MULTIDISCIPLINARY PROJECTS IN A BUSINESS FACULTY.

Building professional and personal skills through teamwork

Home to more than 21,000 students, James Cook University is located in Northern Queensland and is a world-class university ranked in the top 300 globally. JCU aims to develop graduates who have the knowledge, skills and experience to succeed and thrive in a global workforce. PebblePad has been embedded throughout the Bachelor of Business degree and is linked closely to teaching, learning and assessment activity associated with employability. In this project, PebblePad is used to support an employability initiative that involves students working in cross-disciplinary teams. PebblePad holds all of the project work as well as being the medium for presenting the final showcase piece.

The ‘Experiential Learning In Action’ Ambition 

Being able to work effectively in a team and collaborate with peers and stakeholders is a key employability skill. An employability focus is integrated throughout the Bachelor of Business degree at James Cook University, with both Workplace Integrated Learning experiences and PebblePad-based assessment embedded throughout the course. The aim of this focus is to develop students’ professional and personal skills, problem-solving and critical thinking to prepare them for roles in commerce and business.

The third year of the program includes a Workplace Integrated Learning core and one of the subject options is a collaborative industry project. In the Multidisciplinary Project, student teams work on an identified real problem for a local industry partner. Projects are authentic and the outcomes likely to have real-world impact in the local community. Students are required to work in cross-disciplinary teams, where each participant will contribute their discipline perspective and skills. This simulates a workplace scenario of being on a project team with people from different backgrounds, skills and perspectives.

Through this project students have the opportunity to gain valuable industry experience while developing new perspectives and teamwork skills. 

The Successful Workflow

The team designed a Multi-Disciplinary Project Proposal Workbook. The project teams complete their project scope and action plan, and link their CV portfolios in the Group Project Proposal Workbook. This subject also uses meeting agenda and minutes templates that are automatically submitted to a workspace for monitoring by the lecturer and are assessed as part of final project documentation. The student experience is enriched by documenting and demonstrating work-based competencies developed through the task. Students initially complete a CV / Skills Portfolio that provides evidence of skills needed for their specific role in the project team. PebblePad provides a space for students to plan and add evidence of their individual participation in the project, the group activities, and reflections, as well as being the mechanism for the final showcase. The final outcome is presented to the industry partner in the form of a portfolio and a short presentation. A customised template is used by students to reflect on the experience of working in a multidisciplinary team. 

The video provides a brief overview of some of the ways in which PebblePad can support collaborative workbooks and portfolios to develop students' professional and personal skills.