In Sweden, the project grade was only a portion of the final grade students received for the course. In the US, the project grade was the course grade. The faculty coordinators had to consider both assessment criteria when evaluating students. A primary challenge in international project courses is in course management. International project courses require extensive faculty coordination to determine grading policies, course pre-requisites, project scope, and project supervision.
Students encounter many of the same problems in an international team that they do in a local team.
The two universities plan to continue Runestone in 2000 and are actively seeking to promote international collaboration with other universities. The project challenged the students technically and helped them appreciate the need to learn to work with others. The faculty coordinators noticed two items of particular interest related to team process in an international setting. Students were hesitant approaching faculty coordinators with problems related to their team members. The teams where students permitted themselves to have healthy conflict with both their local and remote teammates seemed more productive.