By: Claire Quigle

The partnership with Oslo is a joint virtual mobility learning project for internationalization for higher education. The collaboration between the UI College of Education and Oslo encourages internationalization in the graduate curriculum.

Cassie Barnhardt, associate professor and director of Graduate Studies at the University of Iowa College of Education, explains how this partnership allows graduate students to have a study abroad experience without ever leaving the United States.

“Graduate students rarely have the opportunity to study abroad like undergraduates do, so rather than creating an international experience by centering the study abroad mission, we decided to center the international pedagogy in collaboration through research at the graduate level,” says Barnhardt.

The Higher Education and Student Affairs program at the University of Iowa College of Education is paired with an equivalent higher education program at the University of Oslo. Professors integrate combined classroom assignments, combined learning, combined professional development, and physical mobility. This partnership engages scholars from all over the world to come into classrooms, and they work to optimize technology to allow for learning and experiencing internationalization at home. More than just students being exposed to other cultures, it is about helping students develop international professional research networks.

Through this partnership, students are able to be at the ground level planning, organizing, and creating the type of content and the type of learning that they want. Within the collaboration, there is flexibility where they can collaborate and design their projects around their goals.

To view a video on the Oslo project, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_GLSumA1Os&feature=youtu.be