by
ikudu Blogger
| Feb 01, 2021
Written by: Cornelius Hagenmeier, Director: Office for International Affairs, University of the Free State, and
iKudu Project Coordinator
In November 2020, we celebrated the first birthday of the iKudu project. The world has changed significantly since our core stakeholders met in Bloemfontein at the end of 2019 to launch the project. Internationalisation has been severely affected
by COVID-19. A sudden and unprecedented move to virtual collaboration occurred, and most activities involving physical mobility have been suspended. While the pandemic has severely impacted iKudu, we were able to adapt our project to the changed
circumstances and achieve considerable progress with its implementation.
Constants in our project are iKudu stakeholders’ fundamental convictions and the rationale for the work we do. The iKudu project is based on the fundamental belief that it is necessary to rethink internationalisation in an uncertain world. First,
it is crucial to recognise and transform the power dynamics underlying international academic collaboration. Second, it is essential to develop pedagogies that allow every student to participate in international education, integrating technology where
appropriate.
We firmly believe that curriculum internationalisation, which should be embedded in the broader curriculum transformation process, and virtual exchanges are required to enable higher-education institutions to prepare students for an uncertain future.
Both emerged as essential aspects of internationalisation and higher-education collaboration well before the pandemic changed the world. A prerequisite for successfully advancing this through network collaboration is rethinking power relations at
all levels of engagement – a philosophy we live by in our project.
Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is a central aspect of our project. We set up COIL collaborations and develop COIL staff capacity through the network. This work is embedded in our endeavours to transform curricula, which we pursue
through a virtual appreciative enquiry that will inform recommendations for strategy development. Central to our thinking is that COIL should be integrated into transformed and internationalised curricula.
How did we manage to turn the challenges posed by the pandemic into opportunities for our project’s growth?
1. Developing COIL capacity without travel
The pandemic presented our project with an opportunity to demonstrate the strength and relevance of virtual collaboration. Although it deprived us of travel opportunities – which meant that planned COIL staff training workshops could not be implemented
– it challenged us to develop a model to initiate COIL collaboration without travel and to develop staff capacity for COIL projects through virtual engagements.
2. Virtual appreciative enquiry
COVID-19 rendered planned visits to partner universities to conduct workshops and engage in the appreciative enquiry process impossible. Yet, it provided us with the opportunity to develop a virtual appreciative enquiry model, which allows us to define,
discover, dream, design, determine destiny and deliver transformed and internationalised curricula based on our partner institutions’ experience and achievements.
3. Fast-tracking zero-emission internationalisation
The pandemic meant that we had to change our implementation strategy without an opportunity to plan. We were forced to make the new ideas work without time delay, which resulted in the fast-tracking of the development of cost-effective zero-emission-causing
approaches, demonstrating the responsive and adaptative nature of our project.
4. Ensuring academic support
Encouraging academic participation has been made difficult because the move to unprecedented, time-consuming, and emergency remote teaching and learning disbursed much academic time and energy. However, the impossibility to travel meant that the urgency
to find alternatives to physical, academic mobility became clear to all, and motivated academics to participate in project activities.
Our ability to turn the challenges encountered into opportunities has significantly contributed to the success of our project. To date, we have completed four COIL virtual exchange projects, provided COIL training to 36 academics, and initiated another
21 COIL collaborations for implementation in 2021. Additionally, we have made strides towards completing the virtual appreciative enquiry and engaged individually with network members in different ways. We also organised a two-part webinar series
titled ‘Shaping Post-COVID Internationalisation through Virtual Exchanges and Curriculum Transformation’ to share our perspectives with a broader public.
Why did we not succumb to the pandemic challenges but managed to leverage the opportunities?
My personal view is that before the pandemic, we had already developed trust capital based on long-established professional friendships, which connected many stakeholders in the consortium. We have managed to sustain and increase this trust capital through
a simple innovation – a weekly informal coffee hour, during which we informally share over a cup of coffee. Getting to know ourselves helps strengthen our trust capital and stay focused on our common purpose.
Based on our project’s trust capital, I am convinced that we will overcome future challenges – which we will inevitably encounter – and leverage the four opportunities discussed above to benefit our project and contribute to reshaping
internationalisation for post-pandemic higher education.
This blog is an expanded version of a presentation delivered at the webinar of the American Council of Education ‘Emerging Communities of Practice of Virtual Exchange/COIL Across the Globe’ on 10 December 2020.