2. Potentials

Question 1: What are the greatest potentials or actual benefits of opening online writing classes to greater global audiences (i.e., allowing students located in different nations to participate in the same online course)?

Yvonne Cleary.

[13] The University of Limerick has offered the Graduate Certificate in Technical Writing online since 2001 and the MA in Technical Communication and E-Learning online since 2015. While the majority of our students are based in Ireland, recent cohorts in both of these programs have also included students from the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Greece, India, and the United States. This diversity also responds to current strategic initiatives within the University of Limerick to internationalize the curriculum and to increase participation by international students in our programs, particularly at postgraduate levels. To facilitate the international learning process in these programs and courses, we use course sites within an online Learning Management System (LMS).

[14] The strongest benefit we have observed by opening our online writing classes to international audiences is that every student has exposure to--and learns to value--cultures, perspectives, and educational backgrounds and experiences other than their own.

​[15] Specifically, for the teaching of writing, global online classes have many benefits. An online course site can become both a safe space in which to practice writing and a site for purposeful and productive exercises. Written student contributions produce a record of informal and formal discussions (e.g., online chats and discussion forums). This record can be a very helpful learning tool. Garrison et al. (2001) refer to the need to create three types of presence to support online communities of learning: teaching presence, cognitive presence, and social presence. Teachers can use online forums to model writing practices that they expect students to emulate. Learners can develop cognitive skills by taking time to reflect before committing to writing in asynchronous environments. This approach enables writing students to develop their ideas and to work on grammar and syntax. There are many ways in which social presence contributes to learning. For example, being able to see the work of peers encourages learners to work to achieve a similar standard. When online global writing communities are effective, it is inspiring to observe peer-supported writing taking shape ‘live’ through online forums. Because materials--such as podcasts, readings, worksheets, and activities--have to be developed in advance and updated regularly, a long-term outcome and benefit is a repository of learning objects, at least some of which can be reused, that support the teaching of writing.

[16] I believe that online courses also increase equality of opportunity. Learners can take courses that match their skills, interests, and professional goals and that are affordable—perhaps while continuing in a job and regardless of the geographical location of the institution. Many of our students are returning to education and/or working simultaneously.

[17] A further benefit is the possibility for students in one university to engage with students in other universities with minimal or no cost. For example, one project we have for the MA in Technical Communication and E-Learning, teams of writers from the University of Limerick produce documents with students from the University of Central Florida that are then translated by students at Université Paris Dideort in Paris. These writing and translation teams operate virtually, supported by various communication technologies. (For more information on this project, see Flammia et al. 2016.)

Pavel Zemliansky.

[18]I think that, if done right, such opening up of one’s online courses and programs to global audiences can bring substantial benefits both to the students enrolled in those courses and to the institutions which offer them. Students would be exposed to different ways of thinking, learning, and interacting. Moreover, when it comes to instruction in professional communication, both written and oral, learning together with peers from other countries can have the potential of exposing students to real-life international and intercultural communication situations and challenges. Learning to communicate internationally, then, would move the focus from mostly theory to actually practicing international and intercultural communication.

[19] In the areas of rhetoric and composition and in technical communication, one model of opening up online or mixed-mode courses to foreign students has been involving U.S.-based students in collaborative projects with their counterparts in other countries. Such projects are carried out online and typically result in some sort of formal product, such as a set of translated and localized texts, cross-cultural analyses of texts or websites, and others. Such projects are well-documented in published literature (see, for example, Brewer, 2016 and Maylath, 1997). Yvonne’s segment mentions them as well.

[20] Having taught several such projects, which involved students in the U.S. and Ukraine, I am always struck by how much the students learn about the processes and challenges of working in a distributed online team with members based in a different country. In my view, such projects often focus on teaching students about project management practices and overcoming communication and logistical obstacles relating to international online collaborations. Within such collaborations, these foci can sometimes be considered even more important than producing a perfect final document. It is the procedural knowledge that becomes transferrable and serves these students well in the future, both as learners and as future communication professionals.

[21] Overall, I think the benefits of teaching online globally are similar to teaching online locally. In my view, one of the biggest promises of computer-mediated online instruction is teaching students to see learning as a social activity that is not merely mediated by machines, web interfaces, and learning managements systems. For me, online learning is interactive with others and not merely “inhaling” knowledge from textbooks and professors. Opening up online learning spaces to global audiences can help us achieve these goals.

​Rich Rice.

[22] It has always been interesting to me that, over the years, bugs become features, and what we used to think about as “what we could do” has become “what we should do.” Not only can we teach reading, writing, and research with computers . . . we should. Not only can we deliver excellent writing courses online . . . we should. Simply put, using computers and offering online courses provides a better education for some learners. Similarly, I’d argue that we have moved beyond the can in terms of logistics and technology to the point where we should open classes to translocal audiences.

[23] As Yvonne and Pavel have already mentioned, there are many potential and actual benefits. There’s increasing the number of students who are able to attend our institutions, there’s developing potential partnerships for sustainable exchange programs, and there’s giving students opportunities to experience realistic problem-solving situations, such as negotiating linguistic, cultural, social, and other differences. And opening any kind of writing classes is realistic because we know our students are increasingly getting jobs at multinational companies that make use of telecommuting and other virtual workplace practices. There’s direct, concrete recognition for each of these benefits, such as students wanting to sign up for courses that include other students from diverse background and locations.

[24] But above all of this, there’s something more. I feel the greatest benefit of opening online writing classes to greater global audiences is such classes can teach students that with the increased capabilities of collaborating and distributing work multimodally, there are two primary concerns we must always consider when thinking about rhetorical situations. In addition to the relationship between reader, writer, and text, we must always think about location and modality. When we teach composition or technical communication online, in particular, we need to give students real, problem-based scenarios involving decision-making processes that get students thinking about cultural and technological similarities and differences; experiences that teach them intercultural communication competencies, because writing and writing online, today, are becoming ubiquitous. Otherwise, we’re in danger of graduating functionally illiterate students.

Kirk St.Amant.

[25] The greatest benefit is the level of interaction that can, ideally, lead to more sophisticated thought in relation to a range of topics. It’s one thing to read about what is going on in a different nation —what others think, believe, or feel in a different place—or the attitudes members of different cultures have. It’s a completely different thing to be able to interact directly with individuals from other nations and cultures. That ability to interact is priceless. To ask questions to someone directly and receive answers directly from them: that is education. The ability to actually discuss ideas with someone from a completely different culture or who grew up in a different nation with very different life experiences: that is learning. The opportunity to collaborate directly with individuals who live under different legal systems and to communicate using different linguistic and rhetorical structures according to different world views that guide behavior and influence attitudes: that is the key to real, true personal growth. That’s the amazing benefit opening online classes to greater global audiences has to offer all involved.

[26] These opportunities to interact are particularly important now—more so than ever before. We’re inextricably linked to a greater global context. These connections are partially economic, partially geopolitical, partially technological—but we’re now all connected. This connection is why shifts in one nation can have massive effects on the dynamics of another. The better we can understand this greater international context, the more effectively we can interact and participate in it. This is the great potential of opening our online classes globally—to bring in students from other nations and cultures to learn about them (both the individuals and the nations and cultures they are from) so that we can better understand the various factors and forces affecting global society. This knowledge allows us to be more effective interactors in international exchanges so that we can become more effective participants in global society, contributors to the global economy, and agents of change in international contexts.

[27]In essence, we’re talking about the difference between reading about how to do something and actually having the opportunity to engage in it. We can read hundreds of texts on nation X or culture Y, how individuals from there think and behave, and how to communicate and interact effectively with them. But, as most of us know, reading about how to do something from this detached, second-hand perspective is extremely limiting. And these limitations can markedly affect how well we can actually perform a process when the time to do so “in the real world” comes. Imagine if our surgeons were trained only by reading about what surgery is, how certain procedures are performed, and why and how to perform them, but they had no opportunity to actually practice such processes before they began to operate on patients. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?

[28] It’s such a different experience to learn by actually having the opportunity to do and to try in the situation itself. We want to learn about how to effectively understand and interact with persons from culture A, so we read all about that culture. When the time comes to actually interact, there will be problems—lots of them—for a number of reasons. And the majority of these issues will relate to the problem of acquiring all knowledge second-hand. By opening our online classrooms to students from around the world and using these online spaces to have students from different national and cultural backgrounds interact and collaborate, we can provide students with opportunities—via direct experiences—to learn how other cultures perceive, respond to, craft messages, and engage in exchanges.

​[29] That knowledge from direct information in those classes lets students transcend many of the limitations of the second-hand approach to education, and the knowledge and skills resulting from such direct exposure is everything. It’s what will help individuals around the world interact more effectively—that experiential knowledge. The foundational knowledge resulting from such primary-contact experiences is priceless in that it can be used later in life and across different topics, domains, industries, and cultures.

​[30] That’s the great benefit—the amazing potential—of opening our online classes up to students (and instructors) located in different nations and from different cultural backgrounds.

3. Challenges

Question 2: What are the greatest challenges to opening online writing classes to greater global audiences (i.e., allowing students located in different nations to participate in the same online course)?

​​Pavel Zemliansky.

[31] I think the challenges of opening up one’s online courses and programs to worldwide audiences can be broken down into two main categories. The first category speaks to the differences in approaches to teaching and learning, classroom expectations and behaviors, and conventions of learning across countries and cultures. The second category has to do with logistical and administrative challenges, such as enrolment management, cost-covering, faculty availability and qualifications, and others.

[32] Allow me to expand on each of these categories. For the first group of challenges, most of us have heard stories about the learning styles and preferences of students from other countries not “fitting into” what we in North America consider “appropriate” or “effective” learning behaviors. For instance, my former institution has a large international teaching initiative, which brings students from other countries to our campus and enrolls them into courses designed to prepare them for the “mainstream” American college education and experience. Faculty who teach these “preparatory” courses often lament the fact that students from certain countries, particularly Asian ones, are not willing to participate in class discussion or interact with their classmates; instead these students often defer to the expertise of their instructors or learning materials. If this problem exists in face-to-face courses, it can be further exacerbated in online environments where a lot of the learning is organized around discussion board posting and commenting and where interactions among students are extremely important.

[33] The second category of challenges, as I stated earlier, has to do with logistical and administrative questions. For instance, in the U.S., it is more common for students who are already enrolled at an institution to take online courses offered by that institution than it is to for that institution to offer online learning opportunities to outsiders. If online courses were to be opened to world-wide audiences, institutions would need to think through questions regarding student enrollment and retainment, tuition payments, and other such administrative matters. These issues are probably not simple to solve, but the challenges they present pales in comparison to the first group of challenges I note in the first part of my answer here.

Rich Rice.

[34] At my institution, we value synchronous communication in our online courses. So important is the synergy between teacher and student, between student and student, and between student and content that we have a policy that every online course will include a synchronous component. We believe in socially constructing knowledge.

[35] Opening online writing classes to individuals in different nations—even with a synchronous requirement—is not difficult if those individuals are available to meet at the scheduled time. But, when trying to collaborate across nations and time zones, it is a major challenge to pair a classroom of students who have their own scheduling restraints with a partnering class in another region of the world. A challenge, but not impossible. There are windows of time where institutions in China and India, for instance, are meeting at the same time as institutions in the U.S. Such a pairing takes advanced planning, which can be difficult. And, of course, there are cost differences, logistical issues of getting textbooks, and ensuring accessibility.

[36] Perhaps even more challenging—something that Pavel has alluded to—are grammar and style expectations, peer collaboration processes, and assessment measurement standards. These three components, which are central to writing classes, are highly cultural. What may be presumed standard for some students in one culture is likely not the same in another. And while an online course does not need to emphasize the same educational approach for every student—that is, different students can achieve learning objectives in unique ways and benefit from a class differently—instructors who open their classes to students located in different nations should be aware that experiences with grammar and style, with working with peers for collaborating and for revising, and with institutional standards for assessment will likely vary significantly and be a source of confusion.

Kirk St.Amant.

[37] Greatest challenge? Negotiating infrastructures. Let me explain.

[38] We’re all likely familiar with the dynamics of hard infrastructures—those physical or easily identifiable, measurable, and predictable network systems that allow for the movement of goods, people, and ideas from place to place. These hard infrastructures are foundational to online access. They’re the telecommunication networks that allow us to interact; they’re the power grid infrastructure that allows the electronics we use to operate so that we can access the Web. They’re also the transportation systems that allow us to access and purchase the hardware and software we need to get online and the financial infrastructures that coordinate purchases of goods and services, including online access itself.

[39] Each and all of these different hard, tangible, and predictable infrastructures create challenges, for they are uneven across nations and even within nations. These disparities affect when we can interact globally (i.e., when we can access online environments). They also affect how we can interact in cyberspace (i.e., the bandwidth we have and the restrictions that creates) and what we can do online (i.e., how screen size and access to software affects the nature of exchanges). Identifying, understanding, and addressing these challenges of hard infrastructure are central to creating the kinds of easy, ready, and open international online exchanges needed to realize the benefits offered by expanding online education to increasingly wider international audiences.

[40] But hard infrastructure is only half of the infrastructure challenge.

[41] The other half involves soft infrastructures. These are the underlying systems and related networks that make human culture what it is. Soft infrastructures are those intangible factors of how the members of a culture behave, perceive, and interact, those things we can’t see but that affect how we use technologies and approach hard infrastructures. In this case, it’s a matter of understanding how cultural perspectives affect the ways in which individuals around the world view online media and what expectations they have for how to communicate via these technologies.

[42] It also involves how cultural attitudes influence perspectives of education—what is a legitimate topic to teach and what constitutes a permissible method for teaching it—that create challenges for realizing the potential of globalizing international online educational experiences. In fact, the greatest challenge within soft infrastructures is different cultural attitudes toward online education overall and what this means for who and how individuals around the world might (or might not) participate in such educational contexts.

[43] As with hard infrastructures, each of these soft infrastructures vary from culture to culture, nation to nation, and region to region. And each can create challenges based upon differences that can affect if and how students from different nations and cultures interact in online educational spaces. And as with hard infrastructure challenges, the root to addressing soft infrastructure differences is understanding—a true “knowledge is power” situation. We need to do more to learn about how other cultures perceive online environments, the patterns they use to engage in online exchanges, and the attitudes they have toward online education. We can then use this knowledge to devise educational approaches that are cognizant of and welcoming to the different cultural expectations. Using knowledge in this way can allow for the kinds of inclusion and interaction needed to maximize the prospective benefits of such educational spaces.

[44] Addressing such challenges is not easy. It will require focused, sustained research to identify key aspects of different hard and soft infrastructures at work in different cultures, nations, and regions. Doing so, however, involves collaborating as we go—learning as we build international online educational spaces. By using this approach, we can create a foundation of truly new pedagogical knowledge that can guide our actions as those who provide and also receive education through international online contexts. The focus for us as teacher-researchers becomes devising partnerships and collaborations that allow us to investigate such infrastructural factors. Such partnerships must also focus on helping us pool our knowledge and work together to develop practices, technologies, and spaces that can maximize the potentials of these new educational spaces.

[45] It’s exciting, and I look forward to working with others on these very issues as we move into these new, uncharted areas of cyberspace.

Yvonne Cleary.

[46] In our university, most programs are offered in traditional classroom environments. The university has only recently begun to offer supports for online programs, courses, and environments on a sustained basis. This situation has presented both opportunities and challenges. One opportunity is that we have been able to develop programs that are more flexible, open, and student-centered than might have been the case if we were working within stricter administrative parameters.

[47] A challenge is that the faculty members, and especially program directors, have been responsible for many marketing, program administration, and development activities that are often undertaken centrally. We have also been responsible for developing online teaching strategies. Orchestrating interactions online and fostering online communities where peers support one another is an important feature of an online writing course. This type of activity, in a global course in particular, demands intensive interactions between students and instructors and between students and students.

[48] A second, related challenge is ensuring that online teaching receives adequate support and recognition. Many traditional teachers and administrators have limited understanding of the amount of work required to design and deliver a successful online course. Savenye et al. (2001) discuss the many supports that faculty need in order to be able to teach online effectively. These supports include training in technology, e-mentoring, and facilitation. In global online writing courses, uneven levels of language proficiency in English (or another target language) may result in a higher workload for tutors. Some learners may be native speakers while for others, English may be their second or third language. Instructors may need to offer more supports to students for whom English is not their first language, especially if correctness is an important criterion in writing assignments. That support role can be very time-consuming and should be accounted for in the tutor’s teaching load—particularly for part-time/adjunct/hourly-paid teachers. Since online teaching is a new activity in our university, there is limited understanding of how time-intensive the provision of such supports can be.

[49] Another set of challenges we have experienced are data laws and protections and how attitudes to these laws differ across countries. We have found that students based in German-speaking countries may be reluctant to conduct research with human participants or to conduct interviews with professionals, a common assignment in technical communication courses. These students have cited stricter attitudes to data protection and data storage in their countries.

4. Development

Question 3: What forces or factors do you think will affect the nature and development of global online education in the future? How do you think these forces or factors will affect the teaching or offering of online classes in writing/technical communication/composition to students located in other nations?

​​Rich Rice.

[50] No doubt everyone at this conference has a big list of forces and factors, Jessie. Certainly cost. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), for instance, have not had nearly as sustainable a following in the U.S. as they have in more highly populated countries like China and India because of the impact of the cost of education on larger populations and the need for completion certificates rather than degrees.

[51] Another big one is sharing content and how publishers who have expertise in creating quality text, graphic, and video interactive media content can be compensated to help sustain their efforts. Yes, this will impact global online education greatly in the future. For instance, I’m just starting a project with a university in China to produce a textbook and series of videos for English majors. I’d like to be able to work with a publisher to ensure the quality of these materials and manage content distribution. While I’m okay with freely distributing some of the content, I’m concerned about that content being distributed and then taken out of context, adapted into multiple versions that misrepresent the resource, or used by people with less than accurate re-toolings. With regards to these concerns, Creative Commons licensing will only go so far.

[52] No doubt these are concerns all publishers have, but materials that need to be created to support increasingly diverse and complex audience-aware courses must explore cross-cultural contexts in different ways. So I think cost and distribution of materials will play a role in global online education in the future. And I’m concerned about partnerships between institutions that lose sight of quality and the value of instructor motivation. That is, many institutions abroad only want to work with top-tier institutions in the U.S. regardless of the quality of the writing program or the willingness and experience of the faculty involved. I hope, like the value of synchronous communication in online courses, global online education startups see more value in developing partnerships and content based on rhetorically-sound and -situated curriculum development rather than out-of-box turnkey solutions.

[53] Online education, generally, can suffer from copying and pasting course materials rather than recognizing the importance of contextualizing content and teacher expertise. I know there are some organizations pushing turnkey course solutions for English departments abroad that want to develop programs in technical communication, for instance. There’s a temptation to adopt wholesale, but the quality of a course and program will suffer in the long term. There are some distance education theorists who talk about how in 40 or 50 years from now, education may look a lot different; namely, every degree that is online will be a subject-specific degree based on experts from around the world rather than from one institution.

[54] We can learn from that hypothetical model while also bringing experts from across the disciplines and across the world into our online courses. I recently read about a face-to-face class that had a large number of students from China, and the instructor was asked to explain some of the statements about culture and Tiananmen Square. The Chinese students in the U.S. told their parents in China what was being said in class, and the value differences raised concerns. I think we’ll see more of this and all for good. The more we negotiate our similarities and differences in constructive ways, the better.

Kirk St.Amant.

[55] The global spread of Internet access will likely be one of the biggest factors affecting the development of online education in the future. The other is the ongoing evolution of government policies and national laws affecting how, when, and who can get online to share information via digital media. While these two topics are interconnected in many ways, they can also evolve independently of each other.

[56] The first item—extending online access—is a matter of scope, scale, and diversity in the international online educational context. Right now, roughly half of the world’s population has online access. That population, moreover, is relatively concentrated in certain geographic regions and nations that represent only part of the world’s cultures. In fact, you could argue that only a fraction of the world’s nations is truly represented in cyberspace as the relative population of many areas remains separated from the online world—in particular, many of the “emerging economies” of the globe.

[57] These current limitations in international access means the global nature of cyberspace represents a certain grouping of nations, languages, and cultures engaging in exchanges. This is certainly the case for large-scale exchanges that are frequently online interactions or interactions that involve substantive exchanges of information, products, and services. As such, approaches to online education and the cultural perspectives and local realities affecting how individuals engage in online education are diverse to a degree. But they are still limited to those individuals who are online and able to engage in such opportunities.

[58] As online access spreads to increasingly include other individuals who represent new cultural and linguistic groups or national and cultural groups who have had relatively little presence in online exchanges in the past, the range of experiences, expectations, and limitations (per geopolitical and geographic factors) will expand. All of these new aspects will need consideration to truly appreciate the growing number of cultures interacting online over time. These newer populations will likely bring new needs, requirements, expectations, and conventions to international online classes. Such factors need to be considered in order to recognize the potentials available via these new educational contexts (as noted earlier).

[59] These factors mean that the more we can devise models for and approaches to understanding different hard and soft infrastructure factors to map, understand, and address these factors, the better we can prepare for how the growth of global online access will affect approaches to education in international online spaces.

[60] At the same time, access to and behaviors in global online spaces are often regulated by national laws. As legal systems often differ in their approaches to online activities, they can have great implications for the globalization of online education. In some cases, these legal differences can affect the technologies (hardware and software) individuals in different nations can access and use to interact online. In others, they can encompass what individuals can do, access, or post/say in online spaces. These variations can have pronounced effects on how individuals interact in globalized education within cyberspace.

[61] National laws, moreover, are not fixed entities. Rather, they can change over time and in response to new developments (e.g., the international spread of online access). They also evolve in relation to what the citizens and the governments of other nations do online or via online media. These legal variables affecting the globalization of online education will create different challenges and opportunities that will continue to shape approaches to international online education over time. They will be particularly acute if the objective of international online education is to be open to and inclusive of individuals from as many nations and cultures as possible.

[62] Moreover, as international online access expands to either include new international participants or more members of less represented nations and cultures, the number and kinds of laws affecting international online interactions will become increasingly diverse. Similarly, new international participants will bring new geopolitical factors to online educational spaces and change how different nations interact in relation to the perceived benefits (e.g., more markets) and prospective detriments (e.g., new venues for cyberterrorism) created by such international online expansion.

[63] These legal factors represent an overall area of which educators need to keep abreast in order to remain current and adaptable. Doing so involves viewing such legal contexts as a kind of infrastructure—a hard infrastructure that exists in a tangible form one can consult in common. This is because laws are written in permanent form to allow the members of a culture to consult them. With this approach in mind, teacher-researchers need to continually monitor and map the international legal landscape to remain abreast and adaptive to international legal factors—and the implications they have for internationalizing online education—as they change over time.

Yvonne Cleary.

[64] Related to the previous point, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was adopted by the European Union in April 2016 and will come into effect in Ireland on May 25th, 2018 (See: https://www.dataprotection.ie/docs/GDPR/1623.htm). This regulation is designed to strengthen data protection for all individuals within the European Union. It may have an impact on how all learners undertake certain types of assignments (see, for example, McKenzie, 2018). Furthermore, it is likely to impact how online instructors and research supervisors hold many types of data about students and research participants. Already, we are encouraged to conduct data audits to determine how we store various types of data.

[65] Another force affecting the nature and development of global online education in the future is the widespread availability of virtual learning platforms together with cheap, even free, teaching and learning applications. These technologies make the provision of online courses more feasible to design and deliver. Learners can personalize their experience by accessing educational materials on any device and participating in online courses from any location. In a recent study of how students use mobile technologies to access learning materials, a colleague and I found that personalization and flexibility are essential criteria for contemporary learners (Marcus-Quinn and Cleary, 2015). Personalization also enables learners from different national cultures to tailor the learning environment and materials to their own norms, expectations, and preferences.

[66] With more institutions seeing the benefits of opening courses to learners from different countries, it is likely that the number of online courses will continue to increase. In many institutions, mine included, internationalization is a very important strategic goal.

Pavel Zemliansky.

[67] In my opinion, the two main forces that will influence online learning globally are the growing “gig economy” and the more widespread use of mobile devices and mobile internet connections. The term “gig economy” signifies the willingness of more and more people, especially millennials, to make a living by doing contract work for various clients rather than finding and staying in a job long-term. According to data from The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2018), in the U.S. alone, about 16 million people are engaged in “contingent or alternative work.” This factor will affect global online education due to what I think will be an increased number of “non-traditional” students (e.g. adults who want to take online courses for very specific professional and personal reasons, such as professional credentialing). This, in turn, will necessitate a more customized approach to the design and delivery of online courses. At many institutions, this trend can be seen even now, though it typically involves U.S.-based students. For example, my former department delivered an online professional writing graduate certificate, which was largely geared towards working professionals. Faculty who taught the courses in the certificate program, including myself, had to be conscious of how what we taught will help students with their immediate professional needs. When we factor in the internationalization of online learning, complexities of designing and delivering such courses will only compound. In order to create effective and useful learning environments, faculty and institutions will have to take into account the differences between economies, labor markets, professional credentialing, and licensure in different countries and environments.

[68] The second factor is a technological one. Despite the wide spread of mobile devices and mobile internets, online learning, at least in this country, remains pretty firmly tethered to the computer, be it a desktop or a laptop. According to a recent survey of students at two large U.S. universities (Chen et al., 2015), 50% of respondents reported using smartphones for learning while 86% reported using smartphones daily for other, non-educational purposes. Furthermore, the same survey found that only 30% of instructors integrated mobile technologies into course assignments and projects while 55% banned mobile devices from their classrooms altogether (Chen et al., 2015). Mobile apps of even the most popular learning management systems, such as Canvas, are rather rudimentary and geared primarily towards consumption of content than towards creation and interaction. Their interfaces are less-than-intuitive and, in some cases, plain unusable.

[69] By contrast, in Africa, for example, a lot more online learning takes place via mobile devices and on mobile phone networks. The African model of mobile learning appears to be less “tethered to a specific place,” such as a university and more “distributed” and “networked.” Authors of one study of mobile learning in Nigeria argue that this model provides for great access to education, lowers its costs, and generally democratizes it (Oluwatobi and Olurinola, 2015). Therefore, if U.S. institutions are interested in opening up their own offerings to students from other parts of the world, they will need to figure out a way to make their online offering less tethered to a specific place, campus, or department and enable more mobile learning.

5. Strategies

Question 4: What suggestions, tips, or strategies would you offer to educators who are interested opening their online writing/technical communication/composition classes to students located in other nations?

​Kirk St.Amant.

[70] To globalize our online courses, instructors need to take certain steps to account for the kinds of infrastructure factors (hard infrastructure and soft infrastructure) noted earlier. In terms of doing so, initial steps to take or items to consider are as follows:

[71] Design for minimum screen size and project out: Instead of creating content for viewing on a desktop- or laptop-sized screen and then making a “hand-held-friendly” version, work in the opposite direction. A growing number of the world’s Internet users rely primarily on hand-held devices to access online materials. For this reason, if educators start with a focus on designing for the hand-held screen and then revise to make things “bigger” for laptop and desktop users, they can enhance the ability for the largest possible global audience to access information in a format that is easy to use, understand, and interact with.

[72] Avoid the need for ancillary hardware: Access to the computing hardware needed to get online can be difficult in some parts of the globe. The ability to access other kinds of hardware (e.g., scanners or printers) in order to engage in certain kinds of online activities (e.g., print an assignment and then scan a completed version of it for upload to a class website) only complicates and limits the international audience who can participate in such activities. For this reason, designing internationalized online courses to require as little use of various hardwares as possible can extend the scope and number of students who can effectively participate in international online classes.

[73] Engage in redundant, parallel content distribution: Individuals around the world have different degrees of access to certain kinds of software, and this factor can affect who, globally, can participate in an international online course in which software is essential to access and interaction. If instructors can create content to be distributed across different kinds of software (e.g., Skype and Google Hangouts) and allow students to use various kinds of software to participate in a globalized online class, they can increase both who can participate and how they can participate in such environments. This is redundant, parallel content distribution— distributing the same content across different kinds of softwares and systems to allow the broadest range of global participants to access it and participate in international online courses.

[74] Create parallel synchronous and asynchronous activities: The bandwidth available to individuals can vary from nation to nation. This factor can affect how individuals in certain regions of the globe can participate in online exchanges, for low bandwidth means limited ability to participate in synchronous interactions online. Likewise, international time differences and infrastructure factors (e.g., if the power grid or the telecommunications grid regularly goes down) can also affect the ability to participate in synchronous interactions in a globalized online class. To account for this factor, instructors need to build in synchronous and asynchronous options that can facilitate as close to parallel interactions as possible in an online class. Doing so could involve coordinating when and how individuals can post to or participate in online discussions. Creating a system that allows for both options of engagement in online discussions, however, can greatly affect how many individuals around the globe can discuss and debate ideas in an international online class.

[75] Focus on internationally collaborative activities: The greatest benefit international online classes offer is the ability for students to interact with and learn from individuals from other nations and cultures. The more instructors can foster such interactions in an international online class, the more students can maximize this unique benefit of this kind of educational environment. To do so, students need to interact with such individuals. A central way of doing this is placing students into international teams that need to interact/collaborate to complete a given class activity. The more instructors can design classes to focus on such activities, the better they can provide students with the kinds of benefits this new learning context has to offer.

[76] Create tiered materials to address differences in student background in relation to topic: Educational systems around the world approach topics in different ways at various points in a student’s educational career. This means students from different cultures can come to a class with very different levels of experience and backgrounds relating to the topic of the class. This situation can markedly affect how students interact in the class as well as how effectively they can learn in and gain from the class. To address this factor, instructors need to create “tiered” materials for students. These materials would provide information on everything from the most basic ideas and core concepts for the class to the more advanced approaches and ideas related to the course topic. The idea would be to make such materials available to all students from the start of and throughout the class. This way, students could learn about the course topic based on their prior exposure to and experiences with it as needed. Ideally, such materials provide students with no or limited background with the primer needed to interact effectively with colleagues who have more experience with the topic.

[77] Provide on-call and readily available technical support for all class participants: Technical issues can prevent students from participating effectively— or at all— in an online class. Given the range of technical problems that can arise in a global context, such factors can be a continual problem in an international online class. A major problem within this context is students in other nations might not have ready (or any) access to technical support persons to help with technical issues. To address and mitigate this issue, instructors should work with their home institutions to provide such technical support services to students in other nations and provide various means (e.g., online or via phone) of accessing such support services as needed.

[78] These are but some of the strategies educators need to consider and use when internationalizing their online classes; there are many, many more. As such, the items I’ve noted here are a starting point to addressing this area in terms of the broadest issues that could affect the most persons across a wide, international context. By addressing such items via the strategies noted here, educators can enhance international student participation in their online courses targeted at students located around the globe.

Yvonne Cleary.

[79] It is important to spend adequate time preparing for a move to online delivery and to provide funding for resources (including teachers). Online classes require more planning and preparation than traditional classroom-based courses. Online writing classes also need to be monitored closely to ensure that students participate and respond in ways that match the instructors’ expectations and the learning goals. It is a good idea to inform students of days and times when the instructor will be online and to limit online teaching and support to those times. Otherwise, it can become an all-consuming activity. In my university, we are not required to have synchronous classes, but I ensure that students know hours when I am available for consultation. I also schedule synchronous online chat for one hour per week on each course, but attendance is not compulsory. A transcript is available for students who cannot attend.

[80] Instructors in online courses need to provide very explicit instructions. I pilot test assignment instructions before publishing them online to ensure that the procedure or requirements are clear, complete, and explicit. Clear instructions are important for native and non-native English speakers. Furthermore, I have found, particularly in my online technical communication classes, that offering content in more than one modality can improve learning outcomes. For example, I provide an audio podcast, a set of instructions, and a discussion forum for each major assignment. Offering multiple modalities helps learners with different preferences understand content and participate more effectively in online courses. It is also beneficial for students from different countries and cultures, especially if their first language is not English.

[81] My university’s Centre for Teaching and Learning conducts anonymous evaluations of teaching during or at the end of each course; this is a common practice in many institutions. The survey used by this unit only includes one general question about online delivery. I ask all students to use the survey’s qualitative comments section to state what they like about online delivery and what they believe could be improved. This feedback is very helpful for the design of future online courses.

[82] There are some very useful models of online delivery and instructional design theories that help instructors to develop pedagogically sound courses in any discipline. Two that I have found helpful for increasing student engagement are Salmon’s (2013) five-stage model of teaching and learning online and Garrison et al.’s (2000) Community of Inquiry model.

Pavel Zemliansky.

[83] As my co-authors and I have stated here before, to become global, we will need to adjust our expectations of what counts as “learning,” to develop pedagogies and teaching techniques that take into account national and cultural differences, and to rethink our relationship with and use of the technologies through which we deliver online instruction.

Rich Rice.

[84] I want to underline each of the excellent, specific tips and strategies my fellow panelists have suggested. Opening face-to-face, hybrid, and online classes to expanded perspectives and viewpoints is critical to understanding audience and purpose today.

[85] Here’s a more general approach to answering this questions, perhaps. You know, years ago I took an educational theory class on teaching “exceptional” learners (both those with special needs and those who need extra challenges). What stuck with me most were these three terms: wholehearted, sincerity, and responsibility. These are important terms when educators become interested in opening their online classes to students located in other nations.

[86] Think about ways to understand the other contexts and purposes that students outside of our local situations may be experiencing. Be wholehearted in working to understand cultural differences and not from an ethnocentric perspective but from an ethnorelative perspective. That is, avoid making judgments on value differences, which may include some pretty central values such as grammar and style, and instead see it through others’ eyes. Doing so models the sorts of processes students need to learn when thinking about audience and purpose in global contexts, and writing is increasingly becoming always already global in some capacity. Rather than copy/paste content or processes, sincerely consider the “actors” in one’s class and how ways in which each student interacts with the teacher, with one another, and with the content can be explored and supported individually. Doing so will celebrate exceptional similarities and differences. And be responsible when thinking about added logistical dimensions to the class and developing fair and equitable allowances for approaching course processes in different ways.

6. Projections

Question 5: Any final thoughts on globalizing online education in writing/technical communication/composition?

Yvonne Cleary.

[87] Consider reviewing the sources I’ve cited in my earlier answers to better understand and examine this overall topic area. These are the works cited in those responses:

• Flammia, Madelyn; Cleary, Yvonne & Slattery, Darina M. (2016). Virtual teams in higher education: A handbook for students and teachers. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
• Garrison, D. Randy; Anderson, Terry & Archer, Walter. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. Internet and Higher Education, 2(2–3), 87−105.
• Marcus-Quinn, Anne & Cleary, Yvonne. (2015). How Irish postgraduate students use mobile devices to access learning resources. Handbook of mobile teaching and learning, 1−14.
• Office of the Data Protection Commissioner. (n.d.) General data protection regulation. Online: https://www.dataprotection.ie/docs/GDPR/1623.htm
• Salmon, Gilly. (2013). E-tivities: The key to active online learning. New York: Routledge.
• Savenye, Wilhelmina; Olina, Zane & Niemczyk, Mary. (2001). So you are going to be an online writing instructor: issues in designing, developing, and delivering an online course. Computers and Composition, 18(4), 371−385.

Pavel Zemliansky.

[88]I’d say the following:

• Be aware of the geographical and cultural differences in “communication” and “writing.”
• Do not assume that your foreign students will understand or even need to understand the realities of composing, collaborating, and other aspects of professional life that are readily understood by your U.S.-based students.
• Practice cultural humility—learn from your students
• Be flexible in your technological requirements—encourage and enable the use of a variety of learning modes, tools, and techniques.

Rich Rice.

[89] In composition and in technical communication, it’s often useful to explain core principles by showing students what not to do. Webpages That Suck is a site I routinely show, or I use DHMO to show that we don’t have to believe everything we see online. It’s sometimes easier to find points of miscommunication and how, with more effort in terms of X or Y or Z, better communication in a specific situation could have happened.

[90] I’ve been taking a similar approach in my teaching and research. For instance—and this is something Kirk (St.Amant), Sushil Oswal, Gustav Verhulsdonck, and many others have been thinking about in their research—it seems to me that miscommunication, especially in cross-cultural situations, can be understood in one of three categories: contact, convey, and connect.

[91] And there’s a connection to kairos. Kairos is saying the right thing in the right amount at the right time. It’s timeliness. Saying the right thing, in other words knowing the right thing to say or write, means knowing an audience’s perspectives and viewpoints without making judgments (contacting). As we teach in our courses, the medium and the message is the message. Form and content are important when we look at how we’re reaching audiences (conveying). And knowing the right way to say it involves knowing something about the location and the best medium to use, connecting to a cultural appeal or set of core values (connecting).

[92] As we work toward bringing multicultural opportunities to our students through online writing courses, opportunities that include opening our courses up to students from other nations in order to prepare students to write in more complex worlds and writing situations, think about how to optimize communication with students in our classes in terms of contact, convey, and connect.

Kirk St.Amant.

[93] This is perhaps the most exciting time in the history of education. We are in an age of truly unmapped territory where an understanding of the new, global landscape of online education is dearly needed. Moreover, it is a time when no real rules have been established on how to address this context. Nor do we really have best practices, but we know a new kind of pedagogy— one that addresses and merges aspects of the online with those of the international— is needed. And it will continue to be a need— and become a major, growing need— over time.

[94] These factors mean the entire topic area is wide open for all of us to contribute to and to help research, examine, and shape the new kind(s) of international online pedagogy essential to the future. We, as educators, should embrace this challenge and see it for what it is—one of the most amazing opportunities we will encounter in our careers as educators. We need to begin to explore these opportunities, try new approaches, test new materials, and develop new technologies or technological options or approaches to online education. In so doing, we also need to catalog our actions: note what works, what does not, and why. And then, we need to share those findings with others so that we can compare what we’re learning and try, test, and build on what others have done.

[95] The best part is this situation represents a need no one person, group of persons, nation, or culture can address alone. Rather, it’s a situation in which multiple parties from all cultures and nations need to participate to begin understanding such dynamics, researching such environments, and developing new approaches. Best of all, this participation needs to come from all levels within education. Students need to participate to share their views, perspectives, and experiences as key sources of data that will form the building blocks of this new pedagogy. Educators need to play a role creating, trying, and testing approaches to determine the kinds of pedagogies, technologies, and educational materials that work (and don’t) in these contexts. And administrators need to participate to provide input in terms of curriculum design, program development, accreditation, and collaboration across institutions—nationally and internationally.

[96] By working together and making our pedagogy our research, we can gain a more complete understanding of these new instructional contexts and the new pedagogies they require. By collaborating with our students, colleagues, and institutional superiors or subordinates, we can develop the kinds of courses and curricula best suited for the new nature of global education. The potential is amazing, and no part or participant is too small. The key is to begin coordinating and collaborating to share ideas, approaches, and information in ways that allow us to develop new systems that reflect the current and growing diversity of today’s online environment.

[97]Hopefully, we’ll all recognize this new context as a call to action and will all do our part in answering this call. I’m hopeful, and I greatly look forward to what the future holds. ​