Developing an evidence-based faculty-led study abroad business course

DiMaria, Jerry; Gray, Deborah M.; Melton, James; Hicks, Nancy Article Developing an evidence-based faculty-led study abroad business course Cogent Business & Management Provided in Cooperation with: Taylor & Francis Group Suggested Citation: DiMaria, Jerry; Gray, Deborah M.; Melton, James; Hicks, Nancy (2024) : Developing an evidence-based faculty-led study abroad business course, Cogent Business & Management, ISSN 2331-1975, Taylor & Francis, Abingdon, Vol. 11, Iss. 1, pp. 1-16, https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2319393 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/326097 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. 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Gray, James Melton & Nancy Hicks To cite this article: Jerry DiMaria, Deborah M. Gray, James Melton & Nancy Hicks (2024) Developing an evidence-based faculty-led study abroad business course, Cogent Business & Management, 11:1, 2319393, DOI: 10.1080/23311975.2024.2319393 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2319393 © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Published online: 01 Mar 2024. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 1148 View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 2 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=oabm20 ManageMent | ReseaRch aRticle Cogent Business & ManageMent 2024, VoL. 11, no. 1, 2319393 Developing an evidence-based faculty-led study abroad business course Jerry DiMariaa, Deborah M. grayb, James Meltona and nancy hicksa aBusiness information systems, Central Michigan university, Mt Pleasant, Mi, usa; bMarketing, Hospitality, and Logistics Department, Central Michigan university, Mt Pleasant, Mi, usa ABSTRACT study abroad experiences are highly valuable as internationalization plays an increasingly important role in the higher education curriculum and business (ghemawat & Bastian, 2017). Business schools have long recognized the value of the study abroad experience for both students and faculty (Black & Duhon, 2006). given these conditions, one would expect best practices to be widely applied in the execution of short-term study abroad programs. Yet, this study’s review and analysis of faculty-led study abroad proposal guidelines did not find this to be the case. content analysis was used on 396 pages of university faculty-led study abroad proposal guidelines from 19 randomly chosen universities in the United states to determine what best practices are being communicated to faculty. Our findings suggest that there is little evidence-based guidance on creating, planning, and executing a short-term faculty-led study abroad course. Building on this finding, we provide a review of the best practices literature and use this corpus to anchor a tutorial for designing a faculty-led study abroad course. these instructions provide business faculty with the information necessary to design a successful evidence-based short-term study abroad program. Introduction nearly 347,099 U.s. students studied abroad in the 2019–2020 academic year according to the association of international educators (naFsa, 2019). the value of study abroad is particularly applicable, as internationalization plays an increasing role in the higher education curriculum and in business (ghemawat & Bastian, 2017). Business schools have also recognized the value of the study abroad experience for both students and faculty (aacsB, 2023; Black & Duhon, 2006). a study conducted by Festervand and tillery (2001) suggests that short-term faculty-led study abroad programs not only further the faculty member’s international professional development but also lead to increased teaching effectiveness. however, a recent study by the Forum on education abroad (2023) suggests that one of the main barriers to increasing student education abroad is a lack of support from institutional leaders (p 16) and that one way to overcome this constraint is to increase the number of study-abroad options available to students (p. 17). study abroad programs provide an obvious and effective way for business schools to demonstrate their ability to meet aacsB accreditation standards and the ROi for students and the institution (aacsB, 2023). a faculty-led study abroad (Flsa) course is defined as one where the faculty member designs and executes the major aspects of the study abroad experience and where external service providers are not used at all or are used only as secondary support. Flsa courses can help universities demonstrate a “global mindset,” one of the nine updated guiding principles for business accreditation (aacsB, 2023). aacsB’s BizEd Magazine featured an article that underscores the importance of study abroad programs © 2024 the author(s). Published by informa uK Limited, trading as taylor & Francis group CONTACT Deborah M. gray [email protected] Marketing, Hospitality, and Logistics Department, Central Michigan university, Mt Pleasant, Michigan 48858, usa https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2319393 this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 16 December 2021 Revised 20 september 2023 accepted 2 February 2024 KEYWORDS study abroad; evidence-based course design; business; marketing REVIEWING EDITOR huifen (helen) cai, Middlesex University Business school, United Kingdom SUBJECTS international business; strategic management; management education 2 J. DiMaRia etal. and the benefit to business education. a meta-analysis of the last 20 years of study abroad research found that “studying abroad outperforms any form of at-home instruction in three areas of learning: cognitive (second language acquisition), attitudinal (intercultural mindedness), and behavioral (intercultural adaptation)” (“study abroad aids,” 2018). With all of this, one would expect that universities would have integrated the literature of best practices in creating, planning, and executing these unique courses. Yet, this article shows that research findings have been poorly integrated in program planning and implementation. this is a significant gap because business study abroad requires an effective approach that can make the most of opportunities to help students get the most out of study abroad. the purpose of this article is to bridge this gap and provide business faculty with the information necessary to design an evidenced-based short-term faculty-led study abroad course. the paper begins with a brief rationale for why business schools need to effectively provide their students with quality study abroad opportunities within which they can develop the international skills employers seek. We follow with a content analysis of the instructions faculty are given for developing faculty-led study abroad (Flsa) courses across 19 randomly chosen universities in the United states. next, a review of evidence-based best practices for study abroad is made. Drawing on this base, a tutorial is presented, focused on how to design and execute a successful short-term, faculty-led study abroad course. What do employers say about international business content and skills? Preparing business students with the international business content and skills employers seek is a key responsibility of the university (Forum, 2023) and especially the business school (aacsB, 2023). Research shows that employers value employees with these international skills. however, the numbers show that during the 2016–2017 academic year, only 1.6% of all U.s. students studied abroad (naFsa, 2019). Meanwhile, Daniel et al. (2014) survey of 836 business executives asked if they believe business schools are effectively training students to work in a global business economy, if their employees had sufficient international skills, and if they engage in training to enhance their employees’ international skills. the findings from this research demonstrate the shortcomings of business schools in meeting the needs for these employers: • Over 25% of the firms indicated that it is difficult to find U.s. nationals with the international knowledge, expertise, and language skills needed. • 55% of the firms actively engage in international employee training to improve international competence. • 59% of executives indicated that international competency is important even at entry-level positions. • almost 85% of the firms indicated they will place a greater emphasis on international competence among management and employees over the next 10 years (Daniel, et al., 2014). these executives were also asked how universities can improve international business content. a majority of the executives surveyed indicated the importance of improving international business content at the postsecondary level to be “some” or “great,” as shown in table 1. table 1 shows the specific suggestions from those executives surveyed for improving international business content and the level of importance. these suggestions and the combined level of importance (“some” and “great”) included placing more emphasis on exchange programs (84%), mandatory foreign language training (87%), and more emphasis on learning about other world areas (89%). the respondents also indicated that stronger international emphasis in business curricula (86%) is important to student preparedness. Do universities provide evidence-based guidance for creating FLSA courses? With a clear need for quality study abroad programs, an understanding of whether evidence-based best practices are being followed is important. the following section describes how this question was investigated, resulting in a negative answer. this is followed by a review of best practices in the literature, cOgent BUsiness & ManageMent 3 which grounds the subsequent tutorial of how a short-term, faculty-led business study abroad program might be constructed and carried out. schein’s (1984) hallmark study on organizational culture describes culture as a 3 layered “onion” consisting of (1) underlying assumptions, (2) espoused values (what an organization aspires to do), (3) enacted values (what an organization actually does) and (4) artefacts. artefacts are the top layer of the cultural onion and are observable, concrete manifestations of how an organization conducts business (gopinath et al., 2018). artefacts include things like an organization’s mission statement, vision, and core values. Observable artefacts also include but are not limited to an organization’s written, verbal, or recorded procedure, policies, or bylaws for example (shein, 1984). studying organizational artefacts is a way to determine what an organization or industry values and how they behave (gopinath etal., 2018). in this study, we compared 19 different randomly selected university procedural documents for creating Flsa courses. the objective was to use content analysis on the procedural documents (artefacts) to investigate what, if any, best practices in Flsa are integrated into university instructions for creating an Flsa courses. content analysis “is a technique that allows researchers to analyse data in view of the meanings, symbolic qualities, and expressive contents they have and of the communicative roles they play in the lives of the data’s sources,” (Krippendorf, 2013, p. 49). hsieh and shannon (2005, p. 1278) suggest that content analysis allows the researcher to determine “the intent of text data through the systematic classification process of coding and identifying themes or patterns.” Berelson (1952, p. 27) describes the four functions of content analysis, of which is to ‘confirm what is already believed.’ holsti (1969) and Kondracki et al. (2002) suggest that summative content analysis is an appropriate research method when the main concept is known to the researcher and when the analysis does not stop at key word searches but instead tries to understand the contextual meaning of the concept. summative content analysis is an appropriate research method when the main concept is known to the researcher and when the analysis does not stop at key word searches but instead tries to understand the contextual meaning of the concept (holsti, 1969; Kondracki etal., 2002). the content analysis for this study was based on importing 332 pages of university Flsa procedural documents and 67 pages of university web pages into nVivo software version 12.2 (QsR international, Melbourne, australia, 2018). a summative content analysis was performed using the software. in total 399 pages of procedures for creating and designing, Flsa courses were analysed. Why 19 universities? saunders etal. (2018) suggest that no additional data need to be collected when saturation occurs. saturation is the point at which no new information is gained by collecting additional data. in this case, saturation was reached after 15 university procedural documents were analysed; an additional four universities were added after the 15th as a precautionary measure further bolstering the findings and confirming that saturation was reached. the universities were selected randomly by importing a list of all american universities into excel and selecting 15 plus an additional four universities consistent with Quirk et al. (2021). table 2 shows which universities were included in the study and the corresponding data that was analysed. the data were coded into themes (Krippendorf, 2013). three common themes for developing a Flsa course emerged across the data. all 19 Flsa instruction documents (these are the university procedures for creating an Flsa course), and website content that were analysed require that faculty should consider or address three primary areas: cost and location, subject matter, and student preparation. the data suggest that all of universities that were analysed had similar requirements for designing the course. Moreover, the data from this study suggest that universities provide procedural-based Flsa course development instructions, but not evidence-based. according to the Forum on education abroad (2023), “the pandemic represents a time of significant innovation and updating of policies and procedures, especially, Table 1. industry suggestions for improving international business content. source: Daniel et al. (2014). importance of improvement suggested international education none some great More emphasis on exchange programs 17% 49% 35% Mandatory foreign language training 14% 39% 48% More emphasis on learning about other world areas 10% 39% 50% stronger international emphasis in business curricula 14% 45% 41% improved academic outreach to businesses 14% 42% 44% Creation of databanks/clearinghouses on international resources 17% 42% 40% 4 J. DiMaRia etal. but not exclusively, in the areas of risk management, contingency planning (both academic and financial), and strategies for communicating with students.” the data showed that only four of 19 universities provided advice or ‘things to consider’ when marketing the class to students. this is interesting because marketing the course to students is a critical component to enrolling students in the course. We included evidence-based marketing information in this paper to address this gap. Finally, the data show that none of the 19 university resource documents and web pages include references to best practices from academic research. instead, two universities cite references to links for additional information, for example, internal links to university procedures for travel or external links to government websites that provide international travel advisories. this article fills the gap in the resources that universities provide to faculty for creating, planning, and implementing a Flsa course that is anchored in the literature/hallmark study(s) of each area. a future study might investigate why and how the university procedures for creating a Flsa course became so standardised. the study could use in-person interviews or focus groups with study abroad staff to investigate these questions. table 3 below summarizes the best practices literature in each of the three areas for creating, planning and executing a Flsa course. the literature identified in table 3 are integrated into a step-by-step process that business faculty can follow to create their own evidence-based Flsa course. table 4 summarizes the work of Duke, 2000 on the appropriateness of student activities. Tutorial: Designing an FLSA course that is anchored in evidence-based best practices the following tutorial, drawn from the extant research, focuses on key factors to consider when designing and implementing a short-term, faculty-led study abroad course. the aim is not to be all-inclusive, but rather to use key evidence-based factors to create a practical, student-focused process that faculty members can follow. We start with three main factors identified by this study and supported by Doyle et al, (2010) that students weigh when studying abroad: location, monetary cost, and subject matter. We include two additional key elements, student preparation and marketing the course, both of which must be intentional in a short-term, faculty-led course. Fortunately, the faculty leader has significant influence over all of these factors. the following sections provide insight in each of these areas to support faculty leaders’ efforts to prepare and carry out a successful short-term, faculty led study abroad course. Table 2. Faculty-led study abroad proposal guidelines. university number of pages analyzed Web pages analyzed References Bowling green state university 50 3 0 California Polytechnic university - Polomoa 1 5 0 Case Western Reserve 1 2 0 Florida tech university 6 3 0 illinois state university 6 4 0 Michigan state university 3 3 0 Montana state university 33 3 0 ohio state university 25 3 0 Pennsylvania state university 1 3 0 texas tech university 20 4 0 truman state university 112 5 49* university of alabama 31 3 0 university of arkansas 12 4 0 university of Central Florida 7 2 0 university of Maryland 2 4 4* university of Memphis 1 4 0 university o new Hampshire 7 4 0 university of new Mexico 3 6 0 Valapraiso university 11 2 0 Total 332 67 54* *the references/footnotes are not academic studies, they are internal links to university pages or to exernal sites like the u.s. Department of state travel advisory web site. cOgent BUsiness & ManageMent 5 Cost and location study abroad program cost was identified in a study of business students to be something that would “greatly influence their decision to participate” (naffziger et al., 2008, p. 49). Fortunately, there are strategies that the faculty leader can use to significantly lower student costs. the faculty leader should also consider their knowledge of, and contacts they might have, in a destination that can help to reduce costs. the data suggest that some universities encourage faculty to contact study abroad service providers to arrange the travel and logistics aspects of a Flsa course. the ability of the faculty leader to be able to make the arrangements for the program is key to lowering the overall cost of a program. this includes items such as transportation, accommodation, food, activities, and other logistics. controlling these costs increases the likelihood that students are able to participate in study abroad (Whatley, 2017). there are also service providers available that offer a range of services from booking accommodations to organizing an entire program. While either of these options makes it easier for the faculty member, it significantly increases costs and creates a deeper separation between faculty and students. Most faculty-led study abroad courses range from 10 days to less than 8 weeks (goldstein, 2022). the length of the program has an obvious impact on costs, but it can also influence whether students feel they can attend for other reasons. students with summer internships or jobs, and student athletes will be more likely to attend a program that begins directly after a spring semester and has a shorter duration. the requirement for students to incur debt as part of the process generally decreases their ability Table 3. Literature on developing faculty-led study abroad courses. study abroad best practice/ hallmark studies author(s)/year summary Overarching concepts Faculty role goode, 2007 explains the faculty’s role as the study abroad leader neiehaus et al., 2018 Faculty mentoring for sutdy abroad Medora, et al, 2022 strategies for success in lleading and teaching a study abroad course High impact educational Practices schwartz & Miller (2020, p. 17) study abroad is one of 11 high impact educational practices History of study abroad Hoffa (2007)History of study abroad aaCsB & study abroad aaCsB, 2023 includes the 9 guiding principles for business school accrediation including demonstration of a "global mindset." Cost and Location Bandyopadhyay, s., & Bandyopadhyay, 2015 Factors influencing study Participation in study abroad eder, J., smith, W., & Pitts, R. 2010 Destination Choices and factors in consideration naffziger et al., 2008 the main factors that students consider when studying abroad Ramakrishnaa et al, 2016 the importance of cost, location, and subject matter to students Budget Management o’Rourke & iammarino, 2010 Budgetary issues in developing study abroad programming Whatley, 2017 Financial factors in study abroad and student decision making Subject Matter Costello, 2019 students narratives on topics studied -->Defining Content Duke, 2000 activities and assessments in study abroad niehaus et al., 2019 Faculty goals for short term study abroad Kitsantas, 2004 student goals in shaping program development and generating cross-cultural growth -->Assessment and Assignments anderson, et al, 2016 How to use debriefing sessions in study abroad Deardorff, 2004 Broad overview article of assessing outcomes in international education Deardorff et al., 2015 an explanation of outcomes for international education with examples goldstein, 2022 Writing outcomes for faculty led study abroad courses Jackson, 2005 assessing intercultural learning through introspection neihaus & Wegener, 2019 examples of learning outcomes facult should emphasize in study abroad Vande et al, 2012 using the intercultural Development inventory to measure intercultural competence -->Class Activities Costello, 2019 students stories on learning Duke, 2000 Learning activiies comparison and sythesis Student Preparation Hofer et al, 2016 student premeeting and expectation setting -->Course Rules overby, 2020 setting alcohol-related expectations in study abroad Marketing the Course McCarthy, 1964 the hallmark study on the 4P’s of Marketing schultz et al., 2007 the hallmark study on integrated Marketing Communications Course Design Doerr, 2022 strategies for creating content designed for short term study abroad courses 6 J. DiMaRia etal. to participate in study abroad, while the availability of lower costs increases the likelihood of student enrolment (Whatley, 2017). these factors (duration and cost) need to be balanced with the quality of the experience, which can depend on the opportunity to adapt to local conditions (Bandyopadhyay & Bandyopadhyay, 2015). this adaptation requires time, but it can also be strongly influenced by the faculty leader’s selection of activities. Research indicates that programs costs and budgets generally fall into the following six categories (O’Rourke & iammarino, 2010): • airfare – Will students travel as a group, or will the faculty member allow each student to purchase their airfare independently and arrange a common meeting time/place in-country? allowing students to purchase their own airfare is one method of helping to control costs. this allows students to take advantage of programs such as: frequent flyer programs, award certificates, or routes and airlines that may lower the individual student travel cost. either way, faculty should be prepared to provide students with a realistic estimate of the cost of airfare and options. • accommodations – care should be taken to understand the type of experience faculty want students to have, the frequency of moving locations, and cost. student interaction with the local culture can be facilitated through the choice of living accommodations. thought should be given to whether students in the program will be best served by staying at a hotel, bed and breakfasts, home rentals, dormitory accommodations, a youth hostel, or in a homestay environment. More localized arrangements such as homestays or hostels are more likely to encourage cultural engagement and are often lower in cost than hotels. if the group is planning to stay in one place for an extended period of time (at least one week), renting a house or houses for the group can be cost effective. Frequent moves might best be served with youth hostels where available. generally, options like hostels, homestays, and airbnb options can hold down costs while also providing greater opportunity for cultural engagement. • Food – Faculty may choose to have students purchase their own meals, include them in the program, or some combination of the two. if students stay in accommodations that have food storage and cooking facilities, then this provides a valuable cultural learning opportunity for them to also grocery shop and become even more familiar with local norms, businesses, people, and food items. in most cultures, purchasing groceries, as opposed to eating out, can also hold down costs. exploring options like food stalls, markets, and local take-out meals may also help to reduce food costs. if faculty choose to have students provide the majority of their meals, faculty need to provide them with an estimate of how much they should budget. • transportation – Determine what type of transportation will make the most sense if the group will be moving around once arriving in-country. in many locations, public transportation is reliable and inexpensive. Options to explore should include: trains, buses, taxis, bicycle rentals, auto rentals, subways, ferries, and private coaches. if faculty elect to rent a vehicle to transport students, they must be sure to check on fuel and insurance costs, as well as applicable driving laws and requirements. Table 4. appropriateness of study abroad activities (Duke, 2000). Criteria Lecture and tests Company Visits Journals treasure Hunt Projects simulation Location Better for a single location, requires tables or meeting space May be better with multilocation due to more variety useful in all locations May be better with multilocation due to cross-cultural comparisons May be better with single location due to stability and effort needed May be better with single location if technology needs to be stable tour integration with academic creditt Better for conventional credit course good with all; better with less structured courses Versatile for use with all level courses Versatile for use with all levels of courses Versatile for use with all levels of courses Versatile for use with all levels of courses time spend on tour Longer tours provide time to study and test Longer tours provide more time; shorter tours may use these as the entire focus useful with all lengths of tours May be better with longer tours due to time needed for specific search Must maatch product size with resources and time available Longer tours permit more iterations cOgent BUsiness & ManageMent 7 • activities – include costs for all activities including admission fees, transportation costs, etc. Faculty should be sure to check on items such as group or student discounts and to budget for additional back-up activities as well. • contingency – Faculty should include a contingency plan for things they don’t have control over. Foreign currency exchange rates fluctuate constantly. having a cushion built into the budget to accommodate the unexpected increase in cost or if an unexpected expense arises is a critical component of a well-planned study abroad course. this contingency should include a 10% margin for variability and exchange rate (linder & Mcgaha, 2013). Budget management the faculty leader should budget time each day to keep up with their budget management. an excel spreadsheet or similar tool can be very beneficial for this record keeping. it’s best to retain all receipts and record them at the end of each day. this provides a valuable record for the faculty leader and for the university administration. this also allows the faculty member to understand where the program is financially each day. if the program is trending over budget and the faculty leader understands this early in the program, there may be ways to make adjustments for meals or activities in order to bring the program back into budgetary compliance. conversely, if they are under budget, they may be able to add additional activities or experiences for the students. Subject matter Defining the subject matter for a study abroad course can be challenging. What knowledge or skills should students be gaining? What are the best means to facilitate this learning? these are the fundamental questions the faculty leader must answer in planning the course and throughout implementation and evaluation. One might assume that the cultural aspect of learning will take care of itself because of the experiential nature of studying abroad. this can be exacerbated by the very language that we use to attract students to participate in these types of programs. care should be taken to avoid language such as trip, travel, or tour. Rather, language such as study abroad course, program, or experience will better reflect the desired focus on academic learning. it can be a challenge to convince colleagues and administrators of the educational value of these programs. We need to be able to demonstrate that they are not “frippery, a kind of quasi-tourism” (Woolf, 2016). this calls for deliberate thought and construction of program activities, assignments, and assessments that can break through this preconception of academic tourism. Faculty need to actively construct an experience that moves students from passive participants to active agents in their own education and cultural competency development (Woolf, 2011). Defining content a study abroad course that leans exclusively on visits to cultural or historical sites can invite accusations of “academic tourism.” it can be easy to fall into this trap because setting up visits to cultural and historical sites is often relatively easy while seeming to have an educational purpose. it is more difficult for the faculty leader to establish relationships with local contacts who can facilitate more discipline-specific field visits. Faculty leaders can collaborate with local experts to deliver specific disciplinary content that also integrates cultural content (nguyen, 2017). this may require thinking about course content in new ways. For example, job shadows, service learning, or other kinds of direct interaction can be difficult to set up but are some of the most valuable and memorable experiences for students. student learning and involvement through experiential activities are important aspects of successful instruction (Duke, 2000). an example of these activities exists below as drawn from study abroad learning activities: a synthesis and comparison. Journal of Marketing Education, 22(2), 158. 14 J. DiMaRia etal. James Melton, PhD, is professor and department chair in the Business information systems Department at central Michigan University, where he teaches courses in social media and global business communication. his research focuses on technology use and intercultural leadership communication. he has led study abroad courses to austria, germany, and Japan. Nancy Hicks is an emeritus faculty of the Business informations Department at central Michigan University. Dr. hicks taught business communications wtih an emphasis on business writing. her research focused on faculty communication in the online classroom. References almquist, e., senior, J., & Bloch, n. (2016, september 10). the 30 elements of consumer value: a hierarchy. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/09/the-elements-of-value aacsB international. (2023, July). 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Don’t be absorbed in your cell phone, be present and involved in the moment. It is fine to use your phone to take pictures, just be conscious of your phone usage. 3. Avoid cell phone usage during group conversations, activities, and assignments in order to fully emerge yourself in the experience. Late Policy 4. In order to make best use of time, please arrive at least 15 minutes early to each designated location. If a student, or group of students, is/are late to a location, someone will attempt to contact them. If they are unable to be reached and have not arrived by departure time, the group will continue with scheduled plans. Buddy system 5. Students are required, at all times, to remain with at least one other group member. Curfew/knowledge of location 6. It is essential that at least two other individuals (other than those in your departing group) are aware of your general location, your whereabouts during free time, and your expected return time. At least one of the individuals being informed has to be a faculty leader. Privacy of location 7. It is prohibited to invite any outside individuals to where the group is residing; this is to ensure the safety and privacy of everyone. Emergency check-in 8. Faculty leaders will designate a check-in spot for each location. If an emergency occurs, you are required to return to the check-in location ASAP.