Virtual mobility – challenges for institutions and practitioners

1. Virtual mobility – challenges for institutions and practitioners Airina Volungevičienė Kristina Mejerytė – Natkevičienė Estela Daukšienė Vytautas Magnus University

2. The concept of VM is based on • the use of ICT for student exchange in the international context • “The use of ICT to obtain the same benefits as one would have with physical mobility but without the need to travel”(from ‘e-learningeuropa’ network) • VM is an instrument for students to reach the international learning content and gain international experience for those who are not mobile in the international area due to their work, family or other restrictions

3. The concept of VM is based on • access to study subjects and schemes of foreign universities, gives the opportunity for communication with teachers and other students from foreign universities • experience real educational process, interactive training of intercultural competences • effective studies for students in the sense of time and financial expenses

4. Traces of VM phenomenon – ReVica work

5. Practical important questions • What is the relation between (international) collaboration and virtual mobility? • What is the scope for recognition validation? • To what extent VM overlaps with e-virtual-distance learning? • If different institutions understand VM differently – how VM should be implemented?

6. What makes the concept different? • The purpose of Virtual mobility: • Competency building • Recognition of performance (recognition of learning, teacher workload, performance) • Process implementation (virtual studies) • Resources enriched learning

7. What makes conception complex? • Target groups: • Students (learning, study process) • Teachers (study process, content development) • Researchers (research)

8. What makes conception complex? • Learning and teachning methods: • research • lectures • seminars • laboratories • practice

9. It can be for Competency building

10. LLL Erasmus program Multilateral Virtual CampusesTeacher Virtual Campus: Research, Practice, Apply 502102-LLP-1-2009-1-LT-ERASMUS-EVC • Vytautas Magnus University – coordinator • Partners: • Innovation Centre of University of Oviedo (Spain) (www.innova.uniovi.es) • Jyvaskyla University (Finland)  (http://www.jyu.fi) • Baltic Education Technology Institute(Lithuania) (www.beti.lt) • Higher Education Quality Evaluation Centre (Latvia) (www.aiknc.lv) • Jagellonian University (Poland) (www.uj.edu.pl) • University of Aveiro (Portugal) (www.ua.pt) 

11. European initiatives: Integrate the dimension of VM into LLP/Erasmus programmes TeaCamp project - to increase VM among HE academic staff by facilitating: • development, management and implementation of virtual research and mobility and • building their competency • First international competency – building VM sessions will take place in Autumn semester, 2010 More information at http://www.teacamp.eu

12. It can be forrecognition of performance • Recognition of learning, teacher workload, teacher performance • Formal performance • Informal context performance • Lecturing and research • What institutional regulations are necessary for this? First suggested recommendations are available at http://www.teacamp.eu

13. It can be forprocess implementation(virtual studies) • More challenges: administrative issues, ethics and authorship • User administration on international and institutional level: • Teachers and students • Registration and participation • Recognition of participation and learning results

14. It can be forresources enriched learning • Here comes all in one, as we build competency, recognise learning and design curriculum via: • researching, designing and using resources • sharing and re-mixing them in curriculum we use • making our practice live and learning applicable How?

15. Via Living, Creative Curriculum… By Reflective Curriculum Re-Designing for Virtual Learning By Melisa Frank

16. Prof. Brenda Gourley, Vice-Chancellor of The Open University Universities have a unique responsibility to exploit the potential of the new technologies and embrace the education opportunities now rendered possible by them and also thenetworks they have spawned.

17. Open or closed? Open Educational Resources (OER) is a term used to describe: “teaching and learning resources that reside in the public domain or have been releasedunder an intellectual property license that permits their free use or re-purposing by others.Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks,streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials or techniques used tosupport access to knowledge” (William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, 2009).

18. Challenges: open or closed? • Other concepts used are: • open courseware • open educational content • open learning content Open Up Education! http://www.youtube.com/user/OUE2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BCCY5liKfk • Effective software tools to create meaningful learning experiences • Appropriate collaboration and communication tools to engage with other learners and create possibly even more meaningfullearning experiences that involve others (Andy Lane, 2008). Lane, A.B. (2008a) Who puts the Education into Open Educational Content? In Richard N.Katz, ed., The Tower and the Cloud: Higher Education and Information TechnologyRevisited, EDUCAUSE, Boulder, Colorado. pp 158-168. 2008. ISSN 978-0-9672853-9-9. See also http://www.educause.edu/thetowerandthecloud/133998

19. Challenges: for user and for developer • How quality, fitness for purpose and availability is communicated? • Is it re-usable? • Is it adaptable? • Can we re-mix it? • How can we be sure users respect authorship? • How can we be sure when and how much it is used?

20. What is the value? Converting teaching from solo – sport, to collaborative research activity (C.Thille) From traditional/video lectures to online collaborative activities! – this means more challenges for curriculum authors and institution regulations…. It becomes a positive requirement for the creation of new organisational models for providing HE in Europe

21. What is the value? • It opens possibilities for all academic staff to develop their skills and competences and to reach new agreements with multinational European institutions for virtual exchange • HE institutions have competitive professionals and researchers, ensuring possibilities to get jobs all over Europe as professional members of educational labour market • European dimensions of quality for research and studies are integrated into diverse HE institutions • Experience and skills are gained by integration into existing European cooperation frameworks

22. European initiatives: extend the accessibility of high quality European OER in the context of LLP • Nordplus Horizontal program project NORDLET - The Nordic-Baltic Open Community for Learning, Education, and Training http://www.nordlet.org

23. OpenScout - Skill based scouting of open user-generated and community-improved content for management education and training Project goals • accelerating the use, improvement and distribution of open content in the field of management education and training with a focus on SMEs and continuous training • providing skill-based search of content to • large communities for learning – either in professional user communities (via integration with LMS systems) • open web 2.0 communities (via integration to social network platforms). www.openscout.net

24. Let’s summarise • Challenges: • concept • implementation (organization aspect) • resources • complex problems… • Progress or how we moved forward: • concept under discussion in international arena (TeaCamp case) • implementation process started (TeaCamp case) • resources – contributions flow (Baldic, OpenScout, Nordlet… more?) • networks, professionals united under legal bodies, projects

25. Suggestions • How could the process be facilitated? • By synergy in European and national resources • By experiment, experience, reflection, improvement, implementation • By solving all problems in a complex view – always envisage the rationale • By finding as many occasions to benefit from the process, as possible – use it for all possible synergy – the value is here • By investment in capacity building – international discussions, exchange and stories – another view brings benefit and value for all

26. Airina VolungevičienėVytautas Magnus University a.volungeviciene@dsc.vdu.lt