10-03-2023

Stimulating virtual international collaboration in education, ‘the Dutch way’

Since last year, the Dutch Ministry of Science, Culture and Education is offering subsidy for Dutch higher education institutions to develop innovative virtual projects that foster collaboration amongst Dutch and international students.

The subsidy granted to institutions is intended as a contribution to freeing up the necessary hours for a lecturer and/or educationalist to design or revise and implement a virtual collaborative project. Any institution that has been granted this specific subsidy is also offered a range of activities to build capacity for designing effective and successful virtual projects; from facilitated intervision meetings, to various training courses, online information sessions, an in-person conference, an online helpdesk and a community platform.

To be honest, we’re not only sharing this information here to show our enthusiasm for such an initiative – as it strengthens the mainstreaming of quality virtual intercultural collaboration and learning in higher education sector. But we can also announce that the Sharing Perspectives Foundation has joined forces with experts from CINOP, University of Groningen, University of Applied Sciences Utrecht and UNICollaboration as the implementing consortium of this pioneering initiative from the Dutch ministry!

Since the conception of this programme, we’ve been dedicating quite some time towards initiating activities, developing the VIS website, building relationships within the consortium and implementing the first rounds of training for educators. Our involvement in this programme is already proving to be a great learning experience on the current needs and challenges of educators and other HEI professionals in developing and facilitating international oriented virtual learning experiences. Working closely with VIS practitioners in our virtual trainings and following our quality assurance methods has already led to great improvements of our training materials and instructional approach.

So even if the activities under this support programme are only offered strictly to Higher Educational Institutions in the Netherlands, we certainly take everything we learn from this initiative on board to refine our methods in our other projects. Whether that is in our consulting activities, Virtual Exchange programme development for third parties, training organizations in virtual teaching or collaboration, or how to support partner organizations in our flagship VE programme.

And off course, we hope to activate all higher education professionals in the Netherlands to learn more and apply for the specific subsidy, to make this government funded programme a successful example for other countries to follow.

Learn more about Virtual International Collaboration projects on the website www.visinhetho.nl

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FRAMES conference

After two years of working on the integration and accreditation of blended mobility and Virtual Exchange (VE) in Higher Education with the FRAMES consortium, it is time to present our outcomes at a closing conference. On 30 March 2023, FRAMES is organizing its final event on-site at the University of Siena in Italy. The theme of the event is “Framing Virtual Exchange and Blended Mobility in Higher Education”.

Toolkit for Integrating Virtual Exchange in Higher Education

The FRAMES Toolkit provides key information, inspiration, tools and case examples of the approaches that HEIs can take to integrate and accredit Virtual Exchange. The Toolkit is a usefull one-stop-shop for educational professionals working in higher education.

5 Fundamental Tenets Of Virtual Exchange

Virtual Exchange (VE) is a great way to allow for genuine interaction, learning and relationship development between people in geographically distant locations. Through VE, spaces for effective collaboration are created and cultivated. Using sustained dialogue as a pedagogical tool during the virtual exchanges, helps to foster healthy group formation processes, even between physically remote people. In order to sustainably enhance these outcomes and impact, there are 5 fundamental tenets of Virtual Exchange that support this process.

Your different virtual personas

Being in front of someone ‘in real life’ obviously assists in clear communication, as it allows us to pick up on small social cues, to establish eye contact, and to have a clearer sense of prosody, tone, and body language. The truth is that we can still pick up on most or all of these in online dialogue, but this requires those involved to make an effort and use the digital tools at hand deliberately.

"Take care of yourselves and the planet"

Towards the end of the 9-week virtual exchange 'Climate Movements', participants reflect and express their gratitude towards the group for the experience and the learning that happened. Facilitators invite participants to bring a ‘(virtual) parting gift’ to their last online session as a way of saying goodbye and celebrating their achievements. Over the years our facilitators have seen this exercise lead to wonderful expressions from participants, like digital cards and even musical performances. This spring iteration, one virtual gift stood out in particular for its relevance to the subject matter of ‘Climate Movements’.

Innovating European Higher Education with Virtual Exchange

Sharing Perspectives Foundation is joining forces with partners to foster a harmonised implementation and accreditation of Virtual Exchange (VE), as an integral part of (blended) mobility approaches, among European Higher Education Institutions. The FRAMES project (Fostering resilience through Accredited Mobility for European Sustainable Higher Education innovation) aims to make the European Higher Education Area more innovative, intercultural, and resilient.