Designing a collaborative and virtual exchange-embedded virtual summer school

Ganassin, S., Satar, M., Pham, T. N. and Regan, A. (2023) Designing a collaborative and virtual exchange-embedded virtual summer school. Journal of Virtual Exchange, 6, pp. 1-14. (doi: 10.21827/jve.6.39812)

Abstract

This practice report describes the design and implementation of a collaborative and virtual exchange-embedded virtual summer school for postgraduate students in the context of European Higher Education. The two-week virtual summer school on multilingualism and intercultural learning brought together 40 students who collaborated to produce ten video-case studies based on their experiences as educators in a number of contexts. We share our experiences as organisers and participants and offer insights from the process of planning for, engaging with and evaluating the summer school. Our paper draws on quantitative and qualitative data, i.e., a pre and post summer school survey, a qualitative evaluation questionnaire and a student-participant account to evidence how the experience benefitted participants. Our findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the model presented here: participants’ understanding of key concepts of interculturality and multilingualism increased, there was a statistically significant difference in perceived development of digital competences and presentation skills, and more than 90% of the participants were very satisfied with their training and international collaboration opportunities. In conclusion, we propose a set of learning points that may support others to design and deliver a collaborative model of summer school and the use of ‘skills passports’ in alternative to accreditation.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: We would like to thank the Association of Commonwealth Universities which supported the Summer School through its Virtual Mobility Project Grant scheme.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Pham, Dr Thinh
• Authors: Ganassin, S., Satar, M., Pham, T. N., and Regan, A.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Psychology & Neuroscience
• Journal Name: Journal of Virtual Exchange
• Publisher: University of Groningen Press
• ISSN: 2647-4832
• ISSN (Online): 2647-4832
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Journal of Virtual Exchange 6:1-14
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License