Introduction to Critical Virtual Exchange
Virtual Exchange
Virtual Exchange (VE) is an innovative pedagogical practice in Higher Education, where teachers (usually two or three) from universities in different countries connect students from their respective classes to work together online in tasks or projects. The topics may vary widely from designing a menu for a vegan restaurant to finding solutions for global warming. The activities, projects or challenges relate to the students’ disciplinary knowledge but also draw on their personal, cultural and regional backgrounds. You might for example have heard of terms, such as Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), Telecollaboration, Intercultural Teams, or similar. These (and others) are often used synonymously. Also, the concept of Virtual Exchange has in the past often been framed in the context of language learning. While this is one field for application, we understand Virtual Exchange as a practice that can benefit any discipline.
Activity
Please watch this 3-minute introduction to Virtual Exchange:
What is Virtual Exchange? © 2020 by EVOLVE Project is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Note: Toggle the CC (closed captioning) button for captions in English and other languages. Click on the gear button and choose higher resolution settings to best view the screen.
As you can see in the video, Virtual Exchange has the potential to bring together students (and teachers) from different (cultural/social/disciplinary) backgrounds and lead to in-depth intercultural exchange while initiating an embodied experience that results from group collaboration and reflection.
However, this learning process does not automatically occur. For one, it requires co-teachers to plan and conduct (a-)synchronous activities that initiate fruitful exchange between students. To do so, teachers need to be aware of their role as facilitators or pedagogic mentors to support a “… more proactive, critical pedagogical approach to intercultural communication where educators explicitly lead learners to negotiate difference …” (O’Dowd et al. 2020: 148).
Activity
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Please read a section of the article “The role of pedagogical mentoring in virtual exchange” (from p. 146 through p. 152). Click on this link for open access.
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Reflect on how your role as a teacher changes in a virtual exchange in comparison to your regular teaching experience. Please prepare notes on this, we will discuss it during the core module on Critical Virtual Exchange.
From Virtual Exchange to Critical Virtual Exchange
Virtual Exchange is often praised for its potential to enabling in-depth intercultural exchange and bringing different perspectives to a diverse set of learners. However – and comparable to other forms of online and/or blended education – VE brings a variety of challenges in regards to issues around Diversity, Equity or Inclusion.
Any VE may for instance lead to issues around (technical) accessibility (e.g. due to limited bandwith), it might reproduce existing (social) inequalities or initiate conflict and/or discimination and it might be hard to engage for participants with fewer language skills (in the language of instruction, often English) or little experience with digital media. These are mere examples.
This is where a critical perspective is needed. Critical Virtual Exchange (CVE) entails taking a critical approach towards VE. This relates to the topics, tools, pedagogy, partners, context and delivery of VE. Facilitators of VE (usually teachers) are invited to reflect on issues around DEI throughout the planning, implementation and evaluation of a Virtual Exchange. The goal is to build an inclusive and respectful learning space, where students are invited to engage in cultural differences and construct knowledge through constructive dialogue (Hauck 2021).
You will learn more about this educative approach in the upcoming section of this training, where we will present a more systematic, research-based perspective on CVE.
References
Hauck, M. (2023). From Virtual Exchange to Critical Virtual Exchange and Critical Internationalization at Home. The Global Impact Exchange, 2023 (Spring) pp. 9–12. Available at: Open Research Online.
O’Dowd, R., Sauro, S., & Spector‐Cohen, E. (2020). The role of pedagogical mentoring in virtual exchange. Tesol Quarterly, 54(1), 146-172. Available at: The Role of Pedagogical Mentoring in Virtual Exchange.