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Virtual Exchange (VE) in second language education refers to a technology-enabled, interactive, intercultural experience that is designed to increase learners' intercultural communicative competence and performance. In this paper the findings of a bilingual (English/Turkish), synchronous video communication project among 31 US and Turkish college students are presented. Thematic analysis was used in this study. The results show that the VE -- to a certain extent and similarly to other research studies -- achieves the learning objectives of not only increased cultural awareness and communicative competence about the target culture and language itself but also the growth of factual knowledge about diverse topics that the students are interested in learning. [For the complete volume, "Intelligent CALL, Granular Systems and Learner Data: Short Papers from EUROCALL 2022 (30th, Reykjavik, Iceland, August 17-19, 2022)," see ED624779.]

Soft skills are key for the successful realisation of individuals in their personal, professional and social life, but scientific research conducted on the soft skills of homeschoolers is still scarce so far. One of the most frequent questions, when homeschooling is discussed concerns the presumed lack of social skills of homeschoolers. A common assumption is that homeschoolers' socialisation is compromised and homeschooled individuals' soft skills development is, therefore, impaired. However, researchers, education specialists, and homeschooling families have differing opinions about this question. Research shows that the concern of social skills deficit comes often from outside the families, although parents usually care the most about their children's wellbeing. Homeschoolers, who were surveyed in the framework of this research did not confirm this assumption either. Therefore, there seems to be a clear need for deeper understanding and further exploration of the soft skills of homeschoolers. This paper aims to present the initial findings, discovered through theoretical study and qualitative and quantitative analysis of the preliminary results of an online survey conducted with homeschoolers from 3 countries aged over 16 years in order to explore the soft skills they develop. [For the complete Volume 21 proceedings, see ED629259.]

Internationalization has become a substantial part of higher education worldwide, especially in the U.S. Moreover, Chinese students make up the largest portion of the U.S.'s international higher education students. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a disruption in higher education, especially posing considerable challenges to international students. Given the emphasis of international higher education in the U.S. and the prominence of Chinese international students in this country, as well as the sparsity of research outside large cities, this study sought to examine particular challenges posed to Chinese international students studying at universities in smaller cities in the U.S. Results indicate that this group of students experienced a myriad of hardships and challenges during the pandemic. Understanding these effects can inform international higher education programs perhaps worldwide, ultimately improving such programs to better manage crises, but also to improve normal practice. [For the full proceedings, see ED628982.]

COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic had led to the confrontation of higher education system with enormous challenges. That necessitated the urgent transition from face-to-face teaching to online-teaching. The change was an innovation in higher education. A comparative study of digital education based on the survey in 2020-2021 in seven different countries was conducted at Shanghai University. The study was based on grey comprehensive evaluation model. In general, developed countries had high comprehensive evaluation value, while Finland, United States of America, South-Korea and Latvia had relatively low grey correlation coefficient in several certain indicators, leading to a sharp drop in the overall score. Romania ranked last while China ranked second as a developing country as well. The study launched a conclusion that research and development personnel, infrastructure funds and university financial investment in digital education had relatively more obvious effects on improving the innovations and quality of higher education system including the leadership system of universities. [For the full proceedings, see ED639633.]

The Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) is an international, non-profit educational organization. The Association's purpose is to advance the knowledge, theory, and quality of teaching and learning at all levels with information technology. The "EdMedia + Innovate Learning" conference took place in New York, New York and online June 20-23, 2022. These proceedings include 180 papers, including 2 award papers. The award papers cover the topics of VALUE (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education) rubrics and teacher candidates' acceptance and intentional use of augmented reality (AR) technology.