The Shared Course Initiative: Sustaining and strengthening LCTLs across institutional boundaries

Since 2012, the Shared Course Initiative (SCI) has used high-definition videoconferencing to share instruction in 21 less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) at Columbia, Cornell, and Yale Universities in the United States. This inter-institutional collaboration was established to address the ongoing programmatic issues facing LCTLs at all three institutions, which included the loss of program funding, the instability of enrollments, and difficulties in maintaining sufficient numbers of students for upper-level classes. Today, the SCI is not just a solution geared toward sustaining the less commonly taught languages; it has grown into a community of practice that advocates for and advances the provision of LCTLs at our three universities, and seeks to foster innovation in the field of language study via distance. This paper will discuss how the SCI has taken on the challenge of addressing declining enrollments in languages (Modern Language Association, 2006, 2018), and how in more recent years this collaborative model has succeeded not just in stabilizing enrollments, but has indeed begun to grow them in some areas. It will highlight important considerations in establishing such an innovative approach to course sharing, including affordances of the distance environment, differences in institutional cultures, integrating technology and pedagogy, and training students and instructors to navigate the educational spaces. The presentation will conclude with an examination of lessons learned and recommendations for others who wish to embark on a journey of empowering learners and educators in the less commonly taught languages. These recommendations will be rooted in the recognition that each inter-institutional collaboration for sharing LCTLs has its own needs, parameters, and objectives. However, the lessons of the Columbia, Cornell, and Yale program may be adapted and applied in many different contexts.