An exchange was set up between students at Coventry University and students in Mexico City.
It was agreed that students would discuss themes and topics they were interested in and could choose to do so in English or in Spanish and English, or in Spanish/English and French.
The students at Coventry University were on the first year of undergraduate degrees in English and Languages, while the students in Mexico were learning English and were taking a variety of degrees.
Intercultural Communicative Competence tasks were discussed, agreed and proposed to the student participants in trilingual format (Spanish/English/French), but students had the choice to design/choose their own tasks, and could post responses/comments in whichever language(s) they wanted to use.
Students also had the option to design their digital learning objects in English or in English/French and Spanish (languages taught in the two institutions).
Students collaborated online in a dedicated Moodle VLE area to discuss topics of common interest and then the Coventry students designed a hypertextual digital group project (a learning object) and presented it to their peers and tutors both face-to-face (at Coventry) and online (in Moodle). The portfolio Mahara wasthe e-platform of choice to design and deliver the project.
The distinguishing feature of the project was that students could negotiate the themes amongst themselves before finalising their choices.
Some guidance was however provided initially by tutors on what could be discussed.