JOINT ERCIS MASTER SEMINARS
The ERCIS organizes each year an international joint master seminar. Have a look at the last joint master seminar in 2011 on the grand challenges of IS in order to get an impression:
Master Seminar on the Grand Challenges of IS in 2011:
In October 2011, the first joint ERCIS student seminar was launched, with the topic "Global Challenges and how IS can contribute". Thirty-one students from 7 countries participated in this seminar and collaborated in international teams on the treatment of specific topics. Participating ERCIS members come from Liechtenstein, Italy, United Kingdom, Russia, Switzerland, Netherlands and Germany.
Seminar Organization
Each group of students is provided with one global challenge (e.g., energy, global warming, or peace. See http://www.millennium-project.org/ for further information on this) and writes a research paper essentially on how IS can contribute to overcoming this challenge. Each group consists of students from at least two different countries. The seminar is accompanied by at least one supervisor per institution, who is responsible for that institution’s students and meets them once a week. Furthermore, the supervisors are responsible for one or more challenges, serving as contact partner for the respective group.
Benefits for students
The students will learn how to organize and collaborate in virtual and international teams. They will gain experience on how to write a scientific paper and how to publish and present the findings. They will reflect on themselves, their group and their work in the process.
Details
At the virtual kick-off, each group was asked to briefly present their idea up to this point (5 Minutes). The online meetings are held via Adobe Connect, provided by the University of Liechtenstein. Besides writing the paper, as a didactic component, the students were asked to write a weekly blog on their collaborative experience. The blog may contain, e.g., expectations prior to virtual meetings as well as experiences after such meetings. The blog serves as a basis for individual lessons learned by the students. The students will present their paper on their respective global challenges to all stakeholders in a virtual conference.
Final Presentation
The final presentation will take place in Liechtenstein. Each group has, in the style of all major conferences, between 20–25 minutes for presentation and 5–10 minutes of discussion. At the end, each group will get detailed feedback on their paper and can discuss their communication experiences with the supervisors.
Future Plans
The seminar is planned to be repeated with a different topic next year. ERCIS members who are interested in joining such an international adventure are invited to contact the ERCIS Team at team@ercis.org.