Virtual Teamwork in Events Management/ Hotel Management

Dr. Samiha Chemli:

"The students from both universities had been directed to collaborate on an activity at the end of the lecture. The students from Korea have been in a special auditorium for blended lectures, and the students at the University of Deusto have been joining from a computer room at the campus of San Sebastian. Another group has been invited from the campus of Bilbao, and they have been in a special classroom made for blended lectures.

Over 100 students participated in this special blended lecture, which will be organized again in future semesters with similar or slightly different formats. The session lasted for 2 hours and was accompanied by an assignment that students from the University Deusto were required to submit within a week following the lecture (graded activity), besides they were provided with a short video and a document explaining the activity with different links to readings for the pre-session and submission guidelines. Besides, Korean students were divided into round tables and were asked to prepare at least 1 to 2 questions for the Q&A session. The main aim was to provide students from both universities the chance to interact internationally and link both fields together. Due to the lack of time during the session, the interaction was only during the Q&A session.

The activity has been mainly related to Events Organisation (the main course of the Spanish Students from the University of Deusto) and Branding and Sustainability of Hotels (as part of the course of the Korean and international students from the University of Jeonju). Moreover, this was an opportunity to connect with peers and discuss related-to-fields issues from different perspectives, as during the Q&A both professors were involved in the discussion. The session received immediate positive feedback from the students and appeared to be shorter than what it should be. However, there were a few challenges that were recognized. Firstly, the time difference between Spain and Korea made it difficult to align the suitable hours for both countries. This resulted in sessions that were either too early for Spain or too late for Korea. Secondly, some students were hesitant to interact online, and those who were attending in person seemed a bit shy to be the sole speakers. As a result, there are plans for future sessions to have students connect on an online platform before the session, allowing them to get to know each other beforehand."