Degree Name

MA in International Education

First Advisor

Richard Rodman

Abstract

This capstone project proposes an innovative idea for the use of online social networking sites within the World Learning Alumni Relations office. The Intercultural Updates Program (IUP) offers an informal learning opportunity for use on the current World Learning Facebook page. The IUP offers alumni of World Learning’s programs a fresh way to remain informed about one of the core values of the organization, intercultural competency. By using a popular and engaging online format with a rapidly expanding membership, World Learning will further its reputation as an innovator of educational ideas. The innovation will connect World Learning alumni and it will offer increased exposure of World Learning in this medium. IUP is not a traditional online course with formal content; it is a program that uses dynamic web content to pique the interest of alumni in a topic and give them appealing ways to continue learning offline. Using Facebook as the vehicle for IUP takes advantage of the interpersonal connections on social networks, thus strengthening the alumni connections to each other and to World Learning. The current trend in person-to-person communication clearly is in social networking websites. Making use of social networking is crucial to that major goal of international education: to give people the opportunity to make and maintain relationships with those of other cultures. This CLC capstone project taps and utilizes the social networking capabilities of the Facebook, but, more importantly it introduces a “curriculum” for valued-based, experiential learning.

Keywords: social networking site, e-learning, intercultural competency

Disciplines

Civic and Community Engagement | Communication Technology and New Media | Mass Communication | Organizational Communication

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