Sending students off on their own does not mean leaving them to their own devices. In fact, this course seems to involve more professionals than the average lecture or seminar. In addition to Berman and a teaching assistant who is based on the main campus, the course relies on Tsuchitani, Steinbeck, other Learning Lab personnel and mentors from each of the five overseas campuses. The mentors serve as links between the students and the larger overseas community. Steinbeck has devoted full-time hours to the designing, implementing, troubleshooting and evaluation of the course.
Indications are that the course has been successful.
And so far the technological glitches have been minor. Steinbeck says that early on there were concerns about the quality of the Internet connection from some of the European campuses. Course information is stored on a campus server, making maintenance easy, but connections between the main campus and students in Europe are made via the SSVL's high-speed Internet link from Sweden to the Farm. Connections like these have rendered the technology used in the course virtually transparent, Steinbeck says. The tools we deployed are helping them to really focus on their learning experience, which is a very positive outcome.