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Dear Colleagues, If you’re teaching International Business/Management/Marketing or other IB-related course, X-Culture <http://www.X-Culture.org> is accepting applications for the 2014-1 season. Here is a *SHORT VIDEO <http://youtu.be/ZG7mMTPzExE>* that explains what X-Culture is and how it works: *http://youtu.be/ZG7mMTPzExE <http://youtu.be/ZG7mMTPzExE>* Briefly, about 100 professors partner up every semester. We put our students in Global Virtual Teams (usually 7 students, each from a different country) and they work on a business project. Studies show <http://amle.aom.org/content/early/2013/06/14/amle.2012.0195.abstract>, adding X-Culture to the course improves learning, boosts student satisfaction and your teaching evaluations. We also collect all kinds of data for research, so if you live in a publish-or-perish world, here is your chance to improve your reach productivity. *Dates for 2014-2* (may be adjusted +/-5 days): Track 1: Aug 25-Oct 20 (apply by Aug 15) Track 2: Oct 1-Nov 25 (Apply by Sep 20) Track 3: Nov 20-Jan 15 (Apply by Nov 10) Application page is here: www.x-culture.org/apply.html More below. Vas Taras, PhD X-Culture Project Coordinator ------------------------------------- *Concept*: X-Culture <http://www.X-Culture.org> is an experiential learning project designed to enhance learning in International Business/Management/Marketing and related courses. We team up students from different cultures (5-7 students, often each from a different country) and they work on an international business-related project for a 2-month period. In so doing, X-Culture provides students with the valuable opportunity to gain first-hand experience in cross-cultural communication and collaboration. X-Culture provides all materials, training, individual/team performance monitoring and administrative support. Instructors interested in research <http://www.x-culture.org/research_side.html> will also have ample opportunities to co-author papers based on the longitudinal multi-level multi-source data that are collected as part of the X-Culture project. *Participants*: nearly 3,000 from 100 universities in 40 countries on 6 continents participate in X-Culture every semester (roughly 50:50 MBA/Undergraduate). *Task*: Real-life companies partner up with X-Culture and present their real-life challenges. Typically, the task is to develop a new market expansion plan, including selection of the most suitable new market for the product, development of the market entry strategy, marketing campaign, HR policies, and the like. Often companies also solicit new product design ideas. Twelve partner companies representing different industries are selected each semester, so the teams have a choice of business challenges they would like to work on. *Communication*: Our philosophy is that the tools students use in X-Culture must be usable in the workplace upon graduation. Therefore, we rely on free online collaboration tools and do not use proprietary platforms. At the beginning of the project, all students receive basic training on the use of Email, Skype, Dropbox, Google Docs, Doodle, Facebook, etc. Teams are free to choose their preferred collaboration method. English is the working language and sufficient fluency in English is required. Students who do not speak English may be able to participate under special arrangements – contact us for details. *X-Culture Certificates: *Upon successful completion of the project, students receive X-Culture Global Collaboration Experience certificates. Instructors also receive Global Educator certificates. Additional appreciation/reference letters can be sent to instructors’ department chairs or deans upon request. *X-Culture Symposium: *Once a year, we bring X-Culture participants together at a meeting organized as part of the Academy Of International Business Southeast conference. The X-Culture consortium is hosted by a multi-national company and involves a case completion, meetings with the company top management team, company tour, as well as access to all other conference events. The most recent events have been hosted by Daimler AG at their Mercedes-Benz Truck and Bus factory in Istanbul, Turkey and the Home Depot at their headquarters in Atlanta. The next meeting will take place October 23-25 in Miami, FL, hosted by Louis Vuitton. *Does it work? *Yes, it does. For empirical evidence on how X-Culture affects course evaluations, course grades/marks, cultural intelligence, attitudes, behaviors and performance, please visit the X-Culture Publications <http://www.x-culture.org/publications.html> page. *More information*: For additional information on X-Culture and research on its learning outcomes, please visit http://www.x-culture.org Also read about X-Culture in AIB Insights <http://www.vtaras.com/AIB-Insights-Q4-12-X-Culture.pdf> and Academy of Management Learning and Education <http://www.vtaras.com/AMLE_X-Culture_Effectiveness.pdf> *APPLY HERE* <https://uncg.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_a4CxtDdoWK5DvaQ> https://uncg.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_a4CxtDdoWK5DvaQ Enrollment is competitive. Please apply early to ensure your application is given full consideration. Due to a large volume of inquiries, it may take us several days to process your application. If you do not receive a response within five days, please contact us directly at [log in to unmask] ____ AIB-L is brought to you by the Academy of International Business. For information: http://aib.msu.edu/community/aib-l.asp To post message: [log in to unmask] For assistance: [log in to unmask] AIB-L is a moderated list.