Joint Programs: Embedding Virtual Exchange Erasmus Project

Project Title

Joint Programs: Embedding Virtual Exchange

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 : Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Pedagogy and didactics; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Open and distance learning

Project Summary

Virtual mobility and virtual exchanges are currently high on the agenda of the EU and of most HEIs. Nevertheless, very little has been done to develop and use tools and methods in this sense with the explicit objective to embed them in international Joint and Collaborative education Programs.

Therefore, elements from the few past experiences in this sense will have to be adapted to the current scenario which includes the European Universities, the European Degrees concept and format, the European Approach to Quality Assurance in Joint Programs, the new features, requirements and priorities of the Erasmus 2021-2027, and the post pandemic era at large.

The present project proposal aims to cover this gap by developing standards, methods, guidelines, tools and specific training programs for embedding digital education and virtual exchanges in existing and future Joint Programs (JPs), which may range from being highly structured and formalized to being generated as highly agile, flexible and adaptable programs, with less formal “jointness”.This objective will be pursued by raising awareness among all the academic actors and stakeholders of what this process implies, what solutions can be applied to the identified challenges, sharing of best practices leading to a set of guidelines for the developers and the managers on all the steps of the process (curriculum development, joint teaching, support services online, accreditation, recognition, tools for blended mobility options, etc.).

The first result produced will be represented by an extensive analysis of the state of the art in the field and a repository of good practices. The second result is represented by the guidelines on structures and administrative requirements. In parallel to and as a complement of the previous result, guidelines on contents and pedagogical approaches will also be produced leading to a web-repository with a collection of best practices of online teaching and learning contents and methods suitable for joint programs in video, article, interview, podcast, photographic format. A Forum will allow the creation of learning communities for sharing and discussing methodologies, assessment, participation of students in online teaching and learning. An online community toolbox for the development and management of JPs with a significant virtual exchange component will represent the fourth result: a collection of collaboratively produced guidelines for virtual exchanges, pedagogical approaches, methods for online teaching and learning, ideas for cross-cultural collaboration and co-creation, and best practices.

All the produced tools, methods and processes will be tested and piloted by a number of joint programs currently being developed in traditional formats by the project partners within the UNITE! European University Alliance. All partners will identify academics, stakeholders, pedagogical experts and employers to be involved in the pilots and these individuals will be trained in specific “teaching/training” events. The pilot training should be transferable in terms of format and contents to any other institution willing to run internal training in this sense for its own staff.

In terms of impact on HEIs, the planned actions and expected results will generate an increased awareness of the potential of virtual exchanges for joint programs, promote advancing of virtual exchanges as embedded component in joint programs, increase the jointness of joint programs through co-creation and joint virtual teaching. Moreover, they will also create a model for the ways in which a community toolbox can also be used by other stakeholders based on a student-centered and inclusive approach in all its components.

The four full partners and the three associate partners are members of the UNITE! European University Alliance and of the CLUSTER network and share therefore decades of collaborative efforts as well as more recent long-term joint strategies. Therefore, the produced results of this project will be included as part of their joint strategic educational activities, shared and exploited for advancing their collaboration in the international education field with other partner universities and other European University Alliances. If successful, this process will generate a new standard for the development and management of more flexible and efficient joint programs that can easily be adapted to the needs of the institutions, of the teachers, and of the learners and more effectively respond to the ever changing and uncertain circumstances that characterize today’s international collaboration in education.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 253733 Eur

Project Coordinator

KUNGLIGA TEKNISKA HOEGSKOLAN & Country: SE

Project Partners

• TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT DARMSTADT
• UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA
• AALTO KORKEAKOULUSAATIO SR