International Higher Education Teacher Award ^2024/25

The V-LEAD-X project integrates a strong international component into two graduate courses at Faculty of Organization and Informatics, University of Zagreb (UNIZG FOI) within the Economics of Entrepreneurship program: Negotiating in the International Environment (NIE) and Strategic Human Resources Management (SHRM). NIE employs the COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) methodology, promoting virtual collaboration across diverse cultural and national contexts. Students engage in projects aligned with Sustainable Development Goals such as Zero Hunger and Gender Equality, fostering intercultural competence, experiential learning, and adaptability while gaining skills essential for global workplaces. SHRM is built on work-based learning (WBL), enabling students to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world HR practices. By analyzing HR policies and cultural differences, students deepen their understanding of international HRM and learn how theory translates into practice. WBL fosters cross-cultural awareness and business insights, enhancing students' ability to navigate global environments. Courses implement innovative teaching methodologies, offering students international exposure and opportunities to develop key skills in intercultural communication, organization & self-management. Collaboration across time zones and cultures is facilitated by tools like Zoom, MS Teams enhancing digital skills. In initial phases, teachers provide key instructions, addressing challenges such as time management and task unfamiliarity while supporting students' cross-cultural engagement. The project simulates international teamwork without requiring physical travel, making it accessible for students lacking study-abroad opportunities. This approach aligns with the European Higher Education goals of inclusivity, quality education, and skill development. Through virtual collaboration and active learning, it prepares students for professional environments requiring adaptability and cultural awareness. Beyond the courses, students participate in activities like Student Research Symposium „Research Topics and Intercultural Learning in the International Context and Student Poster & Presentation Section at the CECIIS conference. These activities further develop research and intercultural skills, broadening the project's impact. V-LEAD-X enriches students’ academic and professional careers, fostering lifelong learning and readiness for global challenges.

Methodology

The V-LEAD-X project integrates the COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) methodology into two graduate courses on the study program Economics of Entrepreneurship: Negotiating in the International Environment (NIE) and Strategic Human Resources Management (SHRM). This step-by-step methodology includes following activities (1-7): 1. Course Preparation: The lecturers of UNIZG FOI and the partner university institutions (University of Cincinnati OH (USA), Amsterdam University od Applied Sciences AUAS (Netherlands)) prepare assignments, guidelines and deadlines for each course before the start of the semester and make them available to the students. Students (FOI students, incoming Erasmus students and IISMA Indonesian International Student Mobility Awards from 2022 on SHRM course) are advised that part of the activities will be virtual collaborative assignments or projects and the other part of the communication or assignments must be done in English. Examples of initial inputs and materials for students can be found in Appendix 1. 2. Team Formation: Students from Croatia, the Netherlands, the USA, and Indonesia are organized into diverse, international teams. Each team consists of members from multiple countries, including Erasmus and IISMA students, enhancing cultural diversity in virtual but also face to face environment. Size of the team is 4-6 team members. Team members are brought together by a list of their names and e-mail addresses which are collected by the course teachers. 3. Introduction and Initial Meetings: Students have to make introductory meetings to get to know each other and meet team members. Also, in the pivot phase, they share their academic backgrounds, facts about countries, student life, hobbies, and interests which fosters initial rapport and cross-cultural understanding. 4. Describing an assignment or project: Course teachers on lecture and seminars introduce students with a main task which is broken down into smaller topics. Guidelines are available on each course LMS. Teams in the NIE course address cross-cultural negotiation topics or presenting a product or service typical for their home country, while SHRM students focus on HRM practices in different countries in real life companies. 5. Project development: Students are encouraged to establish their preferred communication channels (e.g., email, video calls, messaging apps, collaboration virtual spaces). Each team collaborates to analyze cross-cultural topics. SHRM students explore HRM policies, diversity, and management challenges in different countries, while NIE teams develop negotiation solutions for global issues (e.g., Zero Hunger, Quality Education) or product, services or staring up a business in other countries related to negotiation strategies. 6. Presentation of assignment results: Teams prepare oral presentations and/or written reports summarizing their findings, similarities, and differences in HRM or negotiation strategies across countries. They also submit individual reflections on the experience, providing insights into the collaborative process. 7. Feedback and Reflection: Students submit essays or reflections on their virtual collaboration experience, highlighting what they learned about intercultural communication, team dynamics, and the project topics (Appendix 6). This serves as a valuable input to improve the course virtual collaboration tasks each year and overcome challenges. It is important to emphasize that students extend their international collaboration and activities initially acquired in the graduate course to academic activities outside the course: Student Research Symposium „Research Topics and Intercultural Learning in the International Context" in the USA or meeting with incoming international students from the USA at FOI and b) preparing a research paper based on the initial course projects and presenting the research findings in the Student Poster and Presentation Section at the CECIIS scientific academic conference in online format. This applies both to local students (FOI students) and to students from the USA, with whom, in addition to the symposium, collaboration will continue at the level of scientific conferences. Further information about the student symposium and the student poster section in the context of internationalization beyond the university borders (e.g. news and experiences of former university students who have taken part in international activities can be found in Appendix 2).

Tools, equipment, technology used

As far as the tools used in the V-LEAD-X project are concerned, both courses rely on digital tools to facilitate communication, collaboration and teamwork in a virtual environment. The basic infrastructure is the LMS platform Moodle, through which students receive all relevant course information on assignments, guidelines and materials for virtual collaboration. During the collaboration students use various tools for peer-to-peer communication with students from different countries involved, as mentioned in their reports and reflections: Zoom, Google Meet, MS Teams, WhatsApp, Facebook or Instagram Messenger which enable virtual meetings and real-time discussions about assignments. Google Drive and Dropbox are the most commonly used tools for sharing files and documents for virtual collaboration on assignments or projects during the semester. In some cases, such as when preparing advanced presentations, reports and promotional flyers, students used tools such as Canva, Prezi and Venggage, or various mind mapping tools (see examples of anonymized students' works of COIL and WBL in Appendix 3). It is important to emphasize that students are completely flexible in their choice of tools and need to establish a common ground for communication and teamwork with foreign students. This approach encourages students to develop digital skills and explore widely used professional tools applicable to academic tasks. Students develop a critical approach to assess the advantages and disadvantages of such tools in a virtual, cross-cultural context. Depending on the task/case, each virtual team has its own learning environment in which students engage in cross-cultural communication and collaborative problem solving while using technology. It can be seen that students have chosen universal, non-complex tools to ensure inclusion and accessibility of the technology for all team members. Mentioned tools mirror the dynamics of a virtual team in the real world and the experience and skills learnt in using digital tools are applicable later in professional life.

Outcomes and outputs, main results

The COIL collaboration achieved within the courses has multiple benefits: 1) It enabled international cooperation among students, 2) students enhanced essential skills, including intercultural and cultural skills, communication and language skills, ICT skills, organizational and self-management skills, and collaboration skills, which are crucial for employability and lifelong learning. 3) This initial collaboration led to incoming student mobility from the USA to FOI and outgoing mobility of FOI students to the USA through a student symposium. The main outcomes of WBL are increasing knowledge about HRM and seeing how theoretical aspects of HRM are implemented in companies, as well as learning about cultural differences between countries from HRM aspects and the improvement of students' cross-cultural skills. The main result of this best practice is the experience of students in a cross-cultural environment. As the primary goals of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) include promoting quality and inclusivity, enhancing student mobility, ensuring fair access to education, fostering employability, and supporting the development of lifelong learning skills, best practices of the project have outcomes that are boarder than course level and meets objectives of creating a cohesive, high-quality European education framework.

Lessons learnt

Lessons learned in the COIL framework for both courses are very similar. It is expected that COIL will generate some challenges for professors and students. Primary challenges, according to NIE students, aside from overcoming the anxiety of speaking a foreign language, included managing their time effectively and coordinating virtual meetings with students from different time zones. The teachers have managed the whole process in the following aspects. Comprehensive instructions are essential to ensure students from diverse cultural and educational backgrounds understand objectives and tasks (see Appendix 1). Sustaining motivation in students new to virtual collaboration can be challenging, especially if they're initially disengaged or unclear on task importance. Because of that it is important to track progress and evaluate student’s work and contributions in virtual teams regularly during the semester (some kind of feedback). Evaluation methods consider intercultural communication, teamwork, and independence. Next, it is important to support intercultural competence development. Teachers must prepare students on lectures and seminars for intercultural team dynamics. Additionally, careful deadline planning is essential at the semester's start to design tasks that fit the course content and allow equitable workload distribution, with grading aligned to course assessment models. This is essential for avoiding mistakes and reducing uncertainty for students, as well as ensuring course completion, since task scoring depends on the performance of different student groups. We recommend posting clear guidelines on the LMS or course platform and a document listing all deadlines, team members, email addresses, and assigned groups. This approach helps streamline coordination and support student success. To provide insight into the COIL method from students' perspectives, we described the lessons learned in a research papers published in 2023 and 2024(see Appendix 4). Lessons learned in the WBL framework is that a crucial challenge for students is finding a company willing to share information about SHRM practice with students, so the teacher's support in this process is needed. First, the students get detailed instructions (see Appendix 1) for this task, so they know what is expected in this assignment. The international students are suggested to find a domicile company for two reasons. First, students can choose a company with a contact person (e.g., through student practice). This allows international students to share SHRM practices from various countries, enriching the cross-cultural dimensions of the task. In practice, this approach supports problem-solving, key aspect of WBL challenges by enabling students to communicate with the company language and collect relevant information.

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

These best practices can also be adopted for any other course and higher education institution because COIL and WBL can easily align with many courses. Successful outcomes for implementing COIL and WBL across various courses in different institutions rely on well planning before the semester begins. The role of educators is essential, along with their motivation to engage in a project that fosters intercultural thinking among students. The tools are easy to use, and the communication technologies needed are available and free for all participants. The institution needed to establish good partnerships with other higher education institutions that were willing to collaborate long-term. Good practices established in one course at FOI have, over the years, been successfully transferred to other courses incorporating some form of virtual collaboration. This has led to institutional recognition of the concept. The long-term impact of these efforts is evident through ongoing student collaboration, such as their participation in a research symposium in the United States and reciprocal visits to Croatia. This collaboration further includes presentations of scientific research at the CECIIS student conference, reinforcing international and intercultural learning. Also, WBL enhances the achievement of learning outcomes, and it is planned in the SHRM course curriculum for next years, as well as in NIE course - collaboration is extended to new institution ensuring students unique virtual international experiences.

Promotion of best practice

Those practices are promoted mainly through FOI channels (social media -Facebook, LinkedIn, official web page -Appendix 5). This results in the visibility of those activities at the national and institutional levels. Our University partners also do dissemination activities through promotion channels such as web pages, social media and other channels that impact cross-international visibility (Appendix 5). COIL is also described in the conference paper of teachers in the course HRM as something that affects the scientific community at the international level, as well as NIE virtual team collaboration practices in conference paper (Appendix 4).

Scope and impact

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

The long-term impact of those practices at the course level is the establishment of enduring collaborations, ensuring students gain a valuable cross-cultural experience within the framework of the NIE and SHRM course. This sustained collaboration enhances the courses' global perspective and enriches the student's learning opportunities by integrating international practices, networks, and viewpoints. At the institutional level, those practices contribute significantly to the courses' overall internationalization efforts, which is crucial for achieving and maintaining EFMD (European Foundation for Management Development) accreditation. EFMD strongly emphasizes the course's role in fostering internationalization, and such practices ensure that the courses align with this important accreditation criterion, further enhancing the institution's global reputation and attractiveness. Long-term opportunity is detected in the possibility of expanding those practices to other courses at the Faculty level. This long-term impact is in line with EHEA goals.

6.1 Digitalization

• Outstanding, innovative, excellent practices of online / blended / hybrid learning
• Digital skills development and assessment both general and profession-related, embedded in course design, in teaching and assessment
• Novel digital solutions (tools, frameworks, devices, tasks to enhance efficiency and motivation)

Reasoning: Courses utilize novel digital tools such as MS Teams, Zoom, Google Drive, Dropbox for virtual team collaboration, communication and learning. Students use advanced tools such as Canva to create digital/visual artefacts that are part of the projects or assignments. It is important to emphasize that all course materials are digitized and students collaborate with international students in a completely virtual environment (see evidence in Appendix 6).

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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.)
• International projects/research results embedded into course development and T&L

Reasoning: The V-LEAD-X project uses COIL for virtual internationalization, connecting students from multiple countries to develop intercultural skills and global perspectives without physical mobility. WBL is applied to culturally diverse cases, enhancing critical thinking. Students work on real-world scenarios in virtual teams, using digital tools and communication strategies essential for global work environments. Teaching is adapted on both included sides. Outside of the course context, students are involved in the virtual exchange develop an interest to international research activities that take place in a virtual or physical environment. COIL enables cross-cultural teamwork and experiential learning in negotiation, while WBL bridges academia and industry through HRM case studies. Outcomes include the development of cross-cultural and intercultural competence, communication, English proficiency, digital skills, and problem-solving, which are vital for global citizenship and employability.

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6.3 Inclusion and diversity, universal design

• Inclusive course design, universally designed divers activities to meet special students' needs
• Universally designed teaching material - adjustable for special needs
• Innovative teaching methodology for inclusion and meet diverse student needs
• 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: Inclusion and diversity are supported through extended exam times, accessible e-materials, and physical adjustments via the Office for Students with Disabilities. TRIO McNair Scholars from US, focused on underrepresented and first-generation doctoral students, enhance diversity. Institutional partnerships enable participation in the symposium and CECIIS, fostering global collaboration. International students in courses, CECIIS, and the symposium showcase diversity from Europe and the USA.

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6.4 Sustainability

• Teaching material contains profession related sustainability aspects

Reasoning: In the NIE course, emphasis is placed on cultural topics, ensuring students approach issues from diverse perspectives (see Appendix 1) while collaborating virtually with international peers. Topics align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing on Goal 2 – Zero Hunger, Goal 3 – Good Health and Wellbeing, Goal 4 – Quality Education, Goal 5 – Gender Equality, and Goal 13 – Climate Action. Students used these SDGs as a framework for creating project solutions (see Appendix 3).

3.3 Public contact datas

Name	Email address	Website
Antonela Devčić	acizmesi@foi.unizg.hr	https://www.foi.unizg.hr/en/staff/antonela.cizmesija