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Is there still a foreign country today?

The world is getting closer and closer together. Thanks to the Internet and telephone, friends and family are always with us. No matter whether they live just a few streets away or many thousands of kilometers away. Everything is just a few clicks away, there is no longer any real foreign country. And university life is also changing; eLearning formats are already common practice at many universities and are constantly being developed further. Dr. Jan vom Brocke is a professor at the University of Liechtenstein and has developed an online course in which students from different universities and different countries can work with each other. For this he was awarded the AIS Award for Innovation in Teaching in December 2013.

UNIGLOBALE: You studied business informatics at the University of Münster. Why did you choose this course of study?

JvB: It was already clear back then that modern information and communication technologies would change the world. Participating in these changes was a great incentive. The application focus was particularly important to me, which is why I was so interested in business informatics, as it focuses on aspects of the use of information and communication technology in business and society. Back then, no one could have imagined how dramatically Google, Facebook and Twitter would one day change the world. Today we are experiencing an even more exciting time in IT and it is fascinating to be able to make a contribution here with our chair team. It is particularly nice that we have such small student groups in Liechtenstein in which we work on specific business innovations. For me it is very motivating to see what great ideas our students have and what great careers they have while studying.

UNIGLOBALE: How would you describe your career?

JvB: Studying was definitely the right choice for me. But it wasn't just the subject, there were also many people who inspired me about science, especially my academic teacher Prof. Dr. Heinz Lothar Grob. He employed me as a student assistant early on and we worked intensively together on eLearning projects. This was followed by my doctorate and habilitation in Münster, without me having planned this separately. It was probably the many exciting projects and the inspiring atmosphere at the European Research Center for Information Systems (ERCIS) in Münster that inspired me. From there I also went abroad a few times, such as at University College Dublin in Ireland, at the University of Tartu in Estonia and at the University of Warwick in the UK, as well as teaching positions at other German universities, such as Saarland University. Experiencing different university contexts certainly enriched me greatly and also shaped what we can implement and offer at the University of Liechtenstein today.

UNIGLOBALE: How did you end up going abroad and not staying in Münster?

JvB: Is there still a foreign country today? The world has become so international, especially in our area of ​​the digital world. I can only recommend everyone to think far beyond possible “limits”. One of the great privileges of our time is probably that we can choose where we want to realize ourselves. It's often amazing what possibilities open up when you think outside the box. That was also the case for me. I hadn't had the University of Liechtenstein on my agenda before, and in fact I only became aware of it through the job advertisement at that time. I was immediately impressed by the environment: in the middle of Europe, in a four-country region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein), economically highly innovative and up-and-coming, with first-class career opportunities and – last but not least – in a fantastic region to live in.

UNIGLOBALE: What exactly did you receive the “AIS Award for Innovation in Teaching” for?

JvB: What did we do? It was about a course for virtual, collaborative project work: students from 7 different universities around the world work on it throughout the semester
joint project work – without knowing each other and without a partner at your own university. Participants learn how IT can help to overcome boundaries, but also how important skills are in being able to communicate successfully with people from different contexts. These skills are taught in an innovative way in the course and are continually reflected on together with the students. Students from over 30 nationalities have taken part in the course, which was held for the third time in the 2013/2014 winter semester.

UNIGLOBALE: What does good teaching look like to you?

For me, good teaching must bring joy and at the same time enable me to act successfully in life. When I see children, I often wonder when it actually happens that people lose the joy of learning. I want to avoid that and that's how our course was designed.
We brought together students from over 30 nationalities to work together virtually on projects. Projects that also addressed socially relevant questions, such as what role IT can play in reducing hunger, poverty, water shortages or social imbalances in the world. The learning success came almost incidentally, namely being able to spontaneously work together successfully in global teams with people from other cultures and personal backgrounds. This is an important core competency today because our graduates face exactly these types of situations every day and their approach quickly determines success or failure.

UNIGLOBALE: What would you recommend to other colleagues?

JvB: I think that for us too, the joy in what we do should always be the guiding principle, and of course that varies from person to person. Personally, I also think it's important to make a difference, so that when we do things (and do them in such a way), we create a small impact outside of the university. The opportunities in research and teaching are diverse.

UNIGLOBALE: What distinguishes German universities from universities in Liechtenstein? What would you import to German universities?

JvB: The University of Liechtenstein is highly specialized, has strong international networks and has excellent connections to the economy. It is fast, familiar and entrepreneurial. In Münster I had 1,200 students in my undergraduate lecture. We have around 1,000 students across the university here. We admit a maximum of 30 students to the master's degree programs, with whom we can then work intensively and personally. This is of course a completely different world. We are constantly working on joint projects with practice. The actual lecture is clearly the obsolete model. We have learning materials, massive online courses and much more. When we come together on campus, we can discuss, reflect and make things happen. Our students are in such high demand in the field of business information technology that they are offered attractive job opportunities and start their careers while they are still studying. We support this by offering face-to-face events in intensive phases (Thursdays, Fridays and sometimes Saturdays). Seminars and coursework are often carried out in conjunction with practical work and thus promote entry into professional life. Many of our students also decide to pursue an academic career and begin their doctorate immediately after completing their studies.

UNIGLOBALE: When you're not at university, what does a perfect day off look like for you?

JvB: A perfect day is a day with my family. We have a little boy at home and a daughter on the way. These are very exciting and moving moments from which I draw a lot of inspiration and strength. We like to go to a nearby farm, visit the cows and calves, pet the ponies, slide and swing. Let's see how many new promotions will be added soon.

UNIGLOBALE: Do you have a favorite app? if so, which and why?

JvB: There are great baby apps with lots of animals, cars and planes. I think these are my most used apps at the moment ;-)

UNIGLOBALE: Did you take anything “typically” German with you abroad?

JvB: Lots of wonderful memories and friendships that we still cherish today. Maybe even more intense than before, when they were even closer to touch.

AIS Award

AIS stands for Association for Information Systems and refers to the world association of the information systems discipline, the international sister discipline of business information systems. Officially, the AIS Award honors outstanding achievements in teaching that are characterized by a high degree of innovation as well as technical and didactic benefits.

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The world is getting closer and closer together. Thanks to the Internet and telephone, friends and family are always with us. No matter whether they live just a few streets away or many thousands of kilometers away. Everything is just a few clicks away, there is no longer any real foreign country. And university life is also changing, eLearning formats are already a thing

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