The document discusses virtual mobility initiatives in Norway. It describes the Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education, which aims to strengthen quality in Norwegian education through international cooperation and digital learning. A new government white paper supports increasing student mobility, including exploring virtual mobility to supplement physical mobility and include more students. The document also describes a case study of an open educational resources project in computational biomedicine that uses virtual mobility and blended learning to improve biomedical education.

1. Virtual Mobility Peer Learning Activity, Maastricht Dec 12 2018
Virtual mobility in Norway
Policy development and a case

2. Norwegian Agency for International
Cooperation and Quality Enhancement
in Higher Education
• Aims to strengthen the quality of Norwegian education
by promoting development and innovation,
international cooperation and digital learning
• Owned by the Ministry of Education and Research,
and is also working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
the European Commission, and the Nordic Council of
Ministers

3. «[G]eographic mobility is not the only measure that will
give students international experiences. In the time to
come, digital collaboration and communication will create
valuable supplements to physical mobility. While current
activities involve a small percentage, these measures will
reach broader.»
Harald Nybølet, Khrono, August 28

4. New Government White Paper
• Improvement of the quality of higher education is one of our
Government's most important projects (cf. Quality Culture in
Higher Education)
• Student mobility is part of the strategic work to improve quality
• Central objectives for the White Paper are
• how a cultural change for a higher mobility rate can be
implemented, systemically
• how a target of student mobility as the normal practice can be
reached
• how incoming student mobility can be used more strategically
as part of the internationalisation of study programmes

5. Virtual mobility in the White Paper
• It is vital to assist students who cannot go abroad to be
part of an international student environment
• A chapter on virtual mobility will explore how this can
supplement and enrich physical mobility

6. The future of student mobility
• How to include everyone?
• New possibilities for the entire mobility process (administration,
faculty and students):
• preparation
• communication and collaboration
• follow-up
• Internationalisation + digitisation =
• more mobility
• more diversity
• future proof skills
• higher employability

7. Open Educational Resources
in Computational Biomedicine
Case:

8. Challenges
• Modern day medical research creates a large
amount of data relatively easily
• Researchers need to learn computational analyses
of the data per se and
• Awareness and handling of ethical issues arising
from the ability to determine the molecular make-up,
and the implications for disease prediction

9. Aim of the project
• Improve education in biomedicine by
implementing novel courses using
open educational resources (OERs)
• Increase knowledge of pedagogical
design and learning analytics in
relation to OERs
• The virtual mobility builds on these
two deliverables

10. Pedagogical framework
• Using OERs and web-based courses changes
teaching, learning and assessment
• Knowledge of and research in pedagogical design
and learning analytics will lead to adjusted
pedagogical tools for the best learning outcomes

11. Virtual mobility summer school
• The summer school will directly support both virtual and
physical mobility between the partner institutions
• The project will create a blended learning environment
for an array of learning activities as well as blended team
work (face to face and virtual)
• It will give students an opportunity to apply and combine
the knowledge they have acquired online and at their
home universities

12. Benefits of virtual mobility
• Lectures, assignments and interactive exercises are
adapted for open-access, online mode
• This enables wide use and reuse of material at partner sites
or in a synchronized way with one or more partners
• Students can engage in both virtual mobility and blended
team work
• Personalized online education enables broader participation
in mobility for students with specific demands, including
physical disabilities

13. diku.no
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