This document outlines a collaboration project between students from Humber College in Canada and Shenzhen Polytechnic in China. The project aimed to have small groups of students from each country work together virtually on joint projects using Adobe tools. They encountered challenges with language barriers, cultural differences, time zone issues, and using technology to collaborate across distances. Surveys given to students before and after found that while communication and coordination difficulties existed, most students felt confident they could complete the project. The majority also said they would participate in a similar collaboration again in the future. The project demonstrated that global collaboration can work effectively with proper organization, standards, and support.

1. It’s a small world

2. The Concept:
• Find students from opposite sides of the planet
• Introduce them to each other
• Give them a joint project
• Step back and let them figure it out

3. Beginnings:
• It starts in 2010 with Adobe Education and Claire Erwin
• Visit to Shenzhen Polytechnic
• Meet with Dean Wang and faculty
• Jerry calls.

4. The Strategy

5. Objectives:
• Discover Methods that allow students to collaborate globally.
– Cultural Differences
– Time zones
– Language Barrier
– Confidence
• How to use Adobe tools to organize and conduct our collaboration.
• Learn how students independently resolve problems.

6. The Test:
• March 2012, beta tested
• 4 Humber, 4 SZPT students participate
• Lessons learned
• Deans agree to full ramp out

7. Planning:
• How do we match up 100 students?
• When do we introduce the collaboration?
• How do we handle academic credit?
• What resources are needed?
• How much time is needed?
• What if this doesn’t work?

8. Execution:
• Groups of 4 to 6 formed
• Assignment handed to students
• Each group assigned a Connect room
• Deadline was five weeks from assignment

9. Motivating Students:

10. Student Issues:
• Language
• Technology
• Time zones
• Skill/Knowledge

11. Results:
• Humber
• SZPT

12. What were our assumptions?

13. Collaboration works:
• It is NOT just between organizations
• It is NOT an expensive proposition

14. Distance is not inefficient:
Culture
Differences
Time Zones
Language
Barrier
Confidence

15. Organization is key
Image
Animation
Web Dev.
Interaction
and more
…
Photoshop
Animate
DW
Edge Tools
Flash
and more
…

16. Student responses remarkably similar.

17. Survey:
• 2 Questionnaires
• Each has 18 questions
• Q1(50/42) Before
• Q2(50/32) After

18. Survey 1 (Before):
• Your Level of English.
Very poor
Poor
Moderate
Good
Very Good

19. Survey 1 (Before):
• The opportunity for you to use English to communicate
with foreign language speakers.
None
Few
Moderate
Often
Very often

20. Survey 1 (Before):
• The opportunity you use English to communicate with
foreign language speakers and completed a task or project.
None
Few
Moderate
Often
Very often

21. Survey 1 (Before):
• Are you confident you can complete the collaboration project
with your Canadian teammates?
No
A little
Moderate
Confident
Very Confident

22. Survey 1 (Before):
• How much do you know about Canada and the nation’s culture?
None
Not much
Moderate
A little
Know very well

23. Survey 1 (Before):
• How important are Adobe’s products in your work?
Not at all
Not important
Moderate
Important
Very important

24. Survey 2 (After):
• How smoothly di the collaboration project run?
Very difficult
Difficult
Moderate
Smoothly
Very smoothly

25. Survey 2 (After):
• What were the major obstacles in the collaboration project?
Language
Culture difference
Way of communication
Time zone difference
Teamwork
Co-ordination
Progress management
Technical issues
Personal ability
Software application
Others

26. Survey 2 (After):
• What was the biggest difficulty in the collaboration project?
Language
Culture difference
Way of communication
Time zone difference
Teamworking
Co-ordination
Progress management
Technical issues
Personal ability
Software application
Others

27. Survey 2 (After):
• Would you participate in a similar collaboration in the future?
Yes
No

28. Survey 2 (After):
• During the project, what methods did you use to
communicate with your distant teammates.
Adobe Connect
Email
MSN
Phone, Skype, Vocal Comm.
Others
Never contacted

29. Common student issues:
• I am worried that my English is too poor to speak
to the Canadian (Humber) students.
• How shall I speak to them (Humber students)?
• The skills they have learned are different.
• After an email exchange, the other side went silent.
• Email contains a link leads to a porn site.
• What was the requirement again? (Before the deadline)
• After a shower, I still couldn’t log on to the connect room.

30. Group Wisdom:
• Globalization is not an issue
• Global Collaboration works

31. Improvements:
• Organization
• Developing standards
• Improved support

32. Organization:
Registration
Grouping
Progress Monitoring
Work Demonstration
Ranking

33. Standards:
No limits, just make everyone’s life easier !
•Documentation (Specification & Milestones)
•Final work submission requirement
•Distant meeting guidelines

34. Support:
• Staff team building
– Grouping issues
– Progress monitoring
– Assessment
– Revision
• Fund raising
– Staff & student exchange
– Integrating to the course teaching
– Competition & prizes

35. Next steps:
• SZPT to devise this year’s collaboration
• Faculty Exchanges
• Joint curriculum
• Anybody else want to join in?