Kent’s Global Officers piloted Soliya’s Connect Collaborate Program, a Virtual Exchange project, earlier this year. Running through the Spring break, our student Global Officers worked in groups with students from around the world, including Italy, Finland, Syria, Palestine, and the US, focusing on two topical subjects: Health and Migration.
Over the five weeks, students engaged in synchronous online dialogue sessions in seminar groups on their chosen topic. Working in their groups, they had to design and produce a campaign awareness infographic at the end of the project. The project allowed students to learn to work collaboratively online, utilising design skills and thinking about the message that they wished to communicate.
Examples of some of these infographics are below.
This is the first time for me to engage in an online project collaborating with people that I have never met before, and the internet is the only way for us to interact and work together. Seeing the infographic slowly put in place creates a sense of accomplishment, and this experience allows me to understand distance is no longer a major obstacle in working with people abroad, and the virtual platform does hold potential for us to express and create freely with people around the world.
Yuen Yu (Carrie) Chan, LLB Law and Economics
Global Officer, 2019-20
Virtual exchange projects are becoming ever more important in offering students an international learning experience. With recent events preventing traditional study abroad, these projects provide the framework for students to develop their cross-cultural attitudes, skills, and communication in addition to improving their digital literacy skills valued by employers.
For more information about virtual exchange opportunities at Kent, please contact International Partnerships at internationalpartnerships@kent.ac.uk
