Preparation

The first step in preparing for a VE is finding a faculty member at another university. The Office of International Affairs provides support for identifying a partner. The OIA Director of Curriculum Internationalization and Virtual Exchange manager can assist faculty in identifying a partner with existing Indiana University international partners and can also liaise with organizations in the international education field that provide partnering support on behalf of the faculty member, such as SUNY COIL and COIL Connect.

Start looking for an international partner at least one semester in advance. Multiple factors will impact how long it takes to identify a partner. Reserve as much time as possible, at least two months, to collaboratively plan virtual exchange activities.

Planning

As you communicate with your international partner, here are some topics for discussion.

Timing - There are two main areas to consider early on.
1. Coordinating Semester Schedules - Since universities in different countries may have different academic schedules, exchange early on with your VE partner the start and stop dates for the semesters/quarters and a list of any major holidays/days off school. Check to see when the two academic schedules overlap and how that overlap impacts the nature of the activities you can plan. For example, if the overlap is in the first two weeks, this will influence what type of graded project you can do.
2. Time Zones - For synchronous interactions, such as live video chats, consider equity in which virtual exchange partner has to get up early or stay up late to accommodate the time difference and what does early or late mean in that cultural context? This is something you should discuss with your international partner.
Language
1. Equity is also important to consider when deciding what language or languages will be used for the virtual exchange and how to accommodate full participation even if a person is not fluent in the chosen language(s). Different courses may have different solutions.
  1. When language learning is the focus of the courses and there are at least two shared languages among the groups, the instructors may decide to alternate which language is used within the meeting or every other meeting. While learning a particular language can assist in career and economic mobility, it is also important to discuss with students/participants the colonial power structures and why certain languages are dominant in certain regions.
  2. Even when language learning is not a focus, consider asking the students in your class to engage, where culturally appropriate, in one or more of the languages spoken by the students at the other university, even if is learning “hi” or “thank you”. Encourage students to be patient and give individuals time to compose their thoughts, and use google translate or another program as much as possible to facilitate a multilingual space.
  3. Underestimate rather than overestimate language fluencies and plan projects that would work even if all parties are not fluent in the chosen languages. This will help avoid student frustrations.
2. Communication styles and not just vocabulary can affect collaboration.
  1. Try to be attentive as possible to indirect communication when planning the virtual exchange. Although your partner might not say no, they may still know or think the suggestion won’t work out. Be attentive to indirect communication and silences and ask follow-up questions. See examples.
3. Sharing of personal information between for partners and students: Getting to know each other and each other’s cultural practices is necessary but when and how much is shared follows different cultural norms.
  1. IU and FERPA have specific boundaries for what information can be shared with VE partners. For example, it is prohibited to share with your VE partner a list of the students enrolled in your course as well as a list of the IU emails of the students enrolled in your course.
  2. Faculty partners can consider engaging in icebreakers as they get to know each other and also role playing icebreakers and other personal questions they plan to ask students to discuss.Partners can respond like they think the students in their classes would. Write down what is shared and use this info to prepare the students for the interactions.
  3. Investigate the role and degree to which the concept of “saving face” may play in your partners’ cultural context. “Saving face” refers to “the process of reciprocal respect” and can translate into the avoidance of any form of humiliation, loss, or embarrassment (Henderson 2009, 400). Henderson (2009) found that within the context of group projects, concerns about “saving face” as well as about preserving a person’s grade can arise and disrupt collaboration and learning With an internationally collaborative project being a desired goal of virtual exchange/COIL, decide how you will go about this and how you will assess it, especially when some of the students’ partners may have varying degrees of fluency in the shared language(s). Unfortunately, despite the hope of fostering tolerance, a shared project designed without considering these issues may do the opposite (Henderson 2009).
  4. Investigate the role and degree to which the concept of saving face plays in your partners cultural context. Saving face means the avoidance of any form of humiliation, loss, or embarrassment Henderson (2009) found that saving face or a person’s grade can arise too as an issue. Consider if and how you want to do a joint project as the final product and how you will assess, especially when some of the students’ partners may have varying degrees of fluency in the shared language(s). Unfortunately, despite the hope of fostering tolerance, a shared project designed without considering these issues may do the opposite (Henderson 2009).
Decide what the learning objectives, activities, and products will be for the virtual exchange.
1. Start with a live video meeting among the faculty of the two or more course sections that might be linked with a virtual exchange and discuss the type of assignments you have, learning goals, topics covered and timing in the semester related to the semester overlap, and degree of flexibility you have in changing assignments.
  1. Exchanging syllabi over email is helpful too but the language of instruction may not be a language that the instructors know and thus syllabi may be in different languages.
Types of Interactions: Timing and learning goals will influence which combination of interactions may work best.
1. Synchronous or Asynchronous or both? Sometimes combining synchronous with asynchronous can help students go deeper into the topic. For example, they can start the discussion or project live via an online video platform like Zoom and continue it via an asynchronous text discussion. In other cases, you may want them to share some text and review this work prior to the live meeting.
2. Will the interactions occur during or outside of the scheduled class time? It is possible that to accommodate schedules and time zones, virtual exchange activities will take place outside of the scheduled class time. This is something to discuss with all students and instructors.
Technology - Consider the following in selecting the communication and data-sharing platforms the students/participants will use.
1. IU has restrictions on what platforms can be used due to student data privacy concerns. Contact UITS to see if the platform you would like to use is approved. In the past, the following platforms have been allowed at IU:
  1. CourseNetworking
  2. Google (e.g. Jamboard, Chat, Drive)
  3. Inscribe
  4. Microsoft (Teams, OneDrive)
  5. Zoom
2. Avoid platforms where students are required to share personal contact information like personal emails or personal phone numbers with their peers
3. Avoid platforms that cost students money or require another institution to purchase access to something they do not already have

Implementation

Once the content of the virtual exchange interactions has been planned, there are a few things to consider during the implementation.

Reflect on what content and skills students will need to successfully complete the collaborative virtual exchange activities and build that content and practice into the course you are teaching as class lecture, class practice, and/or assignments. This will help students reach the end goal of the virtual exchange.
Coordinating students’ schedules for small group synchronous meetings is time consuming, but challenges can arise as well if students, especially undergraduate students, are expected to arrange groups and meeting times on their own across times zones. Below is one suggestion to help coordinate schedules:
1. Work with your virtual exchange partner to select a range of times and days of the week that might work based on the time zones, known course schedules, and any other factors
2. Survey both sets of students/participants to see what all of their possible availabilities are for the list of times and days and add in any additional times based on student availability. Having all of the possible times can help when creating the small groups.
Create a presentation based on what you learn about the VE partner university’s cultural context as it relates to communication styles, sharing personal information in conversations, deadlines and concepts of time, and saving face. Share this presentation with the class you are teaching just before the start of the virtual exchange.
Check in periodically with students and ask how the virtual exchange is going, about any problems they have encountered, and what they have learned so far.
1. Provide a lot of structure for the interactions themselves, such as an agenda with prompts for each meeting, and include at least one deliverable that is graded by you.
  1. Icebreakers are not just icing on the cake. They are essential to help students get to know each other. Consider integrating an icebreaker for each student group interaction.

Assessment

Some common types of assessment for VE include papers, presentations, and reflections.

If you are interested in assessing student growth for a particular learning objective, consider using a pre and post survey or post-virtual exchange reflection assignment based on the targeted skill/knowledge. Criteria that can be used to assess students’ growth include:

Inserting “why” as an open-ended question that accompanies rank-order survey questions about the targeted skill or knowledge. This information is key because sometimes participants may realize after the virtual exchange experience that they overestimated their skill level/topic knowledge on the pre-VE survey and so will select a lower ranking on the post-VE survey even though growth occurred.
Asking students/participants to provide specific examples from the virtual exchange interactions when doing the assessment, whether that be a paper, project, or response to a survey question. This will help you see what parts of the virtual exchange assisted with the growth and assess the degree to which the perceived growth involved accurate content/knowledge and avoided reinforcing stereotypes.

Additional Considerations

Scheduling Issues:

Have a contingency plan if a student misses one or more virtual exchange synchronous meetings or weeks or falls considerably behind in the virtual exchange project. Communicate that plan with your virtual exchange partner and the students in your course.

Arriving late or missing a meeting: There are different cultural norms surrounding keeping appointments and there can be structural barriers, like electrical or internet outages or traffic, that may prevent someone from arriving on time. Remind students to give their peers the benefit of the doubt and ask your students to communicate beforehand if they think they will miss a meeting or arrive late.

Friendly tip about technology: Whichever technology format you and your VE partner select, consider setting up any shared folders and chats for each group so that you have access OR ask the students to add you with full viewing/editing permissions by a set date. This will help in case issues arise with group dynamics, productivity, or someone posts something inappropriate.