The Guarini Institute has seen a decline in Dartmouth students studying abroad and sought to understand:
🗣️ What are the primary motivations and disincentives for students to study off-campus?
🌍 What kinds of programs are students interested in? What destinations are most appealing? What topics, questions, and experiences are students most keen to explore through off-campus programs?
đź“‹Â What other factors need to be addressed in initiating and executing off-campus programs that appeal to students?
The Design Corps team identified a series of key insights to improve current programs and increasing participation in off-campus programs. These insights include:
Improving current programs:
Increasing participation in programs:
Project Details
Project Partner: Frank J. Guarini Institute for International Education and the Dartmouth College Committee on Off-Campus Activities (COCA)
Project Timeline: 6 weeks
Together, the Frank J. Guarini Institute for International Education and the Dartmouth College Committee on Off-Campus Activities (COCA) oversee all programs that take students away from Hanover: Foreign Study Programs (FSP), Language Study Abroad Programs (LSA and LSA+), Domestic Study Programs (DSP), and exchange programs. Dartmouth has long been known for its robust off-campus program portfolio, but recent years have seen a declining number of students participating in these programs even while the number of program locations and offerings has grown.
The Guarini Institute sought to understand the declining trend of students studying abroad and where they could be improving their programmatic offerings, and partnered with a team of Design Corps students research this challenge.
The Team conducted preliminary interviews with students to create the most clear, effective, and thorough survey and interview guide. After getting additional feedback from members of the Guarini Institute, they reached out to students and conducted sixteen one-on-one interviews. In order to incentivize responses to their survey, they raffled off three $50 Amazon gift cards to survey respondents. The team’s Qualtrics survey generated 385 completed responses from a diversity of class years, majors, and experience with off-campus programs.
The Design Corps team discovered a number of insights from their primary research that they presented to Committee on Off-Campus Affairs. They specifically focused on 1) how students hear about off-campus opportunities
factors students consider before participating in off-campus programs;
motivations to participate in off-campus programs; and
disincentives to participate in off-campus programs.
From the feedback from student respondents and interviewees, the Design Corps team distilled some potential changes and recommendations. For improving current off-campus programs, they advised providing more flexibility in programs. Students wanted slightly less programming, and more opportunities to explore on their own. They also advised more social and cultural integration, as students wished they had more interactions with people beyond their insular Dartmouth cohort. They recommended programs to have a weekly mixer with local university students for the Dartmouth group to meet local young people. Lastly, they advised more intentional building of group dynamics and norms before the program, to lessen some students’ feelings of exclusion or social isolation.
For increasing participating in off-campus programs, they recommended more proportionality between popular majors and number programs offered; allowing students to take at least one major-related course during Language Study Abroads; experiential programs for students to conduct research or work at companies while on off-campus programs; and providing college-facilitated athletic facilities to help student athletes to continue training for their sports while abroad.
“We really enjoyed working on this project for the Guarini Institute. We especially loved the responsiveness, support, and enthusiasm we received from our wonderful project partners. We are grateful for the opportunity to tackle this task and gain crucial experience conducting primary research and gathering insights.” - The Guarini Design Corps Team