BOCA RATON, Fla., July 29, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- American
Higher Education Alliance (AHEA) and the Consortium for North
American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC) today announced
their partnership to facilitate opportunities for members of both
organizations to engage and collaborate in curriculum
co-development and programmatic internationalization through
virtual exchange via AHEA's InspirED™ platform.
The partnership was established to address the needs of higher
education as the world comes to grips with the impact of COVID-19.
Colleges and universities are preparing for an extensive and rapid
transition to online-only modes of academic interaction. The need
to further develop pedagogical methods to ensure student engagement
for virtual or hybrid delivery models needs to be addressed now.
The disruption of international student mobility and academic
exchange requires higher education to re-envision the future of
international education.
"Our member institutions were not fully prepared for the exodus
of the international students they had on campus, nor for the
sudden repatriation of many of the students they had sent abroad,"
said Santiago Castiello Gutiérrez, mobility coordinator for
CONAHEC. He went on to say "Technological developments and their
broadening adoption mean that acquisition of intercultural
knowledge and skills is no longer as travel-dependent. Virtual
academic mobility and technology mediated exchange hold great
promise for much wider, more affordable access to international and
intercultural experiences."
Currently, faculties at AHEA's and CONAHEC's member institutions
are collaborating on multiple academic activities such as faculty
development, co-curricular development, virtual student exchange
programs, and their assessment methods in an online or hybrid
delivery environment. "The partnership between CONAHEC and AHEA
will help faculty and students develop their intercultural
competencies and institutions to strengthen their partnerships with
peers abroad," said Sean
Manley-Casimir, executive director of CONAHEC. "Through this
symbiotic relationship, our member institutions will be able to
work collaboratively with their peers in different countries to
internationalize their curricula and to expose their students to
new perspectives."
"Both organizations share the same core beliefs that it just
made sense for us to join forces and address these challenges
higher education is facing together" said Benjamin Shank, CEO of AHEA. "The pandemic has
placed physical and economic limits on both institutions and
students. Our partnership is to empower academic institutions and
their missions, which ultimately benefits the students. We are
working to establish a path for the future of higher education
where global faculty collaboration results in innovative academic
programs, and help higher education leaders anticipate change and
prepare their students for success."
About AHEA
American Higher Education Alliance (AHEA) is founded with the
mission to support colleges and universities for their
institutional effectiveness and growth, promote the collaboration
of faculty and curriculum development, facilitate programmatic
internationalization, and implement best-practice student
engagement strategies.
AHEA recognizes the advancement of technologies can enhance its
educational visions, partnered with tech industry and developed
InspirED™ platform. The platform natively integrates a student
information system ConnectED™, a learning management system
BlendED™, and a professional engagement system CollaboratED™. It
also combines operational highlights, performance reports, CRM, and
analytics.
Free to its member institutions, the platform provide colleges and
universities the tools to identify and assess their strengths,
challenges, and efficiencies to further enhance their operational
models to better serve and prepare new student populations for the
rapidly-evolving world.
To learn more visit http://www.ahealliance.org.
About CONAHEC
Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration
(CONAHEC) is a non-profit organization that fosters international
higher education collaboration in North
America and with the rest of the world. With more than
150-member higher education institutions and organizations, CONAHEC
is uniquely positioned to facilitate ongoing practical
relationships among members through our student, faculty and staff
mobility programs, and international conferences and events.
CONAHEC has become a preeminent network supporting an integrated
yet diverse higher education community and catalyzing collaboration
to address our common challenges. Centrally important is improving
technology-based support for international higher education
engagement, the focus of CONAHEC's Virtual International
Partnerships initiative. To learn more visit
http://www.CONAHEC.org
SOURCE AHEA