ENST Professor Robert Hill (center) poses with scientists at the National Key Laboratory in China
Image Credit: Robert Hill
For Environmental Science & Technology Professor Robert Hill, being in two places at the same time is simply a routine part of the job. Through the magic of modern technology, Hill can teach a course inside a classroom on campus at the University of Maryland while simultaneously reaching a second set of students on the other side of the world via videoconference.
Last fall, however, Hill was challenged to step out of his comfort zone and turn the dual-teaching technique on its head. For the entire semester, Hill was the one on the other side of the globe – Northwest Agriculture & Forestry University (NWAFU) in Yangling, China to be exact – while he remotely taught students in College Park. (pictured right: NWAFU in Yangling, China)
Hill’s experience at NWAFU was to serve as a test case of sorts for other UMD faculty members interested in going abroad during the school year. “It’s very difficult during either semester for faculty to go overseas for even two or three weeks,” says Hill. “Someone has to teach the courses while they’re gone.”
A teaching assistant in College Park and broadband internet conferencing allowed Hill to teach his regular soil hydrology and physics course to UMD students and offer the same course at NWAFU. Hill also led an interactive class – Environmental Issues and Culture in USA and China – that connected 12 students from Maryland and 14 students from China through video conferencing.
“I didn’t get a chance to study abroad so I wanted some way to make that connection and I read the description of the class and it sounded so cool,” says Danielle Russo, a senior Environmental Science & Technology major at UMD.
Russo says when she initially signed up for the course she didn’t realize Hill would physically be going to China for the duration of the semester. “It was actually so awesome having him there because I think it really connected the class to China,” says Russo. “It was like there was a piece of us in China.”
