ECIU University Days 2022 was the first on-site post-pandemic cycle of events of ECIU University where students and the community could learn more about ECIU University activities. The participants could try challenge-based learning (CBL) in a workshop and listen to the experiences of working in international teams.
Today’s world operates globally: we study, work and strive for a common result in international teams.
“While working in an international team, I learned a lot of new things beyond work. I got to know other cultures, and languages and learned how to organise time even better because most of my colleagues work in different parts of the world,” says Laura Binish a representative of the IT company Centric IT Solutions Lithuania.
In ECIU University Days 2022 she talked about the challenges the international teams are facing and how to manage them. Furthermore, Laura highlighted how to tackle and address emerging issues.
KTU students shared their experience in solving ECIU University challenges in international teams.
“Our team was formed from students in the same field of studies. In my opinion, it would be better to form a team with different backgrounds in order to solve various problems from different angles through different scientific disciplines. That was our hardest challenge. However, we found a solution! I am happy to have an unbeatable experience,” said Nicolas Drouby.
Nicolas’s team have come up with an idea for an application that would allow organising used cooking oil collection and reduce pollution in such a way.
“We plan to develop an app to properly organise and plan oil collection. The purpose of the application will be to link oil consumers in restaurants and households from one side of Lithuania and the oil recycling company from the other. The application will also include point system rewards to encourage people to use our platform and give oil to be recycled,” says Nicolas, a KTU student at MSc Industrial Engineering and Management who was solving an ECIU University challenge “Efficient management of resources in Kaunas city”.
KTU graduate Giriprakash Das Roshini revealed another subtlety of teamwork that helped her determine her personality type: “At the beginning, the team members all seemed so timid, so I was the one who offered to break the ice, encouraged to get acquainted and unconsciously, I became a team leader who accompanied the team in this role all the way. Working in a team helped to reveal my personality, I realised that I could lead.”
One of the activities offered by ECIU University is solving challenges using the challenge-based learning method. Challenges are analysed and solutions are proposed by international teams of students from different fields of study.
“Challenge-based learning opens up new opportunities to bring real-life examples into the learning process. This contributes to student motivation. They learn not only to solve real challenges in practice but also to reflect on their activities, learn from their mistakes, and improve their learning process”, says Jurgita Barynienė.
“It is very important that students should think about how their solutions will contribute to society well-being. Moreover, this approach changes students mindset because they have to take responsibility for the learning process and for the decisions they make in a global and local context”, says Asta Daunorienė.
According to Barynienė and Daunorienė, today’s learning goes beyond the boundaries of the university, and the external environment becomes a resource for learning, which we need to exploit.
The second ECIU University Days event allowed students to meet and try the method of solving challenges first-hand. This unique learning method allows learners to gain practical problem solving and teamwork skills. During the workshops, international student teams solved a challenge titled Student Voice. Participants came up with two solutions to the problem related to the student’s activity and participation in events. One team proposed to create an app that allows students to find and register for events easily. Another team suggested a website that includes convenient, gamified tools to collect students’ feedback and opinions.
