UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Andjela Kaur, assistant teaching professor of rehabilitation and human services at Penn State Lehigh Valley, recently completed an Experiential Digital Global Engagement (EDGE) project with students from her employment strategies for people with disabilities course and partners from the University of Novi Sad, Serbia. EDGE is a project-based international virtual exchange program adapted from the State University of New York’s Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) program.
“Students benefit from knowing that there is the rest of the world outside of their campus, and this is a great opportunity to bring the world into the classroom,” Kaur said.
While pursuing her doctoral degree, Kaur found herself working in global disability studies, with an overall interest in the global perspective.
“It felt right to not pretend that I don’t have this, sort of, complicated national identity situation going on that comes with me and my accent," said Kaur, who is originally from former Yugoslavia. "And this was a great opportunity [for students to gain a global perspective in their studies] especially because it doesn't involve a lot of money.”
Kaur partnered with Dragana Vuković Vojnović, Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management, from the University of Novi Sad. For the project, students were asked to assess accessibility features in work and leisure environments within their local community. Accessibility features included, but were not limited to: physical space, mobility and sensory issues. Following the students’ assessments, they were asked to compare found features with their international counterparts, and then create a presentation to display their findings. At the end of the four-week project, students presented their findings with writings and short videos from their student partners at the University of Novi Sad.
At the completion of the EDGE project, Kaur’s students expressed how much they enjoyed taking part in it, even with a six-hour time difference between universities.
“The feedback was overwhelmingly positive,” Kaur said. “I know one of the students remains in active contact with a counterpart in Serbia and they [students] know that each other exists, and that’s really, really great. ... the projects showcased high-quality work, which indicated that students were actively engaged in the project.”
Kaur also mentioned that her students learned about new implements of accessibility, such as raised pavement in crosswalks to assist those visually impaired.