Virtual Exchange for Teaching Staff

We are aware that support can be helpful when establishing a Virtual Exchange course. The University of Göttingen offers various teams and resources to support you in creating a virtual exchange course.

• On the website of Internationalisation of Curricula you will find detailled information about planning and preparing a Joint Classroom project. There are also several examples of successfully completed projects as part of the Internationalisation of Curricula as well as available tools and further education on the topic. For additional support for the conception, development, implementation and evaluation of your virtual exchange project please consult Dr. Tanja Reiffenrath.
• Hochschuldidaktik offers a variety of open workshops to aid you in planning virtual courses, for example about organising asynchronous teaching or competence oriented online exams. They also offer the Certificate Programme (ZP) which consists of three modules to introduce and critically reflect on central ideas and methods of teaching and learning in higher education.
• The team of Digital Learning and Teaching is your experienced contact for the digitalisation of teaching, offering training on technical implementation, available platforms, e-learning tools as well as an overview of the technical set up of every lecture hall at the university.

• Virtual Exchange 101 is a short introduction to the topic, giving faculty a overview about important aspects to keep in mind when implementing virtual exchange.
• Erasmus Evolve was a project from 2018 to 2020 under Erasmus+ Key Action 3. Among the materials created, there is a detailled guide to virtual exchange as well as a comprehensive, modular training program.
• Unicollaboration factilitates the search for virtual exchange partners, offers qualification courses and a publication database focused on virtual exchange.
• Stevens Initative has a collection of manuals for faculty, evaluations and examples of different successfull virtual exchange projects. You can also find a glossary for relevant technical terms here.
• Internationale DAAD Akademie (iDA) maintains a broad digital qualification programme, featuring courses for faculty on planning, conducting and teaching in virtual exchange projects.

Virtual Exchange/ Joint Classroom

There are several ways to virtually include students from abroad in courses. The classic Virtual Exchange involves the cooperation of at least two lecturers from different universities. The regional coordinators are also glad to assist if you don't yet have a partner for a Joint Classroom project.

• You want to do a Virtual Exchange with a partner university: The University of Göttingen has many partner universities and some have explicitly expressed interest in working with our faculty on virtual exchange courses. Please note that the presence of a partnership agreement does not add additional steps or complicate the process. Nevertheless, the regional coordinators would be happy to hear about your Virtual Exchange project and assist you with questions you might have.
• There is no existing agreement with the university with which you want to work: For a pilot project, no contracts are needed. If you plan to repeat the Virtual Exchange, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) should be created. Some universities might require a letter of intent to initiate the collaboration. In both of these instances, The international Office Göttingen is available to support you. Please contact Dr. Tanja Falkowski. You can find further information about university partnerships and a guide to exchange agreements here.
• Special case – Funding from the DAAD: If your project receives DAAD funding, you will need an exchange agreement. For support and advice please contact the respective regional coordinator.

Virtual Mobility/ Open your courses

There is also the option of letting international students from partner universities participate in your courses virtually, so as to broaden the diversity of perspectives in the class. For this type of Virtual Mobility there are several requirements.

• Only students from partner universities are allowed to participate.
• Students must be nominated by their home university.
• If they want to earn more than 12 ECTS, they will have to enroll as exchange students (including semester fees); if they participate in fewer courses they must enroll as guest students with the respective fee.
• Students who successfully finish a course can receive a transcript of records from the University of Göttingen.

For questions about virtual mobility, please contact Dr. Katharina Jannasch..

• Innovative teaching and learning concepts are being promoted by the government of Lower Saxony. The project called "Innovation Plus" currently offers funding for the innovative development of courses in 2022 and 2023.
• IVAC is a funding program from the DAAD that explicitly focuses on virtual exchange projects. If you have any questions about IVAC, please contact our DAAD-advisor Jakob Hedderich.
• Calls for Proposals for Funding from the European Commission can be found on the Funding & Tender Opportunities Portal (F&TP).