This presentation discusses projects both of which involve undergraduates in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region: Harness Innovation through Virtual Exchange (HIVE) and the Afghan Cultural Heritage Education Project (ACHEP). Thinking about these courses’ pedagogies is an on-going process; implementation involves constant changes to meet the needs of students. The HIVE project involves students in the US and abroad, whereas the ACHEP program solely involves on-line instruction of students overseas. These projects provide an informative comparison and allow for a good discussion of lessons learned. HIVE, a Stevens Initiative project of the US State Department, features students at US institutions working together with students in the MENA region. The students participate jointly in a minimum of four synchronous sessions and together create a final project. At our institution, administration worked closely with our partners in Egypt to identify two classes with closely related subject matter for the test case. The US university class involves students in a cross-listed undergraduate/ graduate architecture course; students work with their counterparts at an institution in Cairo in an upper-level undergraduate studio architecture class. In class zero, professors and staff tested technology. The professor at our institution works closely with his counterpart in Egypt to ensure that subject matter needs of students in both courses are met. After discussion between faculty and staff at both institutions, planned class-meeting times were set to meet the needs and schedules of all concerned. ACHEP, jointly funded by National Park Service and US State Department, is in the process of filming “Illicit Trafficking,” its second course in English, for archaeology students in Afghanistan. The students have access through a private website to filmed lectures given by a variety of experts. The Afghan students watch the talks and work with local professors to contextualize the lectures with regional examples. The Afghan undergraduates are non-native English speakers. Instructors identified needs and made accommodations as the class progressed. For example, in the first class one challenge that arose in the virtual environment was the speed of the English videos. The video editor modified the recorded lectures to ensure that they could be slowed down, thus assisting second language learners. This paper shares lessons learned from two varied online projects regarding pedagogy, intercultural competence, and best practices for learning in an international virtual environment.