Gabriela's Fall 2020 virtual exchange experience | Global Learning and Engagement

Gabriela is a ‘Business Administration – International Business’ student who took part in a virtual exchange offered by the University of Applied Sciences Neu-Ulm in Germany.

Published: October 1, 2021

I was originally interested in participating on the exchange program abroad in Germany but unfortunately, due to the pandemic, that idea was no longer an option.

Before my semester at Seneca started, I received an email from my student counselor that contained details about a virtual exchange program and a list of courses that were equivalent to our required Seneca courses. Even though this wasn't an in-person exchange program, I was interested in gaining new experiences and wanted to use this opportunity to obtain as much experience, in international affairs, as possible.

Throughout my experiences in this virtual program, I learned that the most skills to have were; time management, organization, and motivation. This was mostly because the new online learning component made things trickier. My course was provided in English so there was no trouble keeping up with the course material. Apart from myself and a couple of other Seneca students, there were many German students, some of which caught me by surprise because, after talking to a few of them, I found out that they were taking these classes to improve their English.

Some tips I would give to future students that take exchange courses online would be to keep motivated and put in the effort, participate as much as you and lastly, when choosing international courses, it’s important to keep the different time zones in mind. For example, it’s possible that you will have class at 11:00am, local German time, which translates to 5:00 am in Toronto.

The academic experience at HNU had a very similar online platform to Seneca’s Blackboard. At first, it was a little tricky to understand but with time and patience, I was able to navigate my way through the HNU E-Learning Dashboard.

This virtual exchange program motivated me to do my best in my studies at Seneca and I would definitely recommend this experience to those who are curious or would like to try something new.