Leveraging the pandemic to build a community of networked, engaged and curious learners – our future leaders

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly presented a multitude of challenges to the way education is delivered; its wide-reaching multidisciplinary impact has also presented a unique opportunity as a focus for real-world authentic learning. For some time now, technology has enabled interaction at a global scale, allowing students to connect with teachers and industry experts around the world. This paper reports on the innovative design of an intra-curricular program utilising COVID-19 as a focus for online, real-world connected learning, delivered to business students at a large Australian university during the pandemic lockdown. Implemented as an online intra-curricular initiative, ‘Leading in a Post-COVID World’ encouraged student engagement with the challenges of leadership to address issues on a personal, local, and global scale. Using a community of inquiry (CoI) lens we explore key features of the program and find that a CoI approach combined with principles of real-world learning and authentic experiences encourages student participation and engagement in this intra-curricular space.