1. vmcolab.eu
Assoc. prof. Airina Volungevičienė
Pd.D. Estela Daukšienė
VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY, LITHUANIA
EIF. 2013
vmcolab.eu
Quality assurance handbook
for Virtual Mobility
2. vmcolab.eu
Project aims
1. Develop a Quality Assurance approach for Virtual
Mobility (VM)
2. Develop institutional awareness of VM potential
3. Develop students’ awareness on opportunities to
use ICT for intercultural study
4. Develop mutual support service for HEIs willing
to pilot VM programmes
5. Test a set of mutual support services for HEIs
6. Integrate VM in institutional academic contexts
3. vmcolab.eu
VM definition in VMCOLAB
“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
4. vmcolab.eu
Virtual mobility: involved actors
• Higher education institutions (2+)
• Teachers in student VM (2+, organizing
VM academic exchange)
• Students in VM (student groups in 2+
institutions/ countries)
• Teachers in VM (professional development
in 2+ institutions (research, academic
teaching, socio-cultural exchange))
10. vmcolab.eu
VM process 5 - stage model
1. Decision making
2. Curriculum designing
3. VM organization and communication
4. Assessment and Feedback
5. Certification and Recognition.
15. vmcolab.eu
Decision making. Scenarios
necessary steps that an institution needs to undertake at each
phase to meet further implementation phases successfully
success indicators based on general and specific virtual
mobility criteria
description of each characteristic or step to facilitate its
implementation at HEI
indicators:
whether the feature is mandatory (M) or optional
If the case is of bilateral or multilateral HEI collaboration settings
reference taken from MOVINTER project quality criteria
Teacher VM Student VM
17. vmcolab.eu
Curriculum designing
• learning outcomes – which of them will be shared
between/ among participating teachers
• the number of ECTS
• international student groups
• schedule
• learning methods
• synchronous and asynchronous communication among
teachers and among students
• assessment methods and criteria
• technical support and technical infrastructure
18. vmcolab.eu
TeaCamp Curriculum content and teaching/ learning
scenario development (sub-modules)
Sub-module Culture
models (1/2)
(JYU, FI)
Collaborative
online
learning
(CC1N, ES)
Information
literacy
(JU, PL)
Learning
technologies
(BETI, LT)
Learning
strategies
(VDU, LT)
Assessment
strategies
(UA, PT)
Culture
models (2/2)
(JYU, FI)
Assignment 1 2 2 2 2 2 1
Portfolio Moodle portfolio as a required part for international, intercultural experience record – as a learning
outcome for culture model sub-module
Weight 8,33 16,66 16,66 16,66 16,66 16,66 8,33
TeaCamp assessment strategy
19. vmcolab.eu
VM impact for Q - HE institution level
• Development and exploitation of intercultural studies
• Joint study programs, quality enhancement and expertise sharing,
transparency of professionalism and academic processes
• Modernisation and internationalisation of curriculum (transferrable
quality standards, modular curriculum based on learning outcomes,
updating pedagogical models)
• Multi-institutional instead of bilateral collaboration
• Improvement of education attractiveness and HE competitiveness
• Expanded areas of learning for students
• Additional transferrable skills and knowledge areas
• Teacher professional development
• Additional skills and experience for students
20. vmcolab.eu
VM impact upon teachers
• Personal professional development:
– Interpersonal communication, online communication, linguistic
skills, ICT competences
– teaching quality improvement, new teaching methods applied and
experimented
– new knowledge, skills and experience in multiple EU HE institutions
• Professional networking, exchange of good practices
• International, intercultural professional activities
• Transparency and recognition of teaching and
professionalism
• Career opportunities
• Research enhancement – especially in teacher VM
21. vmcolab.eu
VM benefits for students
• Upgraded transferrable skills:
– Linguistic, interpersonal communication
– ICT competences
– Additional learning skills (networking, critical thinking, intercultural
knowledge and skills, quality schemes)
• Curriculum and study quality enhancement
• New learning methods suggested by various HE institutions
• Transparency of learning, individual portfolio development
• Enhanced employability
• Intercultural, international experience and expertise
• Enlarged academic areas of studies
• Support for home students and LLL groups, international study
accessibility for physically and socio-economically disadvantaged
22. vmcolab.eu
TeaCamp VM student testimonies after VM session
• We became more open-minded for the other cultures…
• We improved various skills and competences
• It was a chance to use knowledge practically
• We discovered new viewpoints of cultural differences
• We learned to collaborate in a virtual environment
• We learnt to better organize our study time schedule
• We had many positive feelings and a valuable
experience
Virtual mobility quality assurance handbook is based on the quality criteria identified and specified during Movinter project “Virtual mobility framework” final version.
There were 20 quality criteria identified – 8 general and 12 specific. In this document they are referred as virtual mobility quality criteria. The criteria are described by their indicators. Their usage for HEIs in virtual mobility process is described in the 2nd part of the handbook. These VM quality criteria could be found in Table 1 of Annex 1.
Each phase is described in terms of VM elements (or features, as they will be called in this handbook) in the context of two scenarios – teacher virtual mobility and student virtual mobility, under conditions when VM is implemented bilaterally or multilaterally. Each feature will be described in terms of: in Table 1 in Annex 1. These references are used as references in column 1.