8 Step 1: Team formation & roles
You may find that in the process of finding your Virtual Exchange collaborator a comfortable team dynamic has come together organically; however, it is often beneficial to start the planning stage with an introduction session wherein you share some open, blue-sky discussion on what you hope students will get from your Virtual Exchange collaboration. This discussion should include conversations about the general expectations of each partner. During the earlier stages of the partnership, it would also be worthwhile to openly discuss possible differences between the institutions and students, so both partners can anticipate and mitigate potential issues. For example, during our collaboration, we learned that while Canada observes daylight savings, Ecuador does not. This led to much miscommunication between our students, which could have been mitigated had we had this conversation during our planning meetings.
Hopefully, all of this discussion will lead to the next order of business, a discussion of who will do what. This will include discussion of roles for the instructors, student coordinators, and administrative coordinators (if available). While it is possible for instructors to handle all of the duties, it is optimal if a student or administrative coordinator can be involved to help minimize the workload for the instructor, as Virtual Exchanges typically involve a high degree of coordination. The participation of a student coordinator to assist in this area brings many benefits to Virtual Exchange collaborations:
Optional (but helpful): STUDENT COURSE COORDINATOR
1. Students: A student coordinator can act as a bridge between students and instructors and assist students to navigate the novel challenges that Virtual Exchanges may present.
2. Student Coordinator: The student coordinator role creates an experiential education opportunity that encompasses teaching, curriculum/course planning and development, facilitation, coordination, and educational scholarship (similar to an education internship).
3. Instructors: The partnership with a student coordinator frees instructors from details of coordination thereby allowing them to focus more on teaching-related activities.
Note that a student coordinator’s engagement with the project can take many forms, such as part of a project or thesis course, an education practicum, an internship, research assistantship, or a teaching assistantship. Additionally, there may be institutional, departmental, or program support to hire a student partner/coordinator specifically for a Virtual Exchange (e.g., grants, work-study program).
Some institutions may have staff dedicated to Virtual Exchange support, others will not, so the extent of this latter role would have to be defined on a case by case basis. Once core roles are defined you should also discuss how you might be able to support one another as need arises. As previously mentioned, flexibility is key to successful Virtual Exchange implementation and the more planning needs and contingencies that are discussed, the smoother the implementation process and collaboration will be.