top of page
Nancy Ruther, EdD

Mystery Shoppers, Virtual Museums, and Mathematical Enigmas: Paris-Saclay's Semester in Review

Spring 2022 CLICK Projects with Université de Paris-Saclay


We have a lot to celebrate as we finish another successful semester of CLICK projects with our partners at Paris-Saclay in France and teaching partners in Florida, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. We’re excited to share this semester’s amazing projects brought to life by the hard work and collaboration of 17 teachers and 175 students. We hope you enjoy the snapshots of each project along with teacher and student quotes from our assessment surveys.

_________________________________________________________________________


The CLICK Museum of the Future project was created by faculty at Hillsborough Community College, Florida and IUT de Cachan, France. Merging content areas in history, culture, communication, and physics, instructors led student teams through designing and curating virtual museums to display their visions of the future. Students addressed themes of climate change, the pros and cons of technological advancements, and renewable energy solutions. Please visit the virtual museums by clicking through to an earlier blog post!


Teacher feedback:


“The fact that you keep the project completion and presentation within the course team and not competing against other teams is a positive approach. At the end, facilitators and students may critique and celebrate their own accomplishments without being compared to others.”


Student feedback:


“The world is becoming more interconnected, and it was a pleasure talking to people from different countries.”


“This experience helped me to be able to manage my time in order to accommodate others in conflicting schedules and time zones.”


“I enjoy working with people from different countries and learning about different cultures.”


“[Participating in Virtual Exchange classes] helped me be more considerate of other people’s time and feelings.”


“I made some really cool friends.”

_________________________________________________________________________


The Red, White, and Blue Enigmas project was created by faculty from IUT de Cachan, France and Northern Essex Community College, Massachusetts. Combining disciplines in English, mathematics, and electronics students were presented with a series of math-related enigmas, or riddles, and tasked with collaborative problem solving based on each others’ expertise in mathematics, electrical engineering, English, history, and culture.


Teacher Feedback:


“Thanks to the project, students were able to improve their communication and problem-solving skills, but they also learned more about an important figure of both American and French history!”


Student feedback:


“This project reinforced the importance of teamwork.”


“It was cool to collaborate with American students. For me (student) exchanges are important.”


“It confirmed my wish to study in another country.”


“This project made me want to work with other people from other countries, it was very interesting.”

_________________________________________________________________________


The ElectroPhysio project was created by English and communications faculty from IUT de Cachan, France and natural sciences faculty from Northern Essex Community College, Massachusetts. In international teams, students researched and showcased the function of electrophysiological sensors used in modern health care systems in countries around the world, and created video presentations based on their findings.



Teacher Feedback:


“My US students found it amazing that being multi-lingual is seen as an asset for students in France. Most of the French partners can communicate in at least three languages and some up to 4 or 5 languages.”


“CLICKing is an innovative method our students can participate in to build cross-cultural collaborative skills, as well as apply concepts to work place, local and international interests. This can happen without the cost of travel, and opens up the possibility to meet others in differing cultures to share ideas and experiences.”


“It was a great opportunity to offer the CLICK course to all my students and to a population of students that does not typically get to participate in exchange programmes. All my CLICK participating students were struggling with course content, but they have all stayed in the course to the very end. I am so proud of them.”


Student Feedback:


“Meeting new people across the globe that I will now forever be friends with and collaborating with them... I'm also hoping that I can practice speaking French with them and help them brush up on their English. I know a little bit of French and I could recognize a few words, but I have no one to practice with. When I travel, I can visit them and they can show me around town and expose me to their culture.”


“My greatest reward will have been to have been able to work on a project with a foreign person. I was really glad to have been selected to participate in this project.”


“I definitely recommend it, it’s such an easy way to connect with those in a different country. The time zone itself was challenging, but it was overall fun.”


“I would say, it has made me look forward to studying abroad one day in another country. I like to learn different languages and cultural customs, and for that reason [I'd] like to work and/or study abroad.”


“The CLICK project really made me want to pursue my studies abroad, discover new cultures and improve my English or learn another language.”

_________________________________________________________________________

Reading Our Way To Sustainability was another collaboration between Paris Saclay and Northern Essex by faculty in international procurement and American literature. Inspired by the poetry and prose of American authors, student teams discussed 21st century sustainable trading models and presented their work in a Pecha Kucha format.


Teacher Feedback:


“[It's a great] opportunity for those who don't travel outside [of school time] due to financial constraints.”

_________________________________________________________________________

A Mystery of Shopping, emerged as a marketing and business project, created by collaboration of faculty from IUT de Sceaux, France and Northern Essex Community College, Massachusetts. With this project, student teams documented local shopping experiences and researched the purpose of measuring customer service experiences. After comparing cross-cultural customer service metrics, and researching their team’s assigned brand, student teams developed a mystery shopping survey adapted to each set of cultural norms and consumer behavior.

_________________________________________________________________________


Triple CLICK

This year we had not one, but two repeating projects celebrating their third iterations. Spring 2022 marked three years of collaboration for these two teaching teams from Paris-Saclay and community colleges in Connecticut.


Peer-to-Peer International is a longtime collaboration between business and marketing faculty at Paris Saclay in France and Housatonic Community College in Connecticut. The project engages students in the world of global finance and challenges students to design and present on a financial institution that could best serve global, cross-cultural college students.


Impact of National Cultures in Web Design is another repeating CLICK project from business and marketing partners as IUT de Sceaux, Université de Paris Saclay, France and Northwestern Connecticut Community College. In international teams, students analyzed various websites for consumer products and identified best practices, made comparisons between websites, and offered recommendations for improvement and presented their findings in a final presentation.


Grace East

@lingueast

6/14/22

1 view0 comments

Comments


bottom of page