Office InterActors is a model of collaborative learning through internet-based problem-solving role-play aimed to develop transferable basic and professional skills relevant to Business & Administration.

Methodologically, the model specifies that groups of beneficiaries from different countries, accompanied and guided by specially trained tutors, are given a role and are presented with a problem relevant to their field of activity. Together, using an internet-based online platform they must work together and reach a solution. In principle, a “simulation” round is designed to take approx. 6 h / week for 5 weeks and is structured as follows:

Step 1: All groups meet each other online and are presented with a role. They learn how to use the platform for communication, creation and exchange of documents, they introduce themselves and start interacting at international level, they become a team by developing their role through national-based negotiations and using information/images found searching the internet.

Step 2: The national teams are presented with a situation and are given the task to produce a set of national-based results to be uploaded on the platform for the other teams to consult and comment on.

Step 3: The national teams are given the task to work together as one international team and produce a common result starting from the previous productions.

Step 4: The international team are presented with an unexpected poblem and are asked to negotiate among themselves in such as way as to reduce their production by a given quantity (which is never a multiple of the number of national teams, thus stressing even more the negotiation component).

Step 5: Each group must evaluate and rate the work of the other groups as contestants in a competition. They also give each other feedback.

At the end of every step, there is a debriefing session where the participants reflect on what they have experienced and learnt. The online platform represents a record of the work, the communication and the debriefing.