Acknowledgements

We would like to thank İstanbul University, especially the Faculty of Education, for their support of our online learning activities.  We sincerely express our appreciation for the İstanbul University students who helped OSU students with their research on Turkey, for their generosity and openness.  We would like to thank the many previous volunteers in Turkey who have taken time out of their busy schedules to join in our conversations until now.

We would like to thank Near Eastern Languages and Cultures for their encouragement of the pilot during Autumn semester 2017.  This eBook and the e-portfolio associated with it would also not have been possible without the support of multiple other internal OSU partners: the Middle East Studies Center, International Affairs, the University Center for the Advancement of Teaching, the Office of Distance Education and e-Learning (ODEE) and the Buckeye Badges program.  We especially thank the Affordable Learning Exchange (ALX) program in ODEE for their support in producing this eBook.  We thank Dr. Joy McCorriston, Professor of Anthropology at The Ohio State University, for her ongoing contributions to the development of templates of cross-cultural learning activities that the e-portfolio is largely based on.  We also express our gratitude to the instructional design experts of the university’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching (UCAT), and the great feedback and support we received from Dr. Henry Griffy, Instructional Designer for ODEE.

We express our gratitude to the guest scholars who presented to our students on aspects of Turkish society, language and culture: Bülent Bekçioğlu, Carolin Mueller, Nathan Young, and Eric Schoon.

Special thanks also go to Mark Visco, CEO and co-founder of Suitable, who provided invaluable technical support and feedback for the gamification of the e-portfolio.