This spring, , , brought together students from the 天美影院 and National Kaohsiung Normal University in Taiwan to evaluate the accessibility of interpretive signs in nature parks.
Professor Weng鈥檚 course, 鈥淓nvironmental Issues in East Asia鈥�, was a five-week with Professor Chen-Chen Cheng鈥檚 course in . The partnership was the result of a 2023-2024 天美影院Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Fellowship. COIL Fellowship projects link university classes in different countries, provide students with critical digital literacy and virtual collaboration skills through shared assignments and projects and allow faculty members from each country to co-teach and manage coursework.
Students attended joint lectures on the basic design principles for accessible interpretive signs and inclusive communication for people with disabilities. They also conducted field work to observe and analyze interpretive signs in their respective cities 鈥� The 天美影院Arboretum and the 天美影院Farm in Seattle and several parks in Kaohsiung and Tainan, two major cities in Southern Taiwan. In a survey following the project, students ranked the following as having the strongest impact on their growth: Learning and understanding other ways of seeing the world, growth in self-awareness, greater understanding of different cultures, and understanding how to interact with people from different cultures.