scholarly journals Fostering intercultural competence through videoconference exchange: using an external provider to match learners with trained native speakers and administer video calls

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Alonso Varo Varo

This practical case presents the use of an External Provider (EP) as an alternative approach to the traditional telecollaboration setting where a partnership with a foreign higher education institution is established. Usually, these partnerships involve language exchanges between learning partners who mutually practice each other’s native language. Instead, an eight-week cross-cultural Virtual Exchange (VE) in Spanish between US college students studying Spanish and trained Colombian university students was organized through an external language platform to foster the US students’ Intercultural Competence (IC). It is concluded that the use of an EP brings an undeniable level of flexibility to the organization of the VE, and makes manageable the integration of this type of program in higher education language classes. Additionally, this article assesses the value of this approach by looking at the effect of VE on the US students’ self- assessment of IC after the videoconference exchanges. Data from quantitative surveys and student blogs show a significant increase in the students’ IC after the program.

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (33) ◽  
pp. e16155
Author(s):  
Alexander Evgenievich Suglobov ◽  
Katerina Sergeevna Orlova ◽  
Alexander Konstantinovich Kalliopin ◽  
Petr Katys ◽  
Aleksey Valeryevich Novikov

This article considers the formation and implementation of a policy in relation to intellectual property in the activities of a higher education institution. Nowadays the creation, protection and commercialization of intellectual property objects are especially relevant for universities. The comprehensive solution of such issues stipulates the need for the development, adoption and implementation of university policies in relation to intellectual property objects as local regulatory acts. This study aims at analyzing intellectual property management policies in higher education institutions. The authors of the article have highlighted the key aspects of an intellectual property object as an object of management. To prove the relationship between intellectual property law and regulation that allows a university to own and freely dispose of its intangible assets, the article dwells on the best practices of European and US universities in terms of issuing local legal acts. The authors have concluded that it is inexpedient to copy the US university policy in Russia due to different approaches to intellectual property. They have developed the concept of strategic management of intellectual property based on the national legislation on the protection and disposal of intellectual property and local regulations of higher education institutions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-99
Author(s):  
Eamon Costello ◽  
Richard Bolger ◽  
Tiziana Soverino ◽  
Mark Brown

The rising cost of textbooks for students has been highlighted as a major concern in higher education, particularly in the US and Canada. Less has been reported, however, about the costs of textbooks outside of North America, including in Europe. We address this gap in the knowledge through a case study of one Irish higher education institution, focusing on the cost, accessibility, and licensing of textbooks. We report here on an investigation of textbook prices drawing from an official college course catalog containing several thousand books. We detail how we sought to determine metadata of these books including: the formats they are available in, whether they are in the public domain, and the retail prices. We explain how we used methods to automatically determine textbook costs using Google Books API and make our code and dataset publicly available. 


10.29007/9bks ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mncedisi Mabhele ◽  
Jean-Paul Van Belle

As learning technologies advance and become more ubiquitous, particularly in e- learning, new opportunities are emerging for higher education institutions to address significant academic and administrative challenges. Driven by increasing competition, changing environments and other market forces, institutions are considering learning technologies in order to thrive and remain relevant. This study gathered insights from existing literature to propose a conceptual model that supports decision making in the adoption of learning technologies by higher education institutions. The conceptual model adopts the Transformative Framework for Learning Innovation as its foundation and superimposes the Emerging Learning Technologies Model. The resulting model provides a clear guidance for higher education institution to achieve five key learning characteristics. This paper found that combining these two approaches provides a logical approach for higher education institutions to address organisational, strategic and learning-specific dimensions in a coherent format. Furthermore, academics and practitioners can benefit from valuable insights in the proposed alternative approach to learning technology adoption.


2021 ◽  
Vol 273 ◽  
pp. 12154
Author(s):  
Tatiana Kopaneva ◽  
Tatiana Pervil

To learn a foreign language effectively and to be fluent in it, anyone should know the main features of the mindset of foreign language native speakers. The article considers the process of forming the cross-cultural competence of students. It is stressed that authentic video materials that have more potential than printed and oral texts should be used as a basis for the formation of cross-cultural competencies in teaching a foreign language. The objective of the study is to substantiate, develop and theoretically test a scientifically reasoned teaching methodology. To reach the objective, we used a pedagogical experiment, pedagogical observation of the educational process, methods of statistical data processing. We have obtained the following results. The analysis of the idea of cross-cultural competence gave us the possibility to explain it as the ability of individual to come productively into a contact with people from other cultures using the language you are learning; during the process of analyzing various models of cross-cultural competence, its main components are determined. The process of forming students’ cross-cultural competence will be efficient if the created exercises are based on the methodology of using authentic video materials.


Author(s):  
Oksana Bulvinska ◽  

The article is devoted to modern trends of continuing professional development of academic staff in higher education institutions. The continuing professional development of an academic staff as a process of acquiring of new and improving the existing professional competencies is determined. Based on the analysis of strategic documents of the European Higher Education Area, modern trends of educating and teaching in higher education are described, according to them, directions of continuous professional development of an academic staff are determined. These areas include: development of a facilitator qualities, a coach, a moderator, a tutor, change of the authoritarian role of a teacher to a softer pedagogical support in a student-centered model of educating and teaching; improvement of foreign and intercultural competence to implement internationalization of higher education; development of own research competence and research methods usage as well as modes in conditions of organizing an educational process at university on the basis of scientific researches for the development of students’ critical thinking and reflexive analysis; developing the ability to adapt educational goals to a high-tech and mobile educational environment and creating a psychologically safe educational environment; development of some new electronic educational tools, as well as the experience of using the tools, methods and technologies of e-learning in the educational process of higher education institution.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 208-222
Author(s):  
Nikos Macheridis ◽  
Alexander Paulsson

Purpose This study aims to investigate how sustainability has been incorporated – or mainstreamed - in a school at one university through techniques of responsibilization and accountabilization. Design/methodology/approach Inspired by the extended case study methodology, the authors participated, observed and analyzed two audit-inspired processes, whose aims included ensuring that sustainability was integrated into the educational process. Findings By following two audit-inspired processes, the authors show how teachers were asked to respond to open-ended survey questions and by doing so emerged as responsibilized subjects. Although the teachers were given lots of space to interpret the concept of sustainability and show how it was translated into the programs and courses offered, the teachers were made accountable as established organizational hierarchies were reproduced when responsibilization was formalized through techniques of accountabilization. Research limitations/implications The analysis moves beyond the instrumental epistemologies characterizing much of the positivist-oriented research in higher education. As with all studies, the authors study also has methodological limitations, such as involving a single higher education institution. There is a general need for more empirical research in this area in order to build theory and to understand whether the concepts of responsibilization and accountabilization can also be applied in other higher education contexts. Practical implications The study shows that higher education administrators engage in processes of responsibilization and accountabilization through formalized processes of interpellation, as documents and self-assessment exercises tie teachers to organizational contexts. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that introduces the concepts of responsibilization and accountabilization as social relationships in higher education governance.


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