02/29/12 ema

HAYS, Kan. -- Dr. Shala Mills, chair of the Department ofPolitical Science at Fort Hays State University, has been named the nationalcoordinator for the Global Challenges Project called Global Challenges: Promiseand Peril in the 21st Century.

"We are delighted to play such a valuable role in thedevelopment of a national blended-learning model course that we believe willnot only help to educate globally competent citizens, but will also serve as amodel for future American Association of State Colleges and Universities blended-learningcourses in other disciplines," said Mills.

The project was made possible by the collaboration of the AmericanDemocracy Project, initiated by the American Association of State Colleges andUniversities(AASCU); The New York Times Knowledge Network; and teaching facultyfrom 10 AASCU institutions who serve as the organization's global engagement scholars.

"As the project expanded, it became clear there was aneed for a national coordinator to manage the project's scope, support thedevelopment of the product, manage internal communications and market the newcourse," said Dr. Larry Gould, FHSU provost. Gould said he is proud to have FHSU serve the project in thisrole and designated Mills to lead the project.

The course was inspired by the Seven Revolutions classframework created by a leading bipartisan think tank in Washington, D.C., theCenter for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), to examine key trendslikely to impact the world over the next 30 years. Those trends are in theareas of population, resource management, technological innovation anddiffusion, development and dissemination of information and knowledge, economicintegration and globalization, the nature and mode of security, and thechallenge of governance.

The course relies on the most recent research in learningenvironments that combine the best of online and face-to-face learning models.Delivered through the Epsilen eLearning Environment, a resource for sharingcourse content and networking, students are able to access course materials,The New York Times Digital Content Repository, CSIS content and much more.

FHSU has long supported the project, previously called theSeven Revolutions Project, through the scholarship and teaching of FHSU facultywho have served as AASCU scholars for the project.

Dr. Curt Brungardt, director of the Center for CivicLeadership, in 1981 and 1984; Brett Whitaker, instructor of leadership studies,in 2006 and 2008; and Darrell Hamlin, adjunct professor of leadership studies,have all contributed to the development of the course and were co-authors of the course's Teaching Toolkit.

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