Abstract:

The COVID-19 Pandemic that began in 2020 resulted in the acceleration of adoption and evolution of remote learning, teaching, and research. Primary focus is on the author's experience of coming from the higher education environment of the United States, to studying in Ukraine, and engaging in online English development for international students from a home office at a fascinating, terrible, yet insightful time. During the 3 years' of this period, to include the 2022 invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the remote collaboration & English practice platform lead to unexpected encounters and benefits, which the author found to be potentially worth sharing with the educational & scientific community. Of primary notice was that the online English students were found to be from the Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematical (STEM) fields, and consisted of undergraduate & graduate students, as well as professionals from around the world.

The sessions tended to be open-ended in terms of discussion, to practice and build confidence in their English abilities, and often focused on the English student's interests and academic work if applicable. Indeed, the number of PhD and master's thesis read through and gone over in class was a surprise, as well as the open topics that often led to insights across dramatically different fields, backgrounds, nationalities, ages, and so on. In this vein, the experience can be likened to the author's "second university" in that at almost any time there was near-immediate access to colleagues from around the world who had come together out of a desire and need to improve their confidence and fluency in English.

What follows is a background of the events at that time (2020 to 2022), author's journey, and how an international platform for STEM students & professionals developed, to no small surprise of the author. Implications for increased global interaction on a one-on-one basis in the STEM community, as well as how this is an apparent example of what Isaac Asimov wrote in his long-lost essay "How Do People Get New Ideas?"

Keywords:

STEM, English Fluency, Online Platforms, Creativity, Research