Chapter 3: Online Teaching in HEIs vs. Online International Negotiation: Analogies and Transferable Good Practices

The concept of innovation should not be reduced to its technological dimension but encompasses the whole context of its deployment and implementation. Regardless of technology, an innovation may be successful or not depending on how well its implementation suits each single context. In the case of education, this consists, to a sizeable extent, in a communicational and interpersonal context. The hypothesis of this piece is that maintaining optimal communication between participants is a key factor of success of new online teaching methods. Given that in this regard, there are similarities between negotiating practice and teaching practice, it is worth examining whether good practices developed in online international negotiation are transferable to online teaching. The chapter identifies a number of practices from online negotiation that perform well in online teaching. It focuses on communicational aspects, mutual understanding (monitoring and optimization of understanding), motivation to listen, attention, active participation, and non-verbal communication. Online teaching and online negotiation share another common feature: some unresolved challenges are common to both disciplines. This should also be taken into account when migrating educational programmes online. The research is informed by the author's first-hand experience from practice in both international diplomatic negotiation and academic teaching.