Abstract:

The international roots of the activities developed and presented here are found in the cooperation between the Nottingham Trent University (NTU) in the UK and the Faculty of Economics at the University of Valencia (UV) in Spain. NTU organize their “Oath Project” since 2014, while the UV started up with their “FdE Ethics” in 2016. Both of them are teaching innovation initiatives that aim to raise awareness on ethical values, in general, and business ethics, in particular.

In 2015, NTU put forward a proposal to extend scope of the project which resulted in NTU and the University of Valencia having a common focus for the duration of the OATH project during 2016/17 academic year. Whilst each institution had their own customised aspects of the project, they both brought together some common aspects providing nuances and cultural insights between the Northern and Southern European perspectives. Students shared learning and engaged via a series of online activities culminating in an exchange in perspectives and share a collaboratively developed Oath and individual pledges at the end of the event. This 2016-2017 academic project that flowed from the NTU initiative delivered a great deal of motivation for the engagement of UV students in the “FdE Ethic” project, which has become a three-years strategic plan to introduce business ethics in the Faculty of Economics.

In this paper, the international teaching innovation cooperation is described through its design, implementation and results, comparing differences between NTU and UV teaching methodologies. Also, the quality of the innovation is assessed and compared from both professors and students point of view, using qualitative techniques. Final remarks will highlight the implication of the projects regarding the strategies in both institutions.

Keywords:

Business Ethic, Active Learning, Cooperative Learning, Learning by Doing, Technology, Teaching Innovation.