Nurturing Future Leaders to Address Global Issues through Challenge-based Online Collaborative Learning

By Tiffany Ko

“Today, humanity faces an acute crisis not only because of the coronavirus, but also because of the lack of trust between humans.” wrote Yuval Noah Harari in the TIME article, “Disease in A World Without A Leader” (Issue March 30 2020). As we are biting our lips to battle the infectious COVID-19 by keeping social distance from our loved ones, Harari reminds us of our desperation for having country leaders who could take collaborative actions against the pandemic as we are all in this together. The insight of Harari tugs at the heartstrings of CoP – ITL. It assures us that if there is another prompt action for the higher education sector to take in response to the global crisis at such level—besides online teaching and assessment, it would be nurturing future leaders to address global issues through virtual global collaboration. We are glad to dedicate this reportage on an international eTournament led by Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) to embracing such goodwill.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) International eTournament
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) International eTournament 2020 was completed in January 2020. It was an online competition curated by HKBU and four partner universities¹ to raise students’ awareness of the blueprint for peace and prosperity of our world adopted by the United Nations Member States since 2015. The eTournament, which spanned over 16 days, attracted 416 participants coming from 38 institutions across 42 home countries/regions. Students studying at a higher education institution at all levels were assigned to multicultural and multidisciplinary virtual teams of four to five (with at most two members from the same institution) by the organiser to complete online missions related to the UNSDGs in two stages.

In Stage 1, the 84 teams were given five days to get to know their teammates using instant messaging platforms, such as WhatsApp, WeChat, Skype or Moodle. They were also asked to familiarise themselves with the gamified learning platform called PaGamO where the major competition would take place in a week’s time. In Stage 2, the teams were given seven days to “expand their territories” in the virtual world by answering questions related to 17 UNSDGs correctly. The UNSDGs include, but are not limited to, no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality. For details, please visit https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs.

To offer participants a more comprehensive understanding of the 17 UNSDGs, each team was required to allocate at least 40 minutes for a synchronous online discussion about an assigned UNSDG using Skype. Following a set of guided questions provided by the organiser, team members exchanged their knowledge about the UNSDG with reference to examples from their home countries/regions. Each team then submitted a discussion summary coupled with proposed actions that could be taken by all members in their respective locations to achieve the UNSDG. They were also required to record their online discussions for team scoring.

On Internationalisation of Teaching and Learning
The organiser remarked that they were pleased to see the significant increase in the number and diversity of participants in this second enactment of the eTournament. In the post-eTournament questionnaire, 79% of the participants reported that they enjoyed the race experience and 85% of them agreed that the experience raised their awareness of the UNSDGs.

From the perspectives of internationalisation, we are delighted to see how the gamified collaborative learning experience that epitomised the ethos of the organiser in global citizenship, cross-cultural teamwork and virtual exchange has yielded increasing recognition from teachers and students worldwide. It is believed that with more teaching and learning initiatives like this, we can make our world a safer place by nurturing future leaders who can improve the well-being of the globe through the genuine sharing of information, knowledge, and resources.

Acknowledgments
Special thanks go to the HKBU front of the CCGame Project Team for sharing the valuable information and insights into the UNSDG International eTournament. We hope we have done justice to the wisdom of the Team in the internationalisation of teaching and learning.

¹ In collaboration with The City University of Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Curtin University (Australia), the project team of “Developing Multidisciplinary and Multicultural Competences through Gamification and Challenge-based Collaborative learning” (the “CCGame Project” in short) led by Hong Kong Baptist University and funded by the University Grants Committee (UGC) of Hong Kong has organised the eTournament since 2019 to promote the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) together with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Hong Kong Association.