Designing And Implementing Virtual Exchange A Collection Of Case Studies

Virtual exchange is gaining popularity in formal and non-formal education, partly as a means to internationalise the curriculum, and also to offer more sustainable and inclusive international and intercultural experiences to young people around the world. This volume brings together 19 case studies (17 in higher education and two in youth work) of virtual exchange projects in Europe and the South Mediterranean region. They span across a range of disciplines, from STEM to business, tourism, and languages, and are presented as real-life pedagogical practices that can be of interest to educators looking for ideas and inspiration.

Virtual exchanges provide language learners with a unique opportunity to develop their target language skills, support inter-cultural exchange, and afford teacher candidates space to hone their teaching craft. The research presented in this volume investigates the role of virtual exchanges as both a teaching tool to support second language acquisition and a space for second language development. Practitioners obtain guidance on the different types of exchanges that currently exist and on the outcome of those exchanges so that they can make informed decisions on whether to include this type of program in their language teaching and learning classrooms. To this end, this edited volume contains chapters that describe individual virtual exchanges along with results of research done on each exchange to show how the exchange supported specific second language teaching and learning goals.

As Languages for Specific Purposes have always been defined as student-oriented, the rationale behind this volume is to use the rather neglected niche of the other necessary agent of language instruction and thus focus on the LSP practitioner. This turn towards the instructor has been motivated by the fact that a great number of LSP practitioners enter their jobs without previous expertise. They lack LSP education, or they may not even have a background in applied linguistics. This motivation has proven valid as many of the volume’s contributors have faced this particular situation in their professional lives. For insights into the LSP field and guidelines on the best practices, they must rely on their colleagues who offer to share their experience through workshops, conferences, or papers, which is what this volume provides. The primary goal of this volume is to present considerations of what challenges LSP practitioners face and should be prepared for in their jobs and to provide practice-tested methodological guidelines on such demanding teaching techniques as blended and flipped learning or tandem learning. All papers have been written by LSP practitioners and researchers in higher education. Thus, this volume provides both guidance and self-reflection. In other words, it is written by experienced LSP practitioners for aspiring LSP practitioners about how they see themselves and what effort they make to meet the challenges of their jobs. As proof that LSP practice is a global challenge, papers have been collected from many European countries, the USA, Uruguay. Even though most papers are naturally concerned with English, being the lingua franca of today, the collection also features guidelines for teaching Spanish, French and Dutch for specific purposes. Moreover, the target disciplines these languages are taught for encompass business, engineering, sociology or medicine, thus supporting the assumption of the universal character of problems LSP practitioners deal with.

This volume is an important output of the ASSESSnet, an EU-funded project that aimed at investigating assessment practices in Virtual Exchange (VE) projects in Foreign Language (FL) courses at tertiary level. It starts with the discussion of selected aspects of VE and assessment design, and a summary of ASSESSnet project results. The following chapters present real-life examples of planning and administering assessment in VE projects in diverse educational settings. The descriptions of case studies are often supplemented by concrete examples of task descriptions, assessment rubrics, self-assessment prompts, and examples of student outputs. This volume is produced for practitioners by practitioners and may be of interest to teachers, teacher educators, school authorities and policy makers interested in introducing VE or improving the quality of the existing projects.

This volume includes a collection of short papers presented at the second International Virtual Exchange Conference (IVEC) hosted virtually at Newcastle University in September 2020. The contributions address the conference theme, towards digital equity in internationalisation, and offer fresh insights into the current state and future of online intercultural communication and collaborative learning. Providing examples of interdisciplinary, multinational, and multimodal research and pedagogy in virtual exchange from around the world, this book will appeal to educators, administrators, researchers, and internationalisation leads in higher education interested in supporting and implementing virtual exchange.

The literature on higher education discusses globalization and internationalization in areas such as competencies, mobility, policies, and knowledge transfer. The COVID-19 pandemic and advancing educational technologies have prompted universities to rethink education, leading to innovative ways for teacher educators and students to connect and learn virtually. Educators and administrators are seeking to advance their teaching through intercultural partnerships and relevant models to improve the quality of education through international connections. The current global situation has also prompted the need to further knowledge of communication technologies. Encouraging Transnational Learning Through Virtual Exchange in Global Teacher Education aims to provide resources and recommendations for global teacher educators, practitioners, researchers, and pre-service and in-service teachers on developing international virtual exchange programs in teacher education. The book aims to showcase effective online pedagogies, provide practical values of online collaborative teaching and learning, and connect theory to practice in critical global citizenship, digital literacies, and teacher development. Led by educators and researchers in teacher education programs involved in virtual exchange partnerships and research, the book shares implications for teacher development with an international component based on shared studies. The book will be a resource for connecting international partners and efforts to internationalize institutions. Covering topics such as virtual exchanges, collaborative online international learning (COIL), telecollaboration, and global education, this book is ideal for international teachers, teacher trainers, students, and researchers interested in collaborative online international learning (COIL).

The Evaluating and Upscaling Telecollaborative Teacher Education (EVALUATE) project was a European policy experiment funded by Erasmus+ between 2017 and 2019. The EVALUATE consortium trained teacher trainers and organised virtual exchanges which involved over 1,000 student teachers at over 34 initial teacher education institutions in Europe and beyond. Following the successful capstone conference of the EVALUATE project in September 2019, a number of colleagues answered our call for submissions to the proceedings. The articles you find here provide a window into the multifaceted contributions not only to the conference, but to the field of telecollaboration and virtual exchange at large. We hope you enjoy finding out about the many different ways in which our colleagues engage with this innovative pedagogical approach that combines the deep impact of intercultural dialogue and exchange with the broad reach of digital technology.

Co-published with AIEAInternational higher education has evolved, in some respects dramatically, in the decade since publication of the first edition of this handbook. The new issues, trends, practices and priorities of research that evolved over this time have in some instances been transformed by one of the most dynamic and tumultuous periods in the history of international higher education, brought on by the pandemic, a re-emergence of nationalism, and the recognition of the power imbalances between the developed economies and the global south, and racial inequities within and across borders. This new edition addresses the myriad changes across all aspects of international education, each chapter addressing to the extent possible the reality of the present in which they were written and offering some insights for the future. While updating a number of chapters from the first edition, it also includes a preponderance of new chapters written by contributors representing wider and more diverse backgrounds.In keeping with the first edition, the overall message is that the internationalization of higher education has a vital role to play in a world that is more interconnected than ever before. Recognizing changing economic, geopolitical, climatic, and public health issues, as well as the importance of international and cross-cultural collaboration to address global problems, this handbook offers a comprehensive range of models, data and ideas to stimulate new directions in the conception and practice of international education.This edition reflects today’s concerns around inclusion, diversity and equity, and how international education is being changed by issues such as decolonization, the focus on learning outcomes, the impact of digital tools to enhance access and learning and collaboration such a virtual exchange, competition for resources, risk, new patterns of mobility, and new models such as joint programs and qualifications.As with the first edition, the chapters often intentionally pair scholars and practitioners from different parts of the world, and include text boxes that highlight concrete institutional, national, or regional experiences, providing diverse voices and perspectives from around the world. This comprehensive new edition provides ideas, concepts, theories and practical ideas from around the world for those seeking to enhance the quality of the three core functions of higher education: teaching, research and service to society. It constitutes an essential resource for everyone involved in the delivery of international education and in determining its future direction. Summary of ContentsMaintaining a similar structure of the first edition, this revised Handbook is comprised of four sections. The first section includes five chapters that address national, regional and international frameworks and contexts. The second addresses key aspects of internationalization at the strategy level, covering leadership, institutional strategies, outcomes assessment, resources and financing, risk management, and institutional linkages and partnerships. The third describes core functions of internationalization, addressing intercultural competence development, the internationalization of the curriculum, teaching and learning, virtual exchange, international perspectives on the work of student affairs professionals, student engagement, engaging staff and faculty, the internationalization of research and finally, and a chapter on serving communities.