Penn State Abington will be bringing the world into its classrooms, thanks to a collaboration with a German university.
"For the first time on our campus, a professor from Penn State Abington and a German professor from Hof University of Applied Sciences in Hof, Germany will team teach a course without leaving their respective country," said Dolores Arevalo, coordinator of International Affairs at Penn State Abington. "The course will be conducted virtually and simultaneously allowing faculty and students to share the classroom experience and diverse cultural perspectives on the course content. This collaboration is a new and exciting development in the internationalization of our curriculum."
Lecturer Joe Oakes will be teaching the IST402 (Emerging Technology: International Gaming Development) to a packed house during fall semester. All 24 seats are filled and the Abington students will be cooperatively working with an IST class from Hof University.
Groups of four students (two from Abington, two from Hof) will work together to create a 3D sports racecar game using the Microsoft XNA gaming platform. "Gaming is a great way to motivate students into learning," said Joe Oakes. "We'll be covering many disciplines: math, physics, project management, programming, how to work in teams …"
The students from each country will get to meet each other at the beginning of the semester through Web conferencing. Abington has a remote conferencing video set-up located in the Woodland Building. Throughout the semester the teams will stay in touch through e-mail, chats and videos on YouTube. During spring break, some of the Abington IST402 students and Oakes will be travelling to Hof University to meet their German counterparts in person.
"This class is a real global connection," said Oakes. "It's a cooperative endeavor for both parties. The students will learn and experience the culture and technology of both countries. They’ll see what's 'hot' in each country and hopefully gain an international perspective.
According to Arrevalo, "This global classroom experience will allow our students the opportunity to view projects from multiple international perspectives, understand global interdependence and see how other societies address similar issues in their academic field of study."