Gazelle Int. Virtual Learning Liaison Internship, 2023-24

ORGANIZATION

Gazelle International connects classrooms across countries. With CLICK/Virtual Exchange, we aim to bend the cost curve of international education to reach more graduates, more deeply and enable them to thrive in our ever-more connected and fraught world. Our turnkey system provides a low-cost, on-ramp for community colleges and other historically “under-international resourced” campuses to start small and scale quickly by tapping the power of their own faculty and curriculum. The "CLICK," (Collaborative Learning for International Capabilities and Knowledge) system of matching, training, wrap around support and assessment empowers 2+ cross-national campuses with 8+ faculty partners in as little as two semesters to meet, engage, start collaborating to create and run their first 4+ global shared learning projects engaging 100+ students who earn credit within their home curriculum while developing cross-cultural, technology problem solving skills and other 21st c skills.

MENTOR

Nancy L. Ruther, EdD, Principal and Founder, Gazelle International

CAREER DEVELOPMENT

This internship will prepare interns for careers in any of the following: 

  • Communication, Outreach, and Publishing
  • Faculty
  • Non-profit
  • Teaching
  • Entrepreneurship in higher education services

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

This internship will provide experiences to develop and polish the following skills: 

  • Communication (Written and/or verbal)
  • Teamwork and Collaboration
  • Knowledge of Sector and Networking
  • Teaching, Mentoring, and Training
  • Instructional Technology
  • Problem-based learning in an international context

MENTORING PLAN

The Virtual Learning Liaison (VLL) will receive direct mentoring by and work closely with Dr. Nancy Ruther, Principal and Founder, including initial training and orientation with the expectation of increasing autonomy and initiative as the internship progresses.

Given mutual interests, the VLL will be a member of and encouraged to engage with our professional networks in international higher education and virtual exchange, eg, help prepare, attend and present work at a professional conference and/or develop targeted webinars or workshops. Past interns have done a poster session, faculty workshops and co-presented panels with Dr. Ruther or CLICK/VE teachers.

As a small “startup” nonprofit, the VLL may have the opportunity to join in preparing and/or participating in “pitching business,” helping clients develop grant proposals, participating in a strategic planning consultancy as opportunities arise, or presenting assessment results as a soft-pitch to grow a training or consulting relationship.

In addition to working closely with the Principal on the training work with frequent opportunities to discuss the VLL’s goals and questions, the VLL will join our small team in weekly meetings and work closely with other team members in areas relevant to the VLL's work with teachers and clients. Normally, the work will be conducted on a weekly basis with multi-week goals and team meetings. As a largely virtual work arrangement, the normal means of communication will be via Zoom, WhatsApp, phone, email and SLACK. Conferences and professional meetings are increasingly in person.

LEARNING OUTCOMES          

In the VLL role, the PhD+ intern will contribute meaningfully to the evolving goals, training and assessment practices of Gazelle International, a startup nonprofit focused on international higher education with underserved campuses in the US and internationally (currently France, Holland, Mexico, possibly Ireland and SoAfrica).

Professional development areas include:

  • Develop state of the art teacher training and coaching skills with experienced teachers who collaborate in designing and delivering project-based, team learning course designs in cross-cultural, multinational settings often with interdisciplinary content.
  • Gaining mastery of core teaching tools and strategic frameworks for developing Virtual Exchange programs, a rapidly growing field spanning internationalization and effective techno-pedagogy in higher education
  • Learn the differences and commonalities in the US community colleges and similar campuses internationally at the strategy, curricular and classroom levels; exposure to how higher education functions as a market and the range of stakeholders involved in campus and larger policy and funding arenas
  • Gain familiarity with and engage in the emerging research and professional networks of virtual exchange and internationalization (and sustainable development goals if interested)
  • Gain concrete insights into the value and challenges of incorporating student and teacher assessments into teacher, campus and program development along with the basics of data collection, management and reporting for pre/post student and faculty assessment across campuses worldwide,
  • Gain experience (possibly expertise in some) with a range of learning/teaching tools and platforms as well as project management approaches and tools, troubleshooting and value of different ones for different learning goals and team uses for students and teachers

RESPONSIBILITIES

The “virtual learning liaison” (VLL) will be an integral part of the training, coaching and materials development and assessment activities at the core of our work. They will represent the organization to clients and our larger professional networks. The VLL responsibilities and duites can include:

  • Co-Facilitate with the Founder and, when ready, directly develop and run workshops for teachers who are new to Virtual Exchange using our backward design, goals-based approach.
  • Provide systematic support and troubleshooting for teachers who are running their first CLICK/VE project after completing our matching/training sequence
  • Review, tap, suggest creative and innovative uses for our existing training materials archive (and create new as agreed) in support of our work with clients and larger professional communities.
  • Coordinate each semester’s review and running of student and faculty surveys; Review and develop preliminary insights from student and faculty assessment surveys of CLICK projects and training feedback to help clients and our own internal work
  • Write a monthly blogpost for our newsletter and, as inspired, produce other communications (briefings, short notes, videos, etc) to serve, expand and deepen our community of interest
  • Communicate effectively in advising, training and troubleshooting issues with our faculty-in-training, first-time and master CLICK teachers from campuses worldwide using a range of platforms and tools
  • Represent Gazelle Intl and CLICK to the CLICK network and larger community of interest e.g. sharing questions, concerns, lessons, “best practices”
  • As possible, recommend/suggest creative ways to achieve our mission operationally and strategically. May participate in client “pitches”, grant-funding strategy with clients, or similar efforts We provide membership into our professional associations 
  • Participate in conferences in person or virtually. We have normally invited and paid registration, travel stipend for representing us at one in-person Conference (plus a virtual) especially when organizing a panel or co-teaching a workshop.
  • Help to manage and integrate a Masters Intern to support the work of the Founder and the VLL in our teacher training, wraparound support and assessment activities.

DESIRED QUALITIES

A mix of the following skills and experience would be welcome.

  • Prior experience in teaching and working with a Center for Teaching and Learning or similar techno-pedagogy or instructional design support center for teachers would be highly useful.
  • Familiarity with goals-based, problem-based pedagogy a plus.
  • Experience with project and/or training management in a professional environment or student organization is preferred.
  • Cross-cultural and/or second language study or work experience is very helpful.
  • Experience or ability to learn, use and troubleshoot technologies for teaching, communication and management is important (we have been using LinkrEducation, Teams, Google classroom platforms and a wide range of apps).
  • We encourage our client teachers to work across disciplines (STEM, Tech, humanities, social sciences, business) and we can accommodate different PhD fields with ability to work across and integrate different perspectives.
  • Strong English required and other languages are useful (French, Dutch, Spanish speaking clients most likely for AY23-24) with potential for Brazil, South Africa, others.
  • Experience with survey data collection and basic visualization and reporting (we currently use Survey Monkey, Excel and Tableau).
  • Experience in a start-up or change-management environment would be useful.
  • Entrepreneurship or intra-preneurship experience with higher education is a plus; an interest in exploring receptiveness and challenges for innovation, especially re: collaborative international work across the higher education sector
  • You must be able to work across time zones and cultures.

MODE OF INTERNSHIP

Virtual

DURATION

Fall 2023 and Spring 2024