Presenter: Matias E. Margulis
History and Politics, University of Stirling
Sarah Hernandez
Patricia Bell
Rodney Coates
Corey Dolgon
Enzo Colombo
Adey Nyamathi
Carol Pavlish
Harriett Romo
Globalizing the classroom
Presentation Outline
Goals of the course
 How it is structured
 Benefits for students
 Challenges for teaching staff

The module
Globalization, Social Justice and Human
Rights
 Started in 2011, now into 5th year
 2011 pilot to 15 partner institutions and
over 200 students
 2013 13 global partners and over 150
students, both graduate and undergraduate
 Partners across US, Canada, UK, Europe,
and Latin America
Goals of the module
Overall Goal

Develop cross-cultural and interdisciplinary learning
and collaboration
Module Objectives/Student Learning Outcomes



Communicate and act respectfully across linguistic
and cultural differences.
Explore and understand ones place and influence in
the changing world
Understand relationships among societies, institutions,
and systems
How the module is structured
Four basic premises for staff collaboration:





Follow most of the core curriculum
Readings readily available on-line
Half class time for in-class /in-person and other
half of class time for on-line communication
Lingua franca is English
No additional resources/costs to students or
universities
How it is structured
Expectations from students:
Attendance
 Weekly blogs (500-750 words)
 Weekly commentary on other students’ blogs
(250-300 words)
 Group project for assessment (service learning,
case study, or Wikipedia ).

‘Tech’ stuff:
NING
 Dropbox, iCloud, and Googledocs

NING
Benefits for students
Interdisciplinary content
 Learned to accept and accommodate diverse
educational needs and approaches
 Learned to communicate and collaborate with
an interdisciplinary team
 Local and global contact with other individuals
and groups holding similar interests
 Wider exposure to intercultural communication,
collaboration, and negotiation
 Skills, international networking

Challenges for teaching staff
‘Syncing up’ institutions across different
academic calendars, forms of assessment,
and course expectations
 Facilitating transnational group projects
 Time and labour intensiveness
 Institutional aattitudes toward pedagogical
experimentalism
 Access to common readings, copyright

Conclusion
Novel approach to international teaching
and learning
 Enhances student experience
 Professionally rewarding
 Recognized by peers
 G,SJ & HR in 5th year

Matias E. Margulis
m.e.margulis@stir.ac.uk