By Dr. Mikelle Antoine
Developing a multi-disciplinary class with faculty members from different disciplines and in different countries is one of the most challenging aspects of academic life. And yet, most of academia is moving towards this kind of collaboration.
When Swarthmore College professors Carina Yervasi and Sunka Simon contacted Assistant Professor Mikelle Antoine at Ashesi about developing a new course on Diaspora based on our individual academic disciplines, she instantly agreed. The collaboration was made possible by the SUNY Center for Online International Collaborative Learning and the Tri-College Digital Humanities Initiative.
The class, entitled, “Re-envisioning Diaspora” at Swarthmore and “Africa in the International Setting” at Ashesi, explores the historical development of Diasporas and how scholars have treated the subject from a multi-disciplinary angle. Students are partnered up in teams and work together with their peers at Swarthmore using various online tools such as chat, email, Skype, blogs and Wikis among others. Each class period includes about half an hour of synchronous activities where students from both institutions get to discuss the topic for that class period using mostly Skype.
One of the synchronous activities included Ashesi students creating video reports of their visit to James Fort to Swarthmore students who had prepared questions for the time together. Although the lecturers from Swarthmore grade their students and Dr. Antoine grades the Ashesi students, the three professors consult each other during their weekly Skype session to discuss the students. After each class also, a student from each school takes a turn as a reporter and posts an online summary of the day’s asynchronous activities. From this, both schools can get a sense of the points brought up during that class period.
Developing such a course was not without its challenges. However, students have already started reaping the rewards. Nii Boye Mensah Adjei ‘12 states, that “knowledge” from this class “is shaping my very being.” Kara Stoever ‘12, from Swarthmore, said the class has been “incredibly meaningful” by allowing her to discuss issues with students in Ghana. Isaac Bruce ’12 also noted, that “this was a perfect way to [turn theory into practice] and hear from other cultures about their view on Africa.”
[Related: Innovative New Course Connects Students with Peers in Ghana]