Partnership with industry and international colleagues in competency applied learning

<p dir="ltr">Introduction: Action learning helps students build the skills they need to become better learners. Students work with others on problems and projects allowing them to reflect and apply what they have learned to current healthcare topics. In this project, which has been ongoing since 2016, international collaboration paired with involvement of industry was applied to enhance the quality of teaching and education in the radiography field (both diagnostic and therapeutic). </p><p dir="ltr">Methods: Several strategies were utilized beginning with the development of multiple joint online courses in varied radiography related disciplines achieved in partnership with industry and international colleagues. The partners used collaborative online international learning (COIL) to establish student collaboration across the continents as well as establishing an interdisciplinary team of supervisors. This led to joint supervision of student research projects that included industry colleagues, facilitating data collection in the involved industry. Learning was further enhanced through international exchange involving students, faculty and industry partners and led to successful joint publications of the results together with the involved industry, international collaborators and involved students. </p><p dir="ltr">Results: Over 8 years, the project has achieved successful international exchange of more than 30 students, 20 faculty members and 10 industry collaborators between the involved universities and industry. Additional outcomes include submission of at least 15 undergraduate and Master of Science theses in close collaboration with industry where topics related to the industry/society needs. New topics were identified and informed through the establishment of a research and teaching committee that involved collaboration between industry and universities, with no cost to the involved universities. To date, this has resulted in the publication of over 15 articles in the acknowledged journals and involvement of more than 10 faculty members in the ongoing research projects as well as multiple successful funding applications. Furthermore, over 5 comprehensive and extensive online courses with open access have been developed. Additionally, this partnership has resulted in enhanced collaboration between multiple involved hospitals where the results of student theses have been implemented and changed practice in hospital protocols. </p><p dir="ltr">Conclusion: This action learning model has proven to be highly effective in providing applied learning opportunities to build students' skill. Students are involved in meaningful and practical research projects contributing to improved patient outcomes, enhanced collaboration between faculties and colleagues within hospitals, and jointly supervised publications. A strong supervision team consisting of both faculty and health professionals allow students to gather unique perspectives on their project topic. International collaboration enhances learning as students learn more about other cultures and different ways of practice in other countries and contexts. The distribution of online courses at multiple academic levels without financial cost for the universities and industries provides an excellent strategy to build capacity among learners.</p>