This paper describes a new concept and experiences of a distributed interdisciplinary learning programme for students across continents. The aim is to provide students with a truly Global Intercultural Project Experience (GIPE) by working together with peers from around the world, and solving real-life client’s problems. We have received seed-funding for four annual projects to engage students from Germany (Europe), Namibia (Africa), Indonesia (Asia), and Peru (Latin-America). In 2020, 30 students from four continents engaged in a one-semester distributed software development project for a Namibian client. Despite Covid-19 they successfully completed the project expressing deep appreciation for the learning opportunities overcoming challenges of working across wide-spread time zones, cultures, changing requirements, and various technical challenges. Considering the vast learning benefits, we suggest to incorporate such projects in all tertiary education curricula across the globe.

The concept of “Internationalisation at Home“ has gained momentum with the increasing digitalization of education and limitations on mobility. Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is an innovative, cost-effective instructional method that promotes intercul-tural learning through online collaboration between faculty and students from different countries or locations. The benefits of using COIL courses have been widely recognized, with learners developing intercultural competencies, digital skills, international education experi-ence, and global awareness. However, multicultural communication in project environments can be complex and demand awareness of cultural variations . The creation and development of effective cross-cultural collectivism, trust, communication, and empathy in leadership is an important ingredient for remote project collaborations success. This is an area that has been least explored in re-search on communication in virtual teams. The GIPE projects are mainly carried out as so-called Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) events. However, to gain a “real world“ experience abroad in an intercultural team, students from all partner universities can participate in the Spring School being held for two weeks in Germany and the Germany students present and hand-over the results in the country of the partner university. The main objective of this research was to examine the experiences of students participating in the GIPE project and to evaluate the effectiveness of the project in enhancing intercultural competencies and fostering collaboration among stu-dents from different continents. This paper will also explore the implications of the GIPE project for Education 2.0 considering the COVID-19 pandemic and the future of education delivery and administration transformation.