This fall, a unique environmental science course combining professors and students from three universities on two continents will be offered to University students.
Through the use of satellites and the Internet, students sharing a common interest in ecology will interact with professors and classmates from the University of Witwaterstrand in South Africa, the University of Eduardo Monlane in Mozambique and U.Va. The class, worth one credit and graded credit/no credit, will meet Tuesday afternoons.
The Seminar in African Ecology will meet for the first time this afternoon in Clark 147 with a lecture from Michael Garstang, professor emeritus of environmental science. Professors in the University's environmental science department here in Charlottesville will give six lectures and the remaining will be broadcast from South Africa and Mozambique.
Unlike distance learning programs that consist of downloaded lectures from the Web, this program is "like a global classroom," Environmental Science Prof. Steve Macko said. Macko helped to create the program.
University students enrolled in the course will be able to ask South African professors questions while seeing their international classmates on TV screens in Clark Hall. Direct communication is possible by use of cameras in each classroom, as well as a variety of audio equipment connected to both the Internet and a telephone service.
This distance learning program grew from relationships between University researchers and officials at the participating universities in Mozambique and South Africa, said William B. Quandt, the vice provost for international affairs. Quandt recently returned from Johannesburg, South Africa, where he and several professors from the environmental science department signed agreements for the program and participated in satellite tests.
"The technology works well. You can hear and see easily," Quandt said.
The course "gives a taste of real international relations," he said, though it's not expected to take the place of study abroad programs.
Planning for the program started approximately one year ago. The course grew from the work of the department of environmental sciences' Global Environmental Exchange Program, and the class aims to improve research and education of African ecology. A grant from the National Science Foundation made the program possible.
Additionally, support from Quandt, University President John T. Casteen III and a generous donor called "Mr. Toin," who learned of the program through former College Dean Melvyn P. Leffler, also helped to establish the course.
A future goal for the program is to follow up the class with a trip for all students to meet in South Africa and participate in a study abroad and internship program this summer. There, students will do research and meet their international classmates in person.
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