Coordinating a LLP Project: Challenges and Chances Prof. Stefan Sonvilla-Weiss

1. Brussels, February 25 and 26, 2008 Coordinating a LLP Project: Challenges and Chances Prof. Stefan Sonvilla-Weiss

2. Communication plan (accessible and visible to all); Team meetings (one a regulary basis); Communication tools (synchronous, asynchronous); Information recording (e.g. Skype conversations); Internal and external communication; Project community (work plan, responsibilities); Responsibilities, contact persons and commitment; 1. Communication

3. Openness, flexibility and solution orientation when encountering problems; Follow up procedures; Gain of support (in-house, external); Sharing of outcomes and experiences (shared spaces); Dissemination strategies; 1. Communication

4. The most important part of the network is the networker; Move from ”creative individuals” to ”creative relationships” as the source of our information; It is the diversity of different perception, reception; Interpretations and understandings people as part of social constructed knowledge; 2. Cooperation

5. The key element of all successful collaborations is shared space; Creation and management of shared spaces are crucial; Incentives, reward, peer review and feedback encourages collaborative processes. 2. Cooperation

6. The coordination tasks and challenges of a CD project cover a wide range of different aspects and thus require corecompetences and skills To understand and respect socio-cultural, academic backgrounds and differences of the project partners; To encourage an open dialogue and transparent proceedings; To strenghten a process of coherent and traceable working practice. 3. Coordination

7. – To set up a consortium, steering group; – To prepare interim and final reports; – To prepare evaluation, monitoring and dissemination    procedures.       A successful project engages interested, active people and who committed to the project's goals continually find benefit frombeing a member 3. Coordination

8. Cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary, (non)-institutional, public-private, academic-entrepreneurial and other forms of networking require new skills and competences to cope with systems full of complexity and dynamics. Scenario-building, creative spaces; Communities of practice and project; Feedback mechanism; Monitoring; Evaluation. 4. Experimenting and testing phases

9. The following list of questions ought to be indicators for verifying effective means and methods gained from the experimental (pilot) phase. Do the organisations/faculties/programmes involved endorse and support the project in a transversal manner? Do the technical, organisational and operational means and methods suffice to implement a viable and sustainable co-operation? Do the specific roles of people involved in the project correspond or conflict with demands of specific skills, competences and knowledge? 5. Effective means and methods

10. How do you and your partners envision the future of the project? What will be the shared values to create mutual benefit? Will your project substantially raise the quality of teaching, learning and research at your faculty/school/institute? What kind of measures would you use to generate revenues for successful continuation? 6. Challenges to achieving sustainability

11. How and to what extent is your project embedded in your institution regarding the broadening of support, recognition, academic value, innovative potential, curricularly integration, internationalisation, modularisation? How do you deal with the imbalanced situation of European tuition fee policy? Do all institution correspondingly accredit an academic degree that evolves out of a curriculum development project? 6. Challenges to achieving sustainability

12. Stefan Sonvilla-Weiss Professor, PhD Director of Studies ePedagogy Design – Visual Knowledge Building University of Art and Design Helsinki Taideteollinen korkeakoulu Hämeentie 135 C 00560 Helsinki Email stefan.sonvilla-weiss@taik.fi Tel. +358 9 7563 0253 Fax +358 9 7563 0250 http://epedagogydesign.uiah.fi Contact