In fall of 2010, SUNY Empire State College was awarded an HP Catalyst grant. The award included equipment as well as unrestricted cash to fund a proposed project. Betty Lawrence, Kim Stote, Mary Mawn and Pauline Carrico of Empire State College are co-PIs for the grant.   For its project, Empire State College (ESC) partnered with the St. Petersburg State Polytechnical University (SPbSPU), located  in St. Petersburg, Russia, in order to engage in faculty development activities centered around the theme of Process Education. ESC used its grant to contract with Pacific Crest (and Dan Apple) to work with all faculty online during the calendar year 2011. The contract included travel to St. Petersburg, Russia, to provide a Teaching Institute to the faculty members of SPbSPU. Co-PIs planned a corresponding workshop day for ESC faculty, during which Dan facilitated similar experiences for the Empire State Faculty. Both face-to-face workshops were held last month (April, 2011), and involved 21 faculty from SPbSPU and 14 of the larger team of 25 ESC faculty. Each group engaged in activities that challenged them to increase learner ownership by helping students to strengthen their reading, thinking, and learning processes; exchange some current evaluation-based practices for increased assessment-based practice, and developing strategies for online/distance learning techniques. Dan and Heather Nehring (Pacific Crest contractor) both traveled to St. Petersburg for the Teaching Insitute. The experience was a novel one, for all involved, and Pacific Crest is pleased to have been a part of this worthwhile initiative. (The article continues below, following the photos. Click any photo to see it full-size.) All faculty (SPbSPU and ESC) are part of a learning space in Angel Learning System and will continue to engage in discussions in that space. Next steps include Elluminate sessions on Process Education topics of shared interest, as well as forming smaller project groups to work on specific areas, such as developing rubrics, use of online labs, and cloud computing. SPbSPU is currently producing some amazing educational experiences with their commitment to project based learning. The faculty have advanced the use of technology in learning through the effective use of simulation and 3D modeling. Students are expected to become very creative and technical in their use of technology and many have advanced projects that make them very valuable, even before they graduate. Empire State has long-been known for their advance of adult learning practices and meeting student learning needs by providing a variety a delivery means to meet the time demands of the adult learning. The Center for Distance Learning constantly advances its teaching and learning practices to incorporate new tools and techniques for advancing the quality of student learning experiences and successes.