Implementation

Each class had access to electronic means of communication that we utilized for our meetings. We had short lectures followed by interactive video chats, then culminated the day’s work with email exchanges used as the basis for daily in-class writing assignments between the students.

• Collaborative elements. The course used chat rooms, one-on-one interaction, and group interactions, plus instant messaging to engage collaborative learning scenarios.
• Large group meetings. Each class session began with a short professor lecture (10-15 minutes).
• Basic daily schedule: 
1. Students jointly heard a lecture.
2. Students used electronic discussions to address questions from a list provided by the teachers.
3. Students conducted conversations that took their ideas beyond their own two countries.
4. Students produced short, in-class written documents based on their discussions; the KU students further developed these written ideas outside of class time.
• Papers. Instead of one large paper, students had two writing assignments during each four-week segment. There were three segments, hence a total of six papers. The final examination was composed of essay questions, thus providing another opportunity to demonstrate learning through writing. For student papers, I insisted on four base components—answer the question, show collaborative work, no extraneous words, and strong organization—that I believe are appropriate for the students at this level and that will lead to advanced writing in upper-level undergraduate coursework.