DIGIPASS – Virtual Environments for Supporting Mobility Erasmus Project

Project Title

DIGIPASS – Virtual Environments for Supporting Mobility

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The aim of this project was to improve the impact of mobility experiences for students by providing a holistic approach to online mobility support. The project identified that there was a clear need to improve online support for students going on mobility in areas such as career guidance, intercultural communication and mental wellbeing while abroad, as many students reported that the existing guidance was insufficient to help them realise the full potential learning benefits of their mobility.

In response, the project has created a modular Student Training Programme to support the entire mobility lifecycle, OERs and ICT Tools to support students whilst abroad, a Staff Toolkit for those who support students on their mobility journey, and a Handbook which acts as a roadmap for anyone interested to use the DIGIPASS outputs to enhance their own support systems.

Six universities partnered in the project – University of Edinburgh, University of Amsterdam, University College Dublin, University of Granada, University of Pavia and the Jagiellonian University of Krakow.

The project delivered the following key objectives:

• A Student Training Programme, which includes modular content covering all aspects of the student mobility lifecycle – orientation, pre-departure, during mobility, and after mobility.

• A suite of ICT Tools and OERs for supporting student mobility, which takes into consideration that each institution has its own context.

• A Staff Toolkit, which provides a wide-ranging set of resources to support staff working in the field of mobility.

• A Handbook and Framework for policymakers, which contains a compilation of the training materials, providing a blueprint for others to replicate the training programme.

• Specialised content to support the participation of Special Needs and Widening Participation in mobility opportunities.

• Raising awareness of the importance of equipping students with digital and media literacy skills, in order to enhance their employability prospects through reflective learning from their mobility experience, within the participating universities, their networks (including U21 and the Coimbra Group), and beyond.

The project partners joined their combined knowledge and expertise in the fields of international student mobility, ICT tools for education, and student support services to develop the DIGIPASS Student Training Programme – a flexible online course which provides guidance and tools to support students on mobility. The course employs interactive tools to encourage students to reflect on all aspects of their mobility experience so that they are both better informed and able to consider the long-term impact on their future career prospects and own personal narrative.

Mobility staff are likewise supported by the Staff Toolkit, which provides best practice resources covering a diverse range of topics within the thematic areas of Culture, Health & Wellbeing, Finance, and Marketing and Communication. Staff are further supported by the DIGIPASS Community of Practice (CoP), a virtual network of practitioners, which enables staff to benefit from sharing their experiences with their peers, including the project partner institutions and beyond. All mobility staff are encouraged to join the conversation at the CoP LinkedIn group page (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13771631/).

The project directly impacted a wide range of student stakeholders who contributed to the project’s international staff weeks, tested content, and contributed to its development (46 student testers), or received DIGIPASS-developed resources whilst on or after mobility (14,209 across all partners, including 6,101 Widening Participation students). Staff were directly impacted through participating in the project’s 3 International Staff Weeks (136 local participants and 8 international participants), 4 Multiplier Events (246 local participants and 44 international participants), and by supporting the Student Training Programme as content developers (63 consortium staff members) through sharing best practice, developing new skillsets, and growing their professional networks.

All project outputs have been developed using Creative Commons licences and are freely available for others to use and adapt as they see fit. The Student Training Programme can be downloaded directly from the DIGIPASS website (https://digi-pass.eu/training-importation-files) as downloadable packages to be imported to other Learning Management Systems. Those interested in implementing the Student Training Programme are able to view a public preview version of the Student Training Programme on Blackboard Learn developed by the University of Edinburgh (https://edin.ac/3hdJQ45). The Staff Toolkit is also accessible within the pages of the DIGIPASS website (https://digi-pass.eu/general). Finally, practical and technical guidance on using all project outputs can be found within the DIGIPASS Handbook (https://digi-pass.eu/Handbook).

Project Website

https://digi-pass.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 387549,8 Eur

Project Coordinator

THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH & Country: UK

Project Partners

• UNIVERSIDAD DE GRANADA
• UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
• UNIWERSYTET JAGIELLONSKI
• UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, DUBLIN
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PAVIA