Powerpoint of the Symposium held by members of the INTENT project (Guth, Helm, Jager, Kurek, Hauck) at the 2012 EUROCALL Conference in Gothenberg, Sweden.

1. Telecollaboration: where we are
and where we are headed
Sarah Guth, Francesca Helm,
Sake Jager, Gosia Kurek,
Mirjam Hauck
EUROCALL 22-25 August 2012 Gothenburg, Sweden

2. Agenda
• Brief introduction
• Paper 1: Survey – State of the art of telecollaboration
in Europe (Sarah Guth)
• Paper 2: Telecollaboration Case Studies and strategies
for mainstreaming integration in HEIs (Francesca Helm)
• Paper 3: The Unicollaboration Platform (Sake Jager)
• Paper 4: Telecollaboration Task Database (Gosia Kurek)
• Paper 5: e-Portfolio (Mirjam Hauck)
• Future & Discussion (all presenters)

3. What is telecollaboration?
• Telecollaboration/ Online Intercultural
Exchange (OIE) involves virtual intercultural
interaction and collaboration between classes
of Foreign Language (FL) learners in
geographically distant locations

4. Primary and Secondary Schools

5. Mobility and the EHEA
Mobility is important for personal development and employability, it
fosters respect for diversity and a capacity to deal with other cultures. It
encourages linguistic pluralism, thus underpinning the multilingual
tradition of the European Higher Education Area and it increases
cooperation and competition between higher education institutions
In 2020, at least 20% of those graduating in the European
Higher Education Area should have had a study or training
period abroad.
– Communiqué of the Conference of
European Ministers Responsible for Higher Education,
Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve, 28-29 April 2009

6. And the remaining 80%?
Virtual mobility:
i.e. the use of the internet and other electronic forms of
information and communication, is often a catalyst for embarking on a
period of physical mobility. Although not a substitute for physical
mobility, it does enable young people to prepare a stay abroad and can
create conditions for future physical mobility by facilitating friendships,
contacts and social networking etc….
– It can also provide an international dimension to those
learners who, for different reasons, are not able or willing
to go abroad. In that context, ICT can be used for
“electronic twinning” …etc.
Commission of the European Communities:
Green paper: promoting the learning mobility of young people.

7. Benefits of telecollaboration
For Students: Development of FL competence, intercultural
awareness, electronic literacies
For University Educators: Opening up of classroom /
Authentic communication and project work / Developing
international network of collaborators
For Mobility Officers: Preparation for physical mobility/
Alternative to physical mobility
For University Management: ‘Low cost’ internationalisation
strategy / Opening up new university partnerships

8. INTENT
• Integrating Telecollaborative Networks into Foreign Language
Higher Education
• Financed By The European Commission - Lifelong Learning
Programme
• Co-ordinated by Robert O’Dowd at the Universidad de Leon, Spain
• 8 European partners (PH Heidelberg, Grenoble
III, Padova, Czestochowa, Groningen, UA Barcelona, Open
University UK)
• October 2011-March 2014

10. Study of Telecollaboration in European Universities
 Online surveys from December 2011 - February 2012
 Language versions: English, German, French and Italian
 Three surveys with responses from 24 European countries:
 Experienced teacher telecollaborators (102 complete responses)
 Inexperienced teacher telecollaborators (108 complete responses)
 Experienced student telecollaborators (131 complete responses)
 Qualitative Case studies:
 7 representative examples of telecollaboration around Europe
 Aims:
 Identify types of telecollaborative practices undertaken by European
university educators
 Explore the barriers to telecollaboration and the strategies used to
overcome these barriers

11. What languages do they teach?
Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, Finnish, Hungarian, Polish, Portughese, Romanian, T
urkish and ... Translation, Intercultural Studies, Communications
Studies, Linguistics ...

12. Who are they teaching?

13. Where did they hear about OIE?

14. Why did they implement OIE?

15. Why did they implement OIE?
• développement des compétences didactiques, pédagogiques et
techniques pour de futurs enseignants de langue française (T-Yes-FR-16)
(Development of teaching and pedagogic competence and techniques for
future French language teachers.)
• learning first-hand about the collaboration between technical
communicators and translators which goes on in the real world of
localization. (T-Yes-EN-56).
• Development of learners' autonomy. (T-Yes-EN-01)
• Development of multiple academic competences. (T-Yes-EN-51)
• Encourage acceptance of cultural diversity rather than social inequality.
(T-Yes-EN-39)

16. How many languages are used?

17. Which languages are used?
Finnish, Greek, Turkish, Hungarian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Catalan, Rumanian

18. Which tools are used?

19. Where are partner classes located?

20. Most common features of OIEs
• No. carried over 5 years:
– 1: 28%
– 2-4: 42%
– 5+ 28%
• Number of partner classes:
– 1: 58%
– 2: 15%
– 3: 14%
• Duration:
– 3-6 mos: 26%
– 1-3 mos: 54%
• Assessment
– Yes: 64%
– No: 36%

21. Institutional Factors

22. Overall evaluation

23. Students – Final comments
“je n'ai pas vraiment vécu la télécollaboration sous l'angle d'une rencontre inter-
culturelle, mais d'une rencontre tout court.”
• Eine gute Idee, aber nur wenn sie sinnvoll geplant und durchgeführt wird.
• I encourage all students to participate in a cultural exchange
• I think it was a great idea and experience. I think Skype would be a better way of oral
communicating.
• I think, it was fine and also, that it would be a necessary part in the degree of people who are
learning a foreign language.
• I will encourage everyone to participate in exchange programs
• Ich denke, dass interkultureller Onlineaustausch besonders für Studierende, die bisher nur
wenig interkulturelle Erfahrungen gemacht haben, sinvoll ist.
• Our University should organise more exchanges.
• Si on organise la télécollaboration je'exigerais comme prof un laps de temps obligatoire pour
parler (p.ex. les élèves doivent avoir une conversation pendant une heure par semaine..)
• We must do them mor than one term

24. Identifying Strategies for integrating TC into
university education
• What are practitioners doing to overcome these
barriers and to ensure successful, on-going
exchanges which involve recognition of teachers
and students’ work?

25. Name of Exchange Participating Institutions Student Profile
The SW-US Exchange Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Engineering students in Sweden and
Sweden & Clemson University, South Carolina, English students in the USA
USA
SpEakWise Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland & University of Students of German and Business
Hildesheim, Germany studies in Ireland and students of
International Information Management
and of International Communication in
Germany
Telecollaboration at The University of Padua, Italy & various partner Students of foreign languages in Italy
Padua universities and telecollaborative networks with students from various study
backgrounds
V-PaL University of Manchester, UK & Universities of Students of Modern Languages in the UK
Cagliari and Macareta, Italy and in Italy
The Trans-Atlantic Vasa Universitet, Finland; Università degli Studi Students of Translation Studies in the
Network di Trieste and Università degli Studi di Padova, European institutions and students of
Italy; Université Paris—Denis Diderot, France; technical writing in the American
Århus Universitet, Denmark; Hogeschool Gent, institutions
Belgium; North Dakota State University and
University of Wisconsin, USA
Le Francais en University of Riga, Latvia & University of Students of French in Latvia with
Premiere Ligne Grenoble, France students of foreign language education
in France
The Claivier Project Université Balise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, Students of Sports Sciences in France
France & University of Warwick, UK and students of various undergraduate
degrees in the UK

27. Learning from the Case Studies
 Telecollaboration is not only for ‘pure’ language students – Engineering
students in Sweden, Business Studies students in Trinity, Dublin
 Senior Management – view OIE as a positive international activity but are
often unwilling to provide adequate staff and technical support
 OIE can contribute to educators’ academic careers – new academic
networks, staff mobility – e.g. Riga & Grenoble / Warwick & Clermont sign
‘Memory of Understanding’
 No ‘one size fits all’ -Different levels of integration are possible:
 Claivier at Warwick takes place independently of academic courses
 SpEakWise at Trinity is integrated into a course but does not carry credit
 Manchester and Latvia – course marks are based completely on OIE
activity

28. Strategies for Integrating Telecollaboration
 Signing of written contracts between participating partner classes – provides
security to include exchanges in study guides etc.
 Ensure that students see relevance and value of exchanges – e.g. through
providing academic credit for OIE
 Functioning partnerships gather momentum – try to maintain steady
partners
 Ensure awareness and support of department heads – coordinating staff can
be replaced if necessary
 Ensure internal department collaboration and sharing of good practices
(e.g. Padova – tool sharing, involvement of graduate students, mobility
staff, admin)
 Prestige and awareness raising through press releases and prize winning
(e.g. Trinity award)

30.  ‘Loose networks’ of partners are gaining in popularity
 TransAtlantic Network (Translation students around Europe & technical
writing students in USA)
 Soliya – Connects students from 100 HEI’s in 27 countries in Western-
Eastern dialogue
 Cultura – bilingual bicultural exchanges through comparative task types
 AUSJAL DUAL IMMERSION PROJECT - 21 Jesuit universities from eight
different countries in North and South America
 Byram’s Intercultural Citizenship project – 25 practitioners looking for
partners to carry out a project on intercultural citizenship
Advantages:
 Common themes of interest
 Not obliged to work with same partner constantly - flexibility
 Activities, solutions and ideas are shared and developed

31. UniCollaboration Platform
Main functions:
• Interactive platform for Telecollaboration/OIE in HE
• Information sections for teachers, mobility
coordinators, administrators, students
• Tools for practitioners: create tasks, describe
classes, search for classes
• E-portfolio: competences and tools for reflection and
(self-)assessment
• Training and ‘how to’ materials
• Social functions: links to FB, Skype, messaging, blogs
• Announcements and site activities on home page

34. Practitioner profile
• Personal details:
– Info section
– Contact form
– FB and Skype user name
• Institutional details
– Access to other practitioners in the same institution
• List of classes available for telecollaboration
• List of tasks created
• Function to establish new partnerships

37. Class search tool
• Tool for finding classes to work with
• Searchable fields include:
– Target language
– Country
– CEFR level
– Mode of exchange
– Number of students
– Study programme
– Period
– Availability
• Map searches supported

39. Platform: Implementation details
• Design, programming and hosting:
OU, Knowledge Media Institute (Chris Valentine)
• Functional specs: Léon (O’Dowd), Groningen
(Jager, Thorne), Grenoble (Mangenot, Nissen)
• Site designed in Drupal
• Limited version: September 2012 (limited
functionality, for adding content and release in
our own personal networks)
• Full version: Autumn 2013 (for training, open to
the general public)

40. The role of tasks in online exchanges:
• provide a purpose and a structure to a
multimodal, multilingual and multicultural situation;
• help integrate the exchange with a school curriculum
(O’Dowd, 2010);
• help reduce misunderstandings resulting from cultural
differences;
• help reduce misunderstandings resulting from various levels
of partcipants’ multimodal competence (Hauck, 2007).

41. Our strategies for creating a bank of
telecollaborative tasks
- establish needs and expectations of potential users;
- explore the features of already existing telecollaborative
platforms: their functionalities, target audiences, types of
tasks e.g Cultura, E-twinning, Niflar, Le francais en (Premiere)
Ligne ;
- refer to research into the role of task design in
telecollaborative learning (e.g. Dooly, 2011; Hauck, 2010;
O’Dowd & Wary, 2009, Hampel, 2006, Mueller-Hartman,
2000).

42. Structure of the task databank
• Stand-alone tasks – the smallest possible units of interaction
between partcipants
• Task sequences –examples how long-term exchanges can be
structured, consist of stand-alone tasks.

43. Criteria for task description

44. Criteria for task description

50. Eportfolio for Telecollaborative Language Learning
• Set of competences to identify the “Telecollaboratively Competent
Person” (TEP)
• Help individuals keep track of their development during an online
exchange
• 3 parts:
– descriptors (also goals for self- and other-directed learning)
– template for Personal Reflection Diary (to link descriptors with
events before, during and after an online exchange)
– sample rubric (criteria based on descriptors for self-progress
reports, peer evaluation/s, formative assessment)

51. Part 1: Descriptors of Telecollaborative Effective Person
• 4 main areas:
– Online Language Competences (not to be confused with general
language learning levels!)
– Social Competences
– Technical Competences
– Cross-Cultural Competences
• Main areas divided into 3 'macro' KSAs (Knowledge, Skills,
Attitudes)
• 'Macros'devided into 'micro' KSAs (to pinpoint specific actions that
can reflect development →assessment of competences)

52. Online Language
KNOWLEDGE SKILLS ATTITUDES
K.1. Knows that S.1. Can communicate using A.1. Accepts /is open to non-
on-line language online language with its standardised, flexible, evolving
has its own particular features nature of on-line
particular features communication
knows and can insert emoticons and other chooses to use emoticons and
recognises symbols from interface to other symbols to express own
meaning making make or add meaning to the emotions ...
features of online online communication ...
communication
when provided by
the interface (e.g.
buttons for
emoticons) ...

53. Social
K.2. Knows that S.2. Can understand that A.2. Accepts that online
identities are online identity is constructed identity may vary from real life
multiple, dynamic and defined in the interaction identity and from one context
and situated with other participants to the next
knows which can adopt textual and visual accepts that identities are
identities are identities that are appropriate multiple and context-bound ...
appropriate to the to the context (e.g. does not
on-line context and take offensive user names,
communication dresses avatars appropriately,
channel being used etc.) ...
(e.g. appropriate
avatars in virtual
worlds) ...

54. Technical
K.3. Knows that the S.3. Can apply the necessary A.3. Is sensitive to both online
local contextual logistics to adjust local and and local environments and
features have an online circumstances the way they condition each
impact on online other
communication
knows which local can consult and use online chooses to use
contextual tools designed for facilitating complementary tools for
circumstances to meetings, etc. (world clocks, facilitating planning ...
consider when calendars, etc.) ...
arranging
exchanges ...
knows the proper can control the local is critically aware of distracting
local conditions for environment to ensure features of local environment
effective online effective online ...
communication communication ...
(sound, lighting,
etc.) ...

55. Cross-cultural
K.3. Knows that S.3. Can learn from all A.3. Is ready for opportunities
online exchanges exchanges, successful or not for self-development in the
offer unique context of online exchanges
opportunities for
self-development
knows that each can examine and step outside wants to find out more about
individual is the his/her own and partners’ own cultural context(s) and
outcome of a long cultural boundaries that are the cultural context(s) of
socio-historical displayed in the exchange, partners as part of the online
process of and learn from them ... encounter ...
acculturation (often
implicit and
subconscious
process of learning)
...

56. Acknowledging the challenges
• Descriptors represent an “ideal”
• Inconceivable to capture the multitude of parameters of online
exchanges
→ impossible to provide a comprehensive list of TEP competencies
• Simply an overview of the type of competences a TEP would have
• Presentation does not reflect any hierarchy in terms of importance
• Can serve as goals for self-directed learning
• Can be used for self/assessment of progress made in developing
the competences

57. Other work in the field ...
• Assessment of intercultural communicative competence:
– INCA (Intercutlural Competence Assessment)
•www.incaproject.com
– YOGA (Your Objectives, Guidelines and Assessment)
•www.experiment.org/documents/AppendixG.pdf
• EU-funded projects:
– LOLIPOP (ELP with enhanced intercultural dimension)
•http://lolipop-portfolio.eu
– CEFcult (drawing on INCA descritpors)
•www.cefcult.eu

58. Another source of “inspiration” for TEP descriptors:

59. Get involved
• Contact and suggestions
welcome:
– intentproject@gmail.com
• Read our Report on
Telecollaboration in Europe:
– www.intent-project.eu
• Upcoming platform for
collaboration and networking:
– www.uni-collaboration.eu

60. Recommendations
• Support the establishment of online exchanges between European countries in much the
same way as they have supported physical mobility
• Draw up models of Erasmus agreements specifically for virtual mobility programmes.
• Establish European grants for virtual mobility to help cover the organizational costs.
• Support the establishment of OIEs for students prior to their period of physical mobility. With
the training and support of international office and language centre staff exchanges, these
‘pre-mobility exchanges’ could improve the quality of physical mobility by promoting
integration of Erasmus students in host universities.
• Integrate OIE in teacher education programs as this will encourage future educators to
integrate telecollaboration into their practice
• Provide incentives and support for educators embarking on their first experience of OIE.
• Provide a technical and administrative infrastructure which will support educators in their
telecollaborative activity.
• Find more systems of awarding credits (ECTS) for students’ participation in OIEs. Other ways
of awarding credit, such as explicit mention of the activity in the European Diploma
Supplement, are also worthy of exploration.