Virtual Exchange Overview
“…virtual exchange (VE) involves the engagement of groups of learners in extended periods of online intercultural interaction and collaboration with partners from other cultural contexts or geographical locations as an integrated part of their educational programmes and under the guidance of educators and/or expert facilitators.”
– O’Dowd, 2018, p. 5
Strategies
Start Simple
There are a variety of ways to engage in VE:
- Invite a virtual guest to synchronously share experiences and knowledge with the students in your course
- Collaborate with an instructor abroad and have the students interact on selected topics via Zoom or Skype
- Invite students to connect with a pen pal or a researcher in their field through email or discussion forums
Join the Collaborative International Teaching Network (CITN)
The goal of the CITN is to guide and support faculty to engage creatively with collaborative international teaching opportunities. VE enables students and faculty to connect virtually across national borders and campuses to engage in asynchronous and synchronous project-based activities to examine global issues and problem-solving from diverse perspectives.
Resources
- Teaching Beyond the Podium podcast (Center for Teaching Excellence, University of Florida): Virtual Exchange | Transcript
- University of Florida International Center: Introduction to VE
- Georgia State University: Benefits of VE
- American Council on Education: VE in the Global Learning Portfolio (.pdf)
Diving Deeper/Research
- Evaluating the Impact of Virtual Exchange on Initial Teacher Education: Executive Summary – The Key Findings from the EVALUATE European Policy Experiment (.pdf)
- O’Dowd, R. (2018). From Telecollaboration to Virtual Exchange: State-of-the-Art and the Role of UNICollaboration in Moving Forward
- O’Dowd, R., Sauro, S. and Spector‐Cohen, E. (2019). The Role of Pedagogical Mentoring in VE