Background | Implementation | Student Performance | Reflections | Comments

Background

In Fall 2004, I taught an interactive class with students from the University of Kansas (KU) and three Asian countries.  Because the course had students with varying English skills, I needed to find a way to help improve the writing skills of my KU students while still making the coursework achievable for the other students.  I decided a writing-intensive course that featured collaborative compositions would offer the best chance to improve learning for all students involved.
           
Rationale:

• The course was a good fit for the U.S. State Department’s Virtual Classroom Program. The State Department has an interest in making connections with Islamic counties such as Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan; it also has a high interest in Mongolia. Furthermore, the State Department encourages building relationships at the human level, which has a positive cascading effect outside the classroom.  The Virtual Classroom Program helps students see the positive nature of Islamic peoples and facilitates person to person connections/communication.
• The Center for Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies has an interest in promoting the study of post-communist states.
• The virtual classroom strengthened ties between institutions.
• This project helped us stake claims on countries for future funding: The Center for Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies receives federal support, with three-year funding appropriations. Contact between the countries will help out both groups.
• The project also garnered commitments from different levels, including the State Department and several KU offices: the Ermal Garinger Academic Resource Center (EGARC),  OIRP, the Graduate School, and the enrolled students.

Course framework:

1. Four-week segments during which time students interacted with students from three other universities (post-communist Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, and Mongolia). These are elite schools, one in a regional capital and two in national capitols. 
2. Student interaction via online Internet feed, chat sessions, and email.
3. Collaborative papers developed through in-class and out-of-class interactions. 
4. Team-teaching that was collaborative and international

Expectations for student writing:

1. Answer the question.
2. Show that you are doing collaborative work through the inclusion of emails, chat room materials, etc.  Although not easy to do, you will need to have more than just your ideas—you will need to bring in the ideas of others.
3. No extraneous words: every word should be a gem.
4. Strong organization. Not free-flowing, stream of consciousness nor journal-type writing.

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