University students listen to Anat Stern, a professor whose lectures are streamed from Tel Aviv during class.

University students listen to Anat Stern, a professor whose lectures are streamed from Tel Aviv during class.

Last semester, 10 students from this university had the opportunity to take a virtual, project-based course in international development and conflict management with 10 students from Tel Aviv University as part of the university’s new Global Classrooms Initiative.

The initiative, which is set to begin officially next semester, offers four courses in economics, English, foreign politics and international development, and students will have the chance to take a class with students from Afghanistan, Israel, Russia or the United Kingdom. Eight courses will be available by spring 2016.

The Office of International Affairs established the initiative, aiming to create and reinforce global competencies in students, OIA Assistant Director Raluca Nahorniac said.

“We were looking at creating experiences that will mirror the kind of work and kind of professional experiences our students will encounter after graduation,” Nahorniac said. “The global classrooms are a way of internationalizing your experience at the University of Maryland while being on campus.”

Students who took a pilot course last semester explored issues of conflict management and mediation through projects in which they researched and produced solutions to major development problems in specific parts of the world.

Stacy Kosko, assistant director of the international development and conflict management minor program, and Brian Polkinghorn, a Tel Aviv University professor at Salisbury University, instructed the class not by lecturing, but by facilitating conversation and providing insight for the students’ projects.

For the projects, two students from this university were paired with two Tel Aviv students, an experience senior government and politics major Grace Chan said was very insightful.

“I really didn’t understand the problems in Colombia as much as the other students that I was working with, and probably nor would I … unless I had worked with them,” Chan said. “With technology it makes it so much easier to sit down and talk to someone across the world.”

Kosko acknowledged the course, as a pilot, had logistical and technological issues that typically come with the blended learning model.

For example, the class met twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12: 30 p.m., which is 7:30 p.m. in Tel Aviv. Because Friday and Saturday are the weekend in Israel, it was difficult to get Tel Aviv students to show up on Thursday nights, Kosko said. On top of that, the Tel Aviv students were also graduate students who had jobs and heavier course loads.

“There were definitely some communication issues,” Chan said. “Sometimes it was hard to find time to schedule [meetings].”

Nahorniac believes the international exposure students receive through Global Classrooms could encourage more students to study abroad or provide a global interaction experience for students who cannot.

And although Chan and Kosko pointed out that the two programs have differences, they acknowledged that students will benefit from cross-cultural communication, which is a large component of studying abroad.

“Both of them have a benefit that the other doesn’t necessarily,” Kosko said. “If your goal is to be exposed to people abroad and you’re not really comfortable with reaching out to our international students here on campus, Global Classrooms is a nice opportunity.”

Even though Kosko’s class only encompassed students from this university and Tel Aviv, 13 of the 20 students in the class were not from the United States or Israel.

“[Global classrooms] is a great opportunity to hear and engage with the views and perspectives of people who are in very different circumstances,” Kosko said. “It’s challenging logistically and pedagogically… [but] a really nice way to push our boundaries as educators.”