Abstract:

Virtual exchange courses have great potential. They allow students to participate in classes not offered locally, thus extending the available educational offer as well as contributing to educational equality. They are also prime examples of sustainable internationalisation. By allowing more participants than traditional international mobility, they can be a major force in enhancing the integration of the European educational landscape, providing an accessible international experience, benefitting both participating students and their teachers. But scaling up from individual teachers’ usually informal Collaborative Online International Learning projects to a systematic integration in an international consortium of universities, has proven a difficult and far from always successful process. This paper is based on the experience and learning journey of offering virtual exchange language and global competence courses within one of the first 17 European University Alliances projects launched in 2019, made up of seven (from 2022 nine) technical universities. While the literature on virtual exchange has mainly focused on the digital pedagogical competence of the teachers involved, in this paper we will draw attention to other, often overlooked, “educational hygiene factors” (pace Herzberg), crucial for building functional and effective routines across national and institutional borders. Specifically, we highlight three major, interconnected, challenges encountered during the deployment and implementation of the studied European University Alliance's virtual exchange offer: the gap between official aspirations and everyday practice within the alliance; the complexities involved in coordinating and syncing different national and institutional schedules and routines; and the difficulties of reaching out to and retaining students. Data for the study come from course statistics, participant observation, and interviews with involved technicians, administrators, teachers, and students. We believe the experiences and learning trajectory presented in this study are relevant to anyone interested in systematic approaches to introducing virtual exchange courses as an effective means for sustainable internationalisation, be these within the framework of European University Alliances or other forms of international Higher Education Institution collaborations.

Keywords:

Virtual exchange, global competence, International Higher Education Institution collaboration, European University Alliances, change management.