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SUCCESS FACTORS FOR VIRTUAL MOBILITY EXCHANGE ON “OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES”

Airina Volungevičienė, Estela Daukšienė, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania, Elena Caldirola, University of Pavia, Italy, Ignacio J. Blanco, University of Granada, Spain

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Virtual mobility

 “set of information and communications technology supported activities, organized at institutional level, that realize or facilitate international, collaborative experiences in a context of teaching and/or learning”

European Commission Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL establishing "ERASMUS FOR ALL". The Union Programme for Education, Training, Youth and Sport (2011). Brussels. Accessed on April 10, 2013 at http://ec.europa.eu/education/erasmus-for-all/doc/legal_en.pdf

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Virtual mobility: involved actors

• Higher education institutions (2+)• Teachers in student VM (2+,

organizing VM academic exchange)• Students in VM (student groups in 2+

countries)• Teachers in VM (professional

development in 2+ institutions (research, academic teaching, socio-cultural exchange))

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Virtual mobility (not to replace, but to enrich and enhance physical student mobility)

C

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RQ

• virtual mobility has become a way for international and intercultural collaboration of institutions, teachers and students, when the development of key competences and transversal skills are at focus

• are the institutions aware of the successful ways of virtual mobility implementation?

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The aim of this research is to identify success factors for virtual mobility implementation

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VMCOLAB.EU

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• 8 international teachers and 2 experts from 6 European countries (4 universities and 1 international association)

• Curriculum design for international student virtual mobility exchange - 3 ECTS course “Open Educational Resources” on the basis of the follow competences:– Having successfully completed the course, the participants

will be able to:– define OER, list their categories and compare types and

models of OER,– characterize the quality and explain the purpose of use of

selected OER,– analyse the issues of OER development and use in

education,– design use or reuse of OER and construct next steps in OER

development.

VM exchange on“Open Educational Resources”

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VM exchange on“Open Educational Resources”

• Coordinator - Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania – 3 teachers

• Consortium – University of Granada, Spain – 3 teachers– EFQUEL, Belgium - 2 consultants

– Outside consortium institutions involved– University of Pavia, Italy – 1 teacher– University of Jyvaskyla, Finland – 1 teacher

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VM participants - 18

• Consortium – University of Granada, Spain - 3– University of Porto, Portugal - 3– Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania (6)

• Invited from outside consortium– University of Pavia, Italy - 3– University of Florence, Italy - 2– Trento University, Italy (representative of China) -

1

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Pilot characteristics in brief

• Topic focused/short time (6 weeks)• Trusted network• International• Mixed target groups• Tools used for high engagement level• Pedagogy - high level of

interaction/action• Learner centered• No final exam, certification based on

competences acquired

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Session records

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Outcomes• 3 ECTS for free credits (to use in consortium

University, where and if recognized)• http://www.teacamp.eu/moodle2 - open, CC

license• Curriculum – as OER under creative commons

license • Curriculum based on learning outcomes• Experience and lessons learnt• Certificates (for participants and teachers)• Feedback• Testimonies (videos @ virtual4me.org )

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Feedback and lessons learnt - 1

• Factors that had influence on the pilot– there was interest provided by 10

teachers, however not all of them were really active during 5-week course

– learners felt teachers‘ lack of time/attention dedicated for the course, as well as feedback to their group work results

• This was one of the most critical remark from the learners

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Lesson 1

• Discuss clear roles of participating teachers and reach either oral or written agreement on these roles

• If experts are invited, discuss their role well in advance, do not rely last minute agreement or joining in, clarify their roles and present clear information on these roles to participants

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Feedback and lessons learnt - 2

• The duration of the pilot was rather short (intense) and the engaged learners wanted more topics and more practical tasks• Time was also indicated as one of the challenges and there were less active participants in the last task than in the first one

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Lesson 2

• if the course is of longer duration– there might be more dropouts/passive

students at the end– but also more experience and time for

getting participants to know each other, improve intercultural competence, and strengthen their connections is necessary

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Feedback and lessons learnt - 3

• International learner groups were planned to be composed of 5 students

• However, immediate solutions were found during the very first online synchronous meeting, which required changes in group composition

• as 2 students did not show up, one group composition was different, having only 3 members in the group

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Lesson 3

• Recommendation can be drawn not to compose smaller groups than having 4-5 members in the group, in order to maintain internationalization and intercultural communication characteristics

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Success factors (summarized)• There was a strong leadership and coordination that enabled

the organization and successful finalization of the pilot (learners’ PoV)

• Motivation of the participants: there were real challenges for student groups which had some passive students (lurkers), however groups managed to focus on the task, were highly motivated and dedicated (organizers’ PoV)

• Thorough preparation, coordination and planning of the pilot, coherent information for the participants was prepared and PoV)

• Attractive topic was selected as most learners were interested in learning about OER (learners’ PoV)

• Prior experience and dedicated collaborators who communicated, participated and supported the pilot from the very beginning till the end, our consortium partners and associated partners (organizers’ PoV)

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Recommendations for VM

• plan the VM pilot coherently discussing curriculum designing and VM organization with peer institutions and teachers,

• clarify all the roles of all participants in advance• prepare and implement technical testing sessions• provide as much information for the learners, as possible• agree on the best suitable time for all participating

countries for synchronous meetings• assess the time scale and scope for the pilot• try to select really motivated participants• Ensure a local tutor or coordinator• organize engaging group activities that address the topic

from different national perspectives• provide time and activities to get to know each other and

the country• Communicate and provide feedback as much as possible

for your online international groups and individuals!

UbiCamp solutions: recognition of Curricula and VM procedure

Lifelong Learning ProgrammeErasmus Multilateral Projects

UbiCamp: Integrated Solution to Virtual Mobility Barriers

Project ID: 526843-LLP-1-2012-ES-ERASMUS-ESMO

Problems and barriers

o International Relationship Offices (IRO) need:Specific call, clearly differentiated from current Erasmus call

o The recognition of a set of ECTS credits requires:The official curriculum from any HEI can accept the recognition of that, through other equivalent subjects

o The Institutions must validate the adequacy of contents to be recognized in these subjects

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Subjects offered in UbiCamp pilotAcademic year 2014/15

Kaunas university of technology (LT)

Project Management

Management

University of Southampton (UK)Web Science: How the web is changing the world

Learning in a connected world

Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (ES)

Introduction to Programming in C and Linux Operating System

Introduction to Videogames programming

Multimedia Educations Resources

University of Oviedo (ES)

Corporate Social ResponsibilityIntroduction to EconomicsInnovation and Project in primary educationSoftware Architecture

Vytautas Magnus University (LT)

Digital graphics programming

Information Technologies in EducationOpen Educational ResourcesCollaborative learning

Yasar University (TK)EU Education Programs and Project Management

EU-Turkey Relations

Pegaso Università Telematica (IT) lnternational Business Communication

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Trusted networks

If you are a member of a trusted network:-you benefit from cases and practices-you share your way – and get early feedback-you validate your results and get suggestions for improvements-- you live among ideas, people and feel a social human being – we need that – and ICT create these opportunites

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From pilots – to formal VM exchange

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Estela, Airina, Ignacio, Elena

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SUCCESS FACTORS FOR VIRTUAL MOBILITY EXCHANGE ON “OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES”

Airina Volungevičienė, Estela Daukšienė, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania, Elena Caldirola, University of Pavia, Italy, Ignacio J. Blanco, University of Granada, Spain