Digital media enable learning and teaching independent of time and place and open up new perspectives on internationalisation in university teaching. In times of limited physical mobility due to the coronavirus pandemic, the International Office at the University of Konstanz supports virtual mobility and cross-border cooperation in Higher Education on the basis of digital media by launching a call for innovative digital co-teaching formats.
Three proposals have been awarded and will lead to three digital graduate courses in Psychology, American Studies and Slavic Literatures that are going to be held during the upcoming winter term 2020/2021. These teaching formats, jointly developed and implemented by international teaching teams consisting of one Konstanz-based lecturer and one lecturer from an international partner university each, will enable Konstanz students to experience “Internationalisation@Home”: They will have the chance to look beyond their own academic culture and to gain international learning experience without going abroad.
However, the underlying idea of this call goes one step further yet: Not only can universities strengthen their partnerships and make cooperation more visible to students and teaching staff. The current situation also provides a unique chance to Higher Education institutions to experiment with both new teaching and exchange formats and to prepare for the post-Covid era.
The University of Konstanz therefore strives to extend its virtual course offer and to transform it into a long-term and lasting reality combining internationalisation and digitalisation. The objective is to lift virtual exchange formats to yet another level by turning them into an integral part of exchange between universities – in addition to or as an alternative to physical mobility – even after the pandemic is over.
