Virtual Exchange Project Research Articles

Rethinking Curriculum Internationalization: Virtual Exchange as a Means to Attaining Global Competencies, Developing Critical Thinking, and Experiencing Transformative Learning

Virtual exchange and collaborative online international learning have emerged as a means to internationalize campuses and foster the development of global competencies among students by facilitating connections with people, organizations, and institutions abroad. Based on a virtual exchange between the U.S. and Thai undergraduate students, this qualitative research used written individual reflection, focus group data, and observations to explore whether U.S. students developed global competencies in the form of ability to communicate and collaborate in a global and multicultural context. Additionally, this study explored whether the focus on the “process” of the collaborative project allowed for the development of critical thinking skills and whether virtual exchange created opportunities for transformative learning. The findings suggest that the U.S. students in this study developed cross-cultural communication and critical thinking skills, an increased awareness and mindfulness of global and cultural dynamics, higher levels of perceived proficiency in global collaboration, and experienced transformative learning as a result of participating in the virtual exchange project.

NETWORKING TOOLS IN VIRTUAL EXCHANGE FOR COOPERATION AT UNIVERSITIES IN BULGARIA AND UKRAINE

Innovative information technologies and the rapid rate of information updates reveal the need for more effective two-way communication, facilitation of interaction and collaboration, information exchange and flexibility. The article presents a research on cooperation tools in the virtual exchange project between the Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi Hryhorii Skovoroda State Pedagogical University (Ukraine) and the Trakia University (Bulgaria). A brief description of a specialized course in virtual exchanges related to energy efficiency psychology for future entrepreneurs and industrial workers is presented. In addition to covering the subject matter, educational information is designed in such a way that it enables one to acquire and practice ICT skills, in particular, to use various collaboration tools allowing interaction between students and teachers and having implications for learning strategies. The article’s goal is to test software tools that can be used for virtual exchange in higher education institutions at international level, evaluate their attractiveness to students, and determine whether the use of already familiar collaboration tools influences the general impression from virtual exchange. The experimental work involved 12 useful tools for cooperation in the information field. Leaders and outsiders were identified, that is, tools that participants in the virtual exchange preferred outside the exchange process and those that the participants never used. During each week of the virtual exchange course, new tools for teamwork were used. Leaders in terms of satisfaction with the process of virtual exchange were Skype, Zoom, Webex, Google G-suite, Workplace by Facebook, Cliqtalk, Padlet. The study provides a theoretical basis for informing all individuals interested in the virtual exchange about the relationship between specific tools for collaborative work in the process of virtual exchange and their influence on each other. The results will be taken into account for a more in-depth analysis of the tools functionality in the virtual exchange process. It was also important that absolutely new tools for virtual exchange could have a high assessment in terms of satisfaction with the process and its results. This suggests the motivation to learn, especially in the field of cooperation with the help of information technology, which is so appreciated by young people.

Exploring affective barriers in virtual exchange: the telecollaborative foreign language anxiety scale

The technological revolution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has brought about new learning scenarios as well as new professional requirements, such as the development of intercultural and Foreign Language (FL) skills. In this regard, Virtual Exchange (VE) projects provide students with learning opportunities through online social interaction and collaboration (Dooly, 2017); allowing authentic intercultural experiences for students who do not have the opportunity of travelling (O’Dowd, 2016) and promoting 21st-century skills development (Jager, Kurek, & O’Rourke, 2016). However, interacting online in the FL with a person from a different culture can entail an affective challenge for students and might give rise to Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA). FLA is a dysphoric and situational anxiety suffered by one out of three FL students which inhibits communication and learning (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986). Due to the impossibility of finding an available tool to investigate the presence and effects of FLA in VE environments, the Telecollaborative FLA Scale (T-FLAS) was designed. This article presents the development of the T-FLAS, a 21-item questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale, aiming to provide researchers and practitioners with a tool to explore FLA in VE.

Challenges and other feedback: Integrating intercultural learning in the Digital Age

<p>This mixed method case study explored globalization and complex relationships through a virtual exchange project between students from Germany and Colombia in upper intermediate level English classes. We believed by providing a space for online conversation, written collaboration and discussion, students would enhance their plurilingual and pluricultural competence as well as their communicative competences through the medium of English as an international language (EIL). The aim was also to enable students to investigate cultural complexity and to develop cultural curiosity. Taking into account plurilingual and pluricultural competence (PPC) and the efficacy of virtual exchanges for language learning, we used a series of tasks for students to participate in a wide range of activities of varying complexity regarding German and Colombian culture for a six-week exchange. Students self-assessed their written and spoken online interactions as well as their perceived skills in mediating texts and communication based on the recently added descriptors in the Companion Volume to the CEFR. They also rated their plurilingual and pluricultural competences on a PPC scale at both the beginning and end of the project. Results demonstrate that there is value in implementing virtual exchange projects in which students reflect on and increase their awareness of these concepts also suggesting that pairing students with international students rather than L1 speakers of the language has a potentially positive effect on students’ anxiety level and communicative competences. </p>

Building Empathy and Intercultural Citizenship through a Virtual Exchange Project

Building Empathy and Intercultural Citizenship through a Virtual Exchange Project

The Role of Pedagogical Mentoring in Virtual Exchange

Virtual exchange, or telecollaboration, is a well‐known pedagogical approach in foreign language education that involves engaging classes in online intercultural collaboration projects with international partners as an integrated part of their educational programmes. This article focuses on the role of the teacher as pedagogical mentor in virtual exchange and examines the impact of the strategies and techniques that teachers use in their classes to support students’ learning during their online intercultural projects. The article begins with a proposed categorization of pedagogical mentoring reported in the literature to date. It then reports on the outcomes of a virtual exchange project carried out by three classes of initial English teacher education in Israel, Spain, and Sweden that involved two types of pedagogical mentoring. Qualitative content analysis enabled the identification of the impact of mentoring that took place before the exchange and also revealed insights into what students learned when their own online interactions were integrated into class work. The article concludes by discussing the limitations and challenges of different types of pedagogical mentoring in virtual exchange and by outlining a list of recommendations for carrying out pedagogical mentoring in such projects.

Negotiation of Meaning in Digital L2 Learning Interaction: Task Design Versus Task Performance

In this microanalytical study, designed as part of an interdisciplinary and intercultural virtual exchange project for undergraduate students, the authors investigate the correlation between task design on the one hand and participant interaction during task performance on the other. The task created for this study consisted of 12 low‐frequency vocabulary terms nonnative speakers (NNS) were expected to negotiate with their native speaker (NS) counterparts in order to reach mutual understanding and to complete the task successfully. Six NS‐NNS dyads (N = 12) carried out the task, each using both videoconferencing (Skype) and text‐based real‐time chat during the same session in a counterbalanced design. It was found that (a) if a task consists of multiple items to be exchanged, with multiple triggers of potential nonunderstanding, the NNS response gradually moves from task‐appropriate response to face‐appropriate response during the course of an ongoing task session; (b) in order to ensure successful task completion, the NS tends to respond to NNS face‐appropriate behaviour with responses that are both face‐ and task‐appropriate; and (c) NNS nonunderstanding of a particular target item shapes the expectations of both NS and NNS concerning the next task item.

Telecollaborative networks in university higher education: Overcoming barriers to integration

Foreign language telecollaboration refers to virtual intercultural interaction and exchange projects between classes of learners in geographically distant locations. While research findings on telecollaboration have confirmed its valuable contribution to students' foreign language, intercultural and electronic competences, a preliminary research study carried out by O'Dowd (2010) revealed that the activity remains relatively peripheral in nature and has yet to be taken up by a significant number of university educators. With this in mind, a large scale quantitative and qualitative study was carried out on telecollaborative activity in European higher education which involved a survey of over 300 university lecturers and students and the collection of 7 case studies of representative telecollaborative exchanges which involve universities in many European and non-European contexts (Guth, Helm, & O'Dowd, 2012). Based on data taken from these case studies, this article explores the barriers which practitioners encounter when organising online intercultural exchanges and then identifies the strategies they used to overcome these barriers.

Implementing a Virtual Exchange Project for student nurses in Queensland and Nottingham

This paper discusses the design and initial progress made with a virtual learning environment to help student nurses develop an understanding of cultural awareness and globalization. Using a Web-based application the Virtual Exchange Project was designed to facilitate study-elsewhere experiences located in the student's own setting. Promotion of the United Nations' Millennium Development goals provided an opportunity for student nurses to explore changes in global health and disease patterns, nursing education and systems of nurse regulation in the United Kingdom and Australia. A pedagogical framework created for this activity acknowledges the social and academic identities that learners often use, when working together in a virtual environment. The architecture of the Virtual Exchange supports local conversations about nurse education and health and social issues across hemispheres.

Competencia linguística y conciencia intercultural a través del intercambio virtual

El presente artículo trata de cómo la participación en actividades de intercambio virtual con herramientas tecnológicas, apoya el desarrollo de competencias lingüísticas y de la conciencia intercultural de los estudiantes de lengua extranjera del Instituto de Idiomas de la Universidad del Norte y del Colegio Richmond Senior High en Rockingham, Richmond, Carolina del Norte. Además, describe la experiencia, las etapas de la misma y algunos resultados obtenidos a partir de la aplicación de una encuesta a los estudiantes participantes. En términos generales, parece haber una relación positiva entre la participación de los estudiantes en esta experiencia de intercambio y el desarrollo de sus competencias lingüísticas y de su conciencia intercultural.