Sustainable higher education via telecollaboration: improving plurilingual and pluricultural competence

Over the past two centuries, human society has faced many revolutionary advances that shape its current socio-economic situation. It was necessary to use steam power, weaving looms and overall mechanisation to initiate Industry 1.0, cross the borderline of mass production and total consumption of electrical energy during Industry 2.0 and reach complete automation based on computers to achieve Industry 3.0. But what is next? Industry 4.01, related to robots, the internet of things, augmented reality, big data or cybersecurity is forging ahead, experts claim [1; 2].

Current manufacturing and business challenges will imply evolutionary changes for higher education, learning models and collaboration systems. To discuss the juncture between industry, professional preparation and university, we have to revisit the foundations of the current university organisation. The Bologna Process opened a general transformation of tertiary education – the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) – a unified system of cooperation among 48 countries aimed to offer comparable studies, academic mobility and quality education ² .

However, the essential commitments of the EHEA consider a wider range of aspects. Besides the three key priorities (three-cycle degree structure, recognition of qualifications and quality assurance), there is a need to attain learning and teaching, opening higher education, employability, internationalisation and values ³ . There should be a way to ensure quality university education based on the afore-mentioned features.

Recently and due to the widespread pandemic situation, we had to rethink sustainable development goals for quality education4 and start implementing them in new ways5. Seeking a novel approach angle of inclusive higher education, we decided to energise and empower academic curricula by bringing a spotlight onto telecollaboration and cross-cultural learning. The current study covers a specific experiment, intended as an online L2 (second language) training project for international students from Spain and Finland. Rather than simply gathering students for online meetings, the investigation applied methods for competential advancement.

Referring to skills and competences, we focus on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that builds bridges between a 21-st century education model, industry and current social needs. At its core, sustainable development of education is located, seeking to ensure a longterm pursuit of competence-based learning in the industrial world. Now, it is essential to clarify such terms as skills and competences in the OECD context.

In the case of skills, we are dealing with abilities and capacities to convey procedures and use knowledge for accomplishing objectives. Moreover, skills are a piece of a “holistic idea of competency”, including the preparation of information, abilities, perspectives and ethics to fulfil complex needs ⁶ . The continuous learning process allows future employees to permanently update their cognitive and metacognitive, social and emotional, physical and practical skills to reach diverse work opportunities.

The OECD also distinguishes between skill and competence, identifying the last one as the expert performance and comprehension in a specific area. Additionally, competence combines “the interactions between disciplinary, interdisciplinary, epistemic and procedural knowledge take place in this context, helping connect and integrate different aspects of knowledge with the ability of each learner to adapt and apply what they know to a changing landscape” 7.

In other words, modern society demands dynamic learning systems where students take an active part in a responsible and sometimes autonomous training. There is an immediate need to update disciplinary, interdisciplinary, epistemic and procedural types of knowledge aligning them with skills, attitudes and values to strengthen university preparation. Supporting intercultural communication development [3] or e-learning in tertiary education has been challenging ⁸ . Recent approaches towards telecollaboration and L2 digital competence [4] or culturally informed L2 use [5] provide deep insights into the project-based, class-based and autonomous forms of collaboration.

Considering plurilingual and pluricul-tural competence to be a vital part of cross-cultural training, it is appropriate to support to new kinds of interaction that might simulate real-life contact, decision-making and cooperation in international teams. In a Spanish setting, the pandemic was not only a great national challenge healthwise but a huge opportunity to implement new digital or online assisted methods of pedagogical guidance.

For the current study, the researchers used a special Collaborative Online International Learning projects (COIL) approach, created by Jon Rubin to promote international virtual exchange programmes at higher education institutions across nations and continents. It is a cost-effective and innovative manner to create a digital learning environment for virtual travels and interaction. COIL initiatives ( help connect classrooms of two or more universities, different faculty learners building up culturally diverse and still quite realistic forms of communication.

The COIL model does not only give relevance to learners´ thoughts and writings as they investigate and acquire knowledge but also generates secure and affordable virtual scenarios in which to build up their collaborations ⁹ [6]. Participating educators work closely with all students, however as a rule they are granted evaluations just at their home establishment.

Our key research goal is to extend and develop university studentsʼ plurilingual and pluricultural competence through telecollaboration. The study research questions will generally review the following aspects of online-assisted development on the plurilin-gual and pluricultural competence:

RQ1 What impact have university collaboration policies had on the plurilingual and pluricultural competence?

RQ2 How did Spanish and Finnish students perceive online communication experience and relate it to the development of plurilingual and plurilingual competence and motivation?

RQ3 How effective was the application of online-assisted training to meet the necessities of sustainable development goals for quality education?

The plurilingual and pluricultural competence collaborative online international learning project involved students from Spain and Finland, and, therefore, this eliminated any cultural barrier that would be present. It was easy for the students to portray their internet usage skills and share information with others embracing diversity and tolerance, thus eliminating any form of bias. The online platform allowed students to improve

their communication skills and learn from other learners from different cultures. From the given questionnaire, we described the process of a sustainable communication system, which is crucial in language awareness and the development of language abilities. Students acquired a clear understanding of the PPC COIL in the 21 ^st century that brings people together despite their localities, languages and culture.

To approach our study goal, we follow the classical research tradition by stating the research questions. After that, we place our investigation in context with the previous work in this area and describe the theoretical background. Then, we identify the methods and materials needed for developing our project. Next, we argue the investigation of plurilin-gual and pluricultural competence achievement via telecollaboration and present project results. In the end, we conclude.