Making Global Connections: The Virtual Classroom Project

During the spring of 2004, the College of Staten Island (CSI) undertook an exciting project to connect our campus in New York City with three international partners in China, Turkey and South Africa using internet based videoconferencing. Based on a model developed by East Carolina University and funded by the State Department, the plan was to travel to each of the partner universities and set up the curricular and technical groundwork for the upcoming semester (Fall 2004). The College partnered with 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 University and met with their counterparts to develop the curriculum and deploy the technology to create the "virtual classroom". This project is described in detail in this article. (Contains 7 notes.) [For complete proceedings, see ED490133.]