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International Projects at SCILNet

Founded in 2004, SCIL’s international program, SCILNet, has in the last year developed relationships in key countries around the world, and aligned itself closely with the university’s recently announced Stanford International Initiative, which will explore solutions to some of the most daunting questions in our world today - international peace and security, global health and poverty.

In line with the initiative, SCILNet last fall joined with the Stanford Institute for International Studies’ Initiative in Distance (IDL) to create the Stanford University International Outreach Program. Working closely with selected partner institutions around the globe, this new program focuses on the design, implementation and evaluation of comprehensive elearning programs for students of both higher education and continuing education. The Offices of the President and the Provost, and the Dean of Research support the work.

Additional SCILNet programs spanned the globe:

Researchers at the Swiss Centre for Innovations in Learning, University of St. Gallen, continued working with SCILNet to investigate the characteristics and qualities of successful elearning programs. SCIL co-director Stig Hagström joined the awarding body of European Management for Education Development’s elearning certification program to represent SCIL in the international development of quality elearning

A two-year collaborative study with the Stanford Institute for International Studies (SIIS) evaluating distance learning is in the analysis stage, reviewing data collected from courses taught remotely at seven Russian universities. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funds this assessment project.

Preliminary findings indicate that IDL students studied in the project showed a larger increase in development of critical thinking in comparison to students from the same university who did not take IDL courses. One key factor was the method of teaching in IDL courses, which integrated collaborative, small-group activities, active communication between all participants and extensive use of different sources of information, including the web. Complete findings will be published at the end of 2005.

Researchers from the University of Pretoria’s School of Education met with SCILNet and SIIS to begin mapping out a joint study on how distance learning in different cultural contexts can be effective and compelling. The South Africa project is modeled after SCILNet’s study of online teaching in Russian universities. From a technology perspective, the project would also explore the use of appropriate mobile technologies to support the distance-learning project.

The SCIL Innovation Journalism Program, a partnership with Sweden-based VINNOVA, is founded on the belief that journalism dedicated to covering innovation is crucial to the modern industrial economy and will be a contributor to positive societal change. The program is twofold:

Top level editors and journalists from Swedish technology, science and business publications spend up to six months with leading U.S. publishers, including the Wall Street Journal, Fortune and Business 2.0, to establish collaboration between visiting journalists and their American colleagues.

Annual innovation journalism conferences held on the Stanford campus are free and open to the public. The conferences are aimed at initiating widespread interest in the establishment of innovation news beats around the world, and at building a community of innovation journalists.