By Denise Sweeney, University of Nottingham <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is great about working on international collaborative projects is firstly you get to meet new people from across the world, and secondly how you get to learn a lot from these new professional acquaintances and experiences which in turn enhances\/influences your own professional practice way beyond the life of the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the success of the ALT ELESIG Scholar Scheme<\/a>, we were invited to become part of the <\/strong>Digi:\u0110\u1ed5i Consortium<\/a> a British Council funded project. Our participation in this project has been for nearly two years and in that time, I’ve been involved in supporting the group mentoring aspect of the project. What has been good about this was having the opportunity to meet Vietnamese higher education colleagues grappling with digital transformation both in person and online. This involved being part of synchronous MS Teams meetings where colleagues presented their digital transformation projects to seek advice and mentoring. We were very lucky to have simultaneous translation through these sessions which meant I was able to give both verbal and written feedback which was a great way for projects to further pursue their aims through this \u2018just in time\u2019 feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This also involved in person\/hybrid workshops where again feedback was provided through simultaneous translation and digital facilitators. These experiences culminated in my visit to Ho Chi Minh city for just over a week in late 2024 to participate in the two-day showcase event. What was lovely to see was the variety of projects that were presented and the experiences that people shared about their learnings. It was great to meet people that I had met online in person. I cannot fault the hospitality of the project team and their support and enthusiasm of helping the whole UK Digi:\u0110\u1ed5i Consortium contingent to feel welcome. We were able to produce quality work during our visit as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was great to meet new colleagues whilst I was there and hopefully some of those relationships will continue and develop over time. Being part of this project has been such a great opportunity to see how we can improve the ALT-ELESIG Scholar Scheme going into 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As being part of this project, I have had to reflect on how effective mentoring and group mentoring strategies might be and how this can be better supported for those who might struggle. It was something that some of the project colleagues in Vietnam grappled with and I think there is a cultural conceptual challenge around notions of expert and novice and the power dynamics. Can novices actually learn from each other through group mentoring? In the digital transformation context where we are all professionals with expertise but maybe novices in the digital landscape. How can we mutually support and mentor ourselves?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was really impressed to see at the showcase a large number of women presenting on digital transformation and that was across a range of women from senior to junior academics and HE administrative and support staff. Also, the number of collaborative projects where people were helping each other solve their digital transformation challenges collaboratively. I was really impressed with the quality of the projects as well as diverse use of digital transformation resources that we had shared with them and how then they made those resources useful to their context. What is interesting around Vietnam from a higher education perspective is the fact that there a range of different HE providers. There are a number of private universities and foreign universities there as well and international partnerships with not only the UK but also Australia and the US. So, there is a real variance in the size and type of institutions. Then geography brings up lots of issues especially when you’re thinking of digital transformation there is a lot of unique features of particular geographical areas, and it goes beyond just reliable Wi-Fi access to unequal access to resources and funding due the variance in institutions. Thus, in this project, there was not a one-size-fits-all digital transformation approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whilst I was in Ho Chi Minh city, I noticed that there was a real thirst for non-credit bearing digital transformation professional development experiences. I think there’s a gap in the market for \u2018just in time\u2019 professional development that might lead to a digital badge for example or some kind of recognition of participation. This was something that more than one colleague brought up<\/p>\n\n\n\n As someone who grew up in the antipodes where I worked quite closely with Vietnamese refugees in a previous career it was good to see Vietnam is open to all different types of pedagogical input beyond the Anglosphere. The fact that colleagues were working with Finnish or Hungarian academics or were working with other international aid organisations it was really encouraging to see and areas for new learning for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Being part of the Digi:\u0110\u1ed5i Consortium project was a really wonderful experience for ELESIG members and I wish everyone that was part of the project good wishes in future projects and collaborations.<\/p>\n\n\n Did you enjoy reading this? To become a member of our community, see Membership details here https:\/\/www.alt.ac.uk\/membership<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What is great about working on international collaborative projects is firstly you get to meet new people from across the world, and secondly how you get to learn a lot from these new professional acquaintances and experiences which in turn enhances\/influences your own professional practice way beyond the life of the project. On the success […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1433,140],"tags":[1768,1258,1977,1535,725,1978,1396],"class_list":["post-12784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elesig","category-sig-updates","tag-alt-2","tag-altc-2","tag-digidoi","tag-alt-elesig","tag-altc","tag-denise-sweeney","tag-elesig"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/01\/Copy-of-Active-Learning-Blog-Cover.png?fit=700%2C216&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11285,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2023\/06\/alt-elesig-joins-digi-doi-consortium-digital-transformation\/","url_meta":{"origin":12784,"position":0},"title":"ALT ELESIG joins DIGI DOI consortium digital transformation","author":"ALT","date":"26 June 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"ALT ELESIG joins the DIGI DOI consortium digital transformation project to strengthen digital capabilities through a reciprocal mentoring scheme within Vietnamese HE institutions. The Digi: Doi Consortium has been funded by the British Council\u2019s \u2018Going Global Partnerships\u2019 scheme as part of its 30th anniversary of its developmental work in Vietnam.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ELESIG"","block_context":{"text":"ELESIG","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/elesig\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"altc Blog Cover - ELESIG","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2022\/05\/altc-Blog-Cover-ELESIG.png?fit=1200%2C373&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2022\/05\/altc-Blog-Cover-ELESIG.png?fit=1200%2C373&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2022\/05\/altc-Blog-Cover-ELESIG.png?fit=1200%2C373&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2022\/05\/altc-Blog-Cover-ELESIG.png?fit=1200%2C373&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2022\/05\/altc-Blog-Cover-ELESIG.png?fit=1200%2C373&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13533,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2026\/02\/elesig-scholar-scheme\/","url_meta":{"origin":12784,"position":1},"title":"ELESIG Scholar Scheme","author":"ALT","date":"5 February 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"ALT ELESIG is pleased to announce that we are relaunching the ALT-ELESIG Scholar Scheme, a reciprocal mentoring programme for learning technology professionals, led by the Association for Learning Technology's special interest group on Evaluating Learner Experience in E-Learning (ALT ELESIG).\u00a0 The scheme\u00a0is designed to develop and strengthen participants' research and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ELESIG"","block_context":{"text":"ELESIG","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/elesig\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2026\/02\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-28.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2026\/02\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-28.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2026\/02\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-28.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2026\/02\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-28.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":38,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2019\/11\/launching-alt-elesig\/","url_meta":{"origin":12784,"position":2},"title":"Renewing our vows to ELESIG: launching ALT ELESIG","author":"Christina Vines","date":"15 November 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"ALT ELESIG was officially launched at the ALT conference in Sep 2019. In this blog post and at the online Winter Conference of ALT, we would like to mark the launch of our new platform under ALT as a Special Interest Group. So who are we? We are a community\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ELESIG"","block_context":{"text":"ELESIG","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/elesig\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ALT ELESIG launch at ALTC 2019","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/elesig\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1142\/2019\/11\/ALTc-ELESIG1-251x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10490,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2020\/07\/introducing-denise-sweeney\/","url_meta":{"origin":12784,"position":3},"title":"Introducing: Denise Sweeney","author":"Christina Vines","date":"29 July 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Who are you? Hi, my name is Denise. I work at the University of Nottingham in the School of Education on our postgraduate certificate in higher education (PGCHE). I have a background in teaching to speakers of other languages and educational design using a range of media. I support university\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ELESIG"","block_context":{"text":"ELESIG","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/elesig\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/elesig\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1142\/2020\/07\/photo-of-me-283x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8721,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2022\/02\/call-for-officers-of-the-alt-elesig-organising-committee\/","url_meta":{"origin":12784,"position":4},"title":"Call for Officers of the ALT ELESIG Organising Committee","author":"Christina Vines","date":"16 February 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Background ALT ELESIG advocates for the theory and practice of researching learners\u2019 experience in the context of technology-enhanced learning (TEL), formerly referred to as e-learning. Established in 2008, ELESIG (Evaluating Learners\u2019 Experiences of e-learning Special Interest Group), has raised the importance and profile of learner experience research nationally and internationally\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ELESIG"","block_context":{"text":"ELESIG","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/elesig\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4904,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2020\/11\/incoming-elesig-officers-2020-2021-who-are-they\/","url_meta":{"origin":12784,"position":5},"title":"Incoming ELESIG Officers 2020 – 2021: Who are they?","author":"Christina Vines","date":"26 November 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Each of the incoming officers was asked to write about why they were interested in applying for the role. This is what they have written. 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