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Our past boards

Interim Board

After transitioning to a new organisation format, under new statutes and relocation to Brussels, UNICollaboration is presently run by an Interim Management Board. We are looking for candidates to fill positions on the MB and hope to have the MB complete by the end of 2022.

Our work is conducted under the supervision and direction of the General Council.

Sarah Guth

University of Padua, Italy

Francesca Helm

University of Padua, Italy

Sake Jager

Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Netherlands.

Sara Pittarello

Freelance

Past Board

2018 – 2021

Sarah Guth

University of Padua, Italy

Elke Nissen

University Grenoble Alpes, France

Breffni O’Rourke

Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Francesca Helm

University of Padua, Italy

2016 – 2018

Robert O’Dowd

Universidad de León, Spain

Sarah Guth

University of Padua, Italy

Tim Lewis

Open University

Elke Nissen

Université Grenoble Alpes

Breffni O’Rourke

Trinity College Dublin

Melinda Dooly

Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona

Gosia Kurek

Jan Dlugosz University

Sake Jager

Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Netherlands

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Join our organisation as an individual or institutional member to help us promote telecollaboration and virtual exchange practice and research. Help us promote further constructive policy development in this area.

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Sarah Guth

Earlier in her career, Sarah focused on investigating the use of technologies for the learning and teaching of languages and cultures. This interest led her subsequently to engage with Telecollaboration/COIL and virtual exchange beyond the foreign language classroom in the early 2000s.

A number of years ago, Sarah returned to the US for a year with her family, and worked as programme coordinator at the Center for Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) at the State University of New York (SUNY). During this time, she designed their original professional development programme.

Between 2018-2020 and now back in Italy, she acted as project manager for UNICollaboration during the pilot project Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange led by the European Commission. Currently, Sarah sits as a member of the boards of UNICollaboration, COIL Connect and IVEC (International Virtual Exchange Consortium).

Her current focus is on professional development in VE and VE integration into internationalisation-at-home strategies.

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Francesca Helm - University of Padua

Francesca was chair of the Education Innovation working group of the Coimbra Group of universities from 2018-2021. Her research has focused on language, intercultural learning and dialogue through virtual exchange, and she has been closely involved in policy advocacy and research. This has entailed above all, coordinating the monitoring and evaluation of the Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange pilot project, which she also did within the Coimbra Group.

She has carried out professional development on virtual exchange with a focus on internationalisation at home, intercultural awareness and institutional policy and has published widely on virtual exchange and internationalisation of education. And her most recent work on Intercultural Communication in Virtual Exchange was for Cambridge University Press.

See her Orcid profile here.

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Sake Jager

Over the years I have been involved with several international VE projects, including EVOLVE (https://evolve-erasmus.eu/) in which I worked with several colleagues active in UNICollaboration.

In the University of Groningen, I work as a project manager in teaching and learning innovation, VE coordinator and assistant professor in Applied Linguistics (www.rug.nl/staff/s.jager).

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Sara Pittarello

Sara is Expert in EU Higher Education and Training projects and has been a tutor of expert evaluators since 2020.  In addition to her work with UNICollaboration, she also collaborates with UNIMED as an external consultant. Sara has also been co-tutor of the eTandem E+VE project of the Padua University Language Centre. She worked for the University of Padua International Relations Office for 10 years as project manager and advisor in their EU programmes and initiatives.
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Breffni O'Rourke

Breffni O’Rourke is Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics and Head of the Centre for Language and Communication Studies (CLCS), in the School of Linguistic, Speech, and Communication Sciences.

Professor O’Rourke’s research focuses on the use of online technologies for language and intercultural learning, including eTandem and blended models. In particular, he investigates peer interaction in online language learning contexts, using innovative discourse analysis and eye-tracking methodologies.

Other research interests include the construct of discussion engagement; the use of eye-trackers to investigate aspects of online communication, such as alignment between online chat partners; and the use of immersive social virtual reality for online language and intercultural learning. He has been vice-president of UNICollaboration, the cross-disciplinary organisation for telecollaboration and virtual exchange in higher education, and a committee member of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics (IRAAL).

Professor O’Rourke teaches modules at undergraduate and postgraduate level on discourse analysis; first language acquisition; technology, language, and communication; and pedagogical grammar of English. He holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil. from Trinity College Dublin, and an M.A. and B.A from the University of Galway.

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Malgorzata Kurek

Gosia is a researcher, teacher trainer and experienced VE practitioner. Her research interests include teacher education, task-supported language learning, CALL and multiliteracies. 

Her principal research addresses various aspects of Virtual Exchange, especially in the context of teacher education and teacher professional development. She is an author of several publications in the field of CALL and VE and has been a Trainer with UNICollaboration for a number of years. 

ORCID profile is here.

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Teresa Mckinnon

Teresa is an open educator, an award winning language teacher with a wealth of expertise in online delivery. She is very experienced in education management and course design in secondary and higher education, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and Certified Member of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT). 

Teresa has extensive experience of the integration of computer-mediated communication in learning design. She retired in January 2021 from her post as Associate Professor at the University of Warwick but remains active online as @WarwickLanguage where she enjoys connecting educators internationally across sectors. She advocates open educational practice, leads ALT’s Open Education Special Interest Group and is active in the

areas of virtual exchange and open badges.

ORCID profile. can be seen here

Personal website.

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Shannon Sauro

Shannon is a specialist in technologically-mediated language teaching and learning and an experienced practitioner and researcher of virtual exchange. 

She has over 10 years of experience incorporating virtual exchange in her teaching training courses in both Sweden and the United States and has carried out online training for university administrators and faculty on the use of virtual exchange across a wide range of disciplines.

More information can be found regarding her research and teaching on her Google Scholar Profile and Professional Website