Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR courses
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Short Intensive Schools (e.g. summer/winter schools)
Short Intensive Schools (e.g. summer/winter schools)
Why Short Intensive Schools?
Short intensive schools engage students in immersive intercultural learning on new topics, whilst working in diverse student groups. For those students who travel from another university to participate in the short intensive school, this also introduces them to a different educational and social context.
The curricular focus of a short intensive school may be highly focused on a specific subject giving students an immersive introduction to new knowledge and skills, alternatively the focus could be broad and interdisciplinary engaging students in applying knowledge and skills to complex, wicked problems. These intensive and experiential opportunities make an impression on learners, often taking them outside their comfort zones, and requiring them to quickly adapt to new social and educational norms and situations. And when the focus is on problem solving, the depth of focus and commitment to achieving meaningful outcomes can be highly motivating for all involved.
For the teachers, educators and external stakeholders, these intense teaching and learning experiences can be highly rewarding and lead to sustained research and educational collaborations.
Short intensive courses can also be more than standalone courses and could contribute an integral part of a blended learning experience with EPICUR. Having the opportunity to meet in person and develop intercultural and interpersonal relations, can contribute significantly to feeling interconnected and sharing responsibility for tasks and outcomes during the following online learning time.
8 key points about Short Intensive Schools
- Plan ahead – it takes time to coordinate input by different collaborators, to manage the validation process at the host university and to advertise to a wide group of students.
- Include a descriptive teaser in the marketing information for the course– let students know what they be doing and what they will gain by being involved.
For example, focus on the intensive engagement with the topic, opportunities for immersive learning experiences and intercultural discussions and collaborations. - Purpose and solution driven approaches are attractive and authentic options especially when problems and exercises are provided by local companies or industry. Give students opportunities to get their “hands dirty” with the topic.
- Consider an interdisciplinary focus – the collaborations between researchers, educators, students and companies can be enriching as well as engaging learners with authentic wicked problems.
- Mixing theory, practice and policy – capitalise on what makes a short intensive course distinctive from a semester course. These types of learning experiences make an impact on student learning.
- Interaction with others – plan for interactive and intercultural activities in mixed groups. Students appreciate opportunities to work together on problem and solution focused tasks.
- Hybrid and online, synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning opportunities can be integrated into the short intensive school – this increases involvement by other educators and researchers.
- Celebrate the completion of the short intensive school – integrate a space and time for students to showcase their learning and their task outcomes, and consider what next? What other opportunities could students be directed towards?
Short intensive schools in practice
Example 1
Transnational Entrepreneurship, Ideas and Migration
SDU Summer School of Business, 5 ECTS. Economics, commerce, management and accounting
Co-designed and co-taught by Maria Elo, Associate Professor SDU
Watch Maria’s 5 min video about the summer school’s design, content, evaluations, challenges and take-aways.
Teaser for the summer school
Are you interested in transnational business and entrepreneurship? Or how ideas travel around? Or how migration shapes our economies? The era of globalization has connected business and trade across borders in multiple ways, facilitating transnational entrepreneurship, movement of people and their ideas, fostering innovation, investment, global supply chains and cosmopolitan diasporas. During the recent turbulent times, entrepreneurial ecosystems connecting local with global forming cross-border social capital and knowledge networks have manifested their importance for regional development and resilience. Additionally, technological advancement and digitalization provide increasing opportunities for economic collaboration and development facilitating international trade, investment, and entrepreneurship. We address such phenomena and connect the dots to capture insights and concepts like Invisible Diaspora hand or diffusion of innovation. While studying the topic we gain theoretical understanding and multidisciplinary viewpoints, apply the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, exercise critical thinking and strategize solutions collaboratively on a real-life research problem. Be a change agent with us!
Example 2
Applied Composite Drone Manufacturing
SDU Summer School Engineering, 5 ECTS. Mechanical Engineering
Designed and taught by Yasser Ahmad Hannan – Engineer, SDU
Watch Yasser’s 5 min video about the summer school’s design, content, evaluations, challenges and take-aways.
The Applied Composite Drone Manufacturing summer school provides engineering students with a rare opportunity to work on a combination of applied composites and drone manufacturing in a lab at Odense (Denmark) airport. This unique summer school appeals to a wide range of home and international students, who are then required to negotiate intercultural challenges working in mixed groups. The students gain much from applying their learning to practical challenges and they appreciate the opportunities afforded by the course.
Example 3
EPIC Missions
EPIC Missions, exclusively designed and hosted by EPICUR institutions, combine challenge-based, short intensive schools with follow on group work, and outcomes. EPIC Missions often focus on local or regional issues and involve external stakeholders.
Links to resources for short intensive schools
- Ormrod, Sarah, J. 18.06.24 Lessons learned along the way: 36 Summers, 12 lessons for life, EAIE. Available at: https://www.eaie.org/resource/lessons-learned-along-the-way-36-summers-12-lessons-for-life.html
- Lawrence, Nina-Anne. 05.04.24 Why you should consider a university summer school programme, THE Student. Available at https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/advice/why-you-should-consider-university-summer-school-programme
- Study in Europe. Getting you ready to plan and complete higher education studies in Europe. Short term study opportunities. Available at https://education.ec.europa.eu/study-in-europe/planning-your-studies/short-term-study-opportunities
References
Elo, Maria., Torkkeli, Lasse., & Velt, Hannes. (2022). Matching International Business Teaching with the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Introducing Bi-directional Reflective Learning. Journal of Teaching in International Business, 33(4), 247–270. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/08975930.2022.2137277
Inclusive Course Design and Modes of Delivery
Author(s)
This resource sheet has been co-written or written by
- Maria Elo (SDU)
- Yasser Ahmad Hannan (SDU)
- Donna Hurford (SDU)
Related Resource Sheets
Next steps
If you need further support with developing your course, please contact your local teaching support unit.
If you need further information on offering your course for EPICUR, please contact your EPICUR institutional coordinator.
Local teaching support units
EPICUR Institutional Coordinators
Adam Mickiewicz University
Karolina Choczaj
karmench@amu.edu.pl
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Nikos Kouloussis
nikoul@agro.auth.gr
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Michael Zacherle
zacherle@kit.edu
University of Amsterdam
Tiffany Boersma
t.a.boersma@uva.nl
Universität Freiburg
Charlotte Langowski
charlotte.langowski@zv.uni-freiburg.de
Université de Haute-Alsace
Léa Ziri
lea.ziri@uha.fr
Universität für Bodenkultur Wien
Nicolas Fries
nicolas.fries@boku.ac.at
University of Southern Denmark
Ida Thøstesen
ilt@sdu.dk
University of Strasbourg
Pascale Nachez
pnachez@unistra.fr
Further use as OER explicitly permitted:
This Resource Sheet within the Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR Courses was created by Maria Elo, Yasser Ahmad Hannan and Donna Hurford, University of Southern Denmark.
Please attribute according to TASLL rule as follows: Short Intensive Schools (e.g. summer/winter schools) (Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR Courses), by Maria Elo, Yasser Ahmad Hannan and Donna Hurford, University of Southern Denmark. Any icons included are protected by copyright, © The Noun Project, used with permission.
License: This work and its contents are – unless otherwise stated – licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 .
Last edited: 23. Jun 2025, 09:05, Hutz-Nierhoff, Dorthe [dh1076@rz.uni-freiburg.de]