Experiential learning and international collaboration through virtual environment to potentiate professional skills in Higher Education students

Abstract

The competitive and dynamic job market in which we live requires competency-based learning. Higher education must provide to students an integrated, interdisciplinary and intercultural learning that allows them to solve problems, work in teams, communicate effectively, develop critical thinking and act with emotional intelligence. This article describes an experiential learning activity, developed during the first semester of 2018, between a group of students from the Universidad Tecnológica Centroamericana from Honduras and another from the Universidad Europea de Madrid, Spain. The students did a collaborative work -interacting in a virtual classroom and using tools such as WhatsApp and email- to elaborate a marketing and strategic communication plan for the Honduran NGO ACOES. The project involved students from Denmark, Germany, Honduras, Venezuela, Peru, Spain, The Netherlands, Guadalupe, France and Mexico enrolled in Administration, Marketing, Graphic Design and Audiovisual and Advertising Communication Degrees. The results of the LPA (Laureate Professional Assessment), a measurement of professional skills, applied in the pre and post stage of the project, suggest that experiential learning can contribute significantly to the development of the professional skills most valued by employers, which allows students to be better prepared to face life and work.