Many universities use web courseware, digital libraries, and on-line chat to enable distance learners to access and participate in electronic course delivery. But are courses truly designed for global delivery? The majority of the literature on globalization is written for the corporate e-commerce audience. But the globalization/localization issue is germane to academe as well as business. Delivering a course via the web does not necessarily make it global in concept. In many disciplines, including library and information science, electronic course delivery must include course content and also provide access to an array of electronic information resources for students who have scant local research resources. The School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Florida is actively negotiating to internationalize its programme with course offerings for both degree seeking and continuing education students and is revising course content for this purpose. This paper addresses cultural and language barriers for continuing professional education in a global environment. Technical issues for providing content, content integration, portal and intelligence solutions, customization and personalization are explored for their suitability in the electronic delivery of continuing professional education. Government information policy and policies regarding transnational border information flow as it can affect access to electronic resources are also considered.
Global Continuing Professional Education via the Web: The Challenge of Internationalization, in P.L. Ward (Ed.), Continuing Professional Education for the Information Society; the Fifth World Conference on Continuing Professional Education for the Library and Information Science Professions, p. 157-166
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/vicki-gregory/4/