Measuring Impactful Teaching Practices in Global Virtual Exchange (International Virtual Exchange Conference)

"Measuring Impactful Teaching Practices" was presented at the International Virtual Exchange 2022 Conference on October 26-28, 2022, in Valencia, Spain. The paper explored Global Virtual Exchange (or GVE) at the University of Texas at Austin in the previous academic year to measure the impact of the faculty-led program. The main takeaway was that professors and students participating in the GVE program find the greatest benefits to be in the intercultural student-to-student exchange and the exposure to different perspectives. They also discussed the assessment tools one might utilize to further explore these benefits.

View the session handout here, or read the abstract below: 

This presentation seeks to build upon previous studies about the impact of virtual exchange on students’ intercultural competence. Utilizing longitudinal survey data, qualitative feedback from students and professors, as well as course artifacts from multiple courses, UT Austin researchers seek to analyze cross-disciplinary, multi- year data on virtual exchange. Presenters Dr. Stephanie Holmsten, Faculty Director of the Global Virtual Exchange Faculty Learning Community and Dr. Lena Suk, Program Administrator of Global Virtual Exchange, are particularly interested in the teaching strategies and approaches that resulted in the most impactful shifts in students’ intercultural competence. Since 2017, Global Virtual Exchange has grown at UT Austin, implemented in over 30 academic departments and partnering with over 30 international countries. Professors who participate in the Global Virtual Exchange program distribute an intercultural competence survey at the beginning and end of the virtual exchange, gathering longitudinal data about students’ attitude and skills in intercultural contexts. The presentation will share findings from this multi-year study, which includes data from various disciplines (STEM, humanities, fine arts, and more) , teaching approaches, and learning modalities (including courses taught fully online during the pandemic). The breadth and depth of the data have the potential for creating strong recommendations about the potential impact of Global Virtual Exchange across a large university setting. They will combine the quantitative results of the data with qualitative feedback from students and professors to suggest avenues for highly effective virtual exchange teaching practices. By combining deep knowledge of specific instructors’ course design with quantitative feedback from their students, we ask questions such as: What types of learning assignments were most constructive in creating dialog between the students? What correlations exist between students’ intercultural growth and variables such as discipline, length of exchange, or language barrier?