Last week Dr. Gary Rader concluded his virtual service-learning course PLS 101 American Democracy.  What made this course unique was the collaboration with a counter-part course and professor, Dr. Mariana Gonzalez, at IDES (Institute for Advanced Learning) in Rio Tercero, Argentina.

This collaboration between the two professors and two institutions (MSU and IDES) has been developing since 2012. The MSU course was also part of a pilot program to test out Collaborate from Blackboard which is a new web-conferencing software.

The two sets of students in the two institutions studied the levels of political efficacy and civic engagement among their fellow students.  Synchronous meetings were held between the Rotary Club leaders in Springfield as well as Rio Tercero.

The final session presented the survey data in a synchronous session between the students of both classes and the Mayor of Springfield and the Secretary of Education in Rio Tercero.  So far the reaction among students in both countries, their instructors and the invited guests has been positive.

Further collaboration and expansion of collaboration between the two institutions is in the works.  Dr. Rader has been invited to present the findings of the project to an International Conference on Education in Argentina in 2015.  Dr. Gonzalez and other officials involved in the project in Rio Tercero may visit campus in spring 2015.

These are exciting times in which to teach with technology designed to enhance MSU’s mission to expand cultural competence and community engagement.