'Because I said so'

A Teacher-Centred Approach as a Scaffolding Technique to Accommodate International Distance Learners in a Student-Centred Environment

Abstract

At the SUNY Empire State College's Center for Distance Learning (CDL), the majority of students come from the State of New York, whereas international distance learners were historically a tiny fraction. This is currently being changed, with the ongoing rebranding of the College as New York's Open University. Seeking to enhance its curriculum to better accommodate international distance learners, CDL has engaged in the development of bridging bilingual/bicultural courses such as "International eLearning Skills for Russian Speaking Students". The course designed and taught by bilingual/bicultural professors helps students overcome linguistic, cultural, technological, and organizational barriers and adapt to the North American learning environment. In this paper, I will briefly describe the project, problems discovered and solutions found, including the use of scaffolding techniques, such as teaching- centred pedagogy.