CQ+
Developing interactive learning resources for Cultural Intelligence
PROJECT AREA
Interculturality / Social inclusion and equality / European identity
COUNTRIES
Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain
About the project
The CQ+ project aimed to develop cultural intelligence (CQ) — the ability to understand, communicate and work effectively across cultural differences. In response to rising polarisation, racism and intolerance across Europe, partners from different countries cooperated to create digital learning resources and international training activities that helped adult learners explore and practise cultural awareness. The project combined multimedia learning and microlearning to meet the needs of digital natives and make complex ideas around culture, bias and perspective more interactive and engaging, both online and in person.
Partners and educators at the Transnational Training Event in Berlin – June 2023
My role
As a project partner, I led the development of the CQ+ MOOC platform (PR3) bringing the project’s learning resources together in one digital environment. These included interactive infographics (PR1), which connected learners to multimedia resources and an in-service training programme for adult educators (PR2). I also contributed to the co-development of learning materials, peer-reviewing partner contributions and managing localisation of content in German. Partners tested the resources with local stakeholders through national piloting and transnational training events, including a session in Berlin, which brought together educators and learners from across Europe, using the city’s multicultural environment as a practical setting for exploring cultural intelligence. I organised the three-day training event coordinating people, activities, and logistics. It was a memorable event, full of learnings and meaningful connections.
Key focus:
Coordinating cross-border communication with partners and stakeholders
Planning work packages and activities: allocating tasks, aligning timelines and tracking progress on Kanban workflows
Producing and localising multimedia content and web-based learning resources
Organising national and transnational training events
The framework behind PR1 – Interactive infographics
The interactive infographics were built around the CQ+ model, which explores cultural intelligence through four interconnected dimensions: metacognition, cognition, motivation and behaviour – how we think, learn, and act. Building on this framework, we developed four interactive learning topics: My Cultural Bias, My Culture and My Perspective, Cultural Awareness and Appreciation, and Intercultural Partnerships, each exploring cultural intelligence from a different angle. Using microleaning and multimedia approach, we combined bite-sized learning units with different media formats, including WebQuests, digital breakouts, quizzes and videos to improve learning outcomes, using QR codes to make the resources accessible to learners through their smartphones.
One of the interactive Infographics developed as part of PR1. Topic 4: Intercultural Partnerships
PR2 In-service training programme
Building on the CQ+ model and interactive infographics, the in-service training programme was designed to help educators explore cultural intelligence and bring it into their own educational practice. The learning units moved from understanding cultural intolerance and why CQ matters to exploring the four pillars of the CQ model, its relevance in the workplace, and ways of developing cultural intelligence in adults. The programme also introduced challenge-based learning, providing educators with practical teaching methods to engage their own learners on the topic.
PR2 – In-service Training Programme. Module 3: CQ as an essential skill in school and at work.
Results
CQ+ aimed to connect people through content, technology, and learning experiences, helping participants move from understanding ideas to exploring them in practice. In many ways, the project became an example of what it set out to explore: as a consortium from different countries, we brought different perspectives, navigated cultural differences and learned from one another. Cultural intelligence was not just something we developed, it was something we practised throughout the project.
CQ+ MOOC platform developed in 7 European languages
20 interactive infographics developed and localised in all partner languages
2 transnational training events delivered in Germany and Croatia
54 adult educators from across Europe completed the in-service training
200 adult educators engaged through the CQ+ Community of Practice
240 adult learners engaged with the Interactive Infographics Toolkit
7+ multiplier events delivered across Europe
160+ participants reached through final multiplier events
70+ stakeholders brought together at the final conference in Belgium
