Topics for discussion need to be adjusted to something the students can easily relate to and also the American students can handle. Since Japanese students had much longer learning experiences in English than their American counterparts in Japanese, topics of discussion needed to be adjusted to the contents which American students have learned and are learning. Hold computing sessions at the beginning of the semester and as necessary during the semester to give some suggestions and guidance to the students on how to learn from the web. The CD-ROM needs to be available for the students to check out or purchase. It seems better to finish the VCs and Forum sessions by the end of the UNCW fall semester so that the Japanese students will have the same group of students throughout the course.
Flexibility is very important.
Prepare some emergency lesson plans for technical glitches. The combination of VCs and Asynchronous discussion bulletin board would give a nice balance to the students in different cultures and learning styles. Collaborative teaching with the instructors at distance sites is a key to the successful long distance courses.