Journal of Studies in International Education

16(2) 182­–197
Lessons From © 2012 Nuffic
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DOI: 10.1177/1028315311398665
Virtual Classroom http://jsi.sagepub.com

Lynn M. Patterson1, Paula Botero Carrillo2, and Rigoberto

Solano Salinas2

Abstract
As institutions of higher education adopt more global learning initiatives to improve
global competencies and increase global citizenship among their students, the creative
implementation of intercultural exchanges is critical. This article is a reflection on
the experiences of implementing a virtual classroom linking students at Kennesaw
State University (KSU) and Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios (Uniminuto).
The virtual classroom is designed to address global competencies in the areas of
knowledge, empathy, acceptance, foreign language ability, and intercultural teamwork.
This article outlines the project history, specific class activities, challenges faced in
implementation, and recommendations for modifying a future course and for adaptation
at other universities.

Keywords
virtual classroom, global citizenship, social responsibility, development, intercultural
collaboration, global learning

Introduction
As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, universities are responding with
an increased interest in global learning that will develop global competencies in stu-
dents and create global citizens. Universities are particularly interested in developing
these global initiatives in response to calls to increase the marketability of students

1
Kennesaw State University, GA
2
Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios, Colombia

Corresponding Author:
Lynn M. Patterson, Department of Geography & Anthropology, Kennesaw State University, 1000 Chastain
Road, Mail Drop 2203, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA 30144
Email: lpatters@kennesaw.edu

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Patterson et al. 183

and for societal improvement (e.g., Brustein, 2007; Hovland, 2009). As an institutional
framework from which to build global competencies, global learning offers

the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that students acquire through a variety of
experiences that enable them to: understand world cultures and events; analyze
global systems; appreciate cultural differences; and apply this knowledge
and appreciation to their lives as citizens and workers. (American Council on
Education, 2008)

With global learning, students can integrate multiple disciplinary perspectives, hone
their critical thinking skills, embrace diversity while becoming self-aware, build human
and natural capacities and assume responsibility for global issues, and take action
to protect and improve local and global communities (Davies, 2006; Hovland, 2009;
Shah & Young, 2009).
From these global learning initiatives, students ideally develop global competen-
cies. Although global competency has been, and still remains, subject to multiple
interpretations, there are distinctive shared traits among various definitions in the
literature (Hunter, 2004). Essentially, global competency emphasizes awareness,
acceptance, and ability (Hanvey, 1982; Lambert, 1994). To begin, one must be aware of
one’s own cultural perspective and how it may differ from others and global trends
and global dynamics and how all of those aforementioned conditions affect choice
(Hanvey, 1982). From this awareness grows curiosity that results in knowledge.
This knowledge may be of different places and their cultures and those places’
histories and current events. This knowledge also includes foreign-language ability,
which is essential for basic communication and cultural appreciation. With this
knowledge, students can then empathize with others who do not share their own cul-
tural perspectives. The awareness, knowledge, and empathy begets approval and
acceptance for different perspectives, conditions, and choices. Armed with these
capabilities, the final competency is task performance and the ability to work in an
international setting (Lambert, 1994).
DeSales University (2010) summarized global competency as “using an open,
inquisitive mind to understand the norms and expectations of other cultures, and using
this acquired knowledge to communicate and work effectively outside one’s usual
environment to promote human solidarity.” This solidarity stems from the concepts of
global citizenship and social responsibility. Global citizenship relies on knowledge
and empathy to create a sense of connectedness and responsibility that transcends bor-
ders (Harris, 2008; Karlberg, 2008).
As instructors fueled by these increasing emphases on global learning, global
competency, and global citizenship, we have the unique ability to facilitate such con-
nections and ask students to think beyond their texts, to combine theories and con-
sider how they might put these theories into practice. Although physical presence in
the field is preferred, there are often limitations for students to experience another
place.

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184 Journal of Studies in International Education 16(2)

The American Council on Education recommends in its Global Learning for All
program (2008) that

colleges and universities must take [similar] steps to make global learning available
to all students, regardless of background or mode of study. . . . Because institutions
cannot rely on opportunities outside the classroom to deliver important knowledge
to students . . . global learning must be embedded into the curriculum.

With technology, we can now take students on virtual field trips or facilitate inter-
cultural exchanges by connecting students online. These experiences with peers
allow students to share ideas and learn from one another in a way that simple lecture
or domestic studies cannot. Such collaborations have the potential to erode barriers and
engage students in places and personal relationships in which they would likely not
have access under normal circumstances (Cifuentes & Murphy, 2000). However, these
virtual connections and the desired collaborations can sometimes be complicated by
cultural differences and technological limitations (Goodfellow, Lea, Gonzalez, &
Mason, 2001; Williams et al., 2001; Wilson, 2001).
This article is a reflection on the experiences of implementing a virtual classroom
linking students at Kennesaw State University (KSU) and Corporación Universitaria
Minuto de Dios (Uniminuto) during the spring 2010 semester. The purpose of the virtual
classroom was to implement a global learning strategy that resulted in students work-
ing on elements of their global competencies. By this, we sought to (a) increase
awareness and knowledge of specific conditions in the United States and Colombia,
(b) provide for interaction across cultures to foster empathy and approval, (c) intro-
duce and apply concepts of global citizenship and social responsibility using a devel-
opment framework, (d) facilitate intercultural teamwork to improve task performance,
and (e) improve the ability to communicate across different cultures and languages.
This article outlines the project history, specific class activities, challenges faced in
implementation, and recommendations for modifying a future course and for adapta-
tion at other universities.

Project History
The virtual classroom exchange was conceived during a series of meetings between fac-
ulty at KSU and Uniminuto. At these meetings, the faculty discussed the importance of
exposing students to different cultures and social conditions that can give meaning to
the theoretical discussions on development, global citizenship, and social responsibil-
ity. The instructors envisioned a joint course to serve as a medium connecting students
who otherwise would not have the opportunity to interact. Because of the U.S. Depart-
ment of State’s travel warning for Colombia, KSU would not approve a study abroad
program to Colombia. For the Uniminuto students, financial constraints limited many of
these students from traveling and studying abroad. Thus, a virtual classroom connecting
the students from both universities was offered to give students the opportunity to gain

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Patterson et al. 185

access to knowledge and interact with their peers. With this platform and the activities
outlined as follows, we expected the virtual classroom would allow for the development
of the global competencies mentioned previously.
The two courses selected for participation in the course were a geography course
and a social development course. The geography course was the senior seminar in
geography at KSU. In the study of geography, global connectivity and sensitivity to
place are fundamental to the discipline. The senior seminar is a required capstone
course and one of the last courses KSU geography and geographic information science
majors will take before departing the university to pursue graduate school or careers.
It is important that geography students be able to demonstrate their global awareness
and ability to work in cross-cultural situations. Institutionally, this approach supports
KSU’s commitment to Global Learning for Engaged Citizenship, where students are
encouraged to incorporate global learning through classes with global content, study
abroad programs, and other international experiences (KSU Global Learning, 2010).
There were 19 students enrolled in the senior seminar in spring 2010.
The class from Uniminuto was a section of the Desarrollo Social Contemporáneo
(Contemporary Social Development). This course reflects the goals of the university—
that is, to foster social awareness in students who will be committed to helping others
and who actively will search for alternative solutions to help build a better society. DSC
provides them with the theoretical and analytical framework to approach and understand
social issues using development theories. This class was chosen for two reasons. First, it is
very important for students to gain a global perspective on local and national issues,
including how they are seen and analyzed in other parts of the world and how these
issues are globally connected. Second, the education for development perspective,
which is one of the university’s strategic research guidelines on development issues,
emphasizes on the importance of international, and especially North–South interdepen-
dence. There were 9 students enrolled in the Uniminuto course in spring 2010 represent-
ing a number of different disciplines.

Activities
Given the desired global competency goals and necessary student collaboration, we had
to identify how to best use existing telecommunications to connect the two classrooms.
In developing the course, we planned1 to use a common platform to deliver content and
connect students with one another. We hoped to use live audio/video feeds for presenta-
tion of lectures and class discussions (Skype™), discussion boards for asynchronous
communication, chatrooms, and e-mail. Given that many traditional online learning
platforms require student enrollment within the host university, we selected a platform
that provides open access to accommodate students from both universities (Moodle™).
We also organized the schedule so that, during a 3-month period, there were eight common
virtual class meetings.
Activities assigned to the students served to develop the global competencies of
students by delivering course content, facilitating student communications for both

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186 Journal of Studies in International Education 16(2)

personal and academic interaction, and requiring students to demonstrate their acquired
knowledge and analytical skills in a interclass group project. They ranged from class
discussions to small group work sessions to peer-to-peer communication. These activities
represented the six stages of collaboration as outlined by Murphy (2004): social pres-
ence, articulating individual perspectives, accommodating or reflecting perspectives
of others, coconstructing shared perspectives and meanings, building shared goals and
purposes, and producing shared artifacts.

Facilitating Student Interaction—Introductions

To begin the collaboration process, we asked students to participate in activities known
as social presence (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000, p. 4). These social presence
activities served to introduce students to one another and to create a sense of belong-
ing and group cohesion. Two major assignments served as introductions between the
classes. First, students prepared a dossier for their counterparts, including information
on their respective universities and regions and bios of the students themselves. This
document was sent to the students at the beginning of the virtual classroom exchange.
As a more personal introduction, the students were asked to e-mail their counterparts
with ice-breaker questions.

Delivering Course Content—Theoretical Foundations

In the next series of activities, we asked students to share and refine their perspectives
in discussions of the theoretical foundations for the course. To present the theoretical
material, students listened to lectures and were assigned basic readings on develop-
ment, global citizenship, and social responsibility (e.g., Bowden, 2003; Garriga & Mele,
2004; Peet & Hartwick, 1999). The development perspectives focused on different
development theories and viewpoints. These ranged from traditional definitions of
development (economic) to more progressive approaches (human and sustainable; for
example, Bruntland, 1987; Rostow, 1960; UNDP, 2009). Different lenses of development,
such as poverty, gender, conflict, and environment, were also covered (e.g., Barnes,
Peck, Sheppard, & Tickell, 2004; Bhasin, 1993; Boyd & Banzhaf, 2006; Celorio,
2004; Gudynas, 1999; Laderchi, Saith, & Stewart, 2003; Mellnick, McNeely, Navarro,
Schmidt-Traub, & Sears, 2005; Mujica Bermúdez, 2002; ONU, 2000; Reddock, 2000;
Sen, 2004; Vivero Vigoyas, n.d.). Global citizenship emphasized the perspective of a
collective identity based on humanitarian commonalities rather than regional differ-
ences (Harris, 2008; Lewis, 2009). This identity also included a sense of responsibility
to the greater good (Karlberg, 2008). Finally, social responsibility was presented as
both a corporate and individual philosophy (Garriga & Mele, 2004).
In addition to the basic reading list, students were asked to find additional defini-
tions of global citizenship and social responsibility, write short reflective essays on
these ideas, and then present them to the class for discussion. We had hoped to use
web-based video conferencing to have live, interactive sessions with lectures

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Patterson et al. 187

delivered by the instructors and a discussion between the two classes to follow.
Because of bandwidth limitations, we were not able to maintain the live feed, so we
had to modify the medium in which we interacted. The instructors facilitated separate
discussions on these common topics at both universities. The senior seminar prepared a
summary of the discussion for these topics and posted them on the class platform for
their Colombian counterparts to review. The results were clear articulations of interpre-
tations of the theories and some limited reflection of others’ viewpoints. The latter
really only occurred within the confines of the classes and not between the remote
classes.

Demonstration of Student Learning—Final Project

Combining development, global citizenship, and social responsibility perspectives
can give students a unique lens to investigate migrant groups in their own commu-
nities and facilitate engaging with their peers at the partner institution. The
Colombian case studied was based on internal migrants to Bogotá. According to
CODHES (Consultoría para los Derechos Humanos y el Desplazamiento, 2010), a
Colombian NGO that watches over the human rights situation of displaced people
(IDPs), in August 2008, Bogotá was the Colombian city to receive the largest
number of uprooted population, “around 2,64 million displaced people.” The U.S.
case was based on documented foreign-born residents in Atlanta. With more than
13% of the population identified as foreign born, Atlanta has one of the largest
immigrant populations in the country (Frey, 2002). Though these migration streams
had different push factors and standards of living in their respective cities, the
common thread of how development theories can be applied to these groups and
how students perceive these groups in light of global citizenship and social respon-
sibility served as a basis for interregional discussion. The instructors presented
background lectures on immigration in Atlanta and IDPs in Bogotá. These lectures
were delivered asynchronously using Powerpoint™, and class discussions on the
presentations followed.
With the theoretical background established using these lectures and other informa-
tion sources suggested by the instructors and those independently found by the students,
they had to work on a final project throughout the semester. The final project was both
the collaboration process where students were supposed to coconstruct shared perspec-
tives and meanings, build shared goals and purposes, and ultimately produce a shared
artifact (Murphy, 2004) and the end product they had to deliver. During this process,
interaction and dialogue between all students (of both universities) was an indispensable
condition for their assessment: They were required to document every time they com-
municated to talk about their assignment; for this purpose, the instructors established
a minimum of one dialogue or discussion a week.
The original assignment required both classes to coauthor a final report that would
summarize the specific conditions and issues with these migrant groups. Students were

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188 Journal of Studies in International Education 16(2)

to interact via the Internet to share information for their respective regions, offer feed-
back and brainstorm on the migrant groups in both countries, and codevelop a series of
recommendations to address the common, yet contextually different scenarios. In par-
ticular, we wanted students to focus on how global citizenship and social responsibility
can affect perceptions and programs to address the negative impacts associated with
development issues facing these groups.
To facilitate the shared perspectives and goals, we had both sets of students form
four workgroups (with representation from both universities in each group with a
total of 6-8 students in each group) to discuss one of the four lenses of development:
poverty, conflict, gender, and environment within the context of development. Within
each workgroup, the students had to find a literature-based definition of the perspec-
tive, discuss how they each interpret the perspective on the basis of their culture and
include examples from their own countries, and discuss how the cultural interpreta-
tions are different. Finally, on the basis of the imperative from global citizenship and
social responsibility, the students were asked to brainstorm what interventions might
be appropriate in each locale to ameliorate these conditions. These workgroups had
limited success. Students provided each other with some feedback; however, time
and language barriers seem to thwart in-depth discussions and the development of
shared goals.
The students were able to connect and obtain information about both the Atlanta and
Bogotá cases, but with the telecommunication and enrollment changes, they were not
able to complete the entire analysis. The KSU students compiled a report on the Atlanta
case, including a final oral presentation and sent it to the Uniminuto students. Since the
KSU’s semester ended earlier than Uniminuto, the Uniminuto students completed their
respective reports on the Bogotá case; however, they didn’t finish them in time to send
them to their peers at KSU. Since there was no final exchange, there was no opportu-
nity to create the shared artifact.

Course Challenges
There were a number of content, logistical, technological, and communication challenges
associated with the virtual classroom that limited the ability of students to maximize the
potential of this project improving their own global competencies. In what follows, we
discuss both the challenges and the modifications we made during the semester. As this
was unchartered territory for both sets of instructors, we feel it is important to share these
pitfalls and how we overcame them. This section is followed by recommendations for
modification of the class we suggest for subsequent semesters.

Content
The project used the idea of cross-cultural comparisons of immigration (Atlanta)/IDPs
(Bogotá) to facilitate a dialogue on the differences and commonalities of these two

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Patterson et al. 189

groups. A limitation of this approach was that in reality, the groups and scales were not
compatible. Immigrant groups in Atlanta vary widely in terms of ethnicity, educational
attainment, income, and so on, and their experiences with regard to poverty, conflict,
gender, and environment are distinctly different. Nor could they be aggregated in terms
of historical factors for migration. The Bogotá case for IDPs studied in the class centered
around one area in the city. The groups had many more similarities in terms of push fac-
tors and their current development situation. So although the condition of communicating
on a continual basis for the final project was maintained, the comparisons were not
easily made, and it became, in the first place, an exercise of describing each of the situ-
ations analyzed in their respective cities to the students at the other university and, in
some cases, discussing some of the theoretical aspects of the concepts they had to apply
to their work.

Logistical Challenges
Logistically, we had to coordinate class schedules and times. The semester sched-
ules between the two universities have some lag—KSU starts in early January and
ends in early May, whereas Uniminuto starts its spring semester in early February
and runs through late May. Furthermore, holidays and breaks did not coincide. Since
this was a semester-long project, we were able to schedule the classes during the
common dates and coordinate the class meeting time. Although the simultaneous
class meetings were helpful for in-class online chats, it limited the Uniminuto stu-
dents’ ability to go out into the field and collect data because both classes met in the
evening. To potentially further complicate matters, midway through the semester,
daylight savings time ended for the United States. This put KSU 1 hr ahead of
Uniminuto. We were fortunate that we had enough overlap in our class meeting time
that we could accommodate this change.

Technological Challenges
Our most significant challenge we faced was appropriate and available technology.
As stated earlier, our original intention was to utilize live video and audio feeds for
lectures and discussions between the two classes. Unfortunately, bandwidth limita-
tions at Uniminuto rendered this approach ineffective.
We adjusted the class format for lectures where we recorded some Powerpoint™
presentations with voiceovers as a file to be downloaded and shown in class. We also
exchanged via e-mail discussion guidelines for the four alternative perspectives and how
they related to global citizenship, social responsibility, development, and immigration/
internal migration. We spent quite a bit of time at the start of the project trying to identify
alternative technological fixes to enable us to still have synchronous interaction. This
resulted in time lost for the classes that were already on a tight schedule given the lim-
ited schedule overlap.

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190 Journal of Studies in International Education 16(2)

Communication Challenges
A third challenge was not technical in nature but rather cultural. As cautioned by various
intercultural distance education researchers (e.g., Goodfellow et al., 2001; Williams
et al., 2001; Wilson, 2001), with international projects such as this, communications
can be difficult. The intent of this class was not to teach a foreign language but to encour-
age students to explore options for communication across cultures and languages. We
chose English as the lingua franca under the assumption that, with the assistance of the
bilingual instructors at Uniminuto and a Spanish instructor at KSU, we would be able
to help the students to communicate effectively with one another. This was somewhat
effective, but given the class size and the attempts to conduct these conversations in real
time via chatrooms, there were not enough resources to immediately properly translate
all communications. The students tried to overcome this barrier by translating ques-
tions and comments using online translation software and help from friends who were
bilingual. However, with this limited access to translation resources, students were
somewhat hesitant in transmitting communications, even simple ice breakers. Even
from our own experiences in preparing the class and documenting the outcomes, we
found it difficult to convey all the ideas properly with limited language proficiencies.
We were thus concerned that students were not able to adequately express their ideas
to one another.

Recommendations
To improve course delivery and thereby enabling students to focus on developing their
global competencies, we developed the following recommendations on the basis of our
own experiences and in consultation with learning technology specialists. In reviewing
the course requirements, we chose to modify the number and types of interactions and
assignments to maximize and enhance student collaboration processes.

Communication
To facilitate the social presence element and interaction between students, we have revised
the “get to know you” module. We felt that there needed to be more of a presence of the
students while communicating with one another. Instead of having a biography in the
static dossier document, students will now “meet” one on one with two members of
different workgroups before group work begins. A pair of KSU and Uniminuto students
will interview each other to write the other’s bio. Students will then post these bios and
a photo on Moodle™ so that other students have a constant reminder of to whom she
or he is communicating. We expect this will strengthen the interest between the students.
Next, the students will be paired with another peer and answer ice-breaker questions. To
reduce the language barriers, we will embed an online translation software link in the
Moodle™. At the onset of the course, to improve student experience with the nuances of

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Patterson et al. 191

online translation, we will explicitly discuss with the students the benefits and limitations
of online translators. We will encourage students to seek assistance with the faculty to
ensure their translation is consistent with the intended message. Students will ultimately
have weekly communications with their peers whether in the introductory stage or in
the more formal essay review or workgroup segments.

Assignments
To enable students to articulate their individual perspectives and accommodate or
reflect the perspectives of their peers, two major assignments will be required for the
students. The first is an individual reflective essay on the material covered to date.
The “ice-breaker” peer will read and comment on her or his partner’s essay. This will
enable students to present their own thoughts on the course content and expose them to
some other thoughts as well. The essays will be made available for all to review; however,
grades will be kept confidential.
For this particular partnership, the second assignment will be a group project based
on IDPs problems in Bogotá, Colombia. Given the problems already described related
to the cross-regional comparisons as a viable final project assignment, the instructors
have designed a project where, around one country-specific case, Atlanta students and
Bogotá students each have different research assignments that complement each other
and without which the final project cannot be fulfilled. For this purpose, we will use
only one field study—IDPs in Bogotá and, more specifically, within a sector of the city.
Given location advantages, this field study will be conducted by Uniminuto students.
However, local field research will not give an integral perspective to the problem. It is
important to find a frame of reference through which KSU students can find a local-
global connection between both parts of the world, and one of the advantages of using
this case study is that it is a very good example of a local-global problem where this
frame of reference can be easily built into.
Although the IDP communities, when arriving in Bogotá, find specific and very deep
social and development-related problems that have to be understood, the reasons they
leave their original living places have deep-rooted causes related to territorial conflicts,
violent confrontations between guerrilla, paramilitary and regular military forces,
and drug production, among others; all these conflicts have had a long history in Colom-
bia and are very strongly related and linked to each other. Some of them, specifically
the drug-related conflicts, have important international and global implications; relations
between United States and Colombia has been strongly permeated by this issue, and one
of the big bilateral projects that has been signed to help solve the problem, the U.S.
counternarcotics financial and military resource aid project called Plan Colombia, has
also brought new elements and influenced and reoriented those that already existed.
Thus, whereas students in Colombia do the field research in Bogotá, Atlanta stu-
dents would have to do research on Plan Colombia: Students should be able to identify
the main contents of this project and its historical and political bilateral context. In

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192 Journal of Studies in International Education 16(2)

other words, through the financial and military aid and the promise of its continuance,
U.S. governments have had a very strong influence on Colombian governments, espe-
cially in two aspects: how they interpret their own conflicts (for example terrorism
versus internal conflict) and what public policies are put in action. This would ensure
that U.S. students could understand how their own country or community is globally
linked to, and strongly influences, Colombian problems. In addition, each group of
students will have under their responsibility the analysis of a fundamental part of the
problem so that the final product will necessarily need both perspectives; this will
hopefully enrich the intercultural discussions.
The major aim of the virtual classroom is to encourage interaction and exchange of
ideas across cultures. By simplifying the field study, students will be able to see how
they could work together to recommend policies and programs that are geographically
sensitive and realize their ability to make a difference while appreciating and respecting
the diversity of place and culture. In this way, students will be able to participate in the
coconstruction and building of shared perspectives and goals.
As a final outcome, we once again hope to facilitate intercultural teamwork with this
task. Students will be divided into small groups with no more than 5 persons per group.
Half of the groups will develop an awareness campaign to be launched in the United
States on IDPs. The other half of the groups will create a project to assist IDPs in Bogotá.
Students will use the information they retrieve from the field study and the research on
Plan Colombia to develop this intervention. The student groups will present their final
projects in a joint meeting of the classes at the end of the semester.

Lectures
The instructors will prepare a series lectures for the students to review. These include
an introduction to their respective universities, an introduction to Colombia and inter-
nally displaced persons, an overview of global citizenship and social responsibility, an
overview of development theory, and an introduction to the four perspectives (poverty,
conflict, gender, and environment). Lectures will be prerecorded, downloaded, and shown
in class with a local discussion. At the conclusion of this discussion, a summary of the
main points will be uploaded for the other class to view.

Logistics
Given the technological constraints and limited ability to collect data during class
hours, we have chosen to conduct the majority of classes asynchronously. This will
give us more flexibility, especially with time changes and holidays. There will be two
synchronous meetings of both classes—one at the beginning of the semester and one
at the end of the semester—using videoconferencing technology. The first meeting
will enable students to meet each other and the professors online and in real time. The
second synchronous meeting will be for the final presentation of the projects.

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Patterson et al. 193

Technology and Course Format

To overcome the technological constraints, we will be instituting a number of changes in
the format and equipment used for delivery of course content. First, we will utilize pro-
fessional videoconferencing equipment for two synchronous class meetings. Second, we
will conduct most of the class asynchronously. We will utilize the Moodle™ platform
again and include a blog for the field study, discussion boards, chatroom, and e-mail.
Students will also have access to small video cameras to document the field study.

Importance of Establishing Relationships for This Type of Activity

At a recent conference presentation on this project, an audience member asked how it
was possible to have both universities be so interested in this project. We were fortunate
that indeed both universities and their instructors were enthusiastic about this idea and
felt it was important for their students to be exposed to this kind of learning environ-
ment. We had support from the administration as well as the students. This buy-in is
critical for the project to be successful. As simple as one might expect given current
technology, the reality is that there is a tremendous amount of team work, communica-
tion, and planning and testing and adjusting required for such a project. We also had the
fortune to have in-person meetings between the instructors—once in Colombia and
once in the United States. These in-person meetings allow for extended communica-
tion, personal connectivity, and first-hand knowledge of the sites.
This project was initiated at the faculty level and perceived as an opportunity to
collaborate on an exciting pedagogical experiment. The collegiality, enthusiasm, and
cooperation between the involved faculty was essential for the project—particularly
when the challenges threaten to derail the project. Without the commitment and solid
working relationship between the faculty, this project would likely have failed. Thus,
we believe other similar projects would best be designed and implemented at the fac-
ulty level with adequate administrative support.

Conclusion
Overall, the virtual classroom was a positive experience for both the students and the
faculty. Students were excited about the concept of the global virtual classroom and
the opportunity to work with colleagues at a foreign institution. Students were able
to connect to distant places and people through the course content and relationships
developed during team exercises. Although their collaborations were not as effective as
we had anticipated, this is not surprising given both the intercultural nature and the
technical difficulties associated with the project.
To some degree, each of the activities enabled students to work on their global com-
petencies. Through the introductions, icebreakers, and teamwork, students were able to
understand that people have different experiences, cultures, and perceptions about the
world around them. Because students had to communicate across languages, they may

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194 Journal of Studies in International Education 16(2)

not have improved their own foreign-language competency; however, they did have
to learn how to be creative in communicating in spite of language barriers. The lectures
and discussions on the theoretical foundations and case studies gave students knowledge
about global issues with which they were not previously familiar. This knowledge,
combined with the personal connections, enabled students to develop empathy and
acceptance that different regions operate in ways that are meaningful for those areas
and peoples. Finally, the group project required students to work on task performance.
In other words, they had to learn how to effectively work together in an international
setting.
The students demonstrated flexibility and readily adopted the modifications made dur-
ing the semester, to overcome technological and cultural obstacles. Most important, the
instructors were committed to the project and were able to work together to adapt the
course, in order to be able to work with the constraints experienced throughout the semes-
ter. Because of the lessons learned from this experience, the subsequent course design will
be improved both in content and delivery. We look forward to instituting such changes in
future semesters to improve our ability to assist students in reaching beyond their own
classrooms and perceptions. We also hope that the lessons learned in this experience and
presented here can assist other faculty to successfully develop similar projects.
As globalization continues to shrink the world, global citizenship and social respon-
sibility become even more important considerations to development.

Global problems necessitate going beyond national borders to embracing the con-
cept of global citizenship. By learning how global issues affect individual and
community lives, how and why decisions are made which affect the planet and life
on it and, most important, means by which the future can be influenced, education
can prepare students to become socially responsible global citizens. (Andrzejewski
& Alessio, 1998, p. 6)

The concepts and implementation of global learning, global competencies, and global
citizenship are continually changing, given the dynamic nature of society and technol-
ogy. Higher education has the unique opportunity to create a more engaged citizenry,
through experimenting with global learning initiatives infused into the curricula. These
global learning programs not only expose students to information about global issues
but also connect students through personal communication exchanges. These exchanges
break down cultural barriers and help students find commonalities between their own
lives and communities and those of their peers at a foreign institution. These similarities
may inspire students to reconsider their potential for being global citizens and how they
can improve development conditions at home and abroad.

Acknowledgments
We would like to thank our respective universities for providing us with support to conduct this
project. In particular, we would like to thank Margarita Perez, KSU’s Multimedia Development
Group, and Mark Patterson.

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Patterson et al. 195

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interests with respect to the authorship and/or
publication of this article.

Funding
The authors received the following financial support for the research and/or authorship of this
article: Funding for this project was made possible by KSU’s College of Humanities & Social
Sciences Global Learning Award.

Note
1. We include the planned activities to illustrate how the format of the course had to change
during the semester, given implementation hurdles.

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Bios
Lynn M. Patterson, PhD, is an assistant professor of geography at Kennesaw State University,
where she teaches urban, economic, and cultural geography. Her research interests include sus-
tainable local economic development and innovative pedagogy for geography. She earned her
doctorate at Georgia Institute of Technology in the City & Regional Planning program and holds
a masters degree and a bachelors degree in geography from the University of Arizona and the
Johns Hopkins University, respectively.

Paula Botero Carrillo is an instructor at the Center for Education for Development of the Corpo-
ración Universitaria Minuto de Dios. She teaches contemporary social development. Her research
interests include social responsibility and local and regional governance and governability. She
earned her masters degree in interdisciplinary studies on development and her bachelors degree in
philosophy in the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá.

Rigoberto Solano Salinas is an instructor of communication and development and contemporary

social development at Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios. His research interests are
education for development, participative planning, social conflicts, sustainable development, and
communication and education. He has a postgraduate degree on regional development planning
and management and has a bachelors degree in communication and journalism from the Corpo-
ración Universitaria Minuto de Dios.

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