The Culture Collab
An exploration of intercultural and interdisciplinary student exchange experiences through the lens of Learn.On 2023
About
About Learn.On
Learn.On is a project run in collaboration between Katholische Hochschule Mainz (Catholic University of Applied Science, Mainz) & La Trobe University.
AIM
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to create a technological solution to address challenges affecting the elderly population.
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to collaborate in a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary environment with speech pathology and physiotherapy students from Germany and Australia.
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KEY LEARNING:
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to become familiar with design thinking as a creative, interactive, and client-centred approach in problem solving.​
(Learn.On: Katholische Hochschule Mainz, personal communication, 2023).
Project Expectations
(Learn.On: Katholische Hochschule Mainz, personal communication, 2023).
1. Asynchronous Component
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8 sessions (of 3.5-4.5hrs) conducted via Zoom in the month leading up to the exchange.
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In these session you meet your peers, learn about the design thinking process, and work together to create a prototype for a telehealth technology in an area of your choice.
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​Approximately 1-2 hours of additional time would need to be dedicated to the project outside of each formal session. ​​
2. Australian students go to Mainz
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In 2023, myself and two speech pathology students headed over to Mainz in late June. Here we participated in a week of activities designed to build intercultural and interdisciplinary connections and further developed our application through testing with patients and health professionals. ​​
3. German students come to Australia
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The exchange is returned, culminating in the closing event where our finished product is presented to an international audience.
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The University - CUAS Mainz
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CUAS Mainz has courses in the fields of social work and social sciences, practical theology, healthcare and nursing.
The university is only small, with approximately 1600 students studying across each of these disciplines (with the majority in nursing and social sciences). The size of the entire university would be comparable to HS3.
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(Katholische Hochschule Mainz: Catholic University of Applied Sciences, n.d.).