Dr Linda Beck is currently Associate Dean of Experiential and Global Education. She’s also a political scientist. Promoting Virtual Exchange is one of her responsibilities at the University of Maine, Farmington, USA.
Linda and some of her colleagues undertook UNICollaboration training some years back. Over the years, they have formed lasting collaborations that continue to flourish.
“I was lucky enough to have learned about virtual exchange before Covid’, smiles Linda, ‘so I feel very fortunate in that regard.
“I was looking for opportunities for my students. I have 50% first generation, and by that, I mean they are the first in their family to go to college. The other half are defined as ‘low income’. This means for most of these students, studying abroad is not financially viable. This is also because some are working one or even two jobs to finance their studies. They simply aren’t free to travel at will,’ she explains.
“I was looking for them to be able to have sustained conversations with colleagues overseas. While I was on a Fulbright scholarship in Osaka, Japan, I had the good fortune to learn about virtual exchange collaborations.
“We then applied for funding, which I think is very important, from the US government. We did this under our undergraduate international studies in foreign languages programme. We were in the process of applying just as Covid was about to hit – in March 2020 – just as I was scrabbling to get people back from various places. It was at that time and our funding arrived.
From embedded virtual exchange programmes, to actual physical mobilities
“We began embedding modules of at least 5 weeks long in existing classes. We then worked with colleagues to enable them to find partners. Attending some of UNICollaboration’s partnering fairs have enabled us to set up enduring collaborations, especially with 2 Italian colleagues who, incidentally, are visiting us at the end of March and bringing their students. This is an example of how our virtual exchanges have transformed into actual physical mobilities.
Linda continues, ‘We want to promote global seminars. By that I mean when VE experiences are followed by a mobility. We did this kind of project with Japan, and now, we are trialling it with the Italians later this year.
“In May, with France, we will start our VE followed by an actual mobility when our students will go there and they will come to us. As you can see, we have quite a few different VE projects which are ongoing and developing as we speak.
More about the content and structure of the VE programmes
“We take a very interdisciplinary approach. Language virtual exchanges, which are more traditional, are in a minority for us here at Maine. We have one ongoing one with Spain and another which has been going for the past 3 years with teachers in Cyprus.
“But all our other VE/COIL projects include other disciplines such as anthropology, political science, geography, music, psychology – all across the board, I’d say.”
Challenges of setting up interdisciplinary VEs
“It has to be a passion,’ smiles Linda, ‘due to the amount of work involved in getting these off the ground.
“Having a grant from the US government allows me to give my staff and their partners/collaborators a stipend. It doesn’t cover all the extra costs of course, she explains, ‘but it acts as an acknowledgement of the extra work involved.
“We’ve also invested in a few technological things to make it easier to teach, learn and collaborate online.
“Our biggest challenge, and probably for others too, is first and foremost language. English has been the lingua franca in all of them, but that isn’t really fair. With our Peruvian, French, Japanese or Senegalese students, we get varying levels in each class and that is obviously a hurdle we have to work hard at to overcome.”
Solutions and trials and errors
“We try different types of technology, explains Linda, ‘to get instantaneous translations. For example, we use chat functions and students type words and expressions to be translated from there. Some students take screenshots. We have experimented with everything to facilitate communication and ensure everyone can participate.
“I’m hoping other colleagues can add to this conversation as I’m open to new ideas!
“We take a multi-faceted approach. We’ve done a number of things. Sometimes we embed a good bi-lingual student – but we don’t want them to end up as a translator of course. We also use technology, but I have to say that Google translate in the US does not work as well as it does in Canada for example. I think a lot of people don’t realise this.
“But we are exploring other platforms to see what works best and I am hoping we can become better at addressing the language disparities in the future.
“As you know,’ she continues, ‘American students aren’t always good at learning other languages although you’d think with our Latin communities, we would be better. But that is simply not the case. But at least we would like them to be aware of this and understand how challenging it is for our multi-lingual communities to work in English all the time.
“I am pleased when our students try to confront linguistic and cultural differences, and I hope it will lead to them being encouraged to study languages.”
Plans for the future of virtual exchange at Maine, Farmington
“We have partners in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, as well as working with our Tribal college here in the US. The main challenges with Peru and other Latin American partners, is equal access to technologies. We try to ensure that we are not using something that they don’t have access to, for example. Our teachers are in the process of creating modules so that our students learn some basic French.
“At least I want to make sure that my students are making an effort as we try to raise a sense of awareness of how challenging it can be to speak in another language.”
“With our new grant from the US government, and I encourage any US listeners and colleagues to apply for funding, we are focusing on students in natural sciences and education as these are 2 areas that are least likely to be exposed to foreign languages and global international studies.