Honors students made up the American component; most students from Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, and Mongolia were taking this course in addition to their regular academic work, a scenario that meant their class time, often 12 to 14 hours different from our time zone, took place late in the evening. The professors for these three Asian universities had done academic work in the United States, a bonus as they were familiar with our academic methodology and research.
| ImplementationThe other three professors and I took turns providing the short lectures that formed the basis of the daily interchanges. It took the first couple of meeting times to work out the electronic kinks in each system, but once we were past that, the students had useful time periods where they exchanged ideas about that day’s political topic via video feed, chat groups, or email. The English skills of each group were adequate to allow a meeting ground for ideas on comparative politics.
| Student PerformanceAlthough the other students did not do as much writing, nor do it with as much interest as my students, I still saw improvements in the overall writing that my students turned in. 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.
| ReflectionsOne suggestion that I’m considering is to make the interaction between each country continuous instead of limited to a month time frame. This could increase the collaboration between the groups, adding both to the students’ knowledge base and providing extra opportunities to share written materials. Because of departmental limitations on my time, I will teach this course only once more. I would like to find ways that other departments can utilize the electronic connections that allow us to share information with these three countries.
| SummaryCollaborative compositions by students in an international virtual classroom lead to improved student writing.
