Virtual exchange between cross-cultural teams: A sustainable path to the internationalization of college courses

Considering that only a small percentage of students can afford the cost of study abroad programs, it is important to appreciate how collaborative projects that link classes from geographically distant places can be organized at no cost for students and institutions. The umbrella term for this type of collaborative projects is “virtual exchange.” While a certain degree of diffidence for virtual exchange initiatives is due to difficulties of integrating these projects with traditional syllabi and uncertainties on how to evaluate students who collaborate in cross-cultural virtual teams, the benefits for students have been widely documented. Among the most dynamic organizations that promote cultural exchange are the INTENT consortium (through the Unicollaboration platform at uni-collaboration. eu) and the TAPP network. These organizations have promoted the creation of projects that have helped students develop intercultural competencies, communication skills in English as a lingua franca, and digital literacy. Importantly, projects like those developed through Unicollaboration or TAPP are not hampered by red tape and bureaucracy, and represent a more sustainable path to the internationalization of a wide range of college courses. Finally, virtual exchange initiatives foster global citizenship, intercultural awareness, and cosmopolitan open-mindedness in times characterized by a resurgence of petty nationalism and particularism.

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Work Title Virtual exchange between cross-cultural teams: A sustainable path to the internationalization of college courses
Access
Open Access
Creators
  1. Massimo Verzella
Keyword
  1. Virtual exchange
  2. Internationalization
  3. Telecollaboration
  4. Technical writing
License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives)
Work Type Article
Publisher
  1. Transformative Dialogues: Teaching & Learning Journal
Publication Date December 2018
Subject
  1. Virtual exchange
Related URLs
Deposited February 21, 2024

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  • Added Creator Massimo Verzella
  • Added TD.11.3_Verzella_Virtual_Exchange_between_Cross-Cultural_Teams (1).pdf
  • Updated Keyword, Subject, License Show Changes
    Keyword
    • Virtual exchange, Internationalization, telecollaboration, technical writing
    Subject
    • Virtual exchange
    License
    • https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
  • Published
  • Updated Keyword, Publisher, Related URLs, and 1 more Show Changes
    Keyword
    • Virtual exchange, Internationalization, telecollaboration, technical writing
    • Virtual exchange, Internationalization, Telecollaboration, Technical writing
    Publisher
    • Transformative Dialogues: Teaching & Learning Journal
    Related URLs
    • https://journals.psu.edu/td/article/view/137
    Publication Date
    • 2018
    • 2018-12
  • Updated