- Virtual mobility
This article on
education is a .The initiative for this article was taken at the [http://www.online-educa.com Online Educa 2006] Conference in Berlin, more specifically at the pre-conference [http://www.online-educa.com/?a=1&b=4&c=4&PHPSESSID=5bb7bddc054cf855e149b7a6d410a55d Virtual Mobility Forum] , organised by two European projects - [http://www.being-mobile.net Being Mobile] and [http://www.victorious-project.org/ Victorious] .
Definition
A) ”The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to obtain the same benefits as one would have with physical mobility but without the need to travel”Definition given by the [http://www.elearningeuropa.info/ elearningeuropa.info] portal
B)Virtual Mobility (VM) offers access to courses and study schemes in a foreign country and allows for communication activities with teachers and fellow students abroad via the new information and communication technologies. This definition was provided by [http://www.eadtu.nl/default.asp?hId=4&mmId=46 EADTU’s Task Force on Virtual Mobility] , created in January, 2004.
Discussion topics
At the afternoon round table
Cultural and language issues
* Experiences within the group 6 different countries, but had participated in other cultures
* Different ways of working: countries, disciplines
* Role of the tutor is very important
* Placements / virtual mobility: local tutor is very important
* Challenges: may create problems, but also resulted in most positive experiences
* Language is not fine-grained enough: different cultures within one language
* Glossary building may be useful
* Virtual interactions makes it harder to get to know student group. Preparations are needed also for VM
* Intercultural communication happens in f2f and virtual environments
* Collaboration in itself can create tensions
* CONCLUSIONS:
** Preparation
** Observe what’s happening and reflect on that (more qualitative research is needed)
** Build on students’ positive attitudes
** Glossary of terms
** Training & sharing of good practice: teachers, admins & support staffSustainable Virtual Mobility schemes in Higher Education institutions
Barriers to VM schemes:
- No student interest- No time- No money- Not implemented in the institutions vision Often there is a lot of resistance against the idea, mostly resistance to change (conservatism). - Teacher motivation and support: Some teachers do not want to change their content, “my teaching is me” or they are afraid of being evaluated by colleagues. - Incompatible structure of courses/programmes- There is no structure for the virtual component of mobility: while there is for physical
Practical steps to overcome these barriers:
- No student interest: Awareness raising activities: Both internal (info-sessions, leaflets, presentations, recommendations by professors…) as external (outsourcing of promoting virtual mobility) Attach credit points to a virtual activity - No time: Teamwork by a group of professors, not each professor individually Use blogs or other tools that allow for peer support, so students can support each other without daily intervention from teachers - Teacher motivation: Give the same recognition to teaching as to doing research. In other words: enhance the status of teaching.
- Vision of the institution: How to engage the institution, put it as a priority on the agenda? Branding the university, not “an example teacher” Using the power of statistics: Study of the market will show for example that students log on to the e-library instead of going to the real one. Competitiveness: What educational offer is going to differentiate this institution from others in the market? Offering an international aspect could be an asset. Arguments to get decision makers on your side: Focus on the reasons why institutions should make virtual mobility sustainable Find out what their agenda is, put virtual mobility on their agenda
How to introduce sustainable schemes?
- You need internal (within the institution) motivation- Money needs to be available- Declaration from the institution as a whole that those goals are important, so it is in the vision/mission statement of the institution
A sustainable scheme will be a market driven one, demanded by students and giving the institution prestige.
Staff development schemes
- Different kinds of staff are involved. Course teams are needed to cover all the competencies needed.
- Skills are needed and can be provided at short term
- Competences are somewhat harder
- Communication skills
- international skills
- Competency development needs to be introduced top-down
- Peer-to-peer techniques are important
- Informal learning is important also in staff development
- Education through e-learning is similar to doing research in international collaboration
- More focus on research communities may enhance teaching collaboration
Issues concerning accreditation of virtual courses?
- No real difference between accrediting F2F and virtual courses. However, accreditation of virtual courses may be easier than for F2F courses.
- Some observations & suggestions
- New Socrates programme favours mobility
- Accreditation should include assessment of informal learning (role of social learning is important)
- Job of professor becomes more demanding: Teaching, Research & Virtual techniques
- Methodology and didactics evaluated separately
- Special budget needs to be allocated to Virtual Mobility by the EC
International university-business projects
Which are the benefits for all actors, especially for industry?
- Companies can work with other organisations
- Virtual internships
- Potential source of human resources
- How to implement the virtual presence?
- Less stable student (may not want to remain in the country
- Quality of the mentor is extremely important
- Evaluation & feedback may be problematic: copyrighted or valuable materials
- Staff needs new skills to work with virtual employees / interns
- New technologies are needed = complicating, but also challenging
- Exchange of views between theory & practice
- Matter of money: do companies need to pay, or are they being paid for this kind of support?
Digital identities
Can students have one single sign-on when moving between institutions?YES:
- Student perspective
- Students don't feel very strongly about this issues. Used to multiple signed-on
- Support is crucial (one-to-one): e.g. buddy system for virtual students -> Problems might remain, but the perception is less problematic
- Good social networks are important: ESN Galaxy project (add link later)
- What is annoying is passwords changing too frequently
- University perspective
- From a management perspective such single sign-on would be desirable
Support learners making transitions between very different digital environments?
Culture shock: students moving between high- and low-level e-services.
Discussion based on presentation.
- Students perspective
- Participants rated criteria from most important to less important
- Opening hours & access are really important
- Support is crucial (staff & social network
What can universities do to support the mobile students of tomorrow?
- Institutional support and virality
- Access to services
- Information on courses that students can take -> Information databases may be useful
- Problems of time tables, courses being dropped
- Virtual mobility before physical mobility may alleviate the shock
- Taking virtual courses at home university while abroad
- Are virtual and F2F courses compatible?
- What about language? Should that be a problem? Should students not know the language of their host courses? -> distinguish between short and long courses
- Human support
- ESN buddies
- emphasis on things that can be done before exchange
Finding course information online
Online course catalogues are an indispensable tool for Virtual Mobility.
Project ACTIVE (co-funded by the European Commission and coordinated by UNED) has developed the first on-line course catalogue specially designed to support postgraduate student's VM with an Intercontinental scope.
The course catalogue can be found at [http://www.net-active.info ACTIVE project]
Quality of (website) information for exchange students
- Participants were from International office!
- Victorious will produce some guidelines and recommendations
- !!! Get the services and actors at your universities to work together. Co-operation is the KEY !!!
ee also
*
Academic mobility
*Bologna process
*Erasmus programme
*International students References and further reading
External links
Collaborative research projects
* [http://www.being-mobile.net/ Being Mobile]
* [http://www.coimbra-group.eu/12_victorious.php/ Victorious]
* [http://reve.europace.org/ REVE]
* [http://vm-base.europace.org/ VM-BASE]
* [http://www.eadtu.nl/e-move/ e-move]
* [http://www.net-active.info/ ACTIVE]
* [http://www.morevm.org/ Ready for Virtual Mobility (MoreVM)]Online materials
* [http://reve.europace.org/ Virtual mobility manual]
* [http://www.being-mobile.net/pdf/BM_handbook_final.pdf European cooperation in education through Virtual Mobility - A best-practice manual]
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