Bringing the World to the Classroom

The COVID-19 pandemic has reached into every corner of our lives – including the classroom. At the same time, opportunities to study abroad, such as the Heriot-Watt Go Global programme, have long been a cornerstone of student development that promises to make a true global citizen of those who wish to expand their career horizons.

Studying, living and interacting with peers from different cultures is well-regarded by employers who operate in international arenas. Newly emerging graduates who can work efficiently and sensitively across borders are more likely to be snapped up for employment.

As the pandemic has brought global travel to a grinding halt over the past months, how study abroad experiences can be safely undertaken needs to be reconsidered – at least in the short-term.

Opportunities to study abroad will return as the severity of the pandemic’s initial wave fades with time. Until then, universities have a creative window to help develop an international mindset in their students – without ever leaving the classroom.

One possible response is a focus on projects which encourage dynamic and culturally intuitive interaction between students from around the world. The Global Game Challenge – developed by academics based in the UAE, the USA, Spain and the UK – was created with this aim in mind.

The Global Game Challenge

As part of the challenge, groups of selected students at partner universities are tasked with designing an engaging board game that appeals to the local requirements and interests of markets in the country of their partner teams. Students must consider the language used, cultural preferences and target audiences for their board game.

An ongoing research collaboration between academics from Heriot-Watt University Dubai Campus, De Montfort University (UK), Universitat Jaume I (Spain) and San Diego State University (USA) reported on the initial roll-out of the Global Game Challenge – the response from students was remarkable. Some developed an educational board game to promote English language learning while others focused on a game that helped elderly members of the community to engage in local activities.

“We found better ways of working with each other and were able to improve our skills of intercultural communication,” said a student from San Diego State University.

Entering the international marketplace

Critical to the core lesson of the project, students are required to develop a market entry strategy to accompany the boardgame. Directly applicable to real-world businesses, students must consider and plan distribution, delivery methods, the economy of scale, operating in a foreign currency, gaining global customers and minimizing risks. Choosing the right strategy is the key to succeeding in international markets.

To fine-tune their product, students received feedback from their foreign partner team, creating space for reflection on how the board game and the market entry strategy could be strengthened. In effect, this allowed students to apply theory learned on their courses to practice in a real-world business simulation.

Another student from San Diego State University commented, “As a result of the Global Game Challenge project, I feel more confident with my understanding of working with foreign markets than I did walking into this class.”

The impact of the project on the students was clear: “I understood that in order to deal with an international market, it is fundamental to have a product which can be adjusted in relation to the cultural needs of the country taken into account.”

The way forward

Our research into the effectiveness of the Global Game Challenge suggested that such projects can positively enhance students’ ability to work across cultures and develop their ability to recognize and evaluate international business opportunities.

Perhaps most importantly, it impacted positively on students’ attitude towards engaging in international entrepreneurship.

Tomorrow’s graduates, confident and capable of working across multiple cultures and international boundaries will be key to the global economic recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic. Education providers should continue to innovate to effectively prepare graduates to join the recovery, the Global Game Challenge represents one approach which can contribute to achieving this.