In the upcoming spring semester, the CED offers the course ‘International co-teaching – Integrating Virtual Exchange into the University Classroom’.

Virtual Exchange (VE) is a research-informed teaching practice which via technology supports communication and interaction between individuals or groups that are geographically separated and stem from different cultural backgrounds.

The course provides teaching staff at European universities with the opportunity to allow more students to exercise their academic skills in interaction with students from other countries and cultures. Karen Louise Møller who is the course manager and a special consultant at the CED explains the motivation behind the creation of the course:

“The starting point of the course came from a wish and a need to allow more students the opportunity to acquire intercultural competencies in connection with their university education regardless of their socioeconomic or individual background.”

Strengthening international collaboration between teaching staff across Europe

The target group for the course is university teachers who may find it interesting and relevant for their students to participate in collaboration with students from other countries.

The course is offered to teaching staff from all over Europe and the participants will meet teachers from other countries. Thus, Karen Louise Møller believes that the course can create fertile soil for new international collaborations across the borders of Europe:

“In the course, teachers from AU will meet teaching staff from other countries, which may potentially become new partners within or outside their field of study”

The course itself is also an example of international co-teaching as the two course managers are Karen Louise Møller from AU and Astrid Edith Tan who is employed at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany.

Close to the teachers’ own practice

As the course is aimed at all university teachers who are interested in international collaboration in university teaching, the academic field is characterised by a high degree of diversity where the only common denominator is teaching experience.

Accordingly, it has been an important focal point for the course managers that the course is not too far removed from the participants’ practices even though the target group is broad:

“The activities on the course are closely related to the participant’s own practice, which means that we create ideas for or organise specific activities to use in the teacher’s own courses. Each session includes varying presenters, cross-geographical group activities, short presentations, and discussions in plenum,” Karen Louise Møller tells.

Want to find out more?

The course takes place online and runs from the start of January 2023 over four short afternoon sessions. The registration deadline is 20 December 2022.

Would you like to know more about the structure of the course and what to expect? Then you can read more and register for the course on the CED website.

If you have any further questions, please contact Karen Louise Møller at klmoeller@au.dk or at +45 50 82 26 81.