Creating Innovative Educational Hackathons as a Means for International Institutions to Collaborate While also Assisting NGOs (71688)
Session: On Demand
Room: Virtual Video Presentation
Presentation Type: Virtual Presentation
Educational hackathons offer a unique learning opportunity for participants. They provide a platform for individuals to learn new skills, collaborate with others, and solve complex problems in a competitive yet supportive environment. By working on real-world projects, hackathon participants gain hands-on experience and develop valuable skills that assist them in their academic and professional pursuits. Additionally, educational hackathons foster a sense of community and collegiately among participants resulting in an environment that encourages learning, creativity, and innovation. As highlighted by Garcia (2022), institutions of higher education are progressing toward creating a nexus among practical, theoretical, and technical dimensions. Participation in educational hackathons allow for development of these skills through project-based learning.
This approach is particularly rewarding when used to connect universities across continents and to partner with international NGOs. This session will outline how our university in the USA partnered with another in the UAE to create a hackathon that was focused on media ideas aimed at spurring on mental health awareness campaigns specifically for the global NGO Médecins Sans Frontières. For this event, students from both countries collaborated in teams to develop proposals focused on mental health awareness. Specifically, teams were prompted to create meaningful projects that included brochures, websites, apps, Instagram series, and media interviews. They were also directed to develop projects that would be meaningful with a targeted culture. Teams presented their ideas through five-minute presentations that explained the project, they also responded to judge and audience questions. Further, to highlight the positive faculty and student impact of this educational hackathon competition, this proposed presentation will include an overview of the benefits of hosting hackathons in higher education, strategies for creating hackathon focuses, and collaborating with NGOs and other institutions to examine global issues. Moreover, discussions will center on how hackathons can bring students together across the world in order for learners to discuss relevant and trending events.
Abstract Summary
Educational hackathons offer a unique learning opportunity for participants. They provide a platform for individuals to learn new skills, collaborate with others, and solve complex problems while working on real-world projects and gaining hands-on experience. This approach is particularly rewarding when used to connect universities across continents and to partner with international NGOs. This session will outline how our university in the USA partnered with another in the UAE to create a hackathon that was focused on media ideas aimed at spurring on mental health awareness campaigns specifically for the global NGO, Médecins Sans Frontières. For this event, students from both countries collaborated in teams to develop proposals focused on mental health awareness. During the session we will describe how hackathons can bring students together across the world in order for learners to discuss relevant and trending events.
Authors:
Katherine Green, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, United States
Kelly Torres, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, United States
About the Presenter(s)
Dr Katherine Green is a University Professor/Principal Lecturer at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology in United States
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