April 13, 2023

President Vollendorf Discusses Virtual Exchange Initiative with U.S. and Dominican Institutions

President Volledorf with members of UNAPEC and SUNY Empire
President Volledorf with members of UNAPEC and SUNY Empire

(SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - April 13, 2023) President Lisa Vollendorf met with members of UNAPEC and Empire State University to discuss the impact of virtual exchange on the development of global capabilities.

Empire State University received two State Department grants from the US Embassy in the Dominican Republic. Both grants were to support international virtual exchange (VE) activities, although post-COVID, the second grant also encouraged some face-to-face mobility opportunities. Both were undertaken jointly with our Dominican partner, UNAPEC. 

With the grant, SUNY Empire built virtual exchange activities under two different models of virtual exchange. The first was COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) in which SUNY was a pioneer; and a “virtual residency”(VR) model which was developed using SUNY Empire experiences in residency programs. The COIL collaborations are one-on-one faculty/course collaborations between faculty from two institutions where the participating instructors work together to develop a topic and project specific to their two courses. The collaborations usually last for 5-6 weeks. The virtual residencies are developed around a common theme, and multiple professors and courses participate. The virtual residencies usually last three weeks and include asynchronous discussion forums on the residency theme, as well as one-two virtual panels or presentations. A core team of faculty develop the content and materials that are adopted by all participants.

With the grant funding, the programs supported the development of seven COIL collaborations, a “virtual residency” under the theme of “Leadership in Times of Crisis”, and a slightly modified virtual residency VE with the theme of “Sustainability through Learning”. With the second grant, the “Sustainability” VE included an optional final project, allowing the participating students to work together on solving a problem in cross cultural teams (a hybrid VR-COIL). The second grant also allowed us to bring some of our participating students together for the Spring Student Conference so they could share their experiences with virtual exchange. One of the things that distinguishes these VE activities from others is that everything was developed in both English and Spanish, including student communications with each other. The students used tools like Google Translate to not put the burden of communication on just one group. In total, 64 faculty and 776 students participated in the VE activities.

This work will continue even after the grant period has concluded.

Assistant Professor of Business, International Business, and Marketing and Virtual Exchange Research Team Member Luis Camacho said, "This program has resulted in four publications by faculty about the pedagogical implications of virtual exchange. You can learn—as faculty—different ways to teach. We are learning about students from different backgrounds and generations. These students all have different expectations of us.”

SUNY Empire BPS Public Affairs Student Representative and Retired Fire Captain Otto Madsen said, “People are constant. We have the same problems. The program teaches you to think about how others approach those problems.”

SUNY Empire Security Studies Empire Student Representative Abigail Muller said, “This is sort of a simulation of how we are going to deal with future challenges. We were unprepared for the pandemic. We could have been learning more from each other across national borders. We are learning together how we will face future challenges in the world.”

SUNY Empire Child and Family Health Student Representative Rachel Sproule '22 said, “I learned about different cultures and how important it is to understand cultural barriers in health care settings.” 

UNAPEC Business Administration Student Representative Rafael Marti said, “I learned how to speak at a professional level with Americans.”

UNAPEC Industrial Engineering Student Representative Katherine Hilario said, “My takeaway was that, in the end, we are more alike than different.”

 

Virtual Exchange Research Team:

  • Lorette Pellettiere Calix (PI) - SUNY Empire
  • Linda Jones (Co-PI, Sustainability VE) - SUNY Empire
  • Luis Camacho - SUNY Empire
  • Christopher Whann -SUNY Empire
  • Sandra Winn - SUNY Empire
  • Moises Banks – UNAPEC
  • Elsa Moquete - UNAPEC
  • Melissa Rosario - UNAPEC 

Student Representatives

  • Otto R. Madsen III (‘22)- BPS Public Affairs, Fire and Emergency Services Leadership and Administration  - SUNY Empire
  • Abigail Muller – Security Studies - SUNY Empire
  • Rachel Sproule - Child and Family Health -SUNY Empire
  • Ashley Zimmerman - Interdisciplinary Studies with a Concentration in Public Health (virtual)- SUNY Empire
  • Elianna Columna Batista – Intl. Business (virtual) -UNAPEC
  • Katherine Hilario – Industrial Engineering -UNAPEC
  • Rafael Marti – Business Administration -UNAPEC