1. General Program Description. 
2. Electronic Component--"Virtual Literary Trails Electronic Course Pack."
3. Benefits for Students.

1. The Program. 

    In accordance with Radford University’s mandates for students’ learning goals and learning outcomes, this three-week "Maymester" Program is designed to meet the educational goals of all RU students.  The sites and destinations selected for "European Literary Trails" offer a vast range of educational “values” to be experienced first hand by the RU students: famous literary places and long-recognized sites of great cultural and historical significance.  Depending on the year, students will travel to two or three countries: Ireland, Italy  and either England or France (in the future, also Spain).  The linked pages provide more detailed information about "European Literary Trails" in those countries, as does the Curriculum & Cost page.
    The program strives to offer a wide exposure to other cultures, in line with both the University’s overall mission and English Department’s particular mission to encourage understanding of and appreciation for diversity, the many “values shared by all people” in the global community, and the multicultural mature of our world.  Many of the Department’s goals are well served by this program: from developing critical curiosity, cultural diversity and communication skills, to the benefits of the ongoing reflection about the values and principles of the English studies as discipline.  And whereas travel to France or Italy (or Spain) obviously exposes students to a foreign language/culture, travel to Ireland and England fosters “an awareness of cultural differences among the diverse peoples who use the English language.” 
    The experiences to be gained through "European Literary Trails" Study Abroad Program cannot be attained in any other way.  Whereas traditionally students read texts and learn about the historical/literary places in the classroom, this program takes students to those places and allows them to experience first hand both texts and contexts in historical/cultural settings. The Program brings “the world” closer to my students and my investment in "European Literary Trails" is an extension of my life-long effort to offer the world of experience to students—literally, by arranging their participation in lectures at some of the European Universities, and philosophically, by providing opportunities for intellectual reflection and growth in the global context.

2. Virtual Literary Trails: Electronic Course Pack for Travel-Based Programs.

The “European Literary Trails” Study Abroad Program was launched in 2002 and it has been enhanced by Radford University’s “Support of Teaching and Curriculum Development: Innovative Teaching Grant.”  Because travel-based literature courses make it impractical to rely on textbooks and because absence of classroom instruction precludes traditional lecturing and content analysis, the grant funds allowed me to purchase a lap-top and to develop a portable, electronic packet of course materials accessible to students “on the road” and/or away from urban areas, thus implementing a number of new strategies for teaching travel-based courses.  As I continue working on the "European Literary Trails” website, for portability, I plan to implement Breeze applications to deliver lectures and other course content.
          As described in the Curriculum, “European Literary Trails” Program coursework includes technological component: students are required to submit their final projects as "electronic scrap-books", i.e., web sites that anchor their personal and cultural experiences abroad.  The content of students' websites has to include personal literary logs interwoven with their reading/writing assignments, photographs, and research material in the form of links to literary/cultural sites named in their writings.

3. Benefits for Students

"European Literary Trails" Program benefits students as it supports the missions of the University by:

•  incorporating electronic and technological infrastructure and integrating electronic multimedia educational technology;
•  developing curriculum that stresses both active and experiential learning through travel-based and content-oriented course work;
•  internationalizing curriculum (and in his case, combining the Program’s virtual—electronic—content with “hands-on” environment).
•  developing critical curiosity, cultural diversity and communication skills,
•  fostering students’ international perspective, cultural and international awareness, and
•  engaging them in truly “world wide web” cross-cultural research. 

"European Literary Trails" Study Abroad Program is a substantial professional and pedagogical investment for me; its "Virtual Literary Trails" component, conceived and developed by me over the last few years, challenges me to pursue the next level of multimedia educational technology to be used in the context of the Program and beyond.  I welcome the challenge of implementing curricular changes to "English courses," as I welcome students who appreciate challenges.

“European Literary Trails” Program is an extension of my life-long effort to offer the world of experience to students—literally, by designing this particular foreign educational experience, and philosophically, by continuing to provide opportunities for intellectual reflection and growth in the global context.