Summary
– Main objectives of the Virtual Exchange
Disciplinary skills:
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- Experiencing a VE Learning and reflecting on VE task design
- Adapting a VE task that the students had designed beforehand to the context of the actual VE
- Providing the partners (in small groups) with support for their main learning outcome: improving their written French skills, while discussing and reflecting on intercultural topics (e.g. forbidden books
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– Targeted learning outcomes
An-Najah University:
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- Improve (written synchronous) online discussion skills in French
- improve written and oral comprehension skills in French
- improve skills for analysing, commenting, arguing in French
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– Global task description
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- Get to know each other – icebreaking activity (asynchronous Chinese portrait & Zoom session)
- Get information on and discuss educational contexts (Our studies and targeted profession)
- Informations exchange and collaborative task: Sources of information (those the students use and the factors their choice of the source(s) may depend on; elaborate jointly a survey that allows to verify these factors and ask 10 persons from their own country to fill it in, analyse and interpret the results together)
- Adapt and experience a task the students in Grenoble had designed, within a previous VE, for this VE: the small groups could choose between “forbidden books” and “paper vs. digital books”.
- Final reflective VE session in small groups
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Partners
| Partner / department | Course | Language of instruction | Number of students |
| Université Grenoble Alpes (France), Language Didactics |
Télécollaboration en langues | French | 17 |
| An-Najah University, Palestine | French | 17 |
Start and end date
21/01/2020 – 10/03/2020
Duration
7 weeks
Discipline
Education (Grenoble)
Literature and linguistics (An-Najah University)
Integration and assessment
A previous VE, together with local course sessions, prepared for knowledge about VE, task design skills, information gathering on the Palestinian teaching context, etc. During the previous VE, the students also designed, in small groups, a task for this VE. After the initial sessions allowing them to get to know the partners, to experience the synchronous written discussion with them in French language, the majority of the tasks they had designed were now adapted (in bigger groups and with support from the teacher) and put into place. During this phase and at the end of each session, reflective activities on the VE and its design took place.
Assessment:
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- Reflective text on the VE / on the course (individual)
- Assessment of a VE task that was designed in a small group
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Technology tools used
– Learning environment
Moodle
– Collaboration tools
One initial Zoom session; afterwards synchronous written WhatsApp sessions and asynchronous WhatsApp use
– Reflection tool
At UGA, the students used a portfolio during the VE (text file), took collective reflective notes in a GoogleDoc after each synchronous meeting and briefly discussed orally during their in-class-sessions every VE session that had taken place. After their previous VE with another partner within the same course and this VE, they wrote a reflective text (text file).