Identification of Effective Strategies in Facilitating Virtual Mobility

Abstract

Background: Virtual mobility, as one of the emerging phenomena in the internationalization of higher education, is a process that all activities within it are done electronically or digitally. It is used, among others, to facilitate physical activities, such as student exchanges, with the help of information and communication technologies. Objectives: The current study aimed at the identification of effective strategies in facilitating virtual mobility. Methods: In order to achieve the objectives of the study, a qualitative approach and a phenomenological research method were used. The statistical population included all the experts experienced in the area of internationalization from the top five comprehensive and public universities in Iran, including the University of Tehran, Shahid Beheshti University, Tarbiat Modares University, Mashhad Ferdowsi University, and Shiraz University. The participants included 27 experts with international experience purposefully selected from the five universities and their comments were collected using semi-structured interviews to achieve the theoretical saturation of data. The content analysis of the data was done using MAXQDA version 2018 software. Results: Seventeen minor components were identified as effective strategies in facilitating virtual mobility in higher education. The main effective strategies in facilitating virtual mobility were organized in four major themes, including promoting university websites, promoting social networks, improving virtual infrastructure, and strengthening virtual branding. Conclusions: The results of the study showed that among the components, promoting university websites and promoting social networks were the most important factors highlighted by the experts as the factors that could facilitate the process of virtual mobility as an area in which more must be invested.