Indiana University East is going increasingly global with a variety of courses that are connecting students with peers around the world.

They are exchanging ideas, finding commonality and building cultural understanding.

Ann Kim found a way to add a global element to her class, Global Connections: Art and Culture of Japan, which last took students to travel abroad in spring 2019 as part of the course.

They are finding ways to maneuver around language and time-zone barriers.

They are helping merge classroom and online methods of education, a necessity driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is something they will have to do in their future careers,” said Julien Simon, who is an associate professor of World Languages and Cultures and director of the Study Abroad program at IU East.

“Students need to be OK with that, to interact with people who have an accent, to have to understand and communicate in a respectful manner,” Simon said.

Online engagement is the cornerstone of the new global initiative. Students have been using Zoom, WhatsApp and other communication platforms in classes that have global education components.

Seven IU East instructors have taught classes with global components in the last three semesters – and more are on the way.

The classes differ from study abroad programs. “This is a standalone experience. Neither is lesser than the other,” explains Simon. “It’s another way to bring the world to our students.”

Five instructors started global components with the help of grants provided by the new Global Classroom Project Initiative by the Vice President for International Affairs (OVPIA). They are Jaynne Rivas, Shari Fowler, Chien-Chung Chen, Wazir Mohamed and Josh Tolbert.

The initiative offers the following background information on its website: “The initiative takes a class already being taught at any IU campus and pairs it with a parallel course taught at a foreign university. … Faculty will continue to teach their respective courses independently, but will collaborate with their counterparts to design a project that requires students from both universities to work together (virtually).”

IU East instructors can apply to receive grants of $3,000 to use for a variety of expenses, including travel, course design and supplies. The deadline to apply is April 1 online at IU Global Classroom. Instructors are asked to send in an intent to apply before the deadline with a basic outline of the potential class.

IU East also offers its own grant program for developing new classes, which can be combined with the system-wide initiative.

Instructors and students have opportunities to learn more about global education with a pair of programs in coming weeks.

The first is an Center for Faculty Development workshop with all of the IU East faculty members who taught (or are teaching) a Global Classroom course at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, March 2, designed to illuminate the possibilities of adding international components to their classes. Faculty registration for the presentation is available online.

The second is a Mindful Explorations presentation at 5:30 p.m. Monday, March 7, on Zoom featuring Marcelo Moura Mello, assistant professor of Anthropology-Federal University of Bahia in Brazil. He will present, “Inequalities and Diverse Complexity of the Global South.” Faculty registration for the presentation is available online. This event is sponsored by Mindful Explorations, courtesy of the William H. and Jean R. Reller Endowment.

Mello and Wazir Mohamed, associate professor of sociology at IU East, worked together on a Global Classroom project that focused on Race and Ethnic Relations.

“The global classroom offers our students the possibility of understanding that the world is larger than their community, and that each are interdependent on each other, regardless of race, ethnicity, language, culture, and so forth,” Mohamed said. “I am extremely grateful that Indiana University has added this dimension. Our students need to develop and hone skills that would enhance their possibilities to soar within a rapid changing world, wherein equal respect, and recognition of multiculturalism, and global diversity are tools for upward social advance. It is in this spirit that we have invited Professor Marcelo Mello to speak on March 7 on the importance of recognizing the diversity of the Global South.”

Simon added the main goal of the workshop is to showcase the good work being done already and inspire others.

Arkadiusz Mironko, assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship, presents X-Culture certificates to students (left to right) Betsy Roberts of Arcanum, Ohio, Thomas Williams of Fountain City, Indiana, Alejandro Izaga of Gasteiz, Alava, Spain, and Joao Vitor de Lima of Curitiba, Brazil. Denise Smith, dean of the IU East School of Business and Economics, joined the certificate presentation in the Hayes Hall classroom during the fall 2021 semester.

The globally-connecting classes don’t necessarily have to share the exact same topics. Simon said they can be “a complementary endeavor.”

Chien-Chung Chen led international marketing classes last spring and fall that partnered with National Taichung University of Education in Taiwan.

The overall idea is to inspire students’ learning interest and global view, something that is essential in today’s business world, Chen said.

“The global view will benefit students’ lives and careers in various ways, such as introducing U.S. products to different countries,” Chen said. “The more important thing is to build an attitude of respecting peoples with different backgrounds or cultures. The respect between people helps the harmony of the world.”

The funding helped Fowler add a global component to her Advanced Final Accounting course during the fall semester. “(The) grant and the ability to work with a group of colleagues to put this type of activity together was really the catalyst,” she said. “Attempting to create a project like this individually was a bit overwhelming. I definitely benefited from the opportunity to brainstorm and collaborate with my colleagues.”

Fowler is an assistant professor and director of the accounting program in the IU East School of Business and Economics.

She paired for the global component with a class led by Professor Juan Carlos Chanaba at Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador. The instructors met regularly last summer “to create an engaging and dynamic assignment for our students to work on together,” Fowler said.

“Our students worked in small groups to choose a company, analyze their cost and financial accounting data, and make recommendations based on their analysis. They, then, presented the results of their project to our classes. It worked very well,” Fowler said.

So well, in fact, that she and Chanaba are planning to collaborate again on a project in their future classes.

Ann Kim added an online component to her class, Global Connections: Art and Culture of Japan. The chair of the Fine and Performing Arts Department took her class in 2019 to Japan on an eight-day, study abroad trip over spring break. That wasn’t possible in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic forced universities around the world to boost their online programs and virtual presences. It was a matter of survival and gaining traction toward the college education of tomorrow.

It was something that IU East was more prepared for than most other universities because of a strong development of online programs in the last decade.

Kim’s class in spring 2021 connected by the WhatsApp chat and voice-thread function.

“I thought this would be a great way to incorporate an element of cultural exchange and intercultural communication into my course even though we could not physically take the trip,” Kim said.

Arkadiusz Mironko’s International Business Environment class stands as a successful example that started before the current grant-aided global education initiative. Since 2017, dozens of undergraduate and graduate students have completed the X-Culture Global Collaboration Project that connects them in creating a real-world business plan for a company.

The cohorts of five to eight students are randomly chosen and meet virtually for about two months.

“Working comfortably with people across the world in the present environment certainly is so much more relevant since the pandemic ensued,” explains Mironko, who is an assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship.

Rivas was happy with the experiences gained through the Administrative Policies class that is the capstone course in the business administration degree program.

“One of the course goals is linking business strategy to its performance,” said Rivas, who is an assistant professor of management. “Achieving this goal represents a challenge for students because businesses are becoming more global nowadays. Therefore, business strategy and performance consider the impact of the foreign business environment.”

The class connected with students at the Universidad EAFIT of Colombia. “It worked even better than I was expecting,” Rivas said. “My students obtained a better understanding of society and business.”

Tolbert, assistant professor of special education for the IU East School of Education, said he and his students enjoyed taking part in his class on special education.

“I am happy to say I was one of the first to get a fellowship,” Tolbert said.

It wasn’t easy to implement, but is definitely worthwhile, he said: “I had to do more on the fly than I wanted to. Students were really receptive.”