ready for virtual mobility ? morevm ! erasmus / virtual campuses project 2007 – 2009

Ready for Virtual Mobility? MoreVM 134322-LLP-1-2007-1-SI-ERASMUS-EVC

With the support of the Erasmus/Virtual Campuses of the European Union.

Ready for virtual mobility?MoreVM!

Erasmus/Virtual Campuses project 2007 – 2009

Presented by Mateja Geder, project coordinator for MOVE-IT webinar on e-coaching



Mateja Geder

• Education: MA in Online and Distance Education

• Position: Director of Development &Distance Education

• Employer: DOBA Faculty of Applied Business and Social Studies Maribor, Slovenia• the largerst distance education provider in Slovenia• 1341 students (81 % distance students)• Virtual mobility courses in English• International virtual summer school• Website: http://www.eng.doba.si/



Partnership

• DOBA Faculty of Applied Business and Social Studies Maribor, Slovenia

• Faculty of Management, Open University of the Netherlands

• OULU University of Applied Sciences, Raahe School of Ingineering and Business, Finland

• NEWTON College, the Czech Republic



Background

• EU goal by 2011: 3 mio students taking part in Erasmus exchange programmes. At the moment only 1 mio studnets had done it.

• Internationalization of colleges and universities in higher education is promoted by Bologna process.

• 80 % students don’t have an opportunity to participate in Erasmus programmes because of social, financial and other reasons.

• Virtual mobility as an alternative to gain international experience.



Background

• Virtual mobility is not yet widely spread because– students don’t know about it– students are not aware of the skills needed to successfully

participate in and finish a virtual mobility course

• Students need support before, while taking a virtual mobility course

• Diversity of students taking part in virtual mobility (in/experienced online learners, digital natives, digital immigrants, etc.

• Universities/colleges need staff to be aquainted with characteristics and requirements of virtual mobility (and a personal experience is the best teacher)



Project objectives

• encouraging participation and enhancing the efficiency of virtual mobility in higher education

• preparing students for and raising awareness of the importance of virtual mobility

• providing support for colleges/universities in organizing virtual mobility

• strengthening the co-operations among colleges/universities and thus encourage them to develop joint programmes



Project Outcomes

• Prepartory course for virtual mobility coordinators– Virtual mobility coordinators profile– Virtual mobility supervision scheme– Cultural Survival Kit

• Introductory course for virtual mobility students– Cultural Survival Kit– Supported by a tutor and trained coordinators according to the

supervision scheme

• Virtual Mobility Community

• Virtual Mobility Centres



Virtual Mobility (VM) Coordinators’ profile

• Based on the research among Erasmus coordinators (198 coordinators responded)

• Goal of the research:• defining the virtual mobility coordinator profile

• designing the virtual mobility supervision scheme.

• The ideal VM coordinator:• has good organisational, communication and social skills;

• has good management and marketing skills;

• is well educated and willing to learn more;

• has an acceptable level of foreign languages and intercultural experience;

• is acquainted with the virtual learning environment that supports a VM course;

• is informed about the content of a VM course;

• has personal experience of being an online learner and of distance education;

• believes in VM.



Cultural Survival Kit

• It is a freely available, stand-alone learning object for students to develop their intercultural, communication and linguistic skills.

• It enables an ongoing content development.

• It can be also used by teachers in courses with multicultural topics.

• It will help virtual mobility/Erasmus coordinators to advise students on countries they have chosen for their virtual or physical (Erasmus) trip abroad.

• The VM survival kit is available at http://wiki.morevm.org/ .



Introductory course for VM students

• Course aims and objectives: • experiencing collaborative learning in an international virtual learning

environment• knowing the principles of good online communication and collaboration• having the knowledge to apply business ethics in multicultural business

situations• getting acquainted with Cultural Survival Kit for European Union Member

States • becoming more confident in using English and Web 2.0 technologies

• Pilot course: 2nd – 15th February 2009 with tutorial support

• 80 students from 11 different EU countries

• 2 ECTS (accredited by OUNL)



Virtual Mobility Community

• Supported by the project portal (www.morevm.org)

• Encouraging dialogue with our target groups

• More than 500 registered users by the end of the project

• Over 53.000 web site visits by the end of the project



Preparatory course for VM coordinators

• Course aims and objectives:

• getting to know concepts of online learning and virtual mobility • getting acquainted with Cultural Survival Kit for European Union Member

States • getting acquainted with VM coordinator’s role and duties

• Demo course



Preparatory course for VM coordinatorsVirtual MobilitySupervision Scheme



Preparatory course for VM coordinators – evaluation • Pilot course: 15th – 29th September 2008 with tutorial support• 29 coordinators from 10 different EU countries• Participants’ satisfaction (1 to 5 scale):

• course organization (4.1/5) • course tutoring (4.0/5)• developed interest in virtual mobility (4.5/5)• information provided in the course (4.3/5).

• 93% participants stated that the course provided them with the necessary information in order to be able to function as a VM coordinator successfully.

• 57% of the enrolled participants are going to tell his/her colleagues about the coordinators’ course.

• 43 % will tell his/her colleagues about the MoreVM project.

• The average willing to actively promote VM activities in his/her own university/college/school was higher after the course than before the course (from 3.4 4.2).



Recommendation for future users

Profile of Virtual Mobility Coordinator and the Supervision Scheme

• Can be used by institutions which are offering or developing virtual mobility courses or which coordinate these courses

• It can provide them with information who is the ideal candidate for the position of virtual mobility coordinator and which competences and responsibilities he/she is involved in

• It provides the supervision scheme showing how all coordinators´ activities relate to the development of successful management of virtual mobility



More Virtual Mobility!

‘Virtual mobility is a great opportunity to actually feel as if you're onstudent exchange, even though the time and responsibilities would not allowme that. The experience was great and "meeting" and communicating withother students from different countries was interesting, refreshing and wedid have a lot of fun, especially at the virtual Dubai fair.’

Ana Huravik, a former virtual mobility student from the Czech Repbulic

‘The virtual mobility course I enrolled in 2007 enabled me to recognizethe potential advantages and pitfalls of cross-cultural communicationwithout passing any country’s borders. In addition it allowed me toreflect on my own language and culture making me one time more awareof uniqueness of each single nation and its culture within today's Europe.’

Anuša Hojnik, a former virtual mobility student from Slovenia



More Virtual Mobility! VM 101

Website: http://www.morevm.org/Next VM 101 course start: October 2010

ready for virtual mobility ? morevm ! erasmus / virtual campuses project 2007 – 2009

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