IT project and change management
This example shows how interaction between diverse student groups can be facilitated at different stages of the subject.
Context
- Faculty/School: Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
- Number of students: 100
- Year level: Graduate
- Curricular/or co-curricular: Curricular
Description
Multiple practices are utilised in this subject in order to facilitate student interaction throughout the semester:
1. An icebreaker – It is important to show students that managing projects involve managing people and expectations internationally, working with diverse team members, negotiating effectively, and resolving conflicts. The icebreaker is conducted in the first week of classes to showcase cultural diversity in the large class (100+ students). It involves students sharing with the class where they come from and their cultural background. This becomes a fun event where students share experiences as part of peer collaboration.
The instructor then emphasises why it’s important to learn how others think and work across the world – strategies, culture, style, personalities, etc. and how respecting each member in a team working on a project is important and shares some of their own cultural aspects – including good practices and potential blind spots when working with international teams.
2. Discussions – students are encouraged to share their experiences on how best they would handle negotiations, conflicts, ethical dilemmas, and stakeholders. This allows students to talk about styles followed across different cultures and discussions around what is right and ethical as a professional. These discussions are vibrant and allow for students to understand different ways of dealing with matters in project management.
3. Assessment – students are placed in random groups of 3-4 members to do an assessment planning report of approximately 3000-3500 words. The reason for a random group selection is to mimic the work in an organisation where staff not always have the opportunity to choose team members. Student teams have a mixed group from different backgrounds and need to learn how to manage groupwork in an inclusive manner. All assessments in the subject include case studies with an international component that allows to showcase the diversity of perspectives.
How does this program support IoC aims?
These examples show how interaction between diverse student groups can be facilitated at different stages of the subject and how the importance of intercultural understanding and appreciation can be related to the subject content and future work context.
What have students said about this program?
"I clearly remember this point from when you talked about the group assignment. The group members for the project were chosen randomly because diverse teams empirically perform better. You had us work with people we hadn’t met before and reasoned that it would help us understand different ideas and perspectives. This explanation has stuck with me. (I’ve even got to become good friends with my group mates and finally met one of them this semester as she came to Melbourne!)
In addition, It was helpful when you used the group assignment experience to bring out the team behaviour topic. The “slacker” example last semester was very memorable. In summary, in my opinion:
- Map labelling was fun and engaging but did not contribute significantly to explaining the importance of multi-cultural teams.
- Teamworking experiences for the group assignment were relevant and memorable as examples of soft skills.
- The importance of multi-cultural teams is well delivered in association with reasoning for random assignment group formation."