Associate Professor Konstantinos Petridis, Vice Rector of Internationalization and Extroversion of the Hellenic Mediterranean University in Greece, will moderate this session: Academics, Decision Makers and Students will share with us their expertise and visions regarding the impact of virtual internationalization. 

Watch it again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmybbYSTqtU&list=PLbFjofDcjeupk-uBsxYAnqsoeai4nKR77&index=1&t=1s 

Sara Pittarello: Managing Director at UNICollaboration, consultant at UNIMED, Freelance Conference Interpreter, evaluators’ tutor for the Italian HE National Agency, involved in numerous Erasmus+ and national projects. Trainer and speaker on VE and project management. Former Vice Chair of the Coimbra Group Academic Exchange and Mobility WG and Project Manager and trainer at Padova University.

Christina Kontogoulidou, Head of International Relations Office, University of Piraeus, Greece. About Christina please check it here: https://erdic.unipi.gr/en/about-us-en/bios-en/117-ckonto-en 

Dr. Mirjam Hauck, Senior Lecturer, Department of Languages, Academic Co-Lead for AI in Learning, Teaching and Assessment in the OPEN University in UK. 

Dr. Mirjam Hauck is the Academic Lead for AI in Learning, Teaching, and Assessment at the Open University/UK and a Senior Fellow of the UK’s Higher Education Academy. She has written numerous articles and book chapters on the use of technologies for learning and teaching languages and cultures in particular virtual exchange (VE) contexts.

Currently, her scholarly work focuses on theorizing and framing the nascent field of critical virtual exchange (CVE), which considers that VE is not inherently equitable as its point of departure. CVE is VE through the social justice lens and aims to ensure more equitable, inclusive, and socio-politically relevant student exchange experiences.

She is the President of the European Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning (EUROCALL), and the Chair of the Language and Culture Expert Community of the European Association for International Education (EAIE). She serves as Associate Editor of the CALL Journal and is a member of the editorial board of ReCALL and LLT. She is also a founder member of UNICollaboration.org

Mirjam, will discuss with us on how virtual exchange programs promote equity and inclusion in global education. These programs make intercultural learning accessible to diverse student populations, fostering cultural competence and awareness. Continuous professional development for educators is essential for effective program facilitation. The article showcases successful virtual exchanges, such as the collaboration between the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Taylor's University in Malaysia, which received positive student feedback for enhancing cultural understanding and addressing issues like identity and human rights.

The Presentation Slides

Ms. Ángela M. Alonso, PhD Candidate, University of Leon, Spain. 

Intercultural mobility programmes such as Erasmus can be an excellent option for sojourners to develop their intercultural communicative skills. However, the truth is many of these cannot afford the experience financially (Byram & Dervin, 2008), some do not feel prepared to undertake the experience and others often return reporting negative attitudes towards the host culture (Byram & Fleming, 1998). Due to the travel restrictions during the pandemic, Higher Education Institutions made greater use of new technological approaches, such as Virtual Exchange (VE), that allowed students and teachers to interact with people in diverse geographically distant locations. This presentation addresses the need to prepare sojourners to better benefit from their intercultural physical mobility and outlines an interdisciplinary pre-mobility VE model designed at the University of León, Spain. This sort of preparatory VE initiative has recently been successfully implemented in Irish and Spanish universities under the name of Ready, Mobility, Go! (Batardière et al., 2019) or the I-Tell project (Giralt & Jeanneau, 2016). The presentation reports on two rounds of the Gear Up! VE, which offers undergraduate students preparation in terms of intercultural communication, transversal and linguistic skills in order to maximise the learning outcomes of their physical mobility. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to analyse the data collected from students’ portfolios, semi-structured focus group interviews and pre- and post-exchange questionnaires. The presentation will look at the impact that this VE had on students’ skills as well as on their willingness to participate in physical mobility programmes.

Dr. Elisa Bruhn-Zaß, Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Bonn, Germany. 

Abstract: According to the IAU, the internationalization of higher education has been shaped by five events in recent years: the Covid-19 pandemic, digital transformation, the quest for sustainable development, the changing geopolitical context, and societal demands. The IAU emphasizes that these are fundamentally interrelated and can hardly be discussed in isolation.

This presentation aims to bring these aspects together under the umbrella of virtual internationalization. It poses the question: How can universities transform the virtual internationalization developments fueled by the Covid-19 pandemic into sustainable structures for the future? While not attempting to provide a definitive answer, Elisa Bruhn-Zass contributes to the debate on the relationship between internationalization, digitalization, sustainability, and resilience.

The Presentation Slides

Federico Scremin: Prosecretary of International Relations at the National University of La Matanza (Argentina). He oversees international cooperation for the entire university. I hold a Law Degree and a Master's in Public Policy.