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This chapter focuses on the University of Cincinnati (UC), named by the 2016 Princeton Review as one of the “Nation’s Best” institutions for undergraduate education (Robinette, T., 2015, August 4. UC continues streak of recognition as one of nation’s best universities. Retrieved from http://www.uc.edu/news/nr.aspx?id=22016), and their commitment to growing international experiential learning opportunities for its student population in accordance with strategic plans and focused administrative goals. One department identified by UC for strategic growth of international experiential learning opportunities is the Division of Experience-Based Learning and Career Education. An International Experiential Learning Committee (IELC) was formed to help study, crystallize, and move forward these university initiatives.

Over the past years, the educational environment has undergone a revolution, caused mainly by the wide diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs), and the multiscalar implications of the Covid-19 pandemic. This chapter taps into educators’ first-hand experience relating to the adoption of online technologies in an action learning process during the pandemic. Action learning is one of the experiential training methodologies aimed at individual, group, and organizational growth and development through practical, hands-on experience. It is an educational process that facilitates and improves the mechanism and functioning of groups of people who come together to support real challenges or activities, also by learning from direct experience. To this end, the case study of a University Master Course in leadership and change management is examined, based on unstructured interviews and analysis of written documents. The case study represents an emblematic case of adaptation and response to the change imposed by Covid-19 through the promotion of an innovative teaching and learning method. Results show how the adjustments devised to cope with the consequence of teamwork virtualization proved to be synergistic, delivering positive outcomes in terms of participants satisfaction, learning and impact, and producing deeply innovative change management projects. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Lately, multimedia information and communication technologies are acting as catalyzing media that open up increasing opportunities for all with access to such technologies. Digital technology also offers potential to increase access to interactive as well as intercultural experience that develops cross-cultural competencies, while learning content may be further enhanced through collaborative learning in various areas. Kadir Has University in Istanbul undertook a challenging project with the initiative of the College of Staten Island (CSI) − CUNY (City University of New York) and became the international partner of a distant learning course through video conference between 2004 and 2009. The conceptual model behind this project is called the Global Experience Through Technology Project (GETT) initiated by CSI with the goal of using internet technology to bring university students of different cultures together in a virtual classroom.

This chapter outlines potential steps to take in designing active learning experiences based on several theories underlying the learning process. The chapter examines theories of learning and instruction including information processing, schema acquisition, and cognitive load theory. Next follows an explanation of how these theories support problem-centered learning as well as a rationale for the need to help learners develop domain-general, flexible problem-solving skills that will transfer to future needs and contexts. The second half of the chapter focuses on designing active learning experiences based on the selection of real-world problems as the foundation for learning, activating prior knowledge, demonstration of the process or concept, multiple opportunities for practice with relevant scaffolding, and the chance to integrate that knowledge into the learners’ own context based on M. D. Merrill’s (2002) First Principles of Instruction. Examples of assessments, strategies, and activities to foster active, problem-centered learning drawn from the literature are also provided.

This chapter employs a critical, reflexive, and holistic multiple-case study design at a Canadian polytechnic to demonstrate the value of authentic assessment for improving student self-efficacy across several business courses. Assessment strategies, instructional design techniques, coaching skills, and emotional affect are examined through instructor observation and reflection, yielding actionable insights for instructors and future research directions.

This chapter is about the production, diffusion and use of knowledge seen in an economic perspective. Fundamental distinctions between tacit and explicit knowledge and between know-how, know-why, know-what and know-who are related to distinctions between public/private and local/global knowledge. It is argued that the idea of the economy as being knowledge based is misleading and that we have moved into a learning economy where interactive learning is a key to economic performance of firms, regions and nations. This is one reason why a narrow economic perspective is insufficient. When it comes to understand industrial dynamics in the learning economy it is necessary to bring in other disciplines than economics in the analysis.

Even if there are heavy transformations in technology, science, and society taking place in recent years, university courses often still emphasize head-on teaching methods with classic learning tools and resources. At the end of a course, students have then often acquired second hand knowledge, which is often detached from experience-based, constructive learning. The use of new media, the process of working in teams with application of these services, and problem-solving scenarios remain out of students’ grasp. In this contribution, we illustrate a participative and cooperative seminar setting between two German universities that tries to overcome those limitations. We describe the pedagogic design and the practical implementation of the course, list objectives and intentions and describe the organizational structure of the seminar.