The Global Classroom

The ‘Global Classroom’ is a practical module (10 ECTS), a key output from the EU-ICI funded project ‘GlobalWorkIT’, a project led by DIT’s School of Computing and includes partner institutes from Finland, Germany and... [ view full abstract ]

The ‘Global Classroom’ is a practical module (10 ECTS), a key output from the EU-ICI funded project ‘GlobalWorkIT’, a project led by DIT’s School of Computing and includes partner institutes from Finland, Germany and Korea. The module is delivered on-line to multiple teams with membership distributed amongst partner institutions. A Team produces a complicated software system including all aspects of planning, requirements gathering, design, coding and testing.
The aim of the module is to replicate more closely the experience of IT professionals in developing and implementing software solutions, within the international ICT industry. The key technologies used to deliver this module are unified communications services and cloud services such as ‘Google Hangouts’ and ‘Google Docs’. 
All students are required to join online with the Module Leader and Mentors for weekly “live” sessions using ‘Google Hangouts’ and YouTube video streaming. These sessions are used to probe teams on their performances to date and also provide an anchor for teams in lieu of any physical space such as a classroom or laboratory. 
At key stages in the software development cycle, teams are invited via ‘Google Hangouts’ to present project designs, project plans, risk management strategies, test plans and final implementations to mentors and other teams. 
The key benefits of the technologies used for this module are many, including that they are often made freely available and provide for a real-time experience of team working within the virtual space. Teams can communicate in both synchronous and asynchronous modes helping to overcome the challenges of working geographically distributed and across different time-zones. As an example of technological flexibility, I as module leader hosted a scheduled team meeting using ‘Google Hangouts’ while travelling on a high speed train within Korea.
The positive experiences realised within the Global Classroom should easily port beyond software development projects.