How to integrate telecollaboration in a master programme? (Part I)

Through bi-weekly posts, MA staff participating in the USO-project on internationalisation will share concrete teaching tools and activities through which we aim to enhance ‘tailor-made’ internationalisation.

This week: Telecollaboration Part I: Integrating a virtual mobility project into a 5 EC master course.

In December 2016 the master Intercultural Communication organised a telecollaboration course “Cross-cultural perspectives on immigration discourses”. During five weeks 50 students from Utrecht University and 28 students from Tallinn University and the University of Urbino “telecollaborated”. They used different technological tools to experience interculturality and develop intercultural competence, with a didactic focus on learning by doing and reflection upon experience.

This part 1 of two articles focuses on the structure and assignments of the telecollaboration pilot. Part 2 discusses the goals and objectives of the project in relation to internationalisation and promoting intercultural awareness and competence. Also key suggestions for successful telecollaboration, both between students and the teachers, will be provided in part 2.

Structure of the course
The telecollaboration project “Cross-cultural perspectives on immigration discourses” was part of a regular 5 EC master course called “Plurilingualism & Mediation: Intercultural Competence”. The first five weeks of the course were reserved for telecollaboration activities. For this, students from the three participating universities received the same course manual: The Telecollaboration Guidelines.

In total, 26 groups arranged weekly meetings where they worked towards creating one final product: A comparative case study on news reporting and attitudes of citizens towards the refugee situation in the European context. Each week the teacher discussed theories on intercultural competence, telecollaboration and migration discourses in plenary lectures, while the tutorial meetings focused on reflecting on the actual telecollaboration meetings

Assignments
For each meeting the groups worked on a specific task. This included the following tasks:

• An introductory task to get acquainted with each other. All students shared linguistic and cultural biographies and exchanged views on the project.
• Three assignments were related to the case study of attitudes towards refugees within their respective countries. The groups first made a media analysis of how left and right oriented newspapers of each country portrayed the refugee situation. Subsequently, students interviewed locals on their attitudes towards this complex situation. Finally, the groups presented the outcomes and comparison of the results in a short paper.
• During the last week students created a “making of video” in which the group reflected on their collaboration experience.

Reflection tasks
After each meeting students also wrote a reflection in a private blog (see format in the Guidelines). As reflection plays a crucial role in the students’ intercultural learning process, this blog was compulsory. Students reflected on the the collaboration, the communication, the intercultural experience, the digital tools they used and the tasks, both by looking back (how did it go, did it meet expectations?) and looking forward (what would I do differently next time?).

During the tutorials students presented examples of the meetings that they found challenging or interesting. As a group students would critically reflect on all aspects potentially influencing the collaboration, ranging from individual, cultural and institutional differences to technical difficulties and group dynamics. The aim was not to come to clear cut explanations of differences, but rather to master the ability to reflect on how different circumstances and perspectives could possibly impact their collaboration.

Virtual learning environment
All telecollaboration activities took place on ‘Moodle’. As Blackboard is not open to students from other universities, it was necessary to use another platform. Like Blackboard, Moodle is an open source learning environment where students can upload assignments but also record conversations, both on a common platform and in private groups where privacy issues are protected. Furthermore, the students blogs could only be read by the teachers. Due to technological difficulties however, several groups ended up using Skype with additional recording software. The students used Google docs to work together on the assignments and WhatsApp for practical communications. This demonstrates that there is enough free software available to facilitate telecollaboration activities, with which students are generally well familiar.

Looking back
For a smooth running of this course, the use of common guidelines were crucial. Although students could be given more freedom in arranging meetings and shaping tasks. The current set-up was quite intense for students and teachers. Due to the many assignments there was less time for the groups to get well acquainted (a need which can be stronger in some cultures). With regards to assessment the many tasks led to a focus on theoretical contents while the main area for intercultural learning were the reflection activities. Finally, the collaboration between teachers has been somewhat problematic which unfortunately led to different communications and interpretations of the guidelines. In part 2 of this article you can read more about these and other considerations and thoughts on how to optimise student and intercultural learning.

Looking forward
Due to the large cultural diversity and real-life contact, students claimed to have learned much from the project. Both with regards to the immigration topic as intercultural collaboration and competence. The experience of this pilot as such demonstrates that with little technological resources students can experience working together in international teams and and in only 5 weeks, learn much from both theory and practice.

Annelies Messelink