Introduction

The collaboration between University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS), and Ming-Chi University of Technology has been going well for three years. MCUT had invited faculty members from UIS to share their expertises in online learning through the online learning consortium project. Several presentations, workshops, and classroom lecture exchanges have all been successful. Faculty members from both University, in particularly from the MIS department of UIS and the Department of Business Management of MCUT, have visited each other and have established mutual trust. In the year 2010 and onward, we plan to extend the collaboration to other departments in both Universities. The goals are to provide learning opportunities for faculty members and to enrich the learning experiences for students. 

UIS is a fully pledged campus of the University of Illinois systems in the United States. The strength of UIS lies in its experience in online learning. UIS is also known for its dedication to build a "student friendly campus." MUCT, on the other hand, has long tradition of close student-faculty relationship. Both Universities' mission statements overlap by striving to achieve excellence in teaching. With cultural similarities and friendships among faculty members, it is natural to continue and enhance the collaboration to achieve the highest synergy. 

Objectives

This proposal is to outline our plan and to secure funding for our activities in year 2010. Also, the outlook for our future plan is briefly introduced. In 2010, we plan to conduct the following activities. 

1. Exchange Lectures through online platform
2. One Experimental Joined offered Course in Summer 2010
3. Extended Online Learning Practicum 

If the above objectives are executed and well perceived by faculty members, we plan to start the following efforts in year 2011 onward.

1. More joined offered (online) courses.(2011)
2. Language and Cultural Experience Exchange program (2011)
3. Study aboard programs from both universities, from MCUT to UIS and from UIS to MCUT. (2011)
4. Mutually accepting credit-hours from both Universities. (2012)
5. Recruiting international students for MCUT (2012)
6. Joined Degree Program (2012)

Execution Plan

1. Exchange Lectures: In the Spring 2010 semester, MCUT and UIS will exchange lectures through online learning platform in selected courses. The exchanged lectures start by soliciting interested faculty members from both Universities. Instructors from both sides will invite each other to deliver lectures in their courses. The lectures will be delivered through either Elluminate Live system from UIS, or Adobe Connect System from MCUT. The basic assumption of this plan is that instructors will provide their best "lectures" during these sessions. Students from both side will benefit from attending the lectures with highest possible quality. Instructors will also benefit from distributing the teaching load. . Also, the exchanged lectures will be delivered in English. This will immerse Taiwan students in a English learning environment. Currently, the following courses are selected from the two universities.
2. MCUT: Corporation Case Study, Human Resource Management, Production and Operations Management, e-Commerce, and Multi-Criteria Decision Making.
3. UIS: Decision Support Systems, Information Security, Principle of Operation Management, Technology Management and Strategy, and e-commerce strategy.
4. Join Speaker Series: The join speaker series is simply combine the existing speaker series from both Universities into Teleconference Speaker Sessions. UIS can invite speakers from regional companies, including State Farm Insurance (the largest domestic insurance company in the US), ADM (a fortune 500 company), and Caterpillar. MCUT can invite speakers from within the Formosa Plastic Group, and from other well-known Taiwanese companies. 
5. Joined Summer Course: In summer 2010, one course from MCUT and one course from UIS will be selected to be offered jointly. Students from both Universities will still registered with their own Universities. The difference is that the course is offered together in a blended format. Students at UIS will register this course as online students and students from the MCUT will registered as on campus students. The course will be offered online in English with weekly synchronous sessions. In the first half of the summer session, the instructional team (2 members) from UIS will travel to MCUT to deliver the on site synchronous sessions. In the second half of the summer sessions, (2) faculty members will travel to UIS to deliver the other half of the synchronous sessions. There are many benefits using this arrangement. This course can further enhance the trust among faculty members between these two Universities. Students from MCUT will be exposed with real English-Speaking instructors. Students from UIS will learn more about the International Aspects from Taiwanese classmates and instructors. The course to be selected is under discussion. The enrollment from UIS in summer time is usually between 10 to 25. To ensure that proper enrollment from MCUT, tuition subsidy is recommended. Also, unregistered students are allow to audit this class through online platform. 
6. Extended Online Learning Practicum: The Extended Online Learning Practicum is designed to transfer the UIS online teaching expertises to MCUT. The first online learning practicum is conducted in November 2009. Faculty members from MCUT and other institute share their syllabi. In a face to face session, faculty members from UIS will help them to design or redesign pedagogical methods. This online learning practicums will be scheduled twice a year, inviting two faculty members from UIS to MCUT. One faculty member from MCUT will be selected as a seed instructor. He or she will travel to UIS at the beginning of the Fall 2010 semester to witness and learn how the UIS faculty members and support staff to support online and blended courses. 

If the above plan will be executed successfully, the future join-degree program and other activities will be planned. The exchanged lecture will be less subsidized but the teaching support will be increased. 

Keywords：Online Teaching Consortium、International Cooperation、Online Learning