Since the spring of 2019, Global Initiatives, through its Center for American and World Cultures (CAWC) has provided IGD experiences to students through three formats including a 3-credit course, IDS 253: Voices of Discovery: Intergroup Dialogue, which is offered in the spring and fall semesters. Faculty members can embed a shorter version of IGD into existing undergraduate or graduate-level courses through one of the following two options:
- IDS 151(+1 credit), a shorter, introductory version of IDS 253 which faculty members or departments can add to another course-increasing the number of credits by one; and
- Intro to Voices (ITV), a co-curricular version of IDS 151 which can be embedded into an existing course by a sponsoring faculty member or department.
To request a consultation about options for embedding IGD into your course, please contact Tarah Trueblood (ttrueblood@MiamiOH.edu).
There is an increasing number of student IGD programs nationwide which presents an opportunity to assess the value of a diversity education effort across institutions. Success in delivering learning goals for Voices has been assessed since inception by Miami’s Discovery Center using a national multi-university evaluation survey tool. Voices is also evaluated through CQ, a cultural intelligence instrument implemented at Farmer School of Business.
As stated in the most recent evaluation report of the Discovery Center, when combining all of the prior semesters of student survey data:
Voices students reported gains consistent with those of the peer institution cohort in many significant measures. Voices students reported larger positive changes in communicating with people from other groups, confidence levels of taking self- and other-directed actions, confidence levels of intergroup collaboration, anticipated post-college involvement in redressing inequalities, involvement in social justice activities at Miami, and skills in dealing with conflict.
Assessment data show that IDS 253, IDS 151, and ITV all yield learning outcome gains.
Voices is the result of CAWC collaborations with various campus partners including Black World Studies, Farmers School of Business, Global Intercultural Studies, Justice & Community Studies, KICKGLASS CQ, META Collective, Office of Diversity Affairs, Psychology, and Residence Life.