Rethinking Curriculum Internationalization: Virtual Exchange as a Means to Attaining Global Competencies, Developing Critical Thinking, and Experiencing Transformative Learning

A telecollaborative approach to foster students' critical thinking skills

“…Similar to the studies by Duffy et al (2020) and Lenkaitis and Loranc-Paszylk (2021), this study also benefits from telecollaboration in enhancing students' critical thinking skills. It assesses the effectiveness of telecollaboration based on two data sources: students' written arguments and responses to the survey items.…”

“…Positive outcomes of telecollaborative learning have also been reported for developing students' global competencies. Duffy et al (2020) qualitatively explored whether a nine-month virtual exchange between the USA and Thailand led to an increase in global competencies (cross-cultural communication and global awareness and mindfulness), critical thinking, and transformative learning of undergraduate students from the USA. Working telecollaboratively, students completed two assignments: getting to know each other using a series of questions and discussing critical questions about the topics of disability, inclusion, and adaptive sport and writing a joint paper on their collective thoughts.…”

“…Evidence from such studies has affirmed positive outcomes connected to linguistic and intercultural development of students as a result of engagement in telecollaborative learning. Following the recent calls for engaging students in more critically-oriented exchanges (Helm, 2013;O'Dowd, 2016), the developmental focus of telecollaboration has expanded beyond language learning and intercultural development to teacher training (Bilki et al, 2019;Dooly & Sadler, 2013;Üzüm et al, 2020), content knowledge development (Cunningham, 2019;Saricaoglu, & Geluso, 2020) or development of digital literacies or global perspectives (Duffy et al, 2020;González, 2020;Helm, 2013;Lenkaitis & Loranc-Paszylk, 2021;Oskoz & Gimeno-Sanz, 2019;Priego & Liaw, 2017). While there has been scant research on the latter, telecollaboration has the potential to contribute to the development of students' critical perspectives, which is the concern of this study.…”

Creating Collaborative Research Opportunities at a Distance: From Porto to Cluj-Napoca

“…In addition to promoting interdisciplinarity, over the last decades, HEI have also been increasingly challenged to further internationalize their curricula. Considered to be crucial [8,9], this internationalization includes not only student and faculty mobility, but also "institutional incorporation of global perspectives into undergraduate and graduate research and teaching at the home campus" [10], which has prompted institutions to look for alternative ways to foster academic collaboration in international settings, namely through the use of digital platforms. Also referred to as globally networked learning and cyber-pedagogy [10][11][12], these virtual exchanges rely on new pedagogical approaches and remote collaboration, paving the way for innovative experiences based on shared teaching and learning spaces.…”

Course Internationalization Through Virtual Exchange: Students’ Reflections About “Seeing the World Through the Lens That is Soccer”

“…VE has indeed become an effective way to internationalize university curricula from home (Duffy et al, 2020;Ureta et al, 2021) in an inclusive manner (Verzella, 2018). As O'Dowd (2018) explains, the term VE is an "umbrella term" (p. 4)-other terms referring to VE may include Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) or telecollaboration.…”