Abstract:

Collaborative work in intercultural teams is considered a key competence for the future labor market. With the ongoing digitalization, the privilege of mobility is gradually being broken down. In addition to classical physical mobility, virtual mobility plays an increasingly important role with regard to higher education and later professional careers. In contrast to the internationalization of higher education institutions and the simultaneous entry of higher education into the home offices of all stakeholders, the virtual exchange experience is becoming increasingly attractive as a cheaper and more flexible substitute for physical exchange. Especially the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 underlines the importance of being able to offer virtual exchange alternatives in cases of limited physical mobility.
Despite the constant development of information and communication technologies, higher education is still only at the beginning of this reality. Concrete recommendations for the design of virtual mobility settings are still rare, especially with regard to international collaborative group work based on cases. In the form of an action research report, this paper analyzes how the design of case elements affects the positive perception of virtual mobility and presents potential indicators for successful international collaborative group work.
The results show that a wide range of didactic, technical and social design elements of cases have a positive influence on the perception of virtual mobility. It is crucial to support and facilitate interactions among the participants through the design of the case. An identified key indicator for successful collaborative international group work is the fulfillment of the participants' and stakeholders' individual expectations. These results provide concrete recommendations for the design of cases for virtual collaborative international group work to increase the positive perception of virtual mobility and thus offer added value for both participants and teachers.
These explorative results were developed in a first action research approach according to the principle of the "teacher as a researcher" and are limited in their generalizability. Therefore these results should be quantitatively validated in a broader, independent context within future follow-up research.

Keywords:

Virtual Mobility, Collaboration, International, Group Work, Case Design, Action Research Report.