European Co-Laboratory for the Integration of Virtual Mobility in Higher Education Innovation and Modernisation Strategies

The "European Co-Laboratory for the Integration of Virtual Mobility in Higher Education Innovation and Modernisation Strategies " (VMCOLAB) project was selected in 2012, and funded from 1 October 2012 until 30 September 2014 by the European Commission, under the Lifelong Learning programme – Erasmus –Multilateral projects - Mobility strategies and removal of barriers to mobility in higher education.

The VMCOLAB web site is at http://vmcolab.eu

Summary

Virtual mobility stands for “a 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”. The aim of the VMCOLAB project is to contribute to the innovation and internationalisation of European Higher Education Institutions by exploiting the full potential of ICT and Virtual Mobility and broadening the access to international learning experience to all European students.

The VMCOLAB project works along a number of different themes namely:

(1) Quality Assurance of Virtual Mobility VMCOLAB will develop a quality assurance handbook for Virtual Mobility. The quality standard will allow development of Virtual mobility handbook for Higher Education institution willing to uptake virtual mobility but having less knowledge on resources and infrastructure needed, as well as having an idea of the concept and quality factors and indicators of this phenomenon. Quality assurance handbook for Virtual Mobility is designed meeting the quality requirements of virtual mobility implementation (process approach).

(2) Institutional Awareness Building This activity aims at creating and disseminating an approach to awareness building on Virtual Mobility potential within Higher Education Institutions, and at producing evidence-based of successful examples and at elaborating a tool-kit to be use as an awareness instrument.

(3) Students’ Awareness This activity aims at developing students’ awareness on opportunities and concerns offered by ICT to develop inter-cultural study through the collection of witnessing and individual case studies of students who experienced VM and through the promotion of public debate between peers (students with experience in VM and students who don’t have any experience in VM).

(4) Mutual Support Services This activity will be focused on each type of actors who participate in an experience of virtual mobility (decision makers, students, teachers, administrative staff…) trying to provide them with the appropriate support for their needs.

Expected results

The VMCOLAB project expects to:

- Develop a Quality Assurance approach for Virtual Mobility

- Develop institutional awareness of the potential of Virtual Mobility for academic institutional cooperation and students’ access to international and multicultural learning

- Develop students’ awareness on opportunities and concerns offered by ICT to develop intercultural study

- Develop mutual support services for HEIs willing to pilot Vitrual Mobility programmes

- Test a set of mutual support services for HEIs in developing and integrated Virtual Mobility

- Integrate Virtual Mobility potential and limitations issues into mainstream modernisation discourse of the EHEA

- Enlarge the initial partnership to involve a significant number of HEIs and relevant associations/networks representatives of higher education stakeholders

Partners

• Katholieke Universiteit Leuven - Belgium
• SCIENTER – Italy
• University of Granada – Spain
• United Nations University – Germany
• University of Padova – Italy
• University of Porto – Portugal
• Vytautas Magnus University – Lithuania
• Coimbra Group – Belgium
• EFQUEL – Belgium
• University Polytehnica of Bucharest - Romania

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