Old enough to know : consulting children about sex and AIDS education in Africa

This compelling study, comprising of a sample of eight schools in three countries in sub-Saharan Africa – Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania – examines the sources, contents and processes of children´s community-based sexual knowledges and asks how these knowledges interact with AIDS education programmes in school. Old enough to know showcases the possibilities of consulting pupils using engaging, interactive and visual methods including digital still photography, mini-video documentaries, as well as interviews and observations. These innovative methods allow children to speak freely and openly in contexts where talking about sex to adults is a cultural tabo

A German-American Alliance: Simulated Real-Life Cross-Cultural Business Communication Exercise Involving German and American Classrooms

While it is one thing to read about communication and work styles in other countries, experiencing it while also having to meet expected requirements of your own culture is something different altogether. We took two very similar classes, both comprised of working adults in Germany and in the US, and joined the students into a project with a purposely vague deliverable. We wanted them to move beyond a textbook understanding of working interculturally, to experience working with people from another country and to present points via technology with presenters who were delivering information simultaneously from both sides of the Atlantic

Islamic Art, 9/11, and Me

"This invited short piece was written in response to one of the two questions posed by the editors. I selected the following: How do public traumas like 9/11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the rise in income inequality in the U.S., and the current recession affect, or frame, the production of your art works and art criticism? What is the role of individual style or idiosyncrasy in these times and circumstances? What is the role of the art market/fashion/art history versus such public or individual/idiosyncratic motivations and frames?

Professional learning experience through COIL: a faculty perspective.

Collaborative online international learning (COIL) is not reserved for students, but rather can positively impact instructors through the exchange with colleagues from diverse institutions, backgrounds, pedagogies and practices. Instructors thereby gain global understanding which they can impart to their students and use to help facilitate intercultural curricula at their institutions. Creating global network learning environments (GLEs) means intense collaboration and agreement on assignments, deadlines, assessment and learning outcomes, which in turn forces instructors to reevaluate their own values and methods of work. The following paper describes a COIL project involving instructors from four universities in the USA and Europe and the challenges they faced creating a common team culture. While overcoming technological, institutional and cultural differences, these instructors increased their own professional learning experience

Professional learning through collaborative online international learning.

Collaborative online international learning (COIL) presents relevant opportunities for innovation in the teaching-learning process. Global virtual teams (GVTs) activities provide a very broad set of advantages, including the development of soft skills. In addition to enhancing business communication skills, the learning outcomes from these activities indicate an increase in intercultural competencies, virtual teamwork and project management skills. COIL projects are helpful in achieving these goals while offering instructors the opportunity to develop as global educators. Thus, the benefits of COIL are not reserved for students, but rather positively impact instructors through the exchange with colleagues from diverse institutions, backgrounds, pedagogies and practices. Instructors thereby gain global understanding which they can impart to their students and use to help facilitate intercultural curricula at their institutions. Engaging in GVTs projects means intense collaboration and agreement between faculty on assignments, deadlines, assessment and learning outcomes. This, in turn, forces instructors to reevaluate their own values and methods of work. This paper describes several COIL projects that were carried out by instructors, together with their students, from four universities in the USA and Europe over the course of several years. These instructors increased their own professional learning experience by overcoming technological, institutional and cultural differences. It is the hope of this study to encourage faculty and colleagues to engage in and facilitate the use of COIL projects as part of a larger endeavor to internationalize higher education

Employability Through Experiential Delivery of Intercultural Communication Skills Online

International trade, enabled by rapid technological advances, has had a profound effect on the way employees work and communicate in a borderless, virtual environment. Within this context, classroom collaboration through online virtual teams can be an effective strategy to enhance intercultural and employability skills. Research in this area advocates that using digital media to connect students with international classrooms is an easy and efficient way to develop intercultural competence. In this paper we describe and present the results of one such initiative. The authors have designed and implemented virtual and experiential intercultural communications assignments across four countries: Germany, Portugal, Scotland, and the United States. By creating virtual teams and then simulating a real-world team project, we have been able to study how students work with, and react to, teammates from other cultures. We explored students’ views and opinions on the expected outcomes of their international experience in virtual teams and the potential impact of online intercultural learning experiences on their future employability. The findings suggest that collaborative online international learning (COIL) can help to develop the kind of soft skills that employers value and need in the globalized workplace.Crawford, I.; Swartz, S.; Luck, S.; Barbosa, B. (2020). Employability Through Experiential Delivery of Intercultural Communication Skills Online. En 6th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'20). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. (30-05-2020):993-1000. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd20.2020.11185OCS993100030-05-202

What has this done for me? Qualitative student reflections on intercultural experiential learning.

This project incorporates globalisation, technological progress, intercultural and inter-disciplinary experiential learning using real life clients to prepare graduates for the future workplace. Intercultural competence is possessing the necessary attitudes and reflective behavioural skills and using these to behave effectively and appropriately in intercultural situations. This understanding can facilitate success in achieving goals set out for cross-cultural interaction in a business context. Experiential learning through a collaborative project across cultures exposes students to differences in a real-life situation. By stumbling over intercultural blocks and emerging unscathed, students begin to appreciate the ambiguity inherent to multicultural interactions. This paper will present the qualitative findings from a collaborative online international learning project between four countries which took place in autumn 2018. It will assess the impact of the project on the students who participated through their own vivid reflections and testimony, and identify the key challenges and potential solutions associated with these constructs

ADAPTATION OF LEAN METHODOLOGIES FOR HEALTHCARE APPLICATIONS

Lean and Six Sigma quality concepts and terminology have been applied in the manufacturing arena since the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. It has only been in recent years that healthcare administrators have identified these methods as being adaptable to their organizations so that they may realize organizational improvements for continuing success and delighting customers. Unfortunately, this is not an application that is widely taught in typical Industrial Engineering curriculum and therefore there are few educated professionals coming right out of college that are able to apply these principles to healthcare. There are however, many experienced professionals knowledgeable in the basic Lean and Six Sigma principles as applied to manufacturing. This paper presents research conducted by the IUPUI School of Engineering and Technology in partnership with Sister of St. Francis Health Services (SSFHS) which was focused on the development and implementation of a Lean Six Sigma Training Program specifically for healthcare. Through the development of this training program, Purdue faculty have adapted traditional manufacturing Lean methodologies for healthcare specific applications. This paper will present multiple examples of successfully adapted Lean manufacturing training for Healthcare organizations. The authors will then present their findings and recommendations concerning Lean training specifically for Healthcare professionals. They will also present in-depth explanations of hands-on exercises used to demonstrate application of lean tools such as value stream mapping, 5S and visual controls that can be used to effectively train employees in most any healthcare organization

Building intercultural competence through virtual team collaboration across global classrooms.

Instructors in four countries (the USA, Scotland, Germany and Portugal) ran a 6 week cross-cultural virtual teams project. Responses before and after the project were analyzed according to five tendencies of intercultural sensitivity and communication competence. 1) Increased awareness of verbal, non-verbal and para-verbal communication. 2) Increased appreciation of cultural differences. 3) Reduction of ethnocentristic tendencies and stereotypes. 4) Reduction of fears and increase in confidence in dealing with other cultures. 5) Increased awareness of difficulties in dealing with other cultures

The world is flat: an intercultural experiential exercise in business communication.

In 2016, the Fortune 500 earned two-thirds of the US GDP and 37% of the global GDP, with 28 trillion in revenue and 1.5 billion in profits. These companies employ 67 million people in 34 countries. To compete and be successful in these world business, no matter at what level of employment, employees need intercultural communication competency skills. Groups of students in Germany, Scotland, Portugal and the US choose a company, then analyzed its online presence. However, the real leaning outcome of this task was to learn to communicate with people from another culture