Models and Frameworks for Virtual Study Abroad Partnerships

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Partnerships, Equity, and Solidarity in International Exchanges with Palestine

Proposal

This conceptual research relates to the CIES 2023 theme of Social Justice and Inclusion. We address the theme question, How can education best serve students and faculty in spite of conflict and war, the fragility of domestic institutions, and the undermining of education as a common good? Virtual Study Abroad (VSA) programs have been publicized as feasible substitutes for traditional study abroad in cases of a pandemic (Newman, 2022). We contend that VSA is a potential solution for those who wish to participate in study abroad but face geopolitical challenges. In this presentation, we review the benefits of VSA and examine online learning models and frameworks to determine their suitability to structure VSA for a community like Palestine that has been facing occupation, political oppression, and economic siege for the past 75 years.
The benefits of participating in VSA include affordability; flexibility; awareness of challenges, such as navigating time and cultural differences that often arise when working across borders; reduced time necessary for participation; and meaningful learning (Teague & DeLotell, 2022). Digital tools (e.g., blogs, webcams, YouTube videos) and delivery modalities (e.g., asynchronous, synchronous) have also been described in the VSA literature as successfully facilitating access and interactions (e.g., Upson & Bergiel, 2022).
VSA can offer equitable access for individuals who could have never experienced such things otherwise (Teague & DeLotell, 2022), and also provides opportunities for educators and institutes to be more inclusive to populations and communities who potentially are not allowed to live such experiences due to circumstances and uncertainties beyond their control.
Rather than viewing digital tools as a facilitator of opportunity and access, we draw from design concepts, models, and frameworks reported over decades in the literature on online learning to inform and bring intentionality to the design of VSA experiences. Pedagogical ecology, which “emphasizes the potential impact of the learning space and the consideration of the effects that multiple components of a learning environment bring forth to the teaching and learning process” (Dabbagh et al., 2019, p. 17), and the role of technology affordance underpin this work. Asynchronous, synchronous, and bichronous, therefore, are models of online learning environments with structures and affordances that contribute to the teaching and learning process rather than merely delivery modalities as typically characterized in the VSA literature.
The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework supports critical thinking, critical inquiry, and discourse among students and teachers (Garrison et al., 2000) and suggests that deep and meaningful learning results when there is evidence of social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence. The Meaningful Online Learning (MOL) design framework (Dabbagh et al., 2019) situates the interactions between learning technologies, pedagogical strategies, and learning activities in the five attributes of meaningful learning: active, intentional, authentic, cooperative, and constructive (Howland et al., 2012).
We evaluate these models and frameworks for their potential to facilitate exchanges among international partners in challenging circumstances. Our work is enhanced by collaboration and dialogue with faculty from Birzeit University who are associated with and interested in study abroad experiences.

Authors

• Jade Jehad Halawani, George Mason University

• Dawn Hathaway, George Mason University