TEACHING EXCELLENCE DATABASE

In this international multi-disciplinary collaboration project, students of the three universities came from different disciplines and academic backgrounds. Students in Hungary were business administration and management majors, US students from Michigan were majoring in IT and writing studies, while US students from Washington were studying disability methods and theory. Hungarian students worked in small groups on a start-up idea, created a start-up brochure, and developed a complete business plan for their venture. US-Michigan student groups got the assignment of creating websites for the proposed start-ups. The US-Washington groups worked as accessibility advisors to the other two cohorts and were responsible for the accessibility of the businesses and the websites. The student teams collaborated both asynchronously and synchronously during the project. At the end of the 8-weeks, students presented their business start-up idea, the website, and highlighted the accessible aspects of both the website and their planned business operation. The innovative aspect of the project lies in fostering 1) multi-disciplinary, peer-to-peer learning, 2) international collaboration and cross-cultural communication, 3) the importance of inclusive businesses, 4) development of transferable skills including digital literacy.

Methodology

This 8-week project connected 3 university courses at 3 different institutions. The project was embedded in the course curricula, and project participation was part of the course completion requirements. The project was scheduled in the middle of the semester, so each course tutor started with a short project preparation phase, which included project orientation, detailed explanation of the project assignments and deliverables, presentation of course and project completion requirements. Classes also learned about the concepts and processes needed to complete the assignments. Then, the project teams were formed. Each team comprised approx. 12 students from 3 locations and teams were made up of small local groups of 3-4 students. Following an initial team-building period, student teams organized an online meeting where they got to know each other, the Hungarian groups presented their start-up idea, and the teams discussed the website requirements and accessibility issues related to the planned business. The meeting agenda and meeting minutes were completed by the participants. In the following weeks, local groups worked on their separate assignements and occasionally consulted with their peers, reported on their progress, and asked for and gave feedback. Some teams organized further online meetings as needed. During the in-class sessions, each instructor supported their students with their weekly activities, helped resolving issues related to course content, collaboration and teamwork. By the 6th week of the project, Hungarian groups submitted the draft business plans to their instructor for review and feedback; the US-Michigan groups shared the draft website with the two other groups for review and feedback; the US-Washington groups sent their accessibility report to their peers for consideration. By the end of the project, all groups finalized their assignments and the local groups presented their project deliverables and reported on the outcome. At the end of the project, students are also asked to reflect on their main takeaways of the collaborative learning including their discriplinary and cross-discriplinary learning, skills development, intercultural experience, personal development.

Tools, equipment, technology used

Students and instructors used university computer labs and personal laptops and devices. For the virtual exchange, students relied on email exchanges, online conference platforms, closed social media groups to maintain communication. Hungarian students used collaborative document editing to co-write the business plan, and they used graphic design platforms to create visual elements, charts and other business documents. The US-Michigan team used free, open-source content management systems to create the webpages. Students also familiarized themselves with assistive technologies and solutions associated with these platforms, tools and applications.

Outcomes and outputs, main results

By the end of the project, students: - are able to plan inclusive businesses - exercise their creativity - are able to explain their ideas, clarify concepts and negotiate solutions - become aware of the importance of accessibility in their own professional field - learn about assistive technologies and solutions - learn how to work in international, multicultural teams - experience how to work and collaborate online - develop employability skills - use and try out a large variety of digital applications

Lessons learnt

1) This project connected students from 3 different timezones, which posed great challenges on the implementation of the project. Students found it difficult to arrange online meetings across the 3 timezones. 2) Academic calendars should be taken into consideration at the planning of the project to ensure successful implementation. 3) Time should be allocated for preparation, team-forming and team-building before actually starting to work on the assignments. Although it increases the duration of the project, it saves time later with a smoother collaboration. 4) Very elaborate planning is necessary prior to kick-off. The more cohorts are involved the more detailed the planning needs to be. It is a good idea to think about which group is doing what on a weekly basis, and consider deadlines of deliverables carefully. 5) It is very important to provide students with all necessary background knowledge and content information before each activity is performed. Always allow room for creativity and professional freedom. Students get more engaged when they feel they can actually create something on their own. 6) Problems and issues may arise, try to consider it a new learning opportunity. Let students make mistakes and learn from their mistakes.

Adaptability and sustainability of the best practice (for other institutions)

The entire project or any variation of it can be adapted to other business contexts, disciplines and courses in other institutions or countries. Cross-disciplinary collaborations can be implemented in many different ways by keeping the start-up business planning part as the core of the project and connecting various disciplines or fields to it (for example, finance, HR, marketing, communication, media, supply-chain, specific industry sectors, IT, governance, environment etc.). Institutions could also adapt this project by focusing on solutions to tackle global challenges, SDGs or social issues.

Promotion of best practice

We seek opportunities to publish and present our international collaboration project and disseminate the results at international, national, and institutional conferences and events.

Scope and impact

• Course/department level
• Faculty level
• Institutional level
• Cross-institutional level
• National level
• EU/EHEA/International level

This good practice is relevant at all levels as it addresses challenges and goal of promoting internationalization, multi-disciplinary learning, digitalization, transversal skills development and intercultural awareness.

6.1 Digitalization

• Outstanding, innovative, excellent practices of online / blended / hybrid learning
• Innovative, novel methodology in using digital tools/devices in teaching
• Digital skills development and assessment both general and profession-related, embedded in course design, in teaching and assessment
• Other:

  Raising awareness of the importance of using accessible digital platforms and tools

Reasoning: The project builds on the affordances of virtual exchange to raise awareness of the accessibility of digital platforms, solutions and tools. Students majoring in business are given the opportunity to learn about accessible technologies, like screen reading software, text-to-speech systems, and other assistive technology. Students understand the importance of the application of assistive technology in their own disciplines and professional practice.

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6.2 Internationalization

• Outstanding practices of international online collaborative learning
• Developing students' multicultural awareness
• Students engagement in international projects
• Courses implemented in international cooperation (projects, co-teaching, virtual/blended mobility, etc.)
• Courses offered to international multicultural students both online and offline

Reasoning: The project presents an example for international online collaborative learning, where students work in the virtual space across countries, institutional, disciplinary and cultural boundaries. While working together, students design businesses that could operate in a global business environment, simulate an international client-provider relationship, target their websites to a multicultural audience, and learn how to work in global virtual teams.

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6.3 Inclusion and diversity, universal design

• (Innovative) use of devices and tools for inclusion
• Senzitivizing students to consider special needs when practicing their profession
• Course includes hints on how the services/products of the profession could be universally designed/inclusive

Reasoning: US-Washington student groups act as accessibility consultants and advise Hungarian students on how to make the services and products of their planned start-up businesses inclusive to customers with disabilities. They also help plan and design an accessible work environment for the employees. All accessibiliy actions and guidelines are summarized in a chapter of the business plan. They also help US-Michigan teams create accessible websites, run accessibility tests and report on the results.

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6.4 Sustainability

• Social entrepreneurship projects, service-learning in the topic

Reasoning: Sustainability issues are considered by the students when designing their start-up business ideas. Very often their start-ups contribute to sustainability goals (e.g. poverty, health and wellbeing, climate change, education) or provide solutions that address social issues (e.g. obesity, food waste). For example, a start-up idea was to organize educational programmes for school children on healthy eating promoting produce of local farmers and actions to reduce food waste.

3.3 Public contact datas

Name	Email address	Website
Rita Koris	rita.koris@uni-bge.hu