Lemmens The Virtual Challenge to International Cooperation in Higher Education Bernd Wächter (ed.) Aca papers on International Cooperation in Education The V irtual Challenge to International Cooperation in Higher Education

Teaching methods
Face-to-face communication through interactive videoconferences was one
of the teaching methods. Discussions, lectures, and invited speakers are
examples. The group met with some of the leading scholars worldwide in the
field of nursing from Iowa, learned about the innovative and progressive work
Norway is doing in the field of telehealth and telenursing, and about the VIPS
model developed in Sweden and the national health sector databases in Ice-
land, to name only a few. ISDN technology was used in the beginning. Al-
though the group was generally satisfied with this technology, delays
occurred in the transmission of sound and pictures. The dialogue between
countries was therefore not ideal. Netmeetings were therefore later held with
the use of a new technology, IP-technology. National Research and Educa-
tional Networks (NREN) plays a role there. The Icelandic RHnet is connected
to NORDUnet in Denmark with a 45 Mbit/s, which itself is connected to
TERENA with a bandbreadth of 2,5 Gbit/s. TERENA is the research and
educational network for Europe and the United States. IP-technology is
cheaper than ISDN, and sound and image transmission is much better,
which is its greatest benefit. All communication became far more natural.
Those involved were no longer dependent on bandbreadth and the availabili-
ty of telephone lines.
Online chat or chat-rooms give students and faculty the possibility of sharing
thoughts, opinions and to discuss issues in some depth. At least four or five
groups can chat at the same time, one group in each chat-room. Most of the
dialogue took place in English, especially when the whole group participated,
but students from Iceland, Norway and Sweden often communicated among
each other in their native language. When using chat-rooms, everybody needs
to be on the net at the same time. Time differences between countries can
therefore create problems. Good typing skills are needed by participants to be
able to participate effectively. Chat-rooms are not suitable for big groups.
Bulletin boards make information available at all times, with everybody
having access. It is independent of time and language, simple in use and
easy to learn. Communication partners can be identified by their name. The
bulletin board is easy to organise, for example by subjects. However, chaos
can be created if users do not apply the organisation rules of the board and
information can get lost in many messages or entries, which were around
2,500 at the end of the course.
In any form of teaching, the human factor plays an important role. Regardless
of the advantages of technology, human interaction will always be important.
For this reason, the course entailed, at the beginning and the end, a one-week
meeting of all Nordic students and faculty, which was held in Reykjavik, Ice-
land. The week introduced students to the course and the technology used. All
students had access to computers and Internet connections through their
respective universities, and several had access to computers either at home
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or at work. Technical support for all students on the programme was provided
by the University of Iowa. In addition, each of the cooperating universities
supplied local support.