More information
Description
The E-CBA project aims to build up a didactically enhanced reusable teaching and learning material - joint electronic workbook of cross border assignments (CBA) and real-life case studies from Estonian and Icelandic companies. The project addresses teaching economics to engineering students on bachelor level in the universities of applied sciences.
Today there is an increasing need for engineers with high-level economic thinking and entrepreneurial mindset, yet there is no such comprehensive real-life material available that covers the most essential fields of economics, focusing on engineering students. CBAs link education and business over national borders in a learning environment and raise the quality of education, making teaching assignments more practical and helping students to become more competitive for globalized labour market.
Study exchanges will pilot the developed CBAs to ensure the quality of the project result and help students to develop a more practice-oriented and entrepreneurial attitude towards studies and work-life, improve teamwork and communication skills, both in face-to-face and virtual teams.
Summary of project results
The E-CBA project aim was to build up a didactically enhanced reusable teaching and learning material - joint electronic workbook of cross border assignments (CBA) and real-life case studies from Estonian and Icelandic companies. The project addressed teaching economics to engineering students on bachelor level in the universities of applied sciences. Today there is an increasing need for engineers with high-level economic thinking and entrepreneurial mindset, yet there is no such comprehensive real-life material available that covers the most essential fields of economics, focusing on engineering students. CBAs link education and business over national borders in a learning environment and raise the quality of education, making teaching assignments more practical and helping students to become more competitive for globalized labour market. Study exchanges piloted the developed CBAs to ensure the quality of the project result and help students to develop a more practice-oriented and entrepreneurial attitude towards studies and work-life, improved teamwork and communication skills, both in face-to-face and virtual teams.
In the E-CBA project the international team of TTK University of Applied Sciences and University of Akureyri (UNAK) built up a didactically enhanced reusable teaching and learning material – joint electronic workbook of cross border assignments (CBA) and real-life case studies from Estonian and Icelandic companies for teaching economics to engineering students on bachelor level. The workbook is an open source. Reproducible workbook consists of over 40 cross border assignments (CBAs) from Estonian and Icelandic companies as well as different real-life cases (problems to solve) for students from real companies. The workbook is in English and done internationally because the labour market is more international every day and good knowledge as well as experience in an international level is expected from the students.
An electronic workbook of more than 40 cases (planned was 20 per partner) were established on time and 2 study weeks were held to test the cases. Altogether 53 students were participating in two study weeks.
Reproducible electronic workbook that consists of cross border assignments (CBAs) from Estonian and Icelandic companies as well as different real-life cases (problems to solve) for students from real companies in the fields of engineering was produced during the project period. It locates in the TTKs server and can be reached from the address: https://sites.google.com/tktk.ee/e-cba . It consists of 48 cases from 20 different companies. The workbook is in English. Depending on the case and the company, the approximate length of one case is around 5-10 pages. To make it easier to find the right case the cases are divided by companies, by subject, also by the field of the speciality of the company. There is also information about writing the cases, meant for the lecturers, also information for the companies for further cooperation on the website.
Summary of bilateral results
Both partners belong also to the same networks of HEIs, and are working closely with different projects. Also, have tight relationships between the members. In relation to the current project, the partners have already indicated the interest to continue the cooperation as well. After the project, implementors are planning to spread the information about the results of the project as much as possible to make sure all the interested parties have the availability to use the materials, and also are looking for additional funding possibilities to continue development of the workbook.