IUPUI + HH

“Information Structures for the Web” (IUPUI) and “Orientation to Digital Services” (Haaga-Helia) came together in the Spring 2022 semester to conduct an international, educational collaboration. This year’s collaboration built upon the initial groundwork that had been laid between the two schools as part of the Global Classroom Initiative in the Spring 2021 Semester. This year’s collaboration included students from Finland, Russia, Pakistan, Italy, Nepal, South Africa, Germany, Chile, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Students in William Helling’s course (Information Structures for the Web) partnered with students in Kasper Valtakari's course (Orientation to Digital Services); In total, fifteen students from each school participated in the collaboration, with five separate groups working to develop their own respective websites. Students used a variety of virtual platforms and services to work together as a group on their websites. HH students were added to the IUPUI Canvas course as students via their IU guest accounts where they see lectures and submit assignment just like the IUPUI students. Likewise, IUPUI students then joined the Haaga-Helia Microsoft Teams Forums to work on designing their websites. In a further extension of this international collaboration, nine IUPUI students traveled to Helsinki and met with their classroom partners from Haaga-Helia. Over the course of two weeks in Finland, the IUPUI students’ activities included field trips and site visits relevant to the international collaboration, such as Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, as well as to Finnish culture in general via visits to historic sites, museums, industries, and cultural events.

This year students were given the main topic of “Diversity, Accessibility, and Inclusion through Technology.” Each group was then asked to develop a subtopic that would become the focus of the content on their respective website.

All students covered principles, methods, and techniques to develop web sites and digital services. This course emphasizes the work needed to create valid, accessible, and usable information displays for a global audience. Such effort requires development in both technical as well as conceptual skills. Students came to this course with a wide range of technical expertise and skills, from brand new to HTML and CSS to very experienced at coding.

The first 6-7 weeks were spent on introductions, getting familiar with class tools, and studying basics of HTML and CSS. After this orientation, the students were divided into five groups, with a mixed representation of IUPUI + HH students. The last half of the semester these groups collaborated on their own websites. Each group had complete freedom for how they wanted to create their website, as long as it adhered to the technical standards for HTML, CSS, and accessibility. The websites were also required to be responsive and thus suitable for any device. Students used these main tools to collaborate: GitHub, Microsoft Teams, Canvas.