From Bengali to Uzbek--CIC's CourseShare Program Opens the World of Less Commonly Taught Languages

CIC institutions have a long history of sharing faculty expertise by making specialized courses available to students from member universities. The CIC Deans of Arts and Sciences took this concept to another level through CourseShare, a program that capitalizes on distance-learning technology that allows CIC member universities to increase student access to specialized courses. Faculty enjoy the CourseShare program for the chance to collaborate with respected peers at CIC universities, expand course enrollments with talented students, employ new technologies, fill curricular gaps, preserve specialized courses, and strengthen student recruitment efforts. Students enjoy the opportunity to take specialized courses offered at other CIC institutions from a distance, eliminating the need to temporarily relocate.

The CourseShare framework allows students to register for shared courses at the same time and in the same manner as regular courses. Grades and credits are reported on the student’s home university transcript. There are often no additional fees associated with shared courses, making them even more attractive to students.  Students are encouraged to check with their advisors/departments to ensure that CourseShare courses will enhance their course of study and apply toward graduation.

To date, dozens of less commonly taught languages (LCTL) have been shared using CourseShare as well as graduate seminars in area studies, chemical informatics, English, history, political methodologies, and speech and hearing sciences. This academic year again offers a wide breadth of courses across CIC universities, with a particularly rich panoply of LCTLs. 

For more on CourseShare, please visit the program's FAQ.