The shared course initiative: Curricular collaboration across institutions

Abstract

As a growing number of academic institutions are adapting their mission to emphasize global engagement, it is essential that they continue to make a broad menu of languages available to their students and researchers. However, a number of constraints have made it increasingly difficult for institutions to maintain depth and breadth in their language offerings, particularly in the less commonly taught languages (LCTLs). In order to address this challenge, Columbia University, Cornell University, and Yale University have developed a collaborative framework to share instruction in the LCTLs across institutional boundaries. The Shared Course Initiative (SCI) uses high-definition videoconferencing to create a synchronous, classroom-to-classroom learning environment that allows the three institutions to share instruction in a wide range of LCTLs. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the SCI and situate it within the current literature on institutional globalization and curricular transformation in language education. We also discuss the potential of the model for the creation of collaborative curricula and the sharing of academic resources across institutional boundaries.