Global Summer Seminar
The Global Summer Seminar provides an opportunity for students from East Carolina University to participate as learning partners with students from a selected international university 3 hrs/day over 2 weeks. The sessions are selected from a wide range of disciplines and are jointly led by professors from ECU and the partner university. Each ECU student is teamed with a student from the partner university to complete course assignments online. All sessions are conducted in English and a moderator at each university provides continuity throughout the sessions. The seminar utilizes a combination of Internet based tools including real-time video/audio, real-time keyboard chat, threaded discussions, and e-mail.
Origins of the Project
The Global Summer Seminar was born in the spring of 2001 at Soochow University (SUDA) in Suzhou, China during a meeting to explore technology based cooperative ventures that would provide an opportunity for students to participate directly with ECU students. A beta test of the technologies and techniques at both sites was conducted in two audio/video sessions in January, 2003. Specific network related issues were identified and addressed. Students and faculty have been selected and work began on the session's content. In March student teams were formed with one student from SUDA and one student from ECU. Communications exercises helped students become comfortable learning partners before the seminar began.
How it Works
The seminar consists of 3-hour session/day over 2 weeks. The sessions are real-time audio/video based and utilize web-based PowerPoint presentations and shared electronic whiteboard. The topic and scope for each session is drawn from a different discipline is selected and planned by a team of professors from ECU and the partner university. Students are provided with readings prior to each session. A seminar moderator at each site is responsible for introducing the professors at each session and keeping the session on track. The professors each deliver a brief presentation on the topic and lead the students discussion that follows. The interchange of ideas and opinions provides a platform for cultural understanding. a session wrap up points the student teams to a joint online activity after the session ends.
Transferability
The concepts used in the seminar are transferable to a wide variety of session types. The seminar utilizes common, Internet based communication tools as the basis for the sessions. The techniques of identifying and forming student teams and faculty groups well in advance fit into the "pre-registration" model used by most universities.
Monitoring and Dealing with Technical Difficulties
Throughout its extensive online experience, ECU has operated on a "plan to fail" basis. Two approaches ensure that a session plagued by technical difficulties will be successful. First, multiple tools are used concurrently. Practically this means that while audio/video is the primary means of communications during a session a back channel of IC based chat (running on a private server at ECU) ensures that even major network slow downs will not cripple the effort. The text-based tool is extremely bandwidth tolerant and operates at very slow rates. During a network slow down IC or SKYPE (provides audio communication) can provide the link that keeps the discussion ongoing. Second, a total, temporary network breakdown can be overcome by the professor at each university continuing the discussion (based on agreed content) during the network outage. The moderator at each end monitors quality and reacts to network problems by prompting the onsite professor.
Sustainability
The seminar provides an ever-expanding opportunity for students at both institutions to become learning partners with their peers in a totally different world. Because the technology is used in a variety of ongoing distance learning programs the project is readily sustainable in the foreseeable future.
