Virtual Mobility Before and After Student Exchanges

The Virtual Mobility Before and After Student Exchanges (VM-BASE) project was selected in 2006, and funded from 1 October 2006 until 30 September 2008 by the European Commission - DG Education & Culture under the Socrates-Minerva programme.

The VM-BASE web site is at http://vm-base.europace.org

Summary

The VM-BASE project wanted to raise the quality of student exchanges by offering virtual support, both before and after the physical mobility. Virtual support was used to prepare and follow-up the mobile student, as a complement to the existing exchange programmes. The project thereby supported teachers in coaching exchange students at a distance (e-coaching).

The project started from a study giving an overview of the state-of-the-art in virtual exchange support measures and a needs analysis, making an inventory of student and teacher needs. The major activity of the project consisted of several pilots focusing on the orientation and selection of students, preliminary courses for students preparing for a physical exchange and examination facilities at the end or even after the exchange. Next to the pilots the need and feasibility of a Virtual Alumni Association for Erasmus students was being investigated.

Outcomes

All project results and outcomes are collected in a manual with concrete guidelines and recommendations for blended mobility activities and a manual on good practices in e-coaching:

• Home & Away. Coaching exchange students from a distance. A best-practice manual on blended mobility. Edited by Ilse Op de Beeck, Katrin Bijnens and Wim Van Petegem
• Home and Away. Coaching exchange students from a distance. A best-practice manual on e-coaching. Edited by Ilse Op de Beeck, Katrin Bijnens and Wim Van Petegem

The summary booklets and recommendations are available in English, Dutch, Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian. In the framework of the Move-IT project the summary was also translated in Spanish, French and German.

All other outputs of VM-BASE are available at the project website http://vm-base.europace.org/publications.htm

In Spring 2010, the VM-BASE project was selected by the European Commission to be included in the brochure Education and Training for Social Inclusion. European Success Stories.

Partners

• EuroPACE ivzw - Belgium - Co-ordinated by Ilse Op de Beeck
• Katholieke Universiteit Leuven - Belgium
• Coimbra Group ASBL - Belgium
• Katholieke Hogeschool Leuven - Belgium
• European Students’ Union (ESU) - Belgium
• University of Tartu - Estonia
• Board of European Students of Technology (BEST) - France
• University of West Hungary - Faculty of Geoinformatics - Hungary
• Helsinki University of Technology, TKK Dipoli - Finland
• Laurea University of Applied Sciences - Finland
• University of Edinburgh - UK

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