This volume is an important output of the ASSESSnet, an EU-funded project that aimed at investigating assessment practices in Virtual Exchange (VE) projects in Foreign Language (FL) courses at tertiary level. It starts with the discussion of selected aspects of VE and assessment design, and a summary of ASSESSnet project results. The following…

The guiding research question of this essay is: What are the perceived benefits of participating in a transient professional community? The author used an ethnographic approach to collect data. The data analysis shows that one benefit of participating in a transient professional community is the feeling of belonging that partners described and…

This chapter examines whether commonality can be found across different institutions' approaches to assessment in language teacher education, and whether elements of individuality in these unique settings can be incorporated into a common framework, which can then be used as a model to be adapted to suit each partner's needs and requirements.…

This volume is based on an ERASMUS+ project that ran from 2017 to 2020. It aimed at empowering both prospective teachers and teacher educators to actively become agents of their own continuing professional development. It further intended to cooperatively establish a culture of self-reflection, as well as an intercultural network of professionals…

This case study refers to the eTandem pre-mobility project coordinated by the Padova University Language Centre running twice a year since 2015 for approximately eight weeks. The project matches up local university students with incoming international students, thus boosting integration between the two groups and increasing internationalisation at…

One of the possible ways of assessing students' collaborative work in Virtual Exchange (VE) is by the use of Peer Assessment (PA) -- a formative assessment technique in which students review each other's work to provide descriptive feedback on the basis of a set of criteria. This article describes a VE procedure, in which students from three…

On its website, APVEA reminds us that "virtual exchanges are technology-enabled, sustained, people-to-people education programs". This chapter addresses the question of what we exchange when we engage in virtual exchange by exploring the meaning and value of virtual exchange as intercultural dialogue, and by considering the impact of the…

As seen in previous chapters of this volume, student involvement in the proPIC Europa project differed at each partner university. For some, engagement rewarded students with formal credits towards a Master's programme. For others, the project offered an opportunity to experience another education system and broaden their knowledge of mobile…

In order to discern how reflective practice functions in an interactive context, this chapter offers an initial approach to understanding how pre-service teachers construct and represent their teacher identities, using a series of interactions designed to stimulate joint reflection in the framework of the proPIC project. The analysis focuses on…

A core element of the proPIC project is the development and implementation of the so-called study weeks: a five day face-to-face stay abroad at one of the partner institutions in which all the participating students took part. In this chapter, the authors present and discuss the results and impact of these events which took place twice during the…

Undertaking a Virtual Exchange (VE) project for the first time is supported by introductory online training and mentoring offered through the European Commission's Erasmus+ programme, and can be a source of teacher Professional Development (PD). This study based on Exploratory Practice (EP) describes aspects of the planning and implementation of…

Chapters in this volume have reflected on the proPIC Europa project primarily through the experiences and views of the educators involved. This chapter combines extracts of student essays and includes a choice of vignettes that help examine the project from the perspective of the students themselves, exploring their reflections on their…

The claim to strive for greater internationalisation in the fields of academic education not only corresponds to the pressures of an increasingly globalised world but is also a response to the ever-growing challenges of cultural diversity that exist within one's own country. For students, however, the geographical space relevant to their education…

What do students expect before starting a Virtual Exchange (VE) with peers? Are their initial expectations mirrored in the final outcomes they perceive after the VE experience? Or, else, do students acknowledge benefits and acquired skills which they did not expect at first? This study draws on qualitative and quantitative data collected across a…

This presentation focuses on the Erasmus+ online introductory training course, which aims to introduce university educators and administrative/technical staff to Virtual Exchange (VE). The training, which requires no previous experience with VE, engages the participants in tasks that help them understand the requirements to successfully integrate…