University Student Perceptions of Transversal Competence Development in Virtual Exchange

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that, despite the importance of transversal competences for life-long learning and employability, their development and assessment in education to date have been limited to only a few of those competences. The objective of this chapter is to present the findings from a project that aimed to foster participants' competence development in virtual exchange. Answers to an end of project questionnaire were analysed quantitatively using descriptive statistics and Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC) and qualitatively using Grounded theory in order to provide a rich and multi-faceted perspective on students' perceptions regarding how virtual exchange had contributed to enhance their competences in this environment. Results suggest that students developed instrumental, interpersonal, and systemic competences through participation in virtual exchange and that teamwork proved to be pivotal in the development of some of these competences.