AGORA
A platform for international exchange, Teaching and project work in the field of entrepreneurship
Hochschule München, in cooperation with the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship (SCE), is pursuing an ongoing internationalisation strategy and has further enhanced its international profile through the Agora project.
The core of the Agora concept was to innovate and improve application-oriented online teaching in the field of entrepreneurship, in collaboration with international partners, by expanding the technical infrastructure and the digital teaching concept.
As part of this, a virtual 3D HM entrepreneurship engagement and learning platform (Agora) was established for international students, lecturers and practice partners. High-quality, topic-specific online teaching modules in the fields of health, energy/sustainability and digitalisation were integrated and incorporated into the Teaching programme.
In addition to the SCE, other HM departments were involved in the AGORA project: the University Management, the International Office and the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education .
The AGORA project was a strategic, practice-oriented complement to the Global ExCha(lle)nges project .
Project objectives & measures
Project objectives
- 1. Objective: To expand international teaching practice by integrating subject-specific and entrepreneurial skills into 3D learning environments
- 2. Objective: To improve the online teaching skills and the quality of online teaching among entrepreneurship lecturers
- 3. Objective: To improve students’ entrepreneurial skills, particularly in the selected areas of health, energy/sustainability and digitalisation
Measures
- Establishment of a virtual 3D HM Entrepreneurship Platform featuring various event and teaching spaces
- Design and implementation of topic-based online teaching modules for entrepreneurship teaching
- Incoming mobility programmes to strengthen partnerships and foster networking within the start-up ecosystem of HM and the Munich metropolitan region
- International internships for 15 HM talents (funded by a DAAD scholarship)
3D – A platform for interaction and learning
The launch of the Agora, a virtual marketplace, aims to explore the potential of new digital contexts (3D, virtual reality/metaverse) for entrepreneurship. The Agora is designed to offer lecturers and students a new form of interaction and learning experience, accessible via computers, mobile phones and VR headsets.
Agora is intended to serve as a virtual marketplace for ideas, exchange and collaboration between the project partners, as well as for interaction with other research and industry partners. The virtual 3D environment enables live events to be held and creates an innovative meeting place for students, partners and the interested public through the use of avatars.
Online modules for teaching
Design and implementation of online teaching modules for entrepreneurship teaching
As part of the DAAD’s Agora project, online learning resources are being produced which are designed, on the one hand, to enable entrepreneurship lecturers to make use of the innovative, communicative and interactive possibilities offered by 3D worlds.
Secondly, subject-specific online teaching materials are being developed for the fields of healthcare, energy/sustainability and digitalisation. This enables entrepreneurship lecturers to incorporate relevant subject-specific content from recognised experts in these three areas into their teaching, which significantly reduces the workload for entrepreneurship lecturers and improves the quality of teaching.
International exchange
- International work placements: In the winter semester of 2021, the SCE offered an Entrepreneurship Talent Programme for the first time as part of the Agora project, enabling 15 entrepreneurial bachelor’s and master’s degree students from the HM to undertake a funded internship – either remotely or on-site – with an international start-up or incubator from the SCE’s international network. Funding was provided by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
- Incoming mobility programmes: In May 2022, over 60 participants from international partner universities spent five days experiencing the start-up ecosystem of the Munich metropolitan region as part of an ‘Incoming Week’. The aim was to meet the key start-up players in Munich’s Quadruple Helix in person, to exchange ideas, to gain a first-hand impression of the local ecosystem, and to build a useful network of relevant stakeholders.
- Australia, Melbourne | La Trobe University
- Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo | International Burch University
- Germany, Ismaning | University of Applied Management Ismaning
- Greece, Athens | Athens University of Economics and Business
- Canada, Toronto | Toronto Metropolitan University
- Portugal, Aveiro | University of Aveiro
- Russia, St Petersburg | St Petersburg State Polytechnic University
- Scotland, Edinburgh | Napier University
- Tampere, Finland | Tampere University of Applied Sciences
- San Obispo, USA | California Polytechnic State University
DAAD Funding Programme: HAW.International
The DAAD’s “HAW.International” programme supports the development of high-performing and cosmopolitan universities of applied sciences (HAW/FH) and the strengthening of their international competitiveness. It also helps to better equip students for the globally oriented labour market of the future. Another long-term objective of the programme is to contribute, in close cooperation with business and industry, to enhancing the training, research and innovation capabilities of universities of applied sciences (HAW/FH). It also helps to ensure that these institutions are more strongly positioned as strategic international partners and are in greater demand.
The AGORA project is a DAAD-funded project (module B) and runs from January 2021 to December 2024.