User:Gbesana

GianMario Besana is a Vincent de Paul Professor in the College of Computing and Digital Media and currently serves as Associate Provost for Global Engagement and Online Learning at DePaul University in Chicago, IL. His portfolio comprises the internationalization process of the institution and its online learning operations. Under his guidance, DePaul’s faculty training program for online teaching was recognized in 2012 with the Sloan-C award for best faculty development program for online teaching in the United States. DePaul University currently offers over twenty degree programs fully online, and it regularly schedules more than 13% of its total credit hours fully online. The two sides of GianMario’s portfolio recently came together in the creation of the Global Learning Experience (GLE) program, a virtual exchange initiative aimed at supporting DePaul’s faculty members who wish to open their classrooms to technology-facilitated learning experiences at a distance, in collaboration with international partners. DePaul has offered over 70 courses with GLE projects, in collaboration with institutions in 19 different countries. GianMario has facilitated workshops on institutional approaches to virtual exchange at UNESP (Sao Paulo Brazil), UFPE (Recife, Brazil), Clemson University (SC), St. John’s University (Queens, New York, NY) and has presented on the topic of virtual exchange at several conferences (COIL 2014,2016,2018, AACU 2016, FAUBAI 2017, 2018). GianMario earned his Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of Notre Dame, IN, after completing his bachelor degree, also in Mathematics, at the Universita’ degli Studi di Milano, Italy. He has published widely in the field of algebraic geometry, applications to computer vision, and computer science education. GianMario is an alumnus of the first edition of the Senior International Officers Academy of the Association for International Education Administrators (AIEA), serves on the Leadership Development Committee of the AIEA and is a co-facilitators of the AIEA Senior Advisors Program.