sustainability Article Virtual Exchange to Develop Cultural, Language, and Digital Competencies Said Machwate 1 , Rachid Bendaoud 1 , Juergen Henze 2 , Khalid Berrada 3, * and Daniel Burgos 4, *   Citation: Machwate, S.; Bendaoud, R.; Henze, J.; Berrada, K.; Burgos, D. Virtual Exchange to Develop Cultural, Language, and Digital Competencies. Sustainability 2021, 13, 5926. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su13115926 Academic Editor: Petra Poulová Received: 15 January 2021 Accepted: 21 May 2021 Published: 24 May 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Trans ERIE, Faculté des Sciences Semlalia, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh 40000, Morocco; s.machwate@uca.ma (S.M.); bendaoud@uca.ma (R.B.) 2 Department of Education Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany; juergen.henze@hu-berlin.de 3 Faculty of Sciences, Mohammed V University in Rabat, Rabat 10000, Morocco 4 Research Institute for Innovation & Technology in Education (UNIR iTED), Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR), 26006 Logroño, Spain * Correspondence: k.berrada@um5r.ac.ma (K.B.); daniel.burgos@unir.net (D.B.) Abstract: Many researchers have underlined the benefits of student mobility in strengthening their communication skills. Studying a foreign language and fostering knowledge about behavioural attitudes are the most common research cases. One of the major issues of mobility, by its very nature, is that it implies significant travel and accommodation costs. Virtual mobility, or Virtual Exchange (VE), can be introduced as a proactive alternative solution. This work presents an evaluation of a telecollaborative online course model organised as a VE between German and Moroccan universities. It was established to explore the benefits of integrating a VE experience by practicing some 21st- century knowledge elements as tools for the development of intercultural, language, and digital competencies from the perspective of mobility. In this paper, we present a VE model and its design, structure, and progress. Then, we evaluate this first experience to overcome some challenges that similar future experiences could face. We analyse the tools proposed in this design, the interactions between the different actors, and their feedback. The evaluative study shows the acquisition of awareness of cultural differences and the improvement of language skills through practice in addition to the development of some digital skills. Keywords: online learning; virtual exchange model; cultural skills; digital skills; language skills; telecollaboration 1. Introduction In the last few decades, globalization has led to massive growth in mobility for eco- nomic [1], scientific, and learning purposes [2,3]. Knowing the other creates an atmosphere favourable to exchange and negotiation, building mutual relations based on trust and em- pathy, and avoiding conflicts [4]. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development pledges to foster intercultural understanding, tolerance, mutual respect, and an ethic of global citizenship and shared responsibility [5]. The World Economic Forum states that 21st-century skills shape students’ lifelong learning, as illustrated in Figure 1. It particularly mentions how students can apply core skills to everyday tasks and how they can approach complex challenges and their changing environment [6]. Furthermore, cultural programs would be very profitable for fostering economic and sustainable outcomes in cross-cultural trading [7,8]. With the emergence of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), people started to feel cultural and communicational gaps between different populations, even when speaking the same language or studying/working in the same field but in distant locations. As telecollaboration involves people from different backgrounds, it is difficult to achieve learning goals for a common ground [9]. Friedrichs stated that cultural behaviours Sustainability 2021, 13, 5926. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13115926 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability