The Global Course Prototype

Creating content for electronically delivered international courses is no easy task. Most courses are simply taught in the language and within the cultural framework of the country where the course is produced. Others are modified for local audiences. There are courses, however, that were designed from the outset for an international audience.

In the 1990s, the Annenberg School of Communications and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) joined forces to fund and distribute an electronically delivered course known in the U.S. as “Inside the Global Economy.” A group of educators and public television broadcasters from several countries met and collaborated on the video-based course. Besides the Annenberg/CPB group, the TELEAC Foundation of The Netherlands, the Swedish Educational Broadcasting organization, JL Productions of Chile, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation were partners in the effort.

A 13-lesson video course was the result. Each lesson is based on an examination of two case studies. In addition to the 13 one-hour videos, the course requires a textbook in international economics, a course reader—created as a study guide for the course—and a software-based tutor that includes a glossary of terms, graphical analysis of data, interactive testing, forecasting simulations, and a databank of test questions keyed to the textbook chapters.

The course took three years to develop, was filmed in 20 countries, and was edited to fit the needs of each region in which it was shown. As this undertaking illustrates, creating content for a worldwide audience is not a simple task. But experiments such as “Inside the Global Economy” can teach us much.

The Internet takes this kind of curriculum one step further. Because of the Web’s immediacy, using the Internet to deliver courses such as “Inside the Global Economy” enables content to be constantly updated, reflecting ever-changing world economic conditions.

Find out more about Inside the Global Economy at learner.org.