Internationalization of students’ learning using online technology: Lessons learned

Abstract

The global nature of business has increased the importance of students’ international experience during their studies at the university. Using interactive technologies the projects investigated ways to increase students’ motivation to take responsibility for the learning process by creating “real” international co-creation experience online. This paper presents learnings from two consecutive international collaborative teaching between Edith Cowan University, Australia, and Umeå University, Sweden, in 2017 and Edith Cowan University and the University of Rijeka, Croatia, in 2018. Feedback from the students showed they enjoyed working across cultures and academic discipline on simulated products and marketing campaigns. Issues raised included: the need to explicitly explain how all parts of project is going to work and how the students execute their role. Incorporation of a formal introduction process for the students in each location so all students have the same knowledge about each other. Furthermore, the provision of real-time opportunities to collaborate in lectures and the setting joint deadlines between the units are of importance. Despite some of the shortcomings of the project, it has provided a firm foundation for the refinement of ongoing collaborative teaching.