Lecturers participating in the BIP from FOI were Asst. Prof. Martina Tomičić Furjan, Ph. D., Asst. Prof. Iva Gregurec, Ph. D., Assoc. Prof. Katarina Tomičić-Pupek, Ph. D. and Assoc. Prof. Igor Pihir, Ph.D. and the partners involved in the implementation of the program with FOI were ESIEA Paris Laval - Ecole d'ingénieurs du numérique (Felicia Ionascu, Siba Haidar, Bassem Haidar), Paris, France, Hogeschool van Amsterdam (Gideon Bazen, Michel Vorenhout), the Netherlands and Faculty of Economics of the University of Split (Maja Čukušić, Dragan Planjanin, Dino Pavlić).
The students who participated in the program and earned 3 ECTS were also from partner institutions (10 ESIEA, 8 HVA, 3 Faculty of Economics of the University of Split and 3 FOI - a total of 24 students).
The goal of the program was to offer participants the opportunity to get acquainted with creative methods and techniques for analyzing customer needs, opportunities for change and ways to improve business by designing new sustainable business models. In doing so, the emphasis is on creating and developing innovative ideas related to the application of selected modern digital technologies, which make the business change digital.
The stated goal was achieved by meaningfully interrelation of 4 emerging concepts of business development, namely Digital transformation, Sustainable development, Digital technologies (artificial intelligence and robotics) and Management of organization and business processes for the implementation of change. In the implementation of the intensive program, creative and modern teaching and learning methods were used, such as problem-based learning, gamification, teamwork and project tasks, in order to establish a collaborative work environment and enable students to learn from the lecturers and from each other.
Digital transformation (DT) implies a radical change in the way companies do their business, driven by the need to adapt to the digital age. For this reason, companies are affected by various challenges, and this program will deal with the creation of products and services tailored to users, which provide sustainable and "green" solutions. The program also covers methods, techniques and approaches of identifying and framing the identified challenges that companies face as they develop digital, sustainable business models, selection of appropriate technologies to achieve goals, as well as other concepts needed to be considered inside and outside organizations to make the venture "work".
The program was held in a blended form, from May 16 to July 2, 2022, through 5 weeks of online classes (May 16-June 17) and one week of onsite, live classes, organized at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Split (June 26- 2.7.).
The online part of the intensive program was held every Monday and Thursday in the evening, in each of the 5 weeks one institution was the lead performer, while FOI held the first and last online week of classes. Already during the second online week, students were grouped into international and multidisciplinary teams and, in addition to classes, they worked on practical tasks, case study analyses, but also on a team project that resulted in a proposal for an innovative and sustainable digital solution to a real problem related to the UN sustainable development goals (SDG). Virtual teaching was supported by an online training platform (moodle course) as well as by an online collaboration tool for simple online communication between team members, all students and teachers (slack).
The onsite part of the intensive program took place at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Split. During this week, students continued to collaborate in teams, and the teaching was designed through interactive workshops designed by each partner institution, so that the knowledge acquired online was complemented by creative live teamwork. Thus, the students carried out "prototyping" of their solutions, learned how to present their idea through a "perfect pitch", how to implement a potential solution on robots and how to make the solution "smart". With the aim of finalizing, testing and evaluating the implementation of the developed proposed solution on a real example, a field lecture was organized on the island of Korčula, where the participants had the opportunity to communicate with the "users" of the selected case study and to receive feedback on the applicability of their proposed solution. At the end of the program, all teams presented their proposed solutions, and through the evaluation of the proposals by teachers, as well as by peers from other teams, they received feedback on the successful realization of the learning outcomes of the program.
The feedback from the participants is very positive, and the teachers will continue their cooperation and apply for the organization of the BIP in the next call as well.
We hereby thank the FOI Management for the support and recognition of combined intensive programs as an important new form of internationalization and development of new forms of cooperation, both for teachers and students.
Special thanks to our professor, Asst.Prof. Martina Tomičić Furjan, Ph.D., for organizing and coordinating this programme, as well as the professors, Asst.Prof. Iva Gregurec, Ph.D., Assoc. Prof. Katarina Tomičić-Pupek, Ph. D. and Assoc. Prof. Igor Pihir, Ph. D. and our students Marija Kuštelega, Magdalena Kuštelega and Matej Krasić!
