Together we can: enhancing key 21st-century skills with international virtual exchange

Abstract

PurposeThis research reveals how a virtual exchange (VE) can foster transnational collaboration in higher education, assist students acquire key learning outcomes and raise awareness regarding the complexities affecting development policy and sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.Design/methodology/approachOverall 50 students from two universities in Spain and the United Kingdom, enrolled on two different degree courses (Global Studies and Marketing), cooperated in multidisciplinary teams to analyze real development policies and initiatives. The authors collected quantitative and qualitative data to assess the students' perceptions of the methodology.FindingsThe students perceived the VE to be of great value, enriching their educational experience by having a positive effect on their overall learning and fostering internationalization. A high number of participants declared the teaching and learning methodology was useful to assist them in reaching crucial cognitive, skill-based and affective educational objectives, and to help them understand how development policy works while also raising awareness regarding real-world complexity.Practical implicationsThis methodology proved valuable in helping students acquire the set of skills expected from today's graduates in economics, political science and marketing. This active learning and pedagogical innovation component provides some interesting conclusions contributing toward widening the adoption of VEs in higher education contexts.Originality/valueThe increasing complexity of the globalized world makes it challenging for higher education institutions to develop multidisciplinary approaches to education to foster sustainable development. The experience provided offered the students an online international experience at their home institutions. Consequently, the research elaborates on how VE can be applied in economics, business, management and political science courses to enrich learning experience by applying theory in a practical way.

The potential of virtual internships for management education: capturing student journey through experiential learning

“…Hence we believe rising educational technology and the current pandemic situation of COVID-19 have led to more and more universities adopting e-internships or virtual internships. However, limited empirical studies have been undertaken on the effectiveness of virtual internships and capturing student experience (Bayerlein, 2015;Sierra et al, 2022;Kraft et al, 2019). Most of these studies have focused on the organizational side of virtual internships.…”

“…The internship program allows students to gain experience in various situations by applying classroom teaching in real work environments. But, with the outbreak of COVID-19, disruptions were witnessed in the education system, moving from physical classroom learning to online learning systems (Sierra et al, 2022;Stansell, 2020). Online tools like Zoom, WebEx, Google Classrooms, and Microsoft Teams were used to impart learning during the COVID-19 pandemic (Wheeler and Waite, 2023).…”