Internationalisation at Home: Building Global Learning Without Overseas Travel

Make global learning part of the course

Internationalisation at home starts with the educational experience available to all students, including those who cannot travel. Define what learners should understand or do differently: compare perspectives, examine assumptions, communicate across contexts or analyse how a problem changes between locations.

A guest lecture can contribute, but participation alone does not demonstrate intercultural learning. Connect the activity to course content and provide a task that requires learners to use what they encounter. Avoid presenting one speaker or student as a representative of an entire country or culture.

Design a shared task with a partner

Collaborative Online International Learning brings students and teachers across cultures into course-based discussion and collaboration, as described by SUNY COIL. ^[1] A practical starting point is a bounded task that both classes can complete within their academic calendars. The task should require exchange, not merely parallel presentations.

For example, students could compare how two communities communicate flood risk, analyse the evidence behind different education policies or review accessibility in public information. Agree the learning outcomes, responsibilities and assessment arrangements between teachers before students begin. Each institution should understand what it will contribute and how the activity fits its own course.

Build participation around real constraints

Map connectivity, device access, language confidence, time zones and accessibility needs. Offer asynchronous participation where live attendance would exclude learners. Use a shared platform that both institutions can access under their policies, and provide a brief practice activity before assessed collaboration starts.

CAST's Universal Design for Learning resources encourage attention to varied engagement, representation and ways of demonstrating learning. ^[2] Apply that design orientation without assuming that every student needs the same support. Provide readable instructions, accessible files and more than one appropriate way to contribute, while retaining the academic requirements of the task.

Prepare learners for collaboration

Explain how to ask clarifying questions, disagree respectfully and distinguish personal experience from general evidence. Discuss the limits of automatic translation and the need to check meaning. Provide a process for resolving misunderstandings without leaving students to manage serious conflict alone.

Agree rules for recording meetings, sharing work and using personal information. Obtain appropriate permissions before publishing student outputs or images. Clarify how group contributions will be documented so that assessment does not reward only the most confident speaker. Reflection should invite critical thinking, not require students to disclose sensitive personal experiences.

Illustrative example: comparing university access information

Imagine two undergraduate classes examine how prospective students find information about fees, entry requirements and support services. Mixed groups review a small, agreed set of public institutional pages and compare the clarity of the information. They document differences without ranking entire national systems from a few examples.

Each group creates an accessible information checklist and explains the assumptions behind it. Students submit an individual reflection on how their initial expectations changed. Teachers assess the quality of comparison, use of evidence and collaboration process. The activity produces a concrete learning output without claiming that an online exchange reproduces every aspect of living abroad.

Assess the learning process and the product

Use criteria that match the intended outcomes. A polished final presentation may hide uneven participation or superficial comparison. Ask groups to record important decisions and explain how they handled conflicting interpretations. Include individual evidence where the assessment needs to establish each learner's understanding.

• Check whether the task genuinely required international collaboration.
• Examine whose perspectives were included or absent.
• Review whether language or technical barriers affected participation.
• Ask learners to connect observations with course concepts and evidence.
• Collect partner-teacher feedback on workload and feasibility.
• Revise the design before extending it to more courses.

Develop an institution-wide approach gradually

Start with a manageable collaboration, support the participating teachers and document what was learned. Build a reusable process for partnership approval, accessibility, technology and assessment. International students and local communities can contribute to campus learning, but participation should be voluntary and their contributions should be recognised appropriately.

Internationalisation at home is not a substitute for every benefit of mobility, nor does it guarantee intercultural competence. Its strength lies in making purposeful global learning accessible within regular study. Evaluate the quality of the experience rather than the number of overseas contacts displayed on a course page.