 In the spring semester, Bilkent University students "shared" a
distance-learning course with students from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in
Cleveland, Ohio. Professor John J. Grabowski taught "Comparative Perspectives on
Museum and Archives History and Practice" from CWRU. Bilkent students participated by
a live, interactive video link. The course was supported by Bilkent, the Worldwide
Learning Environment at CWRU, and underwritten by a grant from the McGregor Fund.
Part of the course was reciprocal trips. CWRU students visited Ankara and saw local
museums, with a side trip to Istanbul. Later in the summer, five students (Fatih
Çalışır, Fahri Dikkaya, Sibel Kocaer, Seda Günçe, and Ayşegül Avcı) from Bilkent
went to Cleveland to see museums in that area
All "three" experiences - the course and the visits - were successful.
Information on the history and development of museums in the US and Turkey was exchanged,
and two sets of students got to know each other. The CWRU students fell love with Bilkent
and Turkey, and the Bilkent students found excitement and friendship in Cleveland.
More shared courses between Bilkent and CWRU are being considered, and Professor Grabowski
intends to offer the museum course again. He hopes to include the type of visits that were
a part of this year's course.
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