By Jagpreet Sandhu, Chandigarh,November 23 :The D.A.V College Chandigarh and the West Virginia Northern Community College (WVNCC) USA today entered into a collaborative project, “The Student Enrichment through Global Collaboration Project”. This project is designed to engage students and faculty in the two countries to gain a firsthand perspective on current topics related to social, economic, judicial, and cultural issues. A series of asynchronous (online) discussions among peers and experts in two countries will be conducted using Blackboard Learning Management System (LMS) to accomplish the project goal. Asynchronous discussions are independent of the space and time and allow students to engage in meaningful discourse at their own convenience.
Dr. Purnima Sharma, the designer of this project has over 20 years of experience in e-Learning, holds a doctorate in Distance Education from USA. She has designed and delivered several courses online and as Instructional designer trained faculty and students to utilize e-Learning environment. To begin the project implementation process, Dr. Sharma today conducted a demonstration of the communication and participation tools used in the project for the DAV College faculty. About 50 fifty students have shown their eagerness to enroll in the project. Participating faculty members of the DAV College Chandigarh include Dr. Virender Vats, Professor Anil Sarwal, Prof. Avanindra Chopra, Dr. Kanwal Preet, Prof. Sakoon, Dr. Meenu Vats,Dr Ravinder Dogra,Prof. Manpreet Kaur, among others.
Student interactions will be provided using two discussion forums; a “virtual online café` and “intellectual discussion forum”. Topics of discussion in online café will be selected by the students in two countries based on student interests. Discussion topics in intellectual discussion forums will be agreed upon by the faculty members from the two institutions to provide a meaningful discourse. Selection of the topics will be appropriate to the academic level, student interests, and the common educational goals. Faculty members through mutual agreement will decide the time for which the topic will remain active. Participation directions and guidelines will be provided to ensure all discussions are appropriate and conducive to the educational and cultural values of the two countries.
At the completion of the project, discussion messages from the two forums will be analyzed for the quantity and quality of interaction, quality of learning, and added value of collaboration and critical thinking skills. A student survey will be conducted to evaluate student perspective on global collaboration project. Findings of the project will be used to extend collaboration projects in the future.
Wish to connect to Dr. Purinima Sharma. Studied together in Kurukshetra University way back in 1979.