The Virtual Exchange Partner Finding Tool is a great way to find a partner for your Virtual Exchange. You can either browse through the proposals added by academics all over the world that are looking for a partner. Or you can add a description of your own plans to the database, so visitors of this website can find your proposal and contact you to discuss a potential partnership. By adding detailed information to the description – you can select from various predefined list such as for example ‘targeted learning outcomes’ – you make it easier for potential partners to find exactly what they are looking for. Similarly, if you are searching for a partner yourself, you can use these filter options to narrow your search.
When someone contacts the author of a Virtual Exchange proposal, the author receives a notification containing the name and email address from the sender. It is the author who decides if and how to contact the sender. Only then, the authors personal details are visible for the sender.
See also the GDPR Compliance Statement.
Manual
Finding a partner
The first step to perform when looking for a partner for a Virtual Exchange (VE) is to browse the database with proposals sent in by other people looking for a VE partner. These proposals can be retrieved via the menu Resources > Finding a Virtual Exchange partner.
By default, 10 proposals are shown. You can adjust the number of entries that are displayed. You can also sort the entries by clicking on the headers of the respective columns.
Click on the title to open a page on a new tab with more detailed information about the proposed exchange. On this page you can also contact the author, provided you are logged in (registration is free).
Via the filtering options on the left side you can refine your search. All drop-down lists are multiple select, you an add choices by simply clicking on them. Within a filter section (e.g. Languages), the choices use the OR logic: Languages = “English, Finnish” will display all proposals for which the Language was set to English OR Finnish OR both. If you enter values in another filter section, e.g. Learning Outcomes, the AND logic applies between these sections. Example:
This text is indented.Languages = “English, Finnish”
Learning Outcomes = “Digital literacy”
This filter will display all proposal for which the Language was set to English, Finnish, or both, AND for which the Learning Outcomes included Digital literacy.
Contacting the author
After you have opened a proposal you can contact the author. You have the option of adding a personal message to the author. You will receive a copy of this message. For privacy reasons, the email address of the author will not be revealed to you. However, the author will see your email address so they can respond to your request.
You can only contact authors whose proposal is ‘open’. The other two status options allow you to browse through previous proposals that are either closed because one or more partners were found, or for other, unspecified reasons. Maintaining the proper status of a proposal is the responsibility of the author.
Submitting a proposal
If you cannot find the type of proposal you were looking for, you can choose ‘Create Virtual Exchange proposal’ under ‘My account’ to create your own proposal.
Fill in the requested information. Be as specific as you can be, so people looking for partners have a clear idea of the kind of exchange you have in mind.
If your institution is not listed, you need to add it. Please use the English name of the institution (for uniformity) and add the location/city if it is not part of the name (choose the primary location if there are more locations). E.g.:
DePaul University, Chicago
University of Léon
You can select the appropriate country from the list with countries.
If you want to modify your proposal, you can do so by selecting it from the list that is shown when you select My account > My Virtual Exchange proposals.
Share your proposal! You will only find a partner if people know about it. Open the proposal, copy the URL and share it via your social media or other networks. On LinkedIn, you may want to become a member of the UNICollaboration group or tag UNICollaboration in your post.
Responding to contact requests
When you have added your own proposal to the UNICollaboration website, people who are interested in partnering with you may contact you. Please respond to any messages that you receive via the Partner Finding Tool so people will know is there is any perspective on co-operating with you. Any communication between you and other people will take place outside the UNICollaboration website.
Found a partner for your proposal?
If you have found a partner, please update your proposal so it reflects the actual exchange. You can find your proposal(s) under My account > My Virtual Exchange Proposals. Click on the title of the proposal or the ‘Edit’ button to open the proposal.
- Add the partner institution(s) in the list with institutions. You can select multiple partners at once. If a partner institution is not listed, please add it via ‘Add institution’. Please add the information in the correct form, see ‘Submitting a proposal’ above.
- Change the status of the proposal to ‘Closed (partner found)’. This is done automatically if you add new partners and save the proposal.
- You are free to update other information about the proposal if this better reflects the actual exchange that is going to happen.
- Currently, you can select only one Discipline for the Exchange. This is a limitation for interdisciplinary exchanges. If partners from other disciplines participate, you can add that information in the Additional Information field.
- Save the proposal.
Delete a proposal
If you have not found a partner but want to withdraw your proposal, follow the steps above but change the status to ‘Closed (other reason)’. It is not possible to delete the proposal through the website. If you want your proposal to be removed completely, please send a request to info@unicollaboration.org.