Foreword

Abstract

This collection of case studies could not come at a more auspicious time, and not only because of the global pandemic that is affecting all of our lives. Virtual exchange is often presented as an innovative approach to teaching and learning across cultures, but inherent in the word ‘innovative’ is the concept of something being ‘new’. As a practice, as well as a focus of research, different forms of virtual exchange have been around for over three decades. What is perhaps ‘new’ is the exponential growth of the field in the past five years, and the coming together of a community of practitioners, researchers, and funders who now place their different models under the umbrella term of ‘virtual exchange’.