2022-12-01 –, Stage 2, Einstein-Saal, BBAW
Hochschule Bonn-Rhein Sieg (H-BRS) has redesigned its strategic internationalization strategy by expanding its traditional mobility programs and incorporating virtual and hybrid mobility schemes since 2018. Its mission is to provide virtual mobility for all. All students should have an international virtual experience while studying at H-BRS. It has initiated a campus-wide DIF project to coordinate all activities in each department.
By 2018, it redefined its strategy by appointing a Commissioner for Global Digital Learning, who liaised with both the Commission for Teaching and Learning and the Commission for International Affairs and became an important link for developing global digital learning at H-BRS. The university began to revise its long-term internationalization strategy by giving a substantial focus on virtual mobility. By the time of the lockdown in 2020, H-BRS had already begun funding several digital projects with its partner universities and supported several virtual exchange projects. By the end of 2020, it resigned its internal calls for funding and initiated a university-wide campaign to foster digital internationalization within each department.
A new project was initiated “Digitale Internationalisierung der Fachbereiche” (DIF). DIF was launched to steer away from funding individual virtual projects by providing each department with one DIF coordinator. Now, H-BRS had a team of coordinators working together campus-wide on implementing its new strategy by providing each student with an international virtual experience (i.e. virtual or blended mobility) whilst studying at H-BRS. In 2022 the university has been awarded a grant "Virtual Mobility for All" to continue and expand the idea of DIF by the Stiftung für Innovation in der Hochschullehre. In this paper, we will also focus on what lies ahead and what we have learned from the past two years.
Regina C. Brautlacht is appointed Commissioner for Global Digital Learning and Senior Lecturer in Business Communication and Entrepreneurship at Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, Germany. She leads three virtual mobility projects (DIF, IVAC-BAIN, and Virtual Mobility for All). She is a member of the Commission for Teaching and Learning, the Commission for Quality Assurance in Teaching and the Commission for International Affairs. She has initiated the network for digital internationalization in NRW and is Deputy Director of the Consortium of Virtual Exchange (CoVE). She has served as an expert in digital learning and virtual exchanges on different panels. He holds a Master's in Media Education from the University of Duisburg-Essen.