Teaching and learning international business through X-Culture challenge

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.