During the summer of 2004, the College of Staten Island (CSI) undertook an exciting project to connect our campus in New York with three international partner schools in China, Turkey and South Africa using internet based videoconferencing as the conduit.
Our project, based on a model developed by East Carolina University and funded by the State Department, had the goal of traveling to each of the partner schools and setting the technical and curricular groundwork for the upcoming semester (Fall 2004). The College partnered Shanghai Television University (China), University of Port Elizabeth (South Africa) and Kadir Has University (Turkey). A team comprised of a content expert and a technical lead traveled to each college and met with their counterparts to develop the curriculum and deploy the technology to create the “virtual classroom”.
Our presentation will provide details of the project from its launch in 2004 to the present time. We’ll discuss the lessons that were learned, challenges that we faced and innovations that made the project a success.
