Students' perception of international collaboration and cultural understanding in digitally driven education

One of the fields in which internationalization plays a pivotal role in today’s world is education, with internationally developed study programs enrolled by students from various countries. While such kinds of collaborations allow for fostering unity especially when digital learning accompanies them, we also have to take into account how some entities may be more interested in spreading dissension than supporting collaboration. Actions such as these often fall under the category of “hybrid warfare”, which includes all the efforts aimed at behaving with hostility, without relying uniquely on military strength; a significant portion of these makes use of digital instruments. In this research, we examine an event part of a project specifically devoted to educating in hybrid warfare. In particular, we focused on how it was able to internationally improve collaboration and mutual understanding, with the aim of providing general guidance to different teaching and learning initiatives where e-learning plays a role. We conducted a survey among military and civilian students participating in the event, detecting appreciable effects on interaction, respect, observation, and understanding. Participants deemed these aspects as important both for setting the stage for sector-specific collaboration and their personal experience. This research is part of the activities undertaken in the European project HYBRID, whose goal is promoting awareness of all the practices related to hybrid warfare and their interpretation, also by using digital didactics and tools, including the not less important purpose of being able to defend from them.