(1568) LEARNING NEGOTIATIONS SKILLS ON-LINE BY A CASE-BASED METHODOLOGY THROUGH CO-CONSTRUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE BETWEEN INDUSTRY AND ACADEMY

摘要

University e-learning education aims to support lifelong learning for practitioners in the manufacturing industry and strengthen their competence development integrated in work practice. However, traditional higher education courses are usually designed for individuals on campus and do not support work practitioners working full time. Hence, they are not usually designed for time independence, flexibility or collaborative learning. Traditionally, campus courses do not include practitioners’ knowledge from their work experiences as a valuable source to be negotiated in knowledge construction with other peers and teachers. However, to integrate practitioners’ workplace experiences, as a valuable knowledge source, is a demanding process when designing e-learning courses that includes pedagogical strategies, case-based methodologies and choices of learning technologies. The aim of this study was to explore how engineering practitioners and research teachers mutually co-construct knowledge in a case-based methodology, specifically within the subject Negotiation Skills. Studies took part within a longitudinal and joint industry-university competence development project between a network of manufacturing industries and one university in the Western part of Sweden. The courses comprise 2.5 European Credits (ECTS) and include cases as a Harvard Case designed with a predefined role-play negotiation game, video production and essay. The case methodology was developing during three design cycles (2014-2015), as a part of the whole course design inspired by an Action Design Research (ADR) approach. Analysis from three focus group session discussions from the three courses including 34 practitioners, and through observations of web-conferencing show that that practitioners’strengthened their knowledge of handling negotiations within work practice. There were problems of using web-conferencing, producing own videos and fulfil written essays stringently, however these problems decreased throughout the three design cycles of the course, due to explicated instructions and a higher practitioner involvement. Generally, results show that practitioners; 1) strengthened their knowledge on how cultural differences affected negotiations, 2) improved their decision making skills in problematic business situations, and 3) developed personal skills on how to visualize conflict situations through reflections on their own actions and communications within practical work situations. The e-learning technology failures also decreased.