Building an Interdisciplinary, Technology Intensive, and Collaborative Model for International Education

In 2012 a partnership was established between two universities in Colombia and one in the United States. It went on to build a successful design and implementation of an undergraduate international teaching model, which involves three universities, two in Colombia, the Technological University of Pereira, in Pereira, Colombia, the University of Caldas in Manizales, Colombia and Purdue University in the USA. This innovative international collaboration takes the form of a jointly taught, bilingual, technology intensive class in Food Security and Sustainable Development that addresses some of the most pressing issues of our time. There are three weeks of work, one in each campus with a group of Colombian and USA students and instructors from both countries are present in the classroom and one group of Colombian students participates via video conference, and one week for writing final papers. USA Students have all the material and instruction and assignments in English and Colombian students have all the material, instruction and assignment in Spanish. Both languages are used in the classroom.
This proposal seeks to expend and adapt this model, addressing the academic rigor, cultural, linguistic, and technology competencies needed for our undergraduate and graduate students in the 21st Century, to implement it in three countries: Colombia, Mexico and the USA, and involving three institutions, the Technological University of Pereira, UTP, the Technological Institute of Monterrey, TEC, Mexico City, and Purdue University, Purdue, in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA. The proposed project seeks to build also on the strengths of each of the institutions involved: UTP is a public, comprehensive university with focus on engineering, environmental sciences and technology, the TEC, is a private comprehensive university with a focus on engineering, science and technology, whereas Purdue is a comprehensive public university part of the Land Grant system, with a focus in agriculture, engineering, science and technology. We proposed to make this joint teaching space an active information dissemination and facilitation platform for research and exchanges of students and scholars by changing its format from a Summer Study Abroad to a format that while still intensive will more closely resemble a semester of activities that include online classes, a rotation of expert faculty from each campus, addressing the various themes and activities of each module before traveling to each other’s campuses.
The proposed approach is especially suited for the countries involved, and by extension to most countries in the Americas, especially Brazil. There is the possibility of three institutions and two languages and intensive use of technology to feature the experts on each campus as they deliver their invited lectures to all three groups of students, one in-class and two on-line. In addition, the team-work component for the students which must present a multimedia group’s work in a language or languages of their choosing plus a final individual research paper insure real connection among students and participation of great quality. There will be a rigorous, comprehensive and critical review of the theories used to build this type of model preceding the presentation of the new approach as well as a discussion on critical appraisal of the promises and possible limitations of the new model.

Author(s):

Adriela Fernandez    
Purdue University
United States

Renee Valentina Lopez    
ITESM Mexico City
Mexico