Title: Teaching and learning international business through X-Culture challenge

Authors: Bindu J. Vyas; Barry H. Williams

Addresses: King's College, 133 North River Street, Wilkes-barre, PA 18711, PA, USA ' King's College, 133 North River Street, Wilkes-barre, PA 18711, PA, USA

Abstract: Students learn the best when they are put in to a situation and made to be part of the process. The challenges and problems of undertaking an experiential project involving global virtual teams (GVTs) are student motivation, class size and integration of X-Culture into course activities, projects and lectures. Situational challenges include interpersonal communication, cross-cultural differences, language barriers, technological issues, distance and training, time zone differences, trust issues. The data reveals that initially students are not motivated to participate in the X-Culture project and have apprehension about working in a virtual environment and its effect on their performance in class but at the end the vast majority of students perceive that the use of virtual teams as a teaching tool facilitates cultural understanding and IB-relevant learning. This research suggests that online experiential exercises can be an effective approach in teaching IB, in developing cross cultural and virtual collaboration skills and attaining assessment of learning goals.

Keywords: global virtual teams; GVTs; international business; experiential learning; X-Culture challenge; USA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTCS.2017.086670

International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies, 2017 Vol.8 No.2/3, pp.91 - 101

Received: 11 Nov 2016
Accepted: 03 Dec 2016
Published online: 18 Sep 2017 *

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