Optimising Study Abroad through Virtual Exchange

This book is designed to help educators equip students to navigate the cultural, linguistic and academic challenges of studying abroad. By addressing the common barriers to meeting learning outcomes when studying a foreign language abroad, the author demonstrates how successful interventions using the GearUp! Virtual Exchange have enabled students to collaborate online before embarking on mobility programmes. With a firm basis in the research literature, the book aims to stimulate innovation in study abroad programmes’ curriculum and structure to optimise learning, and to broaden accessibility to international education in general. The rigorous analysis in each chapter is supported by a comprehensive set of guidelines on implementing study abroad preparation, as well as a supplementary task dossier, student handbook, reflective e-portfolio, and video. It will be of interest to researchers and practitioners in foreign language education and virtual exchange (or computer-assisted language learning) as well as study abroad and the internationalisation of higher education.