The American Council on Education and the State University of New York (SUNY), through its Center for Collaborative Online International Learning, have announced the winners of the first-ever Leaders in Internationalization Through Technology Awards. The Great Lakes College Association (GLCA), along with Mount Holyoke College and SUNY Cortland, were honored for their use of technology to enhance institutional internationalization and global competence among students at U.S. colleges and universities.
The GLCA was awarded for its Global Course Connections Program, which supports course connections between U.S. and internationally based liberal arts campuses. The program is made possible by the structure of the Global Liberal Arts Alliance, a GLCA initiative that is comprised of the 13 GLCA institutions in partnership with liberal arts institutions in 14 other nations that support high-quality “American style” liberal arts and sciences education on a transnational basis. Denison University has participated in the Global Alliance both with course-based initiatives and with faculty and staff-based connections in cooperation with Alliance partners in Europe.
In this program, two college classes, one from a U.S. based Alliance campus and one from a non-U.S. based Alliance campus, are connected using technology in a way that enriches both courses with an international perspective. A spectrum of internet-based technology is employed in support of course connections, with methods chosen to enhance student group work, joint classroom discussions and shared class content. More than two dozen courses have been globally connected during the first two years of this initiative.
“Denison has become a benchmark college for providing students with the kinds of international experiences they will need to be successful in the future,” says Denison President Adam Weinberg. “We are very proud of what we are doing and the opportunities the Alliance provides to expand that work in innovative ways.”
Denison has created classroom partnerships with Franklin College in Switzerland, the Bratislava International School of Liberal Arts in Slovakia, and with the University of Augsberg in Germany. In addition, Denison President Adam Weinberg convened with GLAA leadership in Bratislava in February of this year, while in 2009, President Emeritus Dale Knobel traveled to Effat University in Saudi Arabia to consult on a liberal arts curricular plan.