International eLearning Issues on Steroids: 2005-2013 Taking the class on a 10,000+ mile Journey

In what now seems ancient history, your second author took a class about International Technology Issues from the lead author when he was a doctoral student at the University of Central Florida.
Fast forward to 2005 when first author calls second author from his university in Brownsville, Texas. The conversation went something like this:

Sam: “Hi Doc, this is Sam. Do you remember when I took your class about international learning issues at UCF?”

Doc C.: Yes, what about it. Did you finally decide to travel with me to China?”

Sam: “Naw, I’m not ready to go there yet. I want to know if you could teach a class like that for my graduate students at UTB?”

Doc C:”Let me think about it. How much time do I have to give you a reply?”

Sam: “No hurry, Doc, take your time. Will five minutes be enough time for you to give me an answer?”

Doc C: How about now?”

Sam: Great! Oh, by the way, there’s one caveat, this is only taught via the internet, no face-to-face classes like we used to have!”

Doc C: “Umm, let me think about that…ok, let’s give it a go!”

Thus began the UCF-UTB connection that continues to this day!

This general session presentation is centered around the theme of lessons learned using the “Three P’s”(i.e., people, process, and product), a process/quality improvement model developed by Motorola. We will be examining the rationale for “re-birthing” a class taught three years prior to the request from UTB and determining if the previous content and delivery methods (product) would hold current in today’s eLearning environment given the same type of stakeholder (people) and similar instructional design considerations (process). That is, who were the people involved and where were they locate? What was the rationale for the class? Who were the students? Where were the students? Where was the professor? What was the mode of delivery? What were the average class numbers? What were the class objectives, rationale, and activities? How were the students evaluated? Were there any social good projects completed? Where did the content come from? What were the results? What were the student evaluations? What changes were made across time in course structure or content? What anomalies occurred that impacted the class?

The presentation will benefit those interested in teaching an elearning class on location and designing a course like that.