The Cross-Cultural Competencies Boost: Internationalization of The Curriculum Through E-Learning Strategies

Proceedings of ‏The 3rd International Conference on Advanced Research in Education

Year: 2021

DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/3rd.educationconf.2021.03.209

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The Cross-Cultural Competencies Boost: Internationalization of The Curriculum Through E-Learning Strategies

Rafael Alberto Méndez-Romero ,Fray Martín Martínez

ABSTRACT: 

The perspective of internationalization in higher education has gone from a commitment to international mobility towards a deep reflection on the impact in student’s learning, involving communication, intercultural and technological skills. The most recent trends emphasize the need for internationalization to promote the insertion of higher education institutions in global dynamics (Schoorman, 2000) through the curriculum as a central dimension that incorporates a broader range of international areas at the epistemological, cognitive and practical level.

This internationalization of the curriculum (IdC) works in face-to-face and virtual dimensions and is materialized in the transformation of teaching and learning practices. In digital settings, methodologies such as COIL or the virtual exchange make the development of intercultural and internationalization skills a reality.

Through this paper, the strategies that the digital learning scenarios for the IdC offer to the academic community at the Universidad del Rosario will be exposed. International mobility promotes cross-cultural competences of students who have the opportunity to a cultural, linguistic and academic immersion abroad (Blons-Pierre, 2016), but with the use of technologies these opportunities are extended and unlimited which is fundamental in universities whose target is the internationalized, open and multilingual curricula. These strategies for e-Learning provide tools for comprehensive and inclusive education and develop skills formally recognized and validated in international programs. With a spirit of mutuality, these practices aimed at strengthening cooperation from e-Learning scenarios and foster greater internationalization in teaching and research activities, thus contributing to a much richer quality of higher education (Kreber, 2009).

Keywords: e-learning; internationalization of the curriculum; intercultural skills; COIL; global perspective.