Interested in adding an international dimension to your class—and offering your students an international academic experience, without leaving campus? The Global Classroom initiative offers instructors a way to add an international component to their classes by collaborating with a partner abroad.
Creating international experiences for all
This gives students experience with the type of work they will likely engage in over the course of their future careers: cross-cultural, project-based, and supported by technology.
The goals of the initiative are to enhance the ability of students to communicate and collaborate across national and cultural boundaries, and to increase their understanding of and respect for norms and values different from their own.
How it works
The Global Classroom initiative takes a class already being taught at any IU campus and pairs it with a parallel course taught at a university abroad. The course can be about any topic and is not limited to study with an international focus. Faculty will continue to teach their respective courses independently, but will collaborate with their counterparts to design a project that requires students from both universities to work together. That work will take place virtually.
Eligibility
Open to all full-time academic appointees who are serving as instructor of record for the relevant class. Graduate student and other part-time instructors are not eligible.
Deadlines
- Start by completing the Intent to Apply form.
- Full application deadlines are as follows for academic year 2025-26:
- April 01, 2025 - Fall 2025, Spring 2026, or Summer 2026 courses
- Oct 15, 2025 - Spring 2026 or Summer 2026 courses
Each Global Classroom course will aim to enroll a minimum of ten students from each university, and should involve significant and ongoing student-to-student interaction over the duration of the course. This interaction should lead to the fulfillment of a set of cross-cultural learning outcomes.
Funding
Each participating IU faculty member will receive $3,000 in grant funding, which can be used to cover travel to the partner institution, educational resources, materials, or other expenses incurred in designing and delivering the course. $2,500 will be disbursed at the time of the award, and $500 upon completion of the course and submission of a report of outcomes.
Fellowship Cohorts
Meet all of the current and previous fellows and explore the wide range of courses across IU's campuses and schools.
Spring 2024
Faculty connect with universities in South Africa, Jordan, and Ukraine in the spring cohort.
Meet the fellowsFall 2023
Four faculty in Summer and Fall 2023 connect with partners in Central and South America, Africa, and the Middle East.
Meet the fellowsSpring 2023
Five faculty from three IU campuses connect across business, language, information ethics, and writing with four partners.
Meet the fellowsFall 2022
The fellowship continues to expand to our regional campuses with faculty from IU Northwest and IU East.
Meet the fellowsSpring 2022
Faculty from 3 of IU's campuses teaching courses in geography, Finnish, special needs education, and Spanish writing.
Meet the fellowsFall 2021
The 3rd cohort represented 8 faculty from 4 of IU's campuses with partner universities across 4 continents.
Meet the fellowsSpring 2021
The 2nd cohort expanded to welcome faculty from Indianapolis with 8 courses and 7 international partner universities.
Meet the fellowsFall 2020
The inaugural cohort part of a successful test pilot at IU Bloomington with 6 courses paired with 6 international partners.
Meet the fellowsApplication guidelines
- A proposal of 1,500 words or less that describes the proposed joint work, its sequencing and integration with other elements of the course, and the methods by which the proposer plans to assess its impact on student learning and global learning outcomes
- A short statement of the instructor’s qualifications, including a description of any prior work involving the pedagogies and technologies involved
- A letter of support from the instructor’s department chair
- A letter of commitment from the proposed partner that confirms the commitment to teach the course
A committee will review applications on the basis of the following criteria:
- Clarity, detail, and rationale of the proposed project(s);
- Integration of the proposed collaborative project(s) into the overall course;
- Feasibility of the proposed project(s); and
- Incorporation of clear international learning outcomes.
- Course has historically enrolled at least 10 students
- Significant student-to-student interaction throughout the duration of the course
- Identification and assessment of cross-cultural learning outcomes
- Participation in Global Classroom Fellows Outcomes Session (following course)
- Global Classroom Fellowship Grant of $3,000
- Ongoing membership in community of Global Classroom Fellows
- Global Classroom Fellows Workshops
- Instructional technology support
- Cross-cultural learning outcomes assessment support
- Students of a communications professor at a U.S. university collaborate with the class of a law professor in Australia on a four-week project. The students role-play as CEOs and corporate lawyers to engage in legal test cases that involved conflict and mediation. The students have asynchronous email correspondence and synchronous mediations.
- A classics professor at a U.S. university work with a colleague in Italy to offer an upper-level project to their students. In the first part of the course, the students prepare independent research papers. Both sets of students study the same theoretical models. In the second half of the semester, the Italian master’s level students work as peer reviewers of the research papers, along with real-time class discussions on the theories they are both studying.
- A U.S. university and partner university in Russia conduct a collaborative course to explore the similarities and differences of gender and human sexuality between the different cultures with an emphasis on feminist perspective.
- Students in Turkey collaborate with students in the U.S. to design and build a glove for a Syrian refugee whose hand was permanently injured by a ricocheting fragment during the war.
Knowledge and Skills
Students have the ability to:
- Communicate and collaborate across national and cultural boundaries
- Make choices and design solutions informed by multiple frames of reference, including international, global and cultural contexts
Attitudes
Students can demonstrate:
- Openness, recognition, and acceptance of differences
- Willingness to adapt their own practices, values, and behaviors
Action and Responsibility
Students are willing to:
- Act upon acquired knowledge, skills, and attitudes in global and local contexts
- Participate in international experiences, interactions, and collaborations.
*Adapted from Indiana University’s Center for the Study of Global Change
Contact
Vesna Dimitrieska is available to answer any questions.
