PRACTICE REPORT GUIDELINES

Practice reports should provide detailed, critical accounts of innovative telecollaborative projects of which at least one iteration has been completed and evaluated. The projects should be original or, if closely based on existing projects or designs, incorporate significant adaptations. This means that authors should foreground changes and/or adaptations to the design or framework used (such as COIL) to meet the specific needs of the socio-institutional context(s) of application. Please see the following examples for new design (Ganassin et al., 2023)and adaptation in a new context (Cappellini and Hsu, 2020).

Practice Report Format

Practice Reports will typically include the following elements:

Maximum number of words: 4,000 including Abstract and References, but excluding Appendices

Title

A Title of 10-15 words should be provided.

Abstract

An Abstract of 150-200 words should be provided.

Keywords

Five keywords (or key phrases) should be supplied, to include at least the subject(s) taught (e.g., German, French, intercultural communication, business communication) and any recognised virtual exchange formats or functions (e.g., tandem, pre-mobility exchange).

Introduction

The Introduction should orient the reader to the project and its context, and preview key points from the following sections.

Objectives

The Objectives section should set out the rationale for the virtual exchange project, its aims, and how they relate to the aims of any associated study programmes or courses.

Context

The Context section should provide at least the following details:

  • Participating institutions: Generic names and types – e.g., secondary teacher-training college, vocational college, secondary school; all institutional names should be anonymized - for example: a small private research university in Southeast Asia)
  • Participants: Students, instructors - which details are most relevant and informative will be influenced by the local socio-institutional context(s), but may include, for example,

          - Courses of study, and stage of study (e.g., final-year students of German and Business)
          - Native and target languages
          - Proficiency levels
          - Class size

  • Staff: e.g., number and roles of staff involved with the project, including authors’ role
  • Ethical considerations must follow the guidelines laid out under the Ethical Policy

Project Design

A Project Design section is likely to include discussion of the following:

  • Planning:
    • Is the project based on an existing type or design? If so, what modifications have been made to the existing framework or design based on the socio-institutional context(s), and why?
    • Rationale for design choices: why this model, in this context?
    • How was the partnership established?
  • Implementation:
    • Length, schedule: how many weeks, how many hours per week?
    • Status in relationship to studies: elective / compulsory, stand-alone, blended, complementary to existing modules…
    • Activity sequence, including details of modes, platforms, etc.
    • Student learning assessment

Evaluation / Discussion of outcomes

A project evaluation section should discuss in relevance to the new or adapted virtual exchange framework or model, such as challenges and solutions, participation, engagement and motivation. These can be illustrated by various sources, such as practitioner observations, reflections, and notes; course materials; learner outputs or products; comments and responses from the participants and relevant parties, etc.

Conclusions and implication

The Conclusions section should include lessons learned and questions arising for future research or practice.

List of References

This is likely to be considerably shorter than for a typical research article. All references must follow APA guidelines.

Appendices

Appendices should not exceed 1,500 words.