At first, it looks like just another Vol State Zoom class. Girija Shinde, Rhonda Gregory, and Lingli Ni introduce things from their homes and Vol State students participate from their homes. But that’s where it gets different. The other half of the students are watching live from China. It’s Friday night in Tennessee and morning in China. It’s one of the first sessions in an ongoing Vol State-China Exchange program organized by Lingli Ni and the Vol State International Education program and held earlier this semester.
The Chinese students are from Hangzhou Normal University and Wuxi Health School. This particular class is Biology 2020, Anatomy and Physiology II. There are breakout rooms on topics such as Asthma, COPD, and Celiac Disease. In this first session the students are meeting each other. Professor Lu Xian in China tries to get the students to open up: “Don’t be shy. You can practice your English.”
“Spoken communication with students in China was a challenge at first for some groups, but we quickly adjusted to make it as comfortable as possible for everyone,” Gregory said. “That involved some smaller Zoom meetings, more written communication, and some language interpretation to help bridge communication gaps. We also had to accommodate the time difference when scheduling Zoom meetings.”
The other classes taking part in the China exchange this semester are COMM 2025 C05 Fundamentals of Communication with Ines Petrovic Mundzic and Shellie Michael; ISCI 1030 Science Society Sustainability with Santino Ladogana; and MATH 1420 Geometry Concepts for Teachers with Amber Sullivan. The program was quite popular.
“We were going to match one Vol State student to one Chinese student for the project, and then it turned out that we have to match one Vol State student to 3-5 Chinese students so that no people were turned away,” said Ni. “Each Vol State faculty has 20+ of their own students participating in the project.”
The purpose of the program is three fold: Develop students’ research, problem solving, communication, and presentation skills. Expose students to different perspectives and cultural differences, increasing cultural awareness and understanding. Facilitate the exchange of ideas between students in different cultures.
“Our first virtual exchange with Chinese colleges was a success,” said Gregory. “Our Vol State students were able to learn more about Chinese culture and communication through joint class projects. The number of Chinese students who signed up surpassed our expectations, and faculty had to make adjustments to accommodate additional students.”
“I did not expect that 315 Chinese students signed up for the program in such a short time,” Ni said. “Fortunately, our partner school professors are working diligently supervising their students, giving feedback to Vol State Professors, and help to deal with unexpected situations. It is very encouraging to see that we have the same education ideas and goals in three very different schools.”
The program will be continued in fall 2021 and organizers are hoping more faculty and classes will participate. International Education will update the specifics at https://www.volstate.edu/international/china this summer.
