Global Classrooms

Your Name and Title: Teresa Kramarz, Assistant Professor

School or Organization Name: University of Toronto

Co-Presenter Name(s): Anju Xing

Area of the World from Which You Will Present: Toronto, Canada

Language in Which You Will Present: English 

Target Audience(s): Professionals in higher education

Short Session Description (one line): A review of the key design elements of successful global classrooms (collaborative, technological, teaching activities) based on literature reviews and interviews from members of higher education. 

Full Session Description (as long as you would like): 

Over the last ten years, universities across North America have expanded their efforts to internationalize and prepare students for a deeply interconnected world. This has created a number of enriching opportunities that require student travel such as international student exchanges, global internships and summer abroad courses. However, there has not yet been a concerted effort to internationalize learning within the traditional classroom at home across most universities. We focus on one particularly promising pedagogy called global classrooms. This refers to teaching activities with other faculty and their classrooms in another country using any kind of technology to bridge geographical distances. These global classrooms might involve: combining faculty lectures and class discussions using videoconferencing, having students interview each other and do research together for class projects, discussing readings using blogs, or practicing a language with a native speaker who is a student in another country.


In this presentation we provide a review of the key design elements of successful global classrooms based on a review of the literature and interviews with current program administrators and faculty practitioners. We will review the emergence of the concept in the literature and post secondary classrooms in North America; institutional arrangements; teaching and learning objectives; synchronous and asynchronous classroom activities; assignments; assessments; and technology needs.


Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session: http://www.teresakramarz.com/

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