``Fall Program: Visual Ethnography'' -- A Case of Remodeling Cultural Exchange Program into an Academic Virtual Mobility

Abstract

For more than a decade, virtual mobility functioned as an add-on to a physical mobility and served as an inclusion strategy for Higher Education Institution in providing equality for diffable students. However, it has become the foremost option in time of the Covid-19 pandemic. This article describes the author’s effort of remodeling the physical cultural exchange program into a credit-based virtual mobility. The aim is to provide an international constructive learning process of capturing students’ own as well as other customs and ways of life into a video or photo collage using Visual Ethnography methods. The program was attended by 51 students coming from 6 countries. They were grouped in 11 small groups for which each was assigned a supervisor. In this program, the virtual and distant learning techniques were combined for delivering lectures, while blended learning technique was applied for live sessions. Participants’ discussion and collaboration were mediated through agreed ICT-based tools within the group. In addition to lectures, a synchronous Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was held once a week to monitor student tasks and progress on their final project. The assessment was based on participants’ engagement throughout the program and performance on completing the assigned tasks. The drop-off rate achieves 18% in which participants from Timor Leste contributed the highest rate due to the Internet connectivity issues.
 Keywords: virtual mobility, visual ethnography, multidisciplinary distant collaboration, intercultural setting