Our journey for the pursuit of innovative teaching and learning practices first began in 2016 when the School of Health and Human Sciences developed, delivered, and evaluated the first Australian Graduate Certificate program for internationally qualified nurses (IQNs). A barrier to the successful transition of IQNs into the Australian healthcare system was communication and leadership skills (Aggar et al., 2019). With the support of an International Education and Training Partnership Fund from Study Queensland and in collaboration with Practera (EdTech company) and Central Queensland University, we designed and developed an experiential online learning program called mPreceptor. The communication and leadership program, underpinned by a preceptor model of support, was delivered via mobile technology and included cultural competence, practice and value differences in the areas of accountability, independence, technology use, and the care relationship (Aggar et al., 2019).
The success of the program, and its applicability outside of health, led us to collaborate with colleagues in the School of Business and Tourism and the Kaher Institute in India. An Australia-India Strategic Research grant enabled further development and evaluation of the teaching and experiential online learning program for delivery to onshore and offshore domestic and international students. The ensuing mLearning program embeds a robust experiential and reflective learning approach in which students are required to complete milestones, activities and tasks such as reflective activities to progress through the program.
The use of mobile technology to deliver education is becoming increasingly prevalent as it presents great opportunities to improve student performance and satisfaction, engage students in their learning, reduce cost, and increase education reach (Majumdar et al., 2015). This is now more important than ever, as students and education providers navigate the changing learning landscape created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The portability of mobile technology, including phones and tablets, provides flexibility and increased access to resources and the ability to deploy resources regardless of physical, border or access restrictions and on a widespread scale (Kim et al., 2017).
In collaboration with our Australian and international colleagues we are extending the practical teaching and learning mPreceptor and mLearning programs to build a collaborative platform. The mCollaborative program is designed to support students, academics and institutions to exchange knowledge and ideas in the areas of education and research scholarship. Funded by the New Colombo Plan, mCollaborative will support international work integrated learning (WIL) experiences in India. We believe that this innovative project is the first of its kind, and will build global collaborative activities between higher education institutions, and support international engagement in the areas of workforce development, education and research.