 2020 |
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Guided Writing Exercises
Created by Dr. Bonnie Zare, Associate Professor of Sociology, Virginia Tech
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Guided Writing Exercises features 17 prompts that can be used during study abroad or other types of intercultural experiences. The exercises are meant to help participants interpret details from their daily experiences and analyze cultural expectations.
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Intercultural People Bingo
Created by Wendy Nugent, Program Manager of Off-Campus Study, Colgate University
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As an adaptation of the classic Bingo game, Intercultural People Bingo helps participants recognize the similarities and differences between each other and understand why some characteristics may not be obvious right away. It is best used as an icebreaker.
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Happy 10th Birthday!
Created by Dr. Jennifer M. Miskec, Program of English, Longwood University
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In Happy 10th Birthday!, participants are challenged with designing a child's birthday party that reflects cultural trends and values that they have discovered while studying abroad or researching a culture different from their own.
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Please upload your original or adapted tools here to have them included in the July issue of the HubICL Hubbub.
The HubICL Introduces a New Feature in the Toolbox: Lesson PlansAs you were browsing through the Toolbox, you may have noticed that some of the tools now have a notebook  icon next to them. If you hover over that icon, you’ll see the words “Download lesson plan.” Lesson plans are a new feature on the HubICL, and they incorporate the information provided in the tabs of each tool all into one document. Each lesson plan includes an overview of the tool, learning objectives, duration of activity, group size, materials, theoretical frameworks, activity instructions (or links to them), and a list of related tools. These lesson plans are designed to improve the user experience of the HubICL and give members the option to “download and go” as they prepare intercultural learning experiences.
The following 36 tools now include downloadable lesson plans:
HubICL Growth
As of April 2020, the HubICL has reached 1,709 members and 541 tools in the Toolbox! The HubICL membership spans 482 institutions of higher education, 122 private/nonprofit/government organizations, and 41 K-12 institutions.
The HubICL was created by Purdue University's Center for Intercultural Learning, Mentorship, Assessment, and Research (CILMAR)
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