Adapting a capacity-development-in-higher-education project: Doing, being and becoming virtual collaboration

Authors

  • Prof L. Jacobs University of the Free State, South Africa
  • Prof K. Wimpenny Coventry University, United Kingdom
  • L. Mitchell University of Limpopo, South Africa
  • C. Hagenmeier University of the Free State, South Africa
  • Prof J. Beelen The Hague University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands
  • M. Hodges University of the Free State, South Africa
  • V. George University of the Free State, South Africa
  • Dr A. DeWinter Coventry University, United Kingdom
  • C. Slambee University of the Free State, South Africa
  • Dr S. Obadire University of Venda, South Africa
  • Prof A. Viviani Siena University, Italy
  • Dr L. Samuels Durban University of Technology, South Africa
  • L.M. Jackson Central University of Technology, South Africa
  • R. Klamer The Hague University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands
  • N. Adam University of the Free State, South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.38140/pie.v39i1.4792

Keywords:

COVID-19, Internationalisation of higher education, Decolonisation, COIL, Virtual exchange, Erasmus

Abstract

In November 2019, scholars and practitioners from ten higher education institutions celebrated the launch of the iKudu project. This project, co-funded by Erasmus+[1], focuses on capacity development for curriculum transformation through internationalisation and development of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) virtual exchange. Detailed plans for 2020 were discussed including a series of site visits and face-to-face training. However, the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the plans in ways that could not have been foreseen and new ways of thinking and doing came to the fore. Writing from an insider perspective as project partners, in this paper we draw from appreciative inquiry, using a metaphor of a mosaic as our identity, to first provide the background on the iKudu project before sharing the impact of the pandemic on the project’s adapted approach. We then discuss how alongside the focus of iKudu in the delivery of an internationalised and transformed curriculum using COIL, we have, by our very approach as project partners, adopted the principles of COIL exchange. A positive impact of the pandemic was that COIL offered a consciousness raising activity, which we suggest could be used more broadly in order to help academics think about international research practice partnerships, and, as in our situation, how internationalised and decolonised curriculum practices might be approached.

[1] KA2 Erasmus+ Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices (capacity building in the field of Higher Education)

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Published

2021-03-12

How to Cite

Jacobs, L., Wimpenny, K., Mitchell, L.-M., Hagenmeier, C., Beelen, J., Hodges, M., George, V., DeWinter, A., Slambee, C., Obadire, S., Viviani, A., Samuels, L., Jackson, L., Klamer, R., & Adam, N. (2021). Adapting a capacity-development-in-higher-education project: Doing, being and becoming virtual collaboration. Perspectives in Education, 39(1), 353–371. https://doi.org/10.38140/pie.v39i1.4792