Water Scarcity in the UAE and the Klamath Basin: An Abstract Report on Educational Solutions' February 2005 University Dialogue between Classes at the American University of Sharjah, UAE, and the Oregon Institute of Technology, USA

In February 2005, Educational Solutions conducted a pilot dialogue between students at the American University of Sharjah (AUS), UAE and the Oregon Institute of Technology (OIT) regarding water scarcity in the two locales. The purpose of this pilot dialogue was to test issue-specific balanced material and the ES Website.

Issue-specific material was designed for use as a two-week course insert to enrich relevant university curricula and to prepare students to dialogue over the ES Website. The ES Website enabled the students and their professors to participate in moderated, non-partisan dialogues to advance intercultural understanding. For this pilot project, most of the international dialogue was via text on the ES Website. There was one synchronous audio/video meeting.

Data and comments from anonymous student evaluations:

95% (63/66) AUS and OIT students agreed that a dialogue experience like this between different cultures would be useful to increase intercultural understanding for college students around the world.

92% (61/66) AUS and OIT students said they would like to participate in another Educational Solutions dialogue experience.

"It breaks a wall of fear or discomfort between cultures and helps in improving our communication skills." AUS

"I gained a better understanding of all sides of the water issues and learned more from this project than the 30 years I have lived in the Klamath area." OIT