Abstract:

At the INTED 2016, this author presented a paper about a higher education global classroom initiative via the Blackboard Learn platform at a private research university in the eastern U.S. The global classroom was defined as distance education courses from any discipline that incorporate a global dimension into their content and delivery so that students from different world locations complete a project or find solutions to problems by working together and building on each other’s ideas.

During spring 2017, a distance education global classroom titled “Issues in Sustainability” was taught to graduate U.S. education students and a group of senior undergraduate engineering students from the University of Montevideo, Uruguay. The research question is: Does interdisciplinarity in a global classroom promote learning? The authors use theories of learning and cognition to answer this question. One final group project will be discussed.

The presentation includes:
• Flip the presentation. Attendees may read the presenter’ paper or handouts before the presentation and raise questions, or discuss ideas about how a global classroom concept might be used differently in each one’s field of study.
• Attendees may use their smartphones during the presentation to make comments and pose questions.

Keywords:

Distance education, interdisciplinary higher education, global classroom, theories of learning and cognition, collaboration student projects, tertiary education.