Field study courses connect learning with real-world exploration
Growing up in East Berlin, Heike Raphael-Hernandez, PhD witnessed history not as a distant subject but as part of everyday life. Today, as a University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) adjunct professor, she helps students experience that same connection through field study courses in the places where history unfolded.
Learning beyond the classroom
UMGC in Europe field study courses are designed to combine online coursework with an in-person learning experience. The current iteration was developed several years ago, but the tradition dates back decades, with the first of similar field studies occurring in 1977 in Asia. Current courses last four weeks and include an intensive four-day visit to a major European city, with students earning three credit hours.
Cities visited include Berlin, Venice, Prague, and others. Topics covered range from the art and current global prominence of Germany's once-divided capital city to the emergence of Nazism in the country’s southern city of Nuremberg. A new course, Artificial Intelligence Applications, starting in early 2027, will offer a hands-on technical field study experience in Munich, Germany.
The program opens doors to opportunities for students to explore historical and cultural spheres in a tangible way. Experiential learning—on the ground, where key moments occur—is not just an exercise in remembering history; it encourages students to connect course concepts with the places where history unfolded.
Indeed, students are not merely learning about historical figures, they're occupying the same spaces where those people once lived and worked.
UMGC in Europe student Julia Yeager, writing in Stars and Stripes, offered a detailed example. She was focused on learning about Ernest Hemmingway and wrote how her 2025 field study course "offered a rich understanding of Madrid.” Her classmate explained how “tours like these make the events real versus just a story in a book."
Preparing students for discovery
A faculty leader of Berlin and Heidelberg courses, Raphael-Hernandez is skilled at helping students engage with course material through place-based learning—in part, because she has learned this way herself.
Raphael-Hernandez grew up in East Berlin, and she and her family witnessed historical changes firsthand, rather than simply reading about them.
"My dad was 14 when he saw his very first American soldier on a tank coming into his city [at the end of World War II in Europe]," she said.
She said that she tells her students, “This is actually also your history we have here; this is global history.”
Raphael-Hernandez encourages thoughtfulness by offering key readings and planning guided activities in each city, preparing students to address challenging questions as they explore. This follows video meetings in the lead-up and community building among participants.
Being there in person pulls it all together.
One example is a visit to Checkpoint Charlie, a crossing point between communist East Berlin and democratic West Berlin during the Cold War. Raphael-Hernandez said the class visits the site to discuss what it once was, consider what it is today, and examine how those changes occurred.
“When we are there, they say, ‘Wow, I'm actually really standing here,’” Raphael-Hernandez said.
Seeing history firsthand
The time learners spend in a city is the culmination of a thorough examination of related subjects. Sightseeing is not the primary focus. At each location, students are encouraged to ask questions, analyze historical interpretations, connect sites to course readings, and engage in discussions with classmates and faculty.
"We expect you'll be quite absorbed in the course content during the week," a frequently asked questions page for the program notes.
Days have a rigorous plan and focus on key elements of what makes the city a valuable learning experience. Much of the curriculum is rooted in the history made there.
In Berlin, Raphael-Hernandez encourages students to think critically about historical events and their continuing influence. In historic museums, for example, they might consider how Prussia advanced education to all people in the 19th century. At the site of Hitler's Berlin bunker, they might discuss how democratic institutions, leadership, and international responses can shape historical events.
“While visiting the Berlin bunker, the Brandenburg Gate, as well as the Holocaust Memorial and the Reichstag Building, I witnessed a kind of timeline beginning to form in my mind,” said Chris Petrus, a field study student during fall 2025.
When learning becomes personal
As another way of drawing out unexpected thought, Raphael-Hernandez sometimes gives students roles to play.
One exercise asks students whether they’d want to be a duke or a farmer in the 16th century. She noted that many people immediately choose the former given stark class differences of the time.
"And then students start to talk about, ‘What is feudalism? What are details for feudalism? What about the farmer's revolution?’" she said. "It sparks so many wonderful, unplanned discussions."
For Raphael-Hernandez, that is one of the defining features of UMGC in Europe field study courses. The experiences often lead students to make connections they did not anticipate.
Raphael-Hernandez said the discussions often lead her to new perspectives as well.
"We are not the tour guides that just talk and talk and talk and talk," she said. "In these courses, students are actively engaging in knowledge production and knowledge sharing.”
Read more about how UMGC learners explore history, culture, and community across continents. Members of the U.S. Armed Forces and their family members residing within an overseas contracted location in the Europe (EUCOM), Africa (AFRICOM), and Central (CENTCOM) theaters may enroll in field study classes through UMGC in Europe. Eligible students interested in field study courses are encouraged to contact an academic advisor, success coach, or military education coordinator to assist with planning.
The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense information or visuals does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.