The document discusses integrating virtual and physical student mobility in higher education through telecollaboration. It begins by outlining some common questions about student mobility barriers and how online technologies can support physical mobility. The presentation then defines telecollaboration as online intercultural collaborative projects between distant student groups and provides examples of different virtual mobility set-ups that combine online and physical exchange. Barriers to telecollaboration are addressed, along with strategies to overcome them. Experienced practitioners provide feedback on the impact and popularity of telecollaboration in European universities.

1. TELECOLLABORATION:
INTEGRATING VIRTUAL AND PHYSICAL MOBILITY
IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Chair:
Rafael de Paz, Universidad de Leon, Spain
Speakers:
Melinda Dooly, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
Robert O'Dowd, Universidad de León, Spain
EAIE September 2012
Dublin

2. Some questions for you:
How much student mobility in your institution?
What are the main barriers to student mobility in your
institutions?
In your opinion, in what ways can online technologies support
physical student mobility or provide a ‘second-best’
alternative to physical mobility?

3. PLAN FOR THIS MORNING
• Explain what telecollaboration is and why it could be relevant to your
educational contexts
• Demonstrate how this type of activity can be used either as an
alternative to physical mobility or as a preparatory tool for mobility
programmes
• Outline some of the common barriers which exist at university level to
setting up such virtual mobility exchanges
• Identify examples of online exchange projects which have overcome
these barriers.

4. Student mobility in Europe
Mobility is important for personal development and
employability, it fosters respect for diversity and a capacity to
deal with other cultures. It encourages linguistic pluralism,
thus underpinning the multilingual tradition of the European
Higher Education Area and it increases cooperation and
competition between higher education institutions
In 2020, at least 20% of those graduating in the European
Higher Education Area should have had a study or training
period abroad.
Communiqué of the Conference of European Ministers Responsible for Higher Education,
Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve, 28-29 April 2009

5. What happens to the remaining 80%?
Virtual mobility, i.e. the use of the internet and other electronic
forms of information and communication, is often a catalyst for
embarking on a period of physical mobility. Although not a
substitute for physical mobility, it does enable young people to
prepare a stay abroad and can create conditions for future physical
mobility by facilitating friendships, contacts and social networking
etc….
It can also provide an international dimension to those learners
who, for different reasons, are not able or willing to go abroad. In
that context, ICT can be used for “electronic twinning” …etc.
Commission of the European Communities:
Green paper: promoting the learning mobility of young people (2009)

6. Telecollaboration:
Virtual mobility in the classroom
• Telecollaboration involves online intercultural collaborative
projects between students in geographically distant locations

7. Different set-ups which telecollaboration can take
1. A Class of learners in Germany carry out collaborative tasks online
1. A Class of learners in Germany carry out collaborative tasks online
with a class of learners in Ireland – using German and English
with a class of learners in Ireland – using German and English
2. A class of students in Spain collaborate online with a class in USA.
2. A class of students in Spain collaborate online with a class in USA.
This is combined with week-long study visits by both groups to
This is combined with week-long study visits by both groups to
partner universities.
partner universities.
3. Before leaving on mobility programmes to the UK, students from
3. Before leaving on mobility programmes to the UK, students from
Italy are ‘matched’ and interact online with British students
Italy are ‘matched’ and interact online with British students
planning to travel to Italy.
planning to travel to Italy.
4. Students on Erasmus mobility contribute to a blog where they
4. Students on Erasmus mobility contribute to a blog where they
discuss their experiences abroad. This blog includes quetions and
discuss their experiences abroad. This blog includes quetions and
comments by ‘pre-mobility’ students at the home university.
comments by ‘pre-mobility’ students at the home university.

8. Example of set-up 2: Integrating mobility students
into faculty’s study activities
• “The Spanish-American
Cultura Exchange”
• University of León – Barnard
College, University of
Colombia, New York
• EFL students at León + Spanish
students at Barnard
• Combining virtual and physical
mobility

9. Spanish-American Cultura
Combining On-line and Physical Contact Mobility
• January-March: On-line Exchange (1)
– Project work – videos, essay etc.
– Online interaction between both classes
• March: Group from New York visit León
• April: Group from León visit New York
• April: New Materials collected/created by students are
added to on-line platform
• April-May: On-line Exchange (2). Analysis of new materials
• Following year: Previous year’s materials available for new
groups of learners….

10. Exploiting Students’ Visits
One week study visit to partner
university by 6 students. This
includes:
•Home-stays with families
•Visiting students attend
various classes:
Presentations in their native
language / participation in
class activities
•Interviewing of local
residents
•Organised tours and visits
with host class as ‘guides’

11. Feeding back to the on-line Platform –
for next year’s participants
• Favourite photos and their
commentaries
• Videos of presentations
• Essays based on ethnographic
interviews

12. Example of set-up 2: Exchange between teacher education
classes
Long term collaboration between Spain & USA
Collaboration began in 2004-2005
2 Teacher education classes (mostly exchange of products)
Expanded to collaboration between online groups
2012-2013: Co-written curriculum for methodology course

13. Main objectives
•Collaborate on designing, implementing and evaluating a
teaching sequence & 1 partnered educational activity
•Role of online collaboration:
•Support & critique teaching sequence design (1 per
student)
•Design together materials & teaching instructions for
technology-enhanced activity (1 per group)
•Participate in cross-cultural teaching & learning
experiences

14. Collaboration on Teaching Units
•Introductory phase (get to
know online partners)
•Working groups for
brainstorming & feedback
1st draft
•Revision following Peer
Input & Self Reflection
•Implementation

15. I’ve learnt to observe a lot which I think has enormous advantages.
Commenting our units’ draft on and on has been really useful as
well as UIUC peers’ comments and advice. Getting feedback from
many different people has made me read and rewrite my draft so
many times and I think this is a good point […] without all this
insightful feedback, I wouldn’t have realized my first unit draft was
too ambiguous …
Learning to reflect on own teaching
practice through telecollaboration

16. Partnered educational activity
•Educational Podcasts & Related Teaching Activities
•Introductory phase
•Students introduced to new virtual space for interaction
(Second Life) with Scavenger Hunt
•Podcast Design
•Students brainstorm, post preliminary ideas in Second Life
•Peers give feedback on preliminary ideas
•Podcast Production
•UIUC students create podcasts in class
•UAB students write pre- during & post-activities. All students
view final products and give feedback on them during ‘end of
term’ SL party

17. Getting to know
each other & SL

18. Brainstorming & feedback in SL

19. Podcast production, implementation & SL
feedback session

20. Student Reflections
o Student Wikis: served as both ongoing
collaborative tool and as final output (instead of
final report with only audience of teacher)
o Reflection on entire process, learning outcomes,
new teaching strategies, rationale of teaching
paradigm, etc.
o Reflection on nexus between school internship
activities, methodology courses and internship
tutorials.

21. What impact is Telecollaboration making in European
universities?
 Guth, Helm & O’Dowd (2012):
 http://intent-project.eu/sites/default/files/Telecollaboration_report_Final.pdf
 Online surveys from December 2011 - February 2012 in 4 languages
 Three surveys:
 Experienced teacher telecollaborators (102 responses)
 Inexperienced teacher telecollaborators (108 responses)
 Experienced student telecollaborators (131 responses)
 Qualitative Case studies:
 7 representative examples of telecollaboration around Europe
 Aims:
 Identify types of telecollaborative practices undertaken by European
university educators
 Explore the barriers to telecollaboration and the strategies used to overcome these
barriers

22. EXPERIENCED UNIVERSITY PRACTITIONERS GIVE THEIR FEEDBACK
ON TELECOLLABORATION AND ITS LINK TO PHYSICAL MOBILITY

23. So why isn’t everyone doing it?
 In your opinion, what are the reasons why
telecollaborative exchange is not more popular in
university education?
 __________________________________
 (Mentioned by 49/ 98 practitioners)
 __________________________________
 (Mentioned by 28 / 98 practitioners)
 __________________________________
 (Mentioned by 20/ 98 practitioners)
 __________________________________
 (Mentioned by 19 / 98 practitioners)
 __________________________________
 (Mentioned by 9/ 98 practitioners)

24. So why isn’t everyone doing it?
 In your opinion, what are the reasons why telecollaborative exchange is not
more popular in university education?
 Time necessary to set up and run exchanges
 (Mentioned 49/ 98 practitioners)
 Difficulties in integration & assessment due to institutional requirements
 (Mentioned by 28 / 98 practitioners)
 Lack of pedagogical knowledge about how to run and integrate exchanges
 (Mentioned by 20/ 98 practitioners)
 Teachers lack e-literacies/ required technological knowledge
 (Mentioned by 19 / 98 practitioners)
 Difficulty in finding appropriate partners
 (Mentioned by 9/ 98 practitioners)

25. PRACTITIONERS’ EXPLANATIONS FOR THE SLOW
INTEGRATION OF TC IN HEI’S
• Because teachers are not trained and insitutions are not aware of the potential
and needs and those teachers carrying out innovative teaching practice are not in
a position of power and cannot make decisions which impact on their insitution.
• First, it is difficult to organize such exchanges at institutional level. Second, the
idea sounds interesting, but the teachers involved need to dedicate much time
and energy to the exchange, so finally they won't do it. Third, the student's
motivation won't last long since it is not a credited course.
• It is essential to find a partner with similar aims, able to adapt programs to
different institutional expectations (amount of homework done by students for
example), willing to adapt to technical disturbances (network disturbances,
computer crashes), and to some extent lose or share control of class dynamics.
The partners must build a program that satifies needs, levels and interests of both
classes.

26. Identifying Strategies for integrating TC into
university education
• What are practitioners doing to overcome these
barriers and to ensure successful, on-going exchanges
which involve recognition of teachers and students’
work?
• Case studies of practitioners in
– Trinity College, Dublin
– Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
– The University of Padua, Italy
– University of Manchester, UK
– Arhus Universitet, Denmark
– University of Riga, Latvia
– University of Warwick, UK

28. Learning from the Case Studies
 Telecollaboration is not only for ‘pure’ language students – Engineering
students in Sweden, Business Studies students in Trinity, Dublin
 Senior Management – view OIE as a positive international activity but are
often unwilling to provide adequate staff and technical support
 OIE can contribute to educators’ academic careers – new academic
networks, staff mobility – e.g. Riga & Grenoble / Warwick & Clermont sign
‘Memorandum of Understanding’
 No ‘one size fits all’ -Different levels of integration are possible:
 Claivier at Warwick takes place independently of academic courses
 SpEakWise at Trinity is integrated into a course but does not carry credit
 Manchester and Latvia – course marks are based completely on OIE
activity

29. Strategies for Integrating Telecollaboration (1)
 Signing of written contracts between participating partner classes – provides
security to include exchanges in study guides etc.
 Ensure that students see relevance and value of exchanges – e.g. through providing
academic credit for OIE
 Functioning partnerships gather momentum – try to maintain steady partners
 Ensure awareness and support of department heads – coordinating staff can be
replaced if necessary
 Prestige and awareness raising through press releases and prize winning (e.g. Trinity
award)
 Ensure internal department collaboration and sharing of good practices (e.g.
Padova – tool sharing)

30. Strategies for Integrating Telecollaboration (2)
 ‘Loose networks’ of partners are gaining in popularity
 TransAtlantic Network (Translation students around Europe & technical writing
students in USA)
 Soliya – Connects students from 100 HEI’s in 27 countries in Western-Eastern
dialogue
 Cultura – bilingual bicultural exchanges through comparative task types
 AUSJAL DUAL IMMERSION PROJECT - 21 Jesuit universities from eight different
countries in North and South America
 Byram’s Intercultural Citizenship project – 25 practitioners looking for partners
to carry out a project on intercultural citizenship
Advantages:
 Common themes of interest
 Not obliged to work with same partner constantly - flexibility
 Activities, solutions and ideas are shared and developed

31. www.uni-collaboration.eu

32. Look for teachers in other
universities

33. Review the classes which are
looking for partnerships

34. See examples of previous exchanges

35. Find tasks for your projects

36. Exchanges, ideas, questions and
experiences with other practitioners

37. Announce your own class / group of
students to the community

38. Get involved
• Contact and suggestions
welcome:
intentproject@gmail.com
– Read our Report on
Telecollaboration in Europe:
– www.intent-project.eu
• Upcoming platform for
collaboration and networking:
– www.uni-collaboration.eu
The INTENT project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
The publications related to the project reflect the views only of the author, and the
Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the
information contained therein.