BUILDING BRIDGES BETWEEN CULTURES – AN EXPERIMENT WITH COLLABRATIVE ONLINE INTERNATIONAL LEARNING (COIL)

Abstract

In today’s internationalized business world professionals are increasingly using technology to work across different cultures, locations, and time zones. Success in such multi-cultural environment depends largely on the team members’ cultural awareness and competence that could ensure smooth interaction and efficient contributions of all persons involved. To prepare future professionals for such communication and work process, the authors of this paper designed and implemented a joint project between 4^th year students studying for a degree in International Economic Relations at the University of Economics in Varna, Bulgaria, and 1^st year students from the University of Costa Rica (UCR) from the Business Administration major. The paper describes the process of collaboration within the project teams, the outcomes and the lessons learned from this educational experiment.