This paper applies Moore's Model of Distance Learning interactions to the TalkTech project, whose recent iterations have included the creation of open educational resources in the form of virtual reality scenes. Using digital tools and technologies for research, communication, and creativity, with guidance from their instructors, learners engage with and produce original digital content, build bridges with students at a university across the ocean, to participate in an effective distance learning experience.

This innovative practice full paper in competencies development describes how Topics in Tech, a weekly speaker series featuring university alumni and information technology leaders, enables current students to connect with alumni and technology leaders, gaining insights into career milestones, ongoing projects, and college experiences. Topics in Tech is a key component of BentleyPlus, an innovative program grounded in self-observation theory that enhances students' engagement and learning experiences both inside and outside of the classroom. BentleyPlus integrates essential skills identified by top employers, aligning extracurricular activities with professional growth under advisor guidance and emphasizing self-reflection and introspection. Exposure to networking opportunities and career insights encourages students to apply self-observation techniques, fostering deeper self-awareness and metacognitive skills aligned with the principles of self-observation theory. Students participating in “Topics in Tech” engage in reflective practices, assessing their reactions and takeaways from each session. This reflective learning approach enriches students' educational experiences and empowers them to make informed decisions about their educational and professional paths. The combination of BentleyPlus and self-observation theory within “Topics in Tech” contributes to holistic student development, preparing them for success in the dynamic and competitive information technology industry by cultivating essential competencies valued by employers. Survey results gathered from more than 1200 students during a five-semester period suggest that because of their participation in Topics in Tech, a majority felt connected or benefitted significantly from their chosen speaker's experiences, recognized the importance of analyzing information before making decisions, and had a high degree of engagement with the content either during the session or afterward, in discussions with their peers. These results indicate that Topics in Tech effectively meets the goals of the university's BentleyPlus program, fostering identity awareness, critical thinking, and interpersonal skills among the participants.

In recent years, the use of internet and communication technologies in the workplace for collaboration has increased. Working as members of international teams is not only common, but necessary. This paper examines the TalkTech 2022 project, a global collaboration between universities in the United States and Romania, in which students participated as members of international teams to explore and share local cultural artefacts through the co-creation of virtual reality scenarios. The authors present the TalkTech project through the lens of a five-point inquiry model, an inquiry-based approach based on constructivist learning which empowers students to develop digital competencies and build knowledge through active participation and co-creation of digital artefacts and open educational resources. The authors conclude that the TalkTech project is a catalyst for developing critical thinking and digital competencies, which will serve students well in their future careers.

This paper analyzes the results of two consecutive years (2020 and 2021) of an international collaboration between students at universities in the United States and Romania from the perspectives of comparing digital competencies and future skills. Offered annually since 2009, TalkTech is a project based learning scenario requiring students to use synchronous and asynchronous communication tools to research a topic and share their findings in a jointly-created digital artefact. During the last two years, 110 students researched topics related to international businesses and creative industries and presented their results using virtual reality. To complete the project, students made use of open educational practices and communicated, analyzed, developed, demonstrated, shared compared and discussed their work using several different digital tools. This paper investigates how students perceive their use of digital tools how these influenced them, especially during pandemic times.

Technology and digital pedagogies have changed how business, education and individuals communicate and interact. 2020 has seen an unprecedented change to ways of working globally and increased remote working and online teaching are likely to remain as positive outcomes of COVID19. In addition to making connections between people, technologies can influence cultural awareness. Immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) create a real world, sensory environment that can allow people to be anywhere virtually, to experience the world through the eyes of others, and to respond in ways that were previously not possible. This paper draws upon the findings of an international projects that used immersive technologies to encourage cultural and digital competences.

Full Paper. Virtual reality has become a new platform for communication and engagement to share knowledge. This paper describes the TalkTech 2020 project, in which students at two universities on different continents partnered to use CoSpaces EDU, a beginner's VR authoring tool, to develop virtual visits to international businesses in their home countries. They researched their assigned companies' innovations, products, and services, and conveyed their findings in an original digital story presented in VR. The project represents a convergence of learning about business and technology with arts and sciences, as students develop skills in digital literacy, creative thinking, problem solving, teamwork, and cultural awareness. These experiences will help students prepare for their future careers in many disciplines. The VR experiences that students created for their partners enabled them to learn about and virtually visit international businesses in each other's home countries. They discussed cultural similarities and differences during a video call with their international partners, managed the challenges of working as international team members arranging online meetings across time zones, and chose the collaboration tools that they thought would serve them best to complete the project.

Using Open Educational Resources (OER) provides further opportunities for collaboration both in higher education, especially during the last year, in pandemic times. Many universities have embraced video conferencing tools such as Zoom, WebEx, Teams, Skype and Google Meet for everyday learning activities with students. Virtual Mobility (VM) has a great potential to contribute to the internationalization, innovation and inclusion in higher education. This paper describes an ongoing collaboration between two universities, one in the United States and the other in Romania, where students use synchronous and asynchronous communication tools to work in a project-based learning model in information technology. Team members demonstrate, share, compare, and discuss their work, a virtual reality product, using online communication tools of their choice.

Virtual reality engages participants through immersive experiences of imaginary or real three-dimensional physical environments. The combination of globalization and technology is transforming the international economy, altering the demand for skills and knowledge required from today's university graduates. To improve students' skills we have developed in the last ten years the TalkTech project, as an open virtual mobility, a project based learning with the aim of creating a multimedia artefact. The 2017 study examines how students, working to create virtual reality artefacts, also develop digital skills and critical thinking. The paper also examines how participating in open virtual mobility project enables an online multicultural educational environment that changes the students' abilities to learn and acquire knowledge. In this collaborative study, students create virtual reality artefacts using CoSpaces, a web-based virtual reality development platform, share them with their international but also local partners, and discuss similarities and differences in their work. The findings indicate that by real-time mixing of different tools and online and mobile technologies and apps students' digital skills are improved.

Augmented reality technologies are becoming widely used in educational and business contexts. This paper shares results of the TalkTech project, in which first-year introductory technology students from a university in the United States and fourth-year multimedia students from a university in Romania research applications of augmented reality in various industries, develop original augmented reality artifacts, and share their findings with international partners. Based on a project-based and collaborative learning approach, students communicate, research, develop together with the main goal to improve their digital literacy skills. By creating augmented reality artifacts, students better understand the impact of this technology and its business applications, and express their technological creativity in an innovative way.

The increased availability of online collaboration tools enables participants in different locations to create knowledge and work together. This paper shares the results of a project in which first-year introductory technology students from Bentley University in the United States and fourth-year multimedia students from Politehnica University of Timisoara in Romania worked together in an online global educational environment to research technology trends and create multimedia artifacts that shared their findings.

Web-based tools are now widely used by both companies and individuals for communication and collaboration. This paper shares the results of a project in which first-year introductory technology students from Bentley University in the United States and fourth-year multimedia students from "Politehnica" University of Timisoara in Romania worked together to evaluate two similar online collaboration tools. The instructors created a learning environment for students to meet, socialize, exchange information, develop, and publish their results online.