The fourth edition of the International Virtual Exchange Conference (IVEC) will be held at the headquarters of the CEU Cardenal Herrera University in Valencia. More than 400 representatives from more than 45 countries on five continents will participate in a congress that is being held for the first time outside the Anglo-Saxon sphere
The three CEU universities are organizing the next edition of IVEC 2022, which is being held for the first time outside the Anglo-Saxon sphere and which will bring together more than 400 participants in Valencia from October 26 to 28. Attendees come from more than 45 countries on five continents . The largest delegation comes from the United States, followed by Spain, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil and Canada. The IVEC is the largest international forum for teachers and academic managers from universities around the world interested in promoting new educational methodologies of a multicultural nature based on the use of technology.
The director of the Spanish Service for the Internationalization of Education (SEPIE), dependent on the Ministry of Universities , Alfonso Gentil, the executive secretary of the Internationalization and Cooperation Group of the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) , will participate in the inaugural session. Carles Padilla, as well as heads of the CEU and executive members of IVEC. On the other hand, the CRUE’s ‘Internationalization at Home’ working subgroup will hold a working session on October 26, taking advantage of the opening of the Congress that same afternoon.
The virtual exchange -virtual exchange- is a type of university training that allows students to participate in teams made up of students from different countries, connected online to solve a challenge or design a joint project around a common subject or matter. Collaboration with students from different cultures, brought together digitally in simultaneous training sessions such as the Collaborative International Learning (COIL), turn the different virtual exchange formats into international training experiences without the need to move to another country.
Pioneers in Spain, bridge with Latin America
IVEC 2022 will be held at the Valencia campus of the CEU Cardenal Herrera University (CEU UCH). The talks will be presented simultaneously in six spaces on campus, with the Paraninfo as the setting for the most massive sessions. The Director of Internationalization of the CEU, Alfonso Díaz, highlights that it is the first time that this meeting of universities that promote virtual exchange and develop projects such as the COILs is held outside the Anglo-Saxon sphere: “Our added value in choosing us as the venue for the next IVEC It has been our role as pioneers in the implementation of COILs in Spain and as a bridge between Europe and Latin America for the development of these projects. Likewise, it is also a demonstration of the relevance of Spanish in the field of higher educationall over the world”.
The congress will follow the traditional scheme of plenary sessions, conferences, workshops and poster exhibition. There is also room for innovation, and the congress to be held in Valencia has the contribution of the CEU of new formats to the congress. These are the COILogues, in which academic aspects will be discussed from multiple geographical perspectives, and round tables entitled Cultural Challenges & Opportunities, in which issues will be discussed from the reality and context of each continent.
In addition, during the course of the congress, the book The Guide to COIL Virtual Exchange will be presented worldwide by its own authors, Jon Rubin, Stephanie Doscher and Sarah Guth, among others, recognized specialists in the field for more than 15 years. As for the plenary sessions, it will feature the participation of Federico Juárez, Senior Innovation Developer at CEU Cardenal Herrera University, who will deal with “Innovative Educational Methods and the Future of Learning”, and the session by Darla K. Deardorff, Executive Director of the Association of International Education Managers (AEIA), with the conference “Exploring trends and innovation in the development of intercultural skills in higher education”.
For Díaz, who is a steering group member of the European Association for International Education (EAIE), virtual exchange formats, such as COILs, “are an opportunity to connect and create ties through technology between students from all over the world. The collaborative and teaching activities applied to real cases and challenges also allow them to acquire skills to think and work in a global way that will be essential in their professional future. We are pioneers in Spain in this methodological innovation, which emerged a few years ago in New York, but is already widespread in Latin America, Asia and Central Europe. The next IVEC in our University will be a unique opportunity to share in Valencia successful experiences provided by universities from different cultures and geographical areas”.
More than 400 international participants
So far, more than 470 participants from universities around the world have already registered, of which there are 305 in person. The congress will be held in a hybrid format, so that in addition to those who attend the sessions in person at the CEU UCH Paraninfo in Valencia, online attendees will be able to connect digitally to the sessions and interact with the speakers. Among the attendees there will be professors, university managers and academic managers interested in promoting new multicultural training methodologies through technology, as well as students who will share their experience of participating in this type of innovative and international training.
The communications that have been accepted by the organizing committee will be published as papers in a special issue of the Journal of Virtual Exchange, in addition to being part of the congress proceedings, to promote successful experiences in this international online training modality. .
The founding international universities and entities of IVEC, which currently make up its steering committee and which have appointed the CEU Universities as organizers of the congress, are the American DePaul University of Chicago, University of Washington Bothell, Drexel University of Philadelphia and East Carolina University. ; the University of Monterrey, in Mexico; and the Durban University of Technology, in South Africa, together with two international university organizations: UniCollaboration, the European Telecollaboration Consortium; and FAUBAI, Brazilian Association for International Education.
