LAS International Programs provides Global Classrooms instructors and their international partners with asynchronous and self-guided online training each fall and spring term.
The training covers the following topics and supports instructors in developing a finalized Global Classroom course plan by its end:
- An introduction to Global Classrooms and how it works at the University of Illinois
- Guidance on the collaborative process, including working across institutional, infrastructural, and linguistic differences
- Support and instructional design help throughout each stage of the process, including syllabus development, technology support, academic resources, etc.
- Guidance in navigating assessment, evaluation, and reflection for your students' classroom work as well as your own Global Classrooms experience(s)
The training is self-guided, mostly asynchronous, and available to anyone who wishes to enroll.
Why Global Classrooms?
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is a diverse campus with a vibrant international community. You may be wondering what Global Classrooms might offer that is not already available on campus. So, what exactly is being “exchanged”?
The answer is that Global Classrooms is not merely an exchange program between people of different cultures: rather, it is an opportunity for both faculty and students to collaborate on projects across institutional practices and structures. Many of the challenges you will encounter (technological, linguistic, organizational, etc.) are precisely the point of the Global Classrooms experience.
Our mission is to create a collaborative space and a community of participants who share projects and ideas around global learning. You will be in contact not only with your international partner(s) but also with other faculty, from a variety of disciplines, who are at different stages of the Global Classrooms projects.
Illinois Global Classrooms staff will also support you and your international partner throughout the project, including designing goals and deliverables within an existing course, structuring students’ collaborative experiences, and selecting the most appropriate learning technologies. Your international partner will typically teach in a similar or complementary discipline, and the projects vary in scope and duration, but most last between six and eight weeks.
Funding
Depending on availability, Global Classrooms instructors and their international partners will receive a course development stipend each. UIUC instructors will receive the funds in the form of a Service in Excess (SIE) the semester after the completion of the training and the submission of their Global Classroom project proposal. International partners will receive the funds in the form of an honorarium after the Global Classrooms experience has concluded. Funding priority will be given to instructors who have not received the course development stipend in the past.
Finding an international teaching partner
Instructors who do not already have a partner in mind can work with LAS International Programs to help identify one within the University of Illinois' network of international partners and the COIL Global Network, which is designed to help instructors connect on COIL projects.
If you'd like assistance finding a partner, please contact las-studyabroad@illinois.edu.
If you are an instructor or institution that wishes to collaborate with UIUC, please complete our Global Classrooms Partner Interest Form.
Course proposals
We are seeking proposals from faculty interested in developing a collaborative online international learning opportunity for students. Preference will be given to:
Undergraduate-level courses that are already on the books and are a part of a degree program,
Instructors who can take the asynchronous, self-paced training,
Instructors who commit to offering the Global Classrooms course for two semesters,
First year/introductory-level courses.
The Call for Course Proposal is published every year in June and closed in late August.