Conference Breakout Sessions Wiki

T02: Supporting Technically-Facilitated Intercultural Classes

For more information, please feel free to contact us!

• Robert Smith: bobsmith@stanford.edu
• Helen Chen: hlchen@stanford.edu
• Menko Johnson: menko.johnson@stanford.edu

http://wallenberg.stanford.edu/ and http://wallenberg.stanford.edu/blog/ 

 

Design Challenge:
You are part of a team tasked with designing a new cross-cultural course between classes at universities in the US and Sweden.  The course will include opportunities for teams of students drawn from both countries to collaborate on assignments during class meetings. The faculty and members of the teaching team will jointly develop the class assignments and other activities for the student teams. A goal of the course is to foster the teamwork and intercultural skills necessary to successfully collaborate in a distributed global environment..

Issues to Consider #1: What facilities are necessary to facilitate and support global collaboration?

• What technical (people) support is necessary?
• What critical functions are served by the tech support people?

Issues to Consider #2: What technologies will be used to facilitate the interactions among global partners, both formally and informally?

• Formal/synchronous - videoconferencing
• Informal/asynchronous - email, social networking, texting, blogging

Issues to Consider #3: How do you design a syllabus and course activities that are suitable for globally distributed work/global collaboration?

• How do you create assignments that interdependent across global teams so students have a reason to work together?
• How do you align course requirements, e.g., due dates, evaluation, grades so that they have similarly perceived value for all students?

Issues to Consider #4: What common language will be used?

• Translation, joint discussions, additional time to correct grammar, language in order to prepare for a joint final presentation
• Awareness of power differential and equity issues

Issues to Consider #5: How will you work across different time zones?

• When can people come together for meetings, face-to-face discussions?
• Awareness of power differential and equity issues
• Different cultural values about working during vacations, holidays, work-life balance

Issues to Consider #6: How do you build personal and professional relationships among the student teams, increasing their commitment to the class?

• How do you convey to students the importance and value of this experience?
• Given the novelty and ambiguity of this work, how do you engage students in the process and solicit their input?

Issues to Consider #7: How do you build personal and professional relationships among the faculty and teaching teams, thereby increasing their commitment to the class?

 

• How do you ensure that all faculty are similarly engaged?
• What interactions do the faculty have with the distance students?

 

Additional Resources

The Cross-Cultural Rhetoric Project, one example of a successful technically-faciliated intercutural class at Stanford: http://ccr.stanford.edu/

Some recent articles and a webinar demonstrating how these issues related to globally distributed, technically-facilitated courses are going to become more and more prevalent in the near future:
1) Peking U and UCLA Partner in Engineering and Science Research, Campus Technology, 7/14/09
http://campustechnology.com/articles/2009/07/14/peking-u-and-ucla-partner-in-engineering-and-science-research.aspx
PKU and UCLA faculty and students will also benefit from cross-educational and cross-cultural experiences through a jointly-defined syllabus, hands-on training, and an exchange program.

2) Global CyberBridges (GCB): A Model Global Collaboration Infrastructure for E-Science Between the United States and International Partners, ELI Webinar, July 20, 2009
Global CyberBridges fosters a multidisciplinary environment to produce a new generation of scientists and engineers capable of fully integrating cyberinfrastructure into their research, education, and professional and creative processes to solve challenging problems in their disciplines. PhD-level students, working in globally distributed collaborative teams with international partners in China and Brazil, have established a fruitful network and published 19 peer-reviewed papers. Projects range from earth sciences, physics, chemistry, biochemistry, biomedical engineering, and bioinformatics to computer engineering and computer science. Join us to learn how to replicate this program at your university.

3) East Carolina U. Uses Simple Technology to Link Its Students With Peers Overseas, The Chronicle of Higher Educatio, May 8, 2009
http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i35/35a02302.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
The university's Global Understanding program uses inexpensive and relatively unsophisticated technology - a low-bandwidth video link and e-mail chat -  to connect East Carolina students with counterparts at 23 institutions in 17 countries and five continents.  \While other colleges have made use of computer hookups to bring a global perspective into the classroom, the East Carolina model is distinctive in that it links each participating class with partners at several foreign universities, exposing students to multiple points of view.

 

 

Collected Expert Input

Issues identified by Session Participants

 

Issues identified in presentation