This document describes a collaboration between the University of Glasgow and Islamic University of Gaza to develop students' language and technical skills through an online exchange program called EAST. Students from both universities worked in mixed groups on engineering-related projects from Gaza. They communicated online to research topics, ask questions, and provide feedback to each other. University of Glasgow students then wrote essays and presentations on the projects. Evaluations found the program improved students' language, study, and transferable skills while allowing knowledge exchange between the two groups. Challenges included technology and connectivity issues. Moving forward, the organizers aim to develop more balanced outcomes, leadership mentoring, and expand the program to other disciplines.

1. Glasgow-Gaza
collaboration
across borders
Ania Rolińska
(Bill Guariento, dr Nazmi Al-Masri)
anna.rolinska@glasgow.ac.uk
@anzbau
English for Academic Study
School of Modern Languages and Cultures
GLOBAL CONNECTIONS
AND COLLABORATIONS

2. Wider project context
Subject specific pre-sessional course >
Science / Engineering / Technology >
Electrical engineering
Civil engineering
Mechanical engineering
Software engineering
Biomedical engineering
Geology, Statistics
6.5 IELTS > Master’s/PhD at UofG

3. UofG Students
Approx. 40 students
• 80% at PG level
• L1: mainly Mandarin and Arabic plus Thai, Korean, Italian and
Portuguese

4. Assessment until 2015
St-T
SPRE
1500

5. Outcomes until 2015
St-T
SPRE
1500 content knowledge
language skills
study skills
entering a PG programme at UofG

6. English for Specific Purposes
‘Requires the careful research and design of
pedagogical materials and activities for an
identifiable group of adult learners within a
specific context’ (Dudley-Evans and Johns,
1991: 298)
• Context
• Situational practice
• Cross-cultural issues
• Authenticity of communication and materials
• Needs analysis
Current changes in the world pose a challenge
on teachers who need to prepare their ESP
students to ‘deal with global communicative
practices online, in all their complexity’ (White,
2007: 325)

7. Engineering education
‘Today, engineers throughout the world must
take it for granted that they will work in other
countries or be employed alongside people who
have been trained in other countries’ (Lucena et
al., 2008)
‘an ability to learn how to learn, an ability to
form learning communities, and an ability to
collaborate in distributed corporate settings,
across countries, continents and cultures’
(Schaeffer et al., 2012)

8. Engineering education
Most effective ILOs:
• a scholar;
• a lifelong learner;
• a global citizen
(Biggs and Tang, 2011)
‘Mega trends’:
• changes forced by the fragile world
economy;
• student and professional mobility;
• use of communication technology;
• the increasingly loud voice of the social
imperative
(Shuman et al., 2005)

9. Innovations in 2015
Sts
SPRE
1500

10. Revised outcomes
Sts
SPRE
1500
language skills
study skills
contextualised
content knowledge
entering a PG programme at UofG
transferrable skills

11. EAST - Partnership with IUG
Sts
SPRE
1500

12. IUG Students
18 students
• 80% at PG level
• Civil engineering, IT, Environmental engineering, Biological
science, Mathematics and 2 Eng Lit

13. In practice – incentives
Informal development of
• language skills
• transferrable skills
Content knowledge exchange
Mini course in providing
constructive feedback

14. Project technologies

15. EAST milestones
IUG students submitted engineering-related scenarios

16. EAST milestones
• Generating electricity for wastewater treatment
• Water drainage and sea pollution in Gaza
• Toxicity of pesticides in Gaza
• Groundwater salinity in Gaza
• Road traffic and effects on the environment
• Development of Arabic OCR
• I.T. applications in medicine
Students formed groups of 4-6 based on the scenario choice.

17. EAST milestones
Students communicated via social media to research scenarios,
ask questions and get ongoing content-related feedback.

18. EAST milestones
Students used language purposefully and collaboratively

19. EAST milestones
• UoG students
submitted
essays.
• Groups of UoG
students gave
presentations to
audiences in
Glasgow and
Gaza.

20. Learning outcomes
St-T
SPE
1500

21. Project evaluation

22. Project evaluation

23. Project evaluation

24. Project evaluation

25. UofG student voices

26. IUG student voices

27. Challenges
Technology-related
• connectivity
• hardware/software
• electricity shortages
Organisational
• time and task management
• thinking on your feet
Motivational
• UoG students
• IUG students
• staff

28. Ways forward
Outputs
• Constructive feedback training – CC-
licenced materials.
Research
• Collaborative staff-student writing: extended
reflections on critical incidents and
transformative learning;
• Comparative analysis of assignments
prior/post project;
• Student tracking studies.
Developments
• More balanced set of outcomes for both
groups;
• ‘Leader by example’ mentoring scheme;
• Other disciplines.

29. Last words
‘Methods to encourage students to embrace
ambiguity, avoid premature closure, and increase
reflection may greatly improve their creative skills’
(Daly et al, 2014)
The potentialities of the socio-constructivist
framework can be fully exploited (Ligorio et al.,
2011)
In reference to online learning: ‘negotiate, construct,
and reconstruct new meanings from the
contributions of others, in a genuine process of
shared knowledge construction’ (Mayordomo and
Onrubia, 2015)
‘learning is inherently social, which makes student interaction an
important part of education’ (Schaeffer et al., 2012)

30. Very last words
‘Digital technologies offer many potential ways to foster global
awareness in classrooms. Through infusion of both global education
and technology in teaching and learning, teachers can foster
students’ understandings of the interrelationships of people
worldwide, thereby preparing students to participate meaningfully as
global citizens’ (Crawford and Kirby, 2008)
‘our world has become increasingly
“flatter”, or “connected”, since the turn
of the century’, ‘the classrooms of
today should look nothing like the
classrooms of the past’ (Friedman,
2005)

31. References
Biggs, J. & Tang, C. (2011) Teaching for Quality Learning at University, Buckingham: Open University Press, McGraw Hill.
Crawford, E. and Kirby, M. (2008) Fostering Students’ Global Awareness: technology applications in social studies teaching
and learning. Journal of Curriculum and Instruction, 2(1), 56-73.
Daly, S.R., Mosyjowski, E.A., Seifert, C.M. Teaching creativity in Engineering courses, Journal of Engineering Education,
2014, 103/3, 417-449.
Dudley-Evans, T. and St John, M.J. (1991) Developments in Esp. A multidisciplinary approach. Cambridge: CUP.
Friedman, T.L. (2005) The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Ligorio, M.B., Loperfido, F.F., Sansone, N., Spadaro, P.F. (2011) Blending educational models to design blended activities. In
F. Pozzi & D. Persico (Eds) Techniques for fostering collaboration in online learning communities: Theoretical and practical
perspectives. Hershey, PA: IGI Globla, 64-81.
Lucena, J., Downey, G., Jesiek, B., Elber, S. (2008) Competencies beyond countries: The re-organization of Engineering
Education in the United States, Europe and Latin America, Journal of Engineering Education, 97/4, 433-447.
Mayordomo, R.M. & Onrubia, J. (2015) Work coordination and collaborative knowledge construction in a small group
collaborative virtual task, Internet and Higher Education, 25/1, 96 -104.
Schaeffer, D., Panchal, J.H., Thames, J.L., Haroon, S., Mistree, F. (2012) Educating engineers for the near tomorrow,
International Journal of Engineering Education, 28/2, 381-396.
Shuman, L. J., Besterfield-Sacre, M., McGourty, J. (2005) The ABET ‘Professional skills’: Can they be taught? Can they be
assessed?, Journal of Engineering Education, 94/1, 41-55.
White, C. (2007) Focus on the language learner in an era of globalization: Tensions, positions and practices in technology-
mediated language teaching. Language Teaching 40/4,321–326

32. Photo credits - CC
Without Science by Brian Talbot (2006) https://flic.kr/p/bW9ge
Powerpoint presentation by Matthew Hurst (2009) https://flic.kr/p/6XFFqY
Writing? Yeah. by Caleb Roenigk (2012) https://flic.kr/p/brNqFE
Gaza crowd by blhphotography (2002) https://flic.kr/p/EboVZ
DEV DEV <summer of code/> by Chattanooga Public Library (2013)
https://flic.kr/p/f6HGaK
Key skill assessment unit: problem solving by Richard Howes (2008)
https://flic.kr/p/4m6viF
Teamwork and team spirit by 드림포유 (2007) https://flic.kr/p/o4ZHuD
Language by Jurek d. (2015) https://flic.kr/p/qJHt7n

33. https://easttelecollaboration.wordpress.com
anna.rolinska@glasgow.ac.uk
Questions?