| The use of digital resources in education and language use is not new, although there has been a rapid adoption of such resources in education in general and in language education recently, mainly because of the restrictions to in-person activities/classes, resulting from the pandemic. |
Although UFES has a distance learning service (SEAD, established in 2001), it traditionally served a small part of its students; however, the pandemic accelerated the full adoption of digital resources in education through ERE, for almost all undergraduate/graduate students and language learners at UFES; digital resources for language use were also adopted at the Language Center. |
| The internationalization of higher education was focused primarily on physical academic mobility before the pandemic and due to the disruptions caused by the pandemic, alternatives for virtual exchange had to be found, including digital resources to enable virtual exchange. |
UFES followed some internationalization trends in Brazil before the pandemic, focusing on the mobility of students abroad; after the pandemic, UFES adopted ERE for local teaching and occasionally promoted virtual courses offered by partner universities abroad (e.g., summer courses); some members of UFES also participated in COIL projects. |
| Many HEIs worldwide have been adopting approaches and resources such as EMI, COIL and MOOCs, to attract international students/scholars, increase revenue, participate in academic networks online, develop an international profile and increase their visibility in the international scenario of higher education. |
UFES has promoted a few short-term courses in EMI, supported by the British Council – these courses are currently suspended, due to lack of funding; UFES had some COIL experiences (with AHU, Coventry and Colombo), as reported in this study; to the best of our knowledge, UFES has not yet offered MOOC courses to audiences abroad, but some of its members attend MOOCs promoted by universities abroad, since many of them are cost-free; these activities suggest a trend at UFES to participate in academic networks online and increase its visibility in the international scenario of higher education. |
| COIL emerged as an interesting alternative to promote IaH and virtual exchange, since a small number of students have access to academic mobility programs abroad. |
At UFES, a very small number of students had access to mobility abroad, as can be seen in the public calls for mobility of its International Office; however, recent COIL projects at UFES seem to be an interesting alternative to promote IaH and virtual exchanges, as reported in this study. |
| MOOCs allowed for the expansion of academic audiences. |
As mentioned previously, to the best of our knowledge, UFES has not yet offered a MOOC, but it has participated in projects which involve the use of MOOCs, such as the ones reported in this study. Members of UFES can participate in MOOCs offered by partner universities, as can be seen on the website of its International Office. |
| There is a close connection between the use of languages and internationalization, since additional languages (and EAL more specifically) can be used as a medium of instruction and academic language, as can be seen in the high number of EMI courses and international publications in English, frequently replacing local languages in a process of “Anglicization” of HE. |
Although there is an increasing trend to offer EMI courses in countries where English is not the first language, very few courses are offered in English at UFES, as can be seen in the EMI Guide by FAUBAI and British Council; some issues, such as the lack of institutional support and funding (also absent at UFES), were reported by Guimarães and Kremer (2020). |
| These three topics (the use of digital resources; the use of English in HE; the internationalization process) are very much interconnected because internationalization requires the use of additional languages (especially English), and this use can be supported and promoted by digital resources to reach larger audiences. |
At UFES, the use of additional languages (such as EAL) for internationalization, supported by digital resources, is a topic to be expanded/developed, since the authors of this study found few examples (AHU, Coventry and Colombo) of international collaboration with the adoption of digital resources and EAL at UFES. |
