The Connect Program directly links students from universities throughout the Middle East, North Africa, US, and Europe via Soliya’s customized online videoconferencing application as part of an accredited course.  All that students need to participate is a standard computer, an Internet connection and a webcam – facilities that are already widely available at major universities.  The program, therefore, has the potential to support thousands of students at a relatively low cost.  Students are placed into small multi-national groups guided by highly-skilled facilitators.  Together, they:

• eNGAGE in weekly facilitated dialogue sessions via Soliya’s online videoconferencing application.  The medium is remarkably intimate: participants can see one another’s facial expressions, hear tone of voice, and even share a joke.  The dialogue is far-reaching, covering a wide range of issues that currently divide the West and the Arab & Muslim World.  The conversation is carefully facilitated, ensuring that students directly address the difficult issues that divide them in a way that enables genuine understanding of alternate perspectives and reconsideration of previously held views.

• expLore a multi-media online library containing a wide range of resources including raw news and interview footage, academic and policy articles, websites, and lectures from relevant experts.  These resources form the basis for many of the discussions.

• expRESS their understanding of the issues discussed by creating two media projects over the period of the semester.  For the first, they edit together a short video segment using simple video editing software and raw footage provided by Al Jazeera and APTN.  This experience empowers students to voice their own opinions and encourages them to develop a personal connection with the issues.  It also provides them with insights into the video production process, thereby demystifying television journalism and providing them with critical media literacy and media production skills.  For their final project, students work together in cross-cultural teams to collaboratively develop a Joint Project.  Students are able to choose between a number of different options for the Joint Project. The most popular option is the Joint-Editorial, in which students write editorials with their counterparts on issues relevant to the relationship between the Arab & Muslim World and the West.  Selected articles that particularly exemplify this collaborative process are then distributed via the Common Ground News Service.  Approximately 25% of student articles written in 2005-7 were published by international newspapers such as the Daily Star in Beirut and the Washington Times.

Students generally participate in Soliya’s Connect Program as part of accredited courses at their universities.  Soliya has worked closely with an international Academic Advisory Committee of leaders in the field of International Relations, Media Studies and Conflict Resolution to develop an academic curriculum for the program.  The curriculum includes an activity plan for the web-based dialogue process, as well as suggested activities, discussions and readings for the in-class component of the course.  It also includes materials in media and communication, religious studies, international relations and conflict resolution that professors can select from or build off of as they choose.  The program has now been offered as part of an accredited course at a number of prestigious universities in the Middle East, North Africa, US, and Europe including Georgetown University, the American University in Beirut, Carnegie Mellon University – Doha and Pittsburgh campuses, and Hebron University in the Palestinian Territories.

To date, Soliya has worked with nearly 2000 students from a diverse cross-section of over 60 institutions including rural universities such as South Valley University in Upper Egypt (Southern Egypt) and Centre College in Kentucky, prestigious English language universities such as Georgetown University and the American University of Beirut, prestigious Arabic language universities such as Birzeit University and Cairo University, and an all women’s college, Dar al-Hekma College in Saudi Arabia. In the spring of 2007, for the first time Soliya included in its program European universities (in Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium) and in the 2007/2008 Academic year, Soliya has added universities from the UK, France & Turkey to the network.

In the coming years Soliya will be expanding the network to include more universities from the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and the US as well as universities in countries from the broader Muslim World such as Pakistan, Indonesia & Malaysia.