Internacionalización en casa -IEC- mediante foros virtuales de discusión, como estrategia de internacionalización de la educación superior en los cursos de inglés en la Universidad Católica Luis Amigó

Abstract

Internationalization at Home through online discussion forums, as an internationalization of higher education strategy in English courses at Universidad Católica Luis Amigó, Medellin, Colombia. This is a qualitative study that took place between two private universities of Medellín, Colombia and a public university of Mexico. The problem intended to be solved was to promote internationalization of an English course from the Universidad Católica Luis Amigó, according to its internationalization policies and its vision by 2021. The strategy implemented was Internationalization at Home (IaH), through online discussion forums aimed at strengthening and developing intercultural competence in the students, studying topics of global interest such as education, technology and environment. The methodology used was the case study, under the framework of action-research. The sample was made up of 29 students from three higher education institutions[pc] Universidad Católica Luis Amigó (Medellín), Universidad CES, (Medellín), and Universidad Veracruzana of Mexico. Among the findings it can be concluded that tools like the intercultural competence diagnostic, online discussion forums, and the focus group, facilitate the internationalization of English courses through IaH. Furthermore, they allow to strengthen and develop intercultural competence. As conclusions it can be inferred that IaH strategy is a powerful tool to internationalize higher Education and it can be implemented in several academic scenarios by studying domestic and international topics. Finally, to reach internationalization it is necessary to foster cooperation among higher education institutions.