HWR Berlin & University of Central Florida
Students involved: 44 from Berlin & 13 from the US
Professors involved: Prof. Dr. Birgit Felden & Kirsten Kohlhaw (HWR Berlin) / Dr. Renata Kolodziej-Smith & Dr. Michelle Dusseau (University of Central Florida)
Synchronous units: 1) 30.10.2023 17:00-19:00 Berlin-time: Get to know each other/introduction to the Miro board/group creation and organization
2) 20.11.2023 17:00-19:00 Berlin-time: Groups present their results in breakout rooms in a world café format
Asynchronous units: Between the two sessions (30.10.2023-20.11.2023): self-organized mixed working groups prepare a presentation about a chosen topic. Suggestion for students: meet twice in your group for 1-2 hours to discuss the content (1) and to prepare the poster (2)
Tools used: Miro Board & Zoom
The COIL project was built into the 1st semester course “Studying Entrpreneurship”. The aim of the course is to provide an interesting and stimulating initial insight into the degree programme. Alongside introducing the content covered in the degree programme, the course also introduces the HWR Berlin’s network of international partner universities and the diverse international mobility opportunities they offer.
The aim of the COIL project is for students to explore intercultural differences in Corporate Culture, Innovation Management, E-Commerce, Corporate Communications and PR in German and U.S. settings.
The pedagogical design includes icebreakers, collaboration in mixed groups, development of presentation skills, and reflection exercises at the end of the collaboration.
Experiences and recommendations: Show flexibility with regards to the timings (several courses held at different universities at different times is a challenge).
Don’t set your academic standards too high, planning and communicating requires a lot of effort and is not comparable to a domestic course (you can’t have everything, i.e. intercultural competencies and course-content competencies at the same level as a regular non-COIL course).