Study Guide

Objectives (course unit)

On completion of this course, successful participants should have developed and demonstrated:

The course content includes knowledge of and competence in the processes and skills involved in participating in a global virtual team
Knowledge of cultural, cross-cultural, and intercultural models and their application to business contexts
A heightened awareness of the complexity of communication skills in business and academic contexts
Professional writing skills for report writing in GVTs
Presentation skills for video conferencing
Collaborative skills
Project management skills
Problem-solving strategies
Academic writing skills for journal articles
Ethnographic research skills
Self- and peer-reflection in academic practice
Enhanced metacognitive communication strategies

Content (course unit)

Content:
The course content include Knowledge about working in global virtual teams, business communication strategy using cultural dimensions as the main framework for analyse. There would be online workshops to give practical input to the project.

Location and time

ZOOM: Workshop links to the ZOOM meetings will be provided later.

Exam schedules

NO exams, but the deliverables are evaluated.

Assessment methods and criteria

Task 1: The punctually submitted minutes and report on your team-building exercise. No specified word count. 5 points
Task 2: The punctually submitted minutes and plan for teamwork organisation. No specified word count. 10 points
Task 3a: The quality of the professional presentation of your strategy to company executives.
30 mins in total. Two teachers are present in each presentation. 20 points
Task 3b: The quality of the professional executive summary in terms of content and language.
1000 words (approx. two pages of A4).15 points


Total 50 points

Assessment scale

0-5

Teaching methods

Virtual exchange, collaborative learning, self-study:
Over a period of seven weeks, students will be working in a “global virtual team” (GVT) on a project. The team works for a consultancy specialising in internationalisation strategy. The brief is to provide a small or medium-sized enterprise that has approached your firm (team) with recommendations for developing a digital corporate communication strategy for a country in which it is currently not operating, but to which it is considering expanding. In the first three weeks of the project, the team will be team building, setting up work processes, brainstorming and clarifying the focus of your project. Your team will then collaborate to develop your strategy. At the end of the project, your team will submit project deliverables in the form of a professional online presentation supported by an executive summary.

Learning materials

The materials for all class sessions will be made available to you in a shared platform PANDA and TUNI Moodle. Class materials will all be posted to Moodle in the section Class input and readings.

The materials for the GVTs Project – including all exchange task instructions – are available in the GVTs Project hub accessible for all GVTs Project participants. The most important files for the project are also available on our TUNI Moodle.

Student workload

Individual research, group work, team building exercises, report writing etc.
5 ECTs including class preparation and webinars, the GVTs Project itself and the project writing assignment.

Content scheduling

The project lasts for 9 weeks. During these weeks, each week has specific tasks to be completed.

Practical training and working life cooperation

Projects developed during the course are real cases.

International connections

The international cooperation is currently run across business schools in Germany, France, Ireland, the Czech Republic and Finland by
management and language teachers. Students from the participating institutions are organised into teams of 4-5 students
that are diverse not only in terms of national and institutional culture but also disciplinary focus, gender, language
proficiency, academic maturity, age difference and work experience.

Assessment criteria - fail (0) (Not in use, Look at the Assessment criteria above)

Students have attained 80% of the VC sessions Workshops) and