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Distance languages
Grant creates opportunities for Iowa State students to learn Eastern
European languages.
- Given the current lack of funding the State of Iowa and specifically Iowa
State University is experiencing, there was a chance that instruction in
Slavic studies and related fields could have gone by the wayside.
Budget cuts and a lack of instructors in these infrequently taught languages
made distance education a real possibility for these types of courses.
However a new cooperative program between Iowa State, the University of
Iowa and Northern Iowa University has provided a new opportunity for Slavic
studies programs - an opportunity that has become a reality during the fall
2002 semester.
The three state universities have created the new Iowa Russian, East European
and Eurasian Studies (REEES) Distance Learning Consortium through a $320,000
three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education and its Undergraduate
International Studies and Foreign Language (UISFL) Program Grant.
The partnership will jointly teach Eastern European languages and culture
via an Internet-based video conferencing system (Polycom). The consortium
will offer language courses in Czech, Polish and Serbo-Croatian. It will
also offer new courses, taught in English, on Russian environmental health,
Central Asian area studies, Yugoslav cultural politics, Central European
history, literature and culture, and spiritual responses to violence in
the former Soviet Union.
None of the three Iowa universities offer degree programs in Czech, Polish
or Serbo-Croatian. Language and culture courses however can be used toward
established degree programs in other subjects or toward foreign-language
requirements for graduation.
"These courses have been offered sporadically in the past and probably
would otherwise not be taught at all at Iowa State without pooling faculty
resources of the three institutions," said Madeleine Henry, associate
professor of classical studies and the former chair (1997-02) of the Department
of Foreign Languages and Literatures. "The expanded curriculum in Slavic
studies will utilize the expertise from instructors on all three campuses."
Since Russian is well-subscribed for a difficult, less-commonly-taught language,
those language courses will continue to be taught on site at Iowa State.
This semester the consortium will teach its first two courses under the
UISFL grant. First-year language courses in Czech and Polish will be offered
at the University of Iowa and Northern Iowa University respectfully. Each
class section will be limited to eight students on each campus.
At the same time these classes are being taught on other campuses, Iowa
State students will utilize a new foreign languages electronic classroom,
funded in part through donations from the Cargill Foundation, Inc. Participants
will interact through two-way audio and video sent over the Internet.
"The students will have a classroom experience with a professor,"
said Henry, who is the Iowa State director of this project.
Getting students to physically take the same course with the same instructor
at the same time was quite a challenge according to Henry.
"Wanting to offer this course on all three campuses became an interesting
challenge to try to schedule," she said. "Our class times here
at Iowa State are different than at Iowa or Northern Iowa. Our Registrar's
Office and faculty have provided an enormous amount of teamwork to make
this work."
The consortium partners have been working together since the summer of 2001
to evaluate technologies, select courses and explore internal funding sources.
Future plans for the consortium include curriculum development for 12 new
courses designed specifically for distanced delivery; procurement of additional
computer hardware and related equipment; establishment of study abroad opportunities;
and the organization of a series of REEES speakers to tour the three host
institutions.
Around LAS
August 26 to September 8, 2002
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