Education Commons^™

Bridging The Cultural And Linguistic Divide Through Virtual Exchange, Diane Ceo-Difrancesco, Carolina Marturet De Paris, Oscar Kennedy Mora, Xóchitl León Oyarzabal, Edison Rene Santacruz Bastidas, María Mena-Böhlke, Olaf Böhlke

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

The AUSJAL/AJCU Virtual Exchange Program maximizes the strengths of the Jesuit educational mission and its network to establish sustainable partnerships across borders, language and cultural divides. Initiated in 2006 as a grass roots project between two language instructors, the collaboration has grown to involve 22 universities, 29,561 students and 200 instructors in an innovative, high impact practice that leverages technologies to foster global engagement through virtual interaction. This study documents the perspectives of U.S. and Latin American students participating in virtual exchange experiences at five Jesuit universities. Specifically, research methodology included qualitative data collection to examine the impact of a …