Virtual Mobility for Students and Teachers a Dissemination Action

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• Virtual Mobility for Students and Teachers a
  Dissemination Action
• Sally Reynolds

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Presentation

• Virtual Mobility for Students
• Being Mobile Project
• Activities and Outcomes

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Student Mobility

• Current situation
• 97,7 of European students stay at home
• 2,3 Erasmus students
• Goal E.C. by 2011
• 20 of students to have Erasmus exchange
• From the EC Integrated Action Programme in
  Lifelong Learning

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But what about remaining 80?
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Can Virtual Mobility or Virtual Erasmus offer a
solution?

• Virtual Mobility The use of information and
  communication technologies to obtain the same
  benefits as one would have with physical mobility
  but without the need to travel
• Virtual Mobility can be enabled through ICT
  supported environments that include collaborative
  workspaces, videoconferencing, etc..

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• What constitutes Virtual Student Mobility?

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Typology

• Virtual Student and Staff Exchanges
• Students taking a course in another university or
  college staff teaching as guest lecturers to
  another university or college
• Virtual Support to Physical Exchanges
• Student selection
• Preparatory courses on language and cultural
  awareness
• Keeping in contact or finishing work after
  exchange
• Joint Course Development and Delivery
• Collaboration in course design
• Sharing expertise and resources
• Virtual Student Placements
• Virtual Internships in companies

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Advantages

• Enrichment of the regular educational environment
• Supports the process of internationalisation and
  provides a practical preparation for future
  working life
• Enables exchanges and experiences for people not
  able to avail of Erasmus
• Helps support collaborative cross-border working
  practice and can help build a stronger sense of
  European Citizenship

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Challenges

• Level of organisation required
• Adaptation of learning environments linked to use
  of ICT
• Assessment procedures require adaptation
• Self-motivation and self-organisation skills
  required
• Credit exchanges difficult
• Variation in tuition fees
• Difference in communication cultures can play a
  role

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Being Mobile

• To Raise Awareness about how European Cooperation
  in Education can be heightened through Virtual
  Mobility
• Supported under the Socrates Programme as an
  Accompanying Measure
• December 2005 - December 2006
• EuroPACE (Lead), ATiT, Tietgen Skolen, ICWE,
  SPACE

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Project Activities

• Collection of best-practise Virtual Mobility
  activities in Higher Education
• Collection of existing outcomes of other European
  Virtual Mobility projects (manuals, articles,
  tools)
• Dissemination of these through
• Website http//www.being-mobile.net/
• Vilnius workshop 30-31 March
• Berlin Conference Tuesday 28 November
• Handbook (version 1 available since March,
  version 2 ready for Berlin Conference)

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Example Cinema Literature Course

• Simultaneous course at Leuven Granada
• Online course contact hours
• Total of 10 to 20 students per partner
• Didactic strategies
• - Face-to-face discussion on the basis of online
  course
• - Viewing films and analysis in class
  discussions
• - Interactive learning groups of 4 students
  (mix of Leuven and Granada students) write
  together paper using WIKI
• - 2 videoconferences between Leuven Granada
  (start end)
• Technologies online syllabus on platform,
  e-mail, chat, discussion forum, WIKI,
  videoconferencing)
• Multilingual approach (NL, EN, FR, ES)

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Your Examples and Experiences?
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Want to Get Involved?

• Handbook available from web site
• Contribute to the cases and examples from
  projects, etc
• Take part in Berlin conference on Tuesday 28 Nov
• (probable link with Victorious Project Digital
  Mobility for Exchange Students)
• One day event supported as a pre-conference forum
  linked to Online Educa Berlin 2006
• 09.30 11.00 Plenary
• 11.30 13.00 parallel strands on Virtual
  Student and Staff Exchange and Preparatory and
  Follow up of Erasmus students
• 14.00 16.00 Round table discussions on various
  topics, challenges and solutions
• 16.30 17.30 Final consolidation and round-up
  for publication on web site
• Free Registration

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For More Information

• http//www.being-mobile.net
• Helena Bijnens, Kamakshi Rajagopal or Machteld
  Boussemaere, EuroPACE ivzw
• Kapeldreef 62, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium
• Tel [phone]
• helena.bijnens_at_europace.be
• www.europace.org

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• Thanks from the Being Mobile Team..
• EuroPACE (BE) www.europace.org
• ATiT (Belgium) www.atit.be
• SPACE (BE) www.space-eu.info
• ICWE (DE) www.icwe.net
• Tietgen Business School (DK) www.tietgen.dk

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