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Although many global MBA programs teach intercultural communication, what happens when the method for teaching that concept becomes mostly experiential? To answer that question, the authors took two very similar classes, both composed of working adults, a Business Communications course in Germany and a Managerial Communications course in the United States, and joined the students into a project that spread over several weeks and had a purposely vague deliverable. While the students believed that the policies and presentations were the most important aspect of the project, the actual aim of this exercise was for them to learn about intercultural communication by doing it. Based on weekly debriefs and a final debrief, group presentations, and individual papers, we concluded that students had increased their understanding of intercultural communication far beyond what they would have gained by merely studying intercultural theory.

This article, the first of a two-part series, catalogs teaching innovations from the 2014 Association for Business Communication Annual Conference. These 12 assignments debuted during two "My Favorite Assignment" sessions. Learning experiences included job-seeking skills--résumé writing, writing job applications, sharpening interview skills, interview performance feedback via video, peers, and handheld mirrors and communication tools--creating effective graphs, charts and figures, interactive web-based communication, crafting PowerPoint slides, managing communication anxiety via the web, and corporate social media strategy/tactics. Additional teaching materials--instructions to students, stimulus materials, slides, grading rubrics, frequently asked questions, and sample student projects--are posted on http://businesscommunication.org/assignments.

While it is one thing to read about communication and work styles in other countries, experiencing it and working within it while also having to meet expected requirements of your own culture is something different altogether. Engaging students in team projects across borders using digital communication channels enables them to move beyond a textbook understanding of working interculturally in modern day work environments. This paper provides an overview and methodology of experiential international communication learning exercises involving virtual teams, as well as offers suggestions on how to set up similar international classroom learning experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While it is one thing to read about communication and work styles in other countries, experiencing it while also having to meet expected requirements of your own culture is something different altogether. We took two very similar classes, both comprised of working adults in Germany and in the US, and joined the students into a project with a purposely vague deliverable. We wanted them to move beyond a textbook understanding of working interculturally, to experience working with people from another country and to present points via technology with presenters who were delivering information simultaneously from both sides of the Atlantic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]