How universities can make internationalisation and global perspectives accessible to more students while reducing the carbon footprint of mobility.

Internationalisation at home

Student collaboration has always been integral to the learner journey. But now, as the pandemic has limited opportunities for face-to-face discussions, such interaction must take place online.Remote learning, aided by&nbsp;mediation that technology can offer, has made online collaborative learning in 2021 more important than ever,&nbsp;particularly for students wishing to study abroad or learn from different cultures.&nbsp;So how can universities support greater online collaboration?&nbsp;Introducing virtual exchangeVirtual&nbsp;exchange&nbsp;enables students&nbsp;in geographically distant locations to meet&nbsp;online to work together on shared subjects. Students in such&nbsp;virtual exchange&nbsp;projects meet&nbsp;and complete learning activities using widely available online communication tools&nbsp;such as&nbsp;Zoom, Facebook, Google Docs, WeChat&nbsp;and more.&nbsp;These projects are&nbsp;often&nbsp;formally supported&nbsp;and&nbsp;under the guidance of teachers or trained facilitators within&nbsp;students’&nbsp;institutions.Virtual exchange can enhance&nbsp;learning in areas such as foreign languages, digital skills and intercultural communication, research shows.&nbsp;Digital skills&nbsp;are&nbsp;particularly important, as&nbsp;almost all&nbsp;frameworks&nbsp;reflecting&nbsp;on skills critical for success in the 21st century include technological competencies.But whether all learners&nbsp;are able to&nbsp;develop&nbsp;these&nbsp;skills through&nbsp;online collaboration&nbsp;can be&nbsp;questioned.&nbsp;In some studies&nbsp;students&nbsp;expressed substantial gains&nbsp;in&nbsp;foreign language skills&nbsp;or digital competences while&nbsp;in other reports, students did not&nbsp;feel they learned&nbsp;anything from&nbsp;the exchange.&nbsp;&nbsp;Collaboration mediated by online technologies&nbsp;might not be a panacea for all&nbsp;learners.&nbsp;Why some benefit more than others&nbsp;Our&nbsp;studies&nbsp;using data from&nbsp;the&nbsp;Evaluate project,&nbsp;which&nbsp;involved 23&nbsp;virtual exchanges&nbsp;in&nbsp;classes of initial teacher education at 34 institutions across the world&nbsp;between&nbsp;2017&nbsp;and&nbsp;2019, revealed that three key&nbsp;factors&nbsp;influenced students’ perception of their&nbsp;learning&nbsp;of digital skills:&nbsp;students’ reported ability to overcome challenges and/or anxieties during the&nbsp;virtual exchange&nbsp;was&nbsp;a&nbsp;major&nbsp;differentiator&nbsp;between&nbsp;those&nbsp;with high and low learning gains&nbsp;the expectations&nbsp;students&nbsp;had of&nbsp;virtual exchange, with higher expectations incurring reports of lower learning&nbsp;gains&nbsp;the students’&nbsp;prior technological capabilities, with students who already had good digital skills&nbsp;before the&nbsp;exchange&nbsp;feeling they had not learnt as much from the project.&nbsp;Designing virtual exchange&nbsp;for the benefit of all&nbsp;The&nbsp;findings provide useful insight for instructors wishing to improve the learning outcomes for all students involved in online collaborative projects such as virtual exchanges.&nbsp;They must consider the following:&nbsp;1)&nbsp;Get to know the profiles of your students, their anxiety levels and familiarity with technology&nbsp;It is important to check in with students to make sure they are all happy with the technological set-up of the project. Turn the differences between the collaborating students into a strength by organising peer-to-peer support. Students more familiar with technology can mentor students who are less tech-savvy and take initiative setting up social spaces on the online platforms used in the project. Additional support on tech know-how can, where necessary, also be provided and monitored by instructors.&nbsp;2)&nbsp;Make&nbsp;students aware of&nbsp;the&nbsp;likely&nbsp;challenges&nbsp;of&nbsp;virtual exchange&nbsp;and how to overcome them&nbsp;Challenges may include anxiety about&nbsp;technology, with research suggesting that the&nbsp;fear of using new technology&nbsp;is common. Another challenge&nbsp;is a belief that technology is for socialising&nbsp;and is not suitable for learning,&nbsp;which means some&nbsp;students may not take such learning seriously.&nbsp;It may help to have explicit discussions with students about the potential benefits of technology for learning.&nbsp;Then there are all the usual&nbsp;challenges&nbsp;of&nbsp;collaboration itself – lack of interpersonal skills,&nbsp;not all voices being heard,&nbsp;not enough time or opportunity&nbsp;for&nbsp;teams to create common frames of reference.&nbsp;This is where&nbsp;virtual exchange&nbsp;can help students&nbsp;develop&nbsp;better&nbsp;communication skills, as&nbsp;students&nbsp;learn&nbsp;to&nbsp;adjust their behaviour&nbsp;to be understood&nbsp;and&nbsp;“negotiate&nbsp;meaning”&nbsp;with their peers to complete tasks&nbsp;successfully.&nbsp;Fostering&nbsp;peer&nbsp;support&nbsp;and&nbsp;checking how&nbsp;students&nbsp;feel about themselves and the project will help more students benefit from&nbsp;the&nbsp;online group work.&nbsp;&nbsp;3)&nbsp;Provide&nbsp;a&nbsp;clear&nbsp;framework and&nbsp;expectations&nbsp;&nbsp;This&nbsp;should&nbsp;describe&nbsp;what the virtual exchange is aiming to achieve&nbsp;and what it is not aiming to achieve.&nbsp;It&nbsp;provides&nbsp;students with a clear view of what they are&nbsp;working towards&nbsp;and a sense of achievement upon attaining it, while&nbsp;avoiding&nbsp;potential disappointment&nbsp;over&nbsp;unrealistic expectations.&nbsp;4)&nbsp;Strengthen collaboration&nbsp;within&nbsp;student teams&nbsp;&nbsp;Encourage&nbsp;more communication between&nbsp;students&nbsp;including&nbsp;informal&nbsp;socialising&nbsp;as well as&nbsp;discussions&nbsp;around&nbsp;the learning tasks.&nbsp;Through these interactions,&nbsp;students will not only improve their on-task&nbsp;learning, but&nbsp;discover&nbsp;the cultural context in which their peers live.&nbsp;The&nbsp;many&nbsp;communication channels enabled by online platforms provide plenty of&nbsp;opportunity&nbsp;for such socialising.&nbsp;&nbsp;5)&nbsp;Help&nbsp;the students shape&nbsp;and direct&nbsp;their virtual exchange together&nbsp;Provide&nbsp;multiple&nbsp;tools for synchronous communication,&nbsp;as well as&nbsp;facilitating&nbsp;explicit discussions about&nbsp;how the&nbsp;group&nbsp;is&nbsp;organised. This feedback and discussion will mean you can refine and shape the virtual exchange together, in a way that works for all.&nbsp;Applying these&nbsp;evidence-based recommendations&nbsp;may help more&nbsp;students&nbsp;achieve&nbsp;better outcomes&nbsp;from&nbsp;online group work.Irina Rets is a research&nbsp;associate in the School of Management at&nbsp;Lancaster University and Bart Rienties is professor of learning analytics and programme lead in the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University.&nbsp;

Virtual exchanges enable group work between students in different locations, but studies show varied learning gains. Irina Rets and Bart Rienties use research to examine how instructors can manage virtual exchanges to ensure everyone benefits 

Virtual exchange: supporting online collaboration to benefit all learners

How universities can make internationalisation and global perspectives accessible to more students while reducing the carbon footprint of mobility

Internationalisation at home

Virtual exchange: supporting online collaboration to benefit all learners

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