Presentation on the Virtual Exchange projects EVOLVE and EVALUATE, given at the EAIE 2018 conference in Geneva by Robert O'Dowd, Sake Jager and Pilar Garces

1. RESEARCHING AND UPSCALING VIRTUAL
EXCHANGE IN UNIVERSITY EDUCATION
PILAR GARCES, JUNTA DE CASTILLA Y LEÓN, SPAIN
SAKE JAGER, UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN, THE NETHERLANDS
ROBERT O'DOWD, UNIVERSIDAD DE LEÓN, SPAIN
Welcome to session 2814
Thursday, 13 September: 14:00 - 15:00 Venue: Room F, Level 1, Palexpo

2. • What is Virtual Exchange?
• What are the EVOLVE and EVALUATE projects?
• How can universities and ministries of education
work together to promote and upscale Virtual
Exchange?
September 13, 2018 Slide 2
Our plan for the session:

3. FIRST OF ALL, WHAT IS ‘VIRTUAL EXCHANGE?’
WHAT DO YOU UNDERSTAND VIRTUAL EXCHANGE TO
INVOLVE?
September 13, 2018 Slide 3

4. Virtual Exchange involves…
…the engagement of groups of learners in extended periods of online
intercultural interaction and collaboration
…with partners from other cultural contexts or geographical locations
…as an integrated part of their educational programmes
…and under the guidance of educators and/or expert facilitators.

5. HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF OTHER
TERMS FOR REFERRING TO
‘VIRTUAL EXCHANGE?’
September 13, 2018 Slide 5

6. Different names and forms of Virtual Exchange
O’Dowd, R. (2018). From telecollaboration to virtual exchange: state-of-the-art
and the role of UNICollaboration in moving forward. Journal of Virtual
Exchange, 1, 1-23. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2018.jve.1
September 13, 2018 Slide 6

7. A solid research
base:
UNICollaboration- an
academic organisation to
promote research,
training and practice:
www.unicollaboration.org
September 13, 2018 Slide 7
The growth of Virtual Exchange:
Support and recognition from
the European Commission
that Virtual Exchange is a key
educational tool:
https://europa.eu/youth/eras
musvirtual

8. VIRTUAL EXCHANGE AS A TOOL FOR
INTERNATIONALISATION
AND EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION
September 13, 2018 Slide 8

9. • Which one of you works in internationalisation?
• Which one works in educational innovation?
September 13, 2018 Slide 9

10. • Internationalisation of the curriculum
• Shift from “nearly exclusive focus on mobility for the elite
to a focus on curriculum and learning outcomes for all students, mobile or
not” (De Wit and Leask 2015, p. xi)
• Internationalisation must be integrated at task and assessment level,
requires teacher professional development
• Several projects on internationalising the curriculum, e.g. University of
Groningen (rug.nl/internationalclassroom):
To develop “Inclusive, activated learning in which we use diversity as a resource
through purposeful interaction, based on a program vision on internationalization,
aligned in a meaningful curriculum design with internationalized learning outcomes”
• Virtual Exchange not often considered as an option
September 13, 2018 Slide 10
Internationalisation and VE
De Wit, H., & Leask, B. (2015). Foreword: Internationalization, the curriculum and the disciplines. In W. Green & C. Whitsed (Eds.), Critical
perspectives on internationalising the curriculum and the disciplines: Reflective narrative accounts from Business, Education and Health (pp. ix–xv).
Dordrecht: SensePublishers.

11. • Form of eLearning based on social interaction and collaboration
• Supports development of:
• Intercultural and language competencies
• Collaboration / 21st c skills
• Digital competencies
• For both students ánd teachers
• Cross-national, cross-disciplinary perspectives on learning content
• Global issues and social problems
• Intercultural understanding and tolerance
• Potentially powerful tool for curriculum design and educational innovation
• Addresses learning outcomes, tasks, assessment
• Target for continuous professional development
September 13, 2018 Slide 11
Educational innovation and VE

12. EVOLVE
● Evidence-Validated Online Learning through
Virtual Exchange
● Erasmus+ KA3 Forward-Looking
Cooperation project
● January 2018-July 2020
● 8 Universities:
○ Groningen (coordinator)
○ León
○ Université Grenobles Alpes
○ Open University
○ Jan Dlugosz University
○ Padova
○ Warwick
○ Malmö
● 2 Virtual Exchange Providers
○ Soliya/Search for Common Ground
○ Sharing Perspectives
● 2 University Network Associations (70
universities)
○ Coimbra Group
○ SGroup
With the support of the Erasmus+ programme of the
European Union
Connect with us:
www.evolve-erasmus.eu/
evolve@rug.nl
@evolve_erasmus

13. Main objectives• Help universities to implement VE by providing online training and support
○ Online training co-laboratory: partners from each side are trained
○ Partners work together to create the outline, tasks and technology environment for the intended VE
project
○ Moodle and Mahara
○ Open Badges for educators
• Conduct research on VE at learner, educator, institution level
○ Baseline study (Sept 2018)
○ Research in context of VEs developed
○ Pedagogical approaches and competences
○ Democratic culture/intercultural competences
○ Critical digital literacies
○ Transversal skills
○ Language and disciplinary skills
• Actively promote results and engage
with policy and decision makers at university,
university network and European level
○ Coimbra Group and SGroup events
○ Academic conferences
○ High-level policy event Brussels/Strasbourg

14. Options for participation
● Comparison other VE projects
○ VE across disciplines, all regions, not specifically
teacher training or languages
○ Both partners involved, development of real VEs as
outcome
○ Broad range of competences targeted and
researched
○ Awareness and support at institution level
● Coimbra and SGroup membership
○ Focus is on Coimbra and SGroup networks
○ VE partners of Coimbra and SGroup members
are included
○ Other participants in training are welcome!
● Options for participation in EVOLVE:
○ Participate in our baseline study on use and
awareness of VE
○ Promote the project in your university and invite
colleagues from ANY discipline to join the
training to learn how to implement VE
○ Use, translate and adapt our training materials
to develop VE in your own institution
○ Participate in conferences and dissemination
events for educators, researchers and policy
and decision makers in education - or help us
organise such events

15. EVALUATE
(Evaluating and Upscaling Telecollaborative
Teacher Education)
http://www.evaluateproject.eu/)
Where does this project receive funding?
Erasmus+ KA3 (EACEA/34/2015): Priority 3
– Strengthening teacher training and
education by using the opportunities of
new technologies
Public Authorities:
Spanish Ministry For Education, Culture And Sport, Spain
La Junta De Castilla Y León, Spain
Ministry Of Education In Portugal
Ministry Of Human Capacities, Hungary
Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-
Württemberg, Germany
Universities:
Universidad de León, Spain (Lead partner)
Universitat Atonoma De Barcelona
Instituto Politécnico De Castelo Branco
Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary
Pädagogische Hochschule Heidelberg, Germany
Universita’ Degli Studi Di Padova, Italy
Open University, UK
University Network:
Compostela Group Of Universities (Spain)
September 13, 2018 Slide 15

16. European Policy Experimentation=
Research about an innovative practice + Integration into Policy
EVALUATE=
First large-scale study of the impact of Virtual Exchange on student-teachers +
First collaboration between researchers and Public Authorities to upscale its use in Initial
Teacher Education.
Research Questions:
Will telecollaboration have a positive impact on future teachers’ 1) digital-pedagogical
competence, 2) intercultural competence and 3) foreign language competence?
How did we carry out the study?
1. Engaging 1000+ students of Initial Teacher Education from institutions in Spain,
Germany, Hungary and Portugal and across Europe in Virtual Exchange projects with
international partner classes.
2. Carrying out quantitative and qualitative analysis of the development of students’
competences.

17. Why are we doing this European Policy Experiment?
1. Give student teachers first-hand experience of online collaborative learning:
In European schools “…ICT is mostly used as a remedial tool” and “…few teachers
report using ICT for communication in which students are involved, leaving untapped
the potential to connect students together” (European Education Monitor, 2015:59).
2. Provide an alternative/supplement to study abroad:

19. A Training Manual & a set of Task
Sequences for the teachers to use.
An EVALUATE Moodle Platform for each VE:
http://evaluateprojectmoodle.eu/
How did we run the Virtual
Exchanges & collect the data for our
study?

20. 2 Training courses in Padova, Italy
(Round 1) & in León, Spain (Round 2) An online mentor for each Virtual Exchange
How did we run the Virtual
Exchanges & collect the data for
our study?
A certificate for all teachers
and students who
participated

21. Pre-Post Tests involving TPACK (digital
competence) and the intercultural
effectiveness scale…
Timeline of rounds 1 and 2
Our Research Process
…and triangulated with learners diaries,
student texts and interviews

22. The initial findings from the EVALUATE European
Policy Experiment confirm the following:
• The results showed that overall students developed the different elements of
Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge as a result of participating in the
exchange.
• Students also improved their intercultural effectiveness
• Conclusively, structured Virtual Exchange showed to be effective and it is
effective consistently (i.e. over both rounds of exchanges).
• Overall students liked it and thought it was useful and would recommend it to
other students.
• Students perceived their exchanges as a valuable learning experience that they
can then pass on to their pupils when they are teachers and have their classes
collaborate with other classes.

23. Positive Results from Test / Control Groups
TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content
Knowledge) Mishra & Koehler, 2006
Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (Portella & Chen,
2010)
September 13, 2018 Slide 23

24. Student teachers identified improvements in seven aspects of their foreign language use:
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Ability to understand
Fluency in speaking
Grammatical accuracy
Accuracy of pronunciation
Range of vocabulary
Confidence in using the foreign language
Ability to interact with foreign language speakers
Ability to use a foreign language
Has got worse No improvement Improved a little Much improved

25. POLICY MAKING AND RESEARCH:
THE PERFECT MATCH
PILAR GARCES
JUNTA DE CASTILLA Y LEÓN, SPAIN
September 13, 2018 Slide 25

26. • How research can help decision taking in policy
development.
• How research should help the design of policies.
• How politicians will benefit from research
findings.
September 13, 2018 Slide 26
Policy making and Research: the perfect
match

27. September 13, 2018 Slide 27

28. • A political initiative derived from the PISA results
a) The creation of a working group to present
a draft paper to the Ministry of Education of Spain
regarding Teacher Training Education.
b) The inclusion in the draft of a concrete
policy for the use of and training in Virtual
Exchange.
September 13, 2018 Slide 28
Castilla y León, a successful case study

29. • The findings of the project in the evaluation and
upscaling of Virtual Exchange have constituted an
improvement for the objectives aimed at by the working
group of the Ministry of Education in Castilla y León:
• Multilingualism
• Intercultural competence
• Inclusiveness
• Digital competence
September 13, 2018 Slide 29
Intercultural exchange and telecollaboration:
the asset of the EVALUATE project

30. • Researchers and politicians need to create a
common language and discourse.
• Politicians need to overcome distrust from higher
education institutions.
• Politicians and resarchers must work together
for the benefit of the welfare of society.
September 13, 2018 Slide 30
How to make ends meet?

31. Thank you!
More information:
www.evaluateproject.eu
https://www.powtoon.com/c/bMMKwMIWEfS/1/m
https://evolve-erasmus.eu/
Contacts:
Robert O'Dowd: robert.odowd@unileon.es
Sake Jager: s.jager@rug.nl
Pilar Garces: pilar.garces@jcyl.es
Evaluating and Upscaling Telecollaborative Teacher Education (EVALUATE) (582934-EPP-1-2016-2-ES-EPPKA3-PI-POLICY) is funded by Erasmus+ Key
Action 3 (EACEA No 34/2015): European policy experimentations in the fields of Education, Training and Youth led by high-level public authorities.
Evidence-Validated Online Learning through Virtual Exchange (EVOLVE) (590174-EPP-1-2017-1-NL-EPPKA3-PI-FORWARD) is funded by Erasmus+ Key
Action 3 (EACEA No 41/2016): European Forward Looking Cooperation Projects in the field of Education and Training.
The views reflected in this presentation are the authors’ alone and the commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the
information contained therein.