Thinking Digital in Joint Programmes

- WEEK 4 - Wednesday 30 November 2022 16:00-17:30 -

(Re)design face-to-face courses in a digital way

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AN ONLINE INTERCULTURAL

TRAINING EXPERIENCE

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Designing and delivering an online intercultural training programme in the context of an induction week for a group of international students

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Judith Ellison & Ghislaine Tamisier (AgroParisTech)

A few details re context:

• Bioceb – a new Erasmus Mundus Masters programme
• 5 European Higher Education Institutions based in 4 different countries:

Université de Reims Champagne-Ardennes & AgroParisTech (part of Université Paris-Saclay), FRANCE

TalTech (Tallinn University of Technology), ESTONIA

ULiège, (Université de Liège), BELGIUM

Aalto University, FINLAND

• 25 students, 15 nationalities (from Colombia, China, Ethiopia, France, Greece, India, Iran, Italy, Mexico, Pakistan, Spain, Serbia, United States, Yemen)

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Objectives of this IC training:

• Break the ice (i.e. help students to get to know each other)
• Create a “safe space” to exchange/discuss etc.
• Help students adjust to living far from “home”, working together across cultures, understanding & adapting to French culture & French academic systems etc.
• Enable students to create their own identity as a group and build cohesion

Challenges due to Covid:

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• Practical considerations: launching of the programme, very few students in Reims, others arriving at different times, impossibility of all being together physically and people in very different time zones!

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• Atmosphere/climate of uncertainty and in some cases anxiety etc.

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What we did/ how we overcame difficulties:

• Online ice-breaking activity with all the students – each student was asked to introduce themselves using two artefacts or photos to share something about their home town/country and also their personality.
• Two “speed meeting” sessions (according to different time zones), pairing and mixing the students up in break-out rooms so they had to interact with different new fellow students for 10 minutes, 8 minutes, 7 minutes, 6 minutes etc., each time trying to identify at least 3 things they had in common, and sharing some of their findings at the end of the session.
• A series of short online workshops (1.5 hrs) at a time when all the students could connect! (Other longer online workshops were programmed later during the rest of the semester once all the students had arrived in Reims.)

How it went/what we observed:

• Students played the game & quickly got to know each other and forge friendships.

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• They also felt comfortable to reach out and contact us regarding intercultural questions (e.g. if they had difficulty decoding unfamiliar behaviours etc.) and also sometimes for interpersonal or personal reasons.

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• When we finally met some of the students physically (in Paris in their 2^nd semester and others in their 3^rd semester), both students and teachers had the impression we’d already met physically together during the earlier workshops!

Take-aways from this online training experience:

• It is possible to create a good atmosphere and help students integrate a group even when working remotely => We have since introduced the online ice-breaking activity with another cohort of international students before their arrival in France!
• Some shy or more reserved students are sometimes more comfortable to open up online and really appreciate the 1-1 or small group discussions possible in break-out rooms.
• The online tools make it very quick & easy for the facilitators to mix the students up.
• Using tools such as Wooclap or Mentimeter etc. make it easier for all students to participate, with the possibility of doing so anonymously => We now often use these tools to bring in variety and involve students even in face-to-face workshops.
• Although some of our favourite games and activities are unsuitable for online training, we have often found alternatives & have learnt to switch quickly & even enjoy online formats!

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