Therefore, it is essential that business students in Canada, Mexico, and the United States achieve sophistication in their understanding and use of these evolving communication systems. Expertise in online acquisition and dissemination of information may prove to be very important in company survival and in international competitiveness. The Tri Red Consortium proposes to provide information technology skills and knowledge through innovative courses, and exposure to North American cultures through work experience and study in host countries. The core of the program is student mobility, and the bulk of funds are to support student travel costs. Each school will send at least seven students to partner schools in the other countries.
All instruction is in the language of the host country.
The Tri Red program also includes collaboration in the development of courses that may be jointly taught and delivered online from any partner school to students at any location. Tri Red will establish trilateral teams of students who will engage in computer mediated communication with their counterparts in other countries during the semester. They will also participate in work placements or internships to gain hands-on business experience at companies in the host county. Among the activities during the first year of the program were course development, a meeting in Mexico at which the member schools developed an overall program design and initiated curriculum coordination, and an administrative planning meeting in Canada to establish routines for mobility, credit transfer, and on campus responsibilities. Each school has designed selection procedures for student participants, produced and distributed program promotional materials, selected students for the first semester of travel, and determined a program of study for these students.