Fall 2024 Webinar Series Recordings: Virtual Exchange in Language Education

Virtual Exchange in Language Education

 

Often, opportunities to connect with peers abroad are limited to students who have the time and financial means to travel and stay for extended periods of time. Open Doors reports that less than 10% of U.S. undergraduates study abroad. As a low-cost or no-cost opportunity, virtual exchange has the potential to enable all students to connect and collaborate with peers from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds on projects that model the encounters they will have in the workforce. In the process, they can develop critical skills such as collaboration, communication, proficiency in another language, understanding of different perspectives, awareness of our common humanity, and civic and global engagement.

 

For these benefits to become a reality, however, careful instructional planning is essential, and this is what the presenters in this series will focus on, each coming at it from a different angle.

Click on the titles below to access the recordings, slides and resources for the webinars in this series.

You can also view all the recordings in our YouTube webinar playlist!

Robert O’Dowd

Robert O’Dowd

(Universidad de León, Spain)

 

 

Overcoming Challenges and Barriers in Virtual Exchange

In this webinar, Dr. O’Dowd:

  • uses key publications from the literature to explore how VE and Blended Mobility can promote foreign language learning as well as global citizenship.
  • outlines how VE and Blended Mobility can be integrated effectively into foreign language programmes.
  • reflects on the challenges educators face as we try to use this activity to deal with issues of diversity and inclusion and to establish equitable relationships with partners from other countries.

Some of what attendees told us they found most beneficial about this webinar:

I can apply what I learned from the “Overcoming Challenges and Barriers in Virtual Exchange” webinar by enhancing student engagement in virtual settings, creating a more inclusive and multicultural environment, addressing technical challenges with new solutions, and adopting flexible teaching methods to better meet the diverse needs of students in online learning. This will help improve the overall online teaching experience and foster a more positive learning atmosphere

I will be informing my Ph.D students of the virtual exchange projects and research in the upcoming weeks. I will be incorporating some materials that were shared in the session and will create a discussion atmosphere where they will discuss various challenges in virtual exchange that were illustrated in this webinar and how to overcome the barriers in this regard.

I found the lecture very interesting and informative. Dr. O’Dowd made the lecture interesting explaining different case studies that I have found important for my VE project. On the other hand, I found especially useful Dr. O’Dowd’s explanation about my particular problem. He gave a clear explanation and I was very satisfied with the outcome.

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Carolin Fuchs

Carolin Fuchs

(Northeastern University)

 

 

Advancing Civic Engagement through Virtual Exchange: Instructional Planning, Task Design, and Outcomes

 

In this webinar, Dr. Fuchs:

  • discuses the potential of implementing virtual exchange to facilitate civic engagement for outreach purposes across a foreign language program curriculum.
  • focuses on instructional planning for stakeholders, presenting task models, examples, and outcomes by referencing various projects.
  • draws on results from different student cohorts, and will illustrate how advancing civic engagement can prepare students for navigating and contributing to a globalized world, while promoting empathy and understanding across generations.
     

Some of what attendees told us they found most beneficial about this webinar:

The webinar provided some inspiration for the virtual exchange project I am currently designing. It gave me new ideas on how to structure activities to foster intercultural communication and enhance language learning outcomes. For example, I plan to incorporate more collaborative tasks and reflective exercises to help students actively engage with their international peers while improving their language proficiency.

Even without connecting to foreign students, there are principles in this webinar that can apply to all language courses!

First and foremost it was excellent to identify the resources for getting started with VE, like Partnering Fairs and other tools available. I will also ensure VE takes place in the Fall and not the Spring. On a completely different note, polls on Zoom are extremely engaging and I will use them too in the future!

Marta Tecedor

Marta Tecedor

(Arizona State University)

 

 

 

Virtual Exchanges: Leveraging the Power of a “Professional Conversation Partner” in the Language Classroom

In this webinar, Dr. Tecedor focuses on the defining characteristics of SPVEs and discuss how this more recent model can be incorporated in the world language curriculum to bolster both intercultural and linguistic competence.

Some of what attendees told us they found most beneficial about this webinar:

Learning about the webinar emphasized the importance of employing controlled, authentic dialogues to improve students’ language proficiency while cultivating their self-assurance and fluency.

For me [the] entire session was quite amazing. I would love to attend more sessions like this.

The discussion about the programs and experience using them. Mentimeter was insightful and helpful in the conversation here.