How to manage cultural differences in distributed education

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How to manage cultural differences
indistributed education

• Ivica Crnkovic Rikard Land
• Mälardalen University
• Department of Computer Science and Electronics,
• Sweden
• http//www.idt.mdh.se/icc

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Short answer
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A long answer
Ivica Crnkovic

• Experience-based

RikardLand

• Case study
• Distributed Software Development
• The course is running in cooperation with
• University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical
  Engineering and Computing
• Mälardalen University, Department of Computer
  Science And Electronics

MarioZagar
IgorCavrak
Students Presentations
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Distributed Software Development

• This course is about distributed software
  development
• Distributed development
• Software supporting distributed development

Students Presentations
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• Distributed project

Supervisors
IDE
FER
IDE Students
FER Students
Project group
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Why such courses are of interest?

• It makes possible to
• students to meet other cultures
• Teachers learn about different approaches in
  teaching
• It prepare students for international environment
  they well meet in their professional career

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Obstacle and Challenges in performing

• Administration and Organizational Challenges
• Technical performance challenges
• Cultural differences
• teachers - teachers
• students students
• teachers students
• And also
• Teachers administration
• General cultural traditions
• For an successful course you must manage all
  these challenges

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Some general cultural differences(Swedish,
Croatian)

• Take work more relaxed, (it is not only a hard
  work, it is also enjoying)
• Not afraid of conflicts express yourself!
• Talk, be heard, try to get other to listen
• Dont take for granted that was said
• Formal dress at work - formal at dinners
• Family, relatives and neighbors are important
• Discuss everything, but politics (and sport) is
  the best!
• Titles (prof. dr., Mr., Miss) are important
  (expressing) hierarchy important
• Show respect to older people
• No sense for money, time is a feeling

• Divide work from private life, no mix
• Avoid conflicts - aim at consensus
• Listen, somewhat passive and analyze
• Talk about facts and not feelings
• Informal dress at work - formal at dinners
• Individuality important, but teamwork approach
• Informal, or no hierarchy
• Very instantiate feeling for properties (money)
• Time is precise and important

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However I have observed

• Questions to Croatian students Who are those
  people?

Nobody new.

• The same question to Swedish students Who are
  those people?

Nobody new.
The differences are more significant in time than
in space
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Administration and Organizational Challenges

• Different semester periods
• Different way of classifying the work
• FER Amount of lectures amount of labs
• MdH Amount of students work
• Result FER 4 ECTS, MdH 7,5 ECTS (still not
  solved problem ?
• Different planning procedures
• The grading system similar! (FER 2,3,4,5 MdH
  3,4,5)

FER
MdH
Oct Nov Dec Jan
Feb
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Teacher teacher relations

• Two professors (main teachers), two assistants
  (PhD students)
• Important Mutual understanding
• Understanding for administrative and technical
  obstacles
• Teacher- teacher no problem
• Professors - the same background?)
• Rikard (from Sweden) spent six months at FER

MDH
FER
The Key Flexibility and compromise
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Differences in education systems

• Approches
• Sweden (MdH) Project-based, pragmatic,
  goal-oriented
• Croatia (FER) Knowledge-oriented, theoretical
• Swedish students have to demonstrate the work
  they have done
• Croatian students have to demonstrate knowledge
• Teacher-Student relation
• FER the students want to show what the teacher
  wants
• MdH the students want to show that what they
  did was OK (and enough)
• In Croatia the grading is more important
• Larger differences in grades and more generous!
• Our course Project-based!
• The most important Students motivation

No problem in the project-orientation In several
cases students from FER were more enthusiastic
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Student-student relation
The main risk that subgroups do not
communicate Risk for A local group forget about
the other side One group blame another for
problems Misunderstanding in communication Differ
ent expectations
Decreasing the risk forcing the
communications Forcing virtual meetings (using
video conference system) Forcing common
presentations
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But we have experienced also situations like that
The Swedish students have a more strong feeling
for the group The Croatian students demonstrated
higher individual responsibility
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Individuals in the group
Type A I am the best I could do it myself
better
Give me My tasks, I will do them I will return
them back, Thats it.
Teacher
Look at me, I am the best
Usually works to warn that the groupwork is
important
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Individuals in the group
Type C Trailers - the most difficult cases
Works as little as possible Does not care about
the group Focuses on providing the minimum to
pass the course
Experience with many international students it
is more common Currently the largest problem
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Distributed courses - experiences

• Preparation
• An big advantage if the course developers
  (teachers) can meet
• Checking technical availability important
• Performance
• Distributed projects are different than local,
  but not hopelessly more difficult
• Similar principles valid as for local projects
• Differences in cultural background significant
• Important to understand them (and sometimes
  accept them?)

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To conclude - a citation

• Excellent organization and it was very cool
  sharing the time with other cultures. I learned
  that in Sweden is very nice. There people have
  their free time. They have a lunch break, and you
  always know when you can count on them. I think
  that style of life is very good. I would like to
  spent some time in Sweden on my vacation days
  because i think that they know what vacation is.
  (And of course here in Zagreb, this year we
  haven't had any snow and i like to see it).

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More information about the course

• http//www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/cd5610
• http//www.fer.hr/rasip/dsd