Enriching IB Course Design with Active Learning

Abstract

Student engagement is most important for effective learning. While this is true for all learning settings, it is particularly true in teaching complex and inter-disciplinary subjects, such as international business. Active learning is a very important component of engagement and so active learning usually is a critical component in the international business (IB) curricula. Active learning tools can also greatly help internalize the concepts and knowledge being taught. Such internalization is an important part of building a global mind-set making many aspects of IB analysis and decision making instinctual – a very useful ability in complex and rapidly changing business situations. Consequently, it is imperative that we include active learning tools and pedagogies in IB course designs. Effective IB education should enable students to make decisions by analyzing and synthesizing information from multiple disciplines and, at the same time, accounting for the cross-cultural and cross-national differences. Neither of these two key abilities can be achieved through a single typical college class; rather, the development of business analytical skills and the global mind-set are likely to be the cumulative effects of the IB and non-IB disciplinary courses offered within the IB program (Aggarwal and Goodell 2015). An IB program needs to encompass a variety of courses and learning styles and components that can reinforce and build upon each other, and subsequently advance students along an effective path toward the desired outcome of student understanding and an ability for multidisciplinary and integrated decision making in IB settings. To develop students’ business analytical skills, initial IB courses usually focus on exercises that facilitate the learning and application of content related to a single business function (such as finance and marketing) with the emphasis on the difference between decisions within the domestic versus international scale. Higher-level courses tend to tap into the integration of business functions and the development of overall global management strategy. To develop students’ global mind-set, IB courses commonly also focus