virtual communities
VIRQUAL Guide for Virtual Mobility accepting contributions until end of September
VIRQUAL has prepared a draft version of a guide or handbook. This guide intends to provide a general introduction to the topic of virtual mobility (VM) in Europe, contributing to Higher and Continuing Education Institutions which offer e‐Learning courses to implement Virtual Mobility in the framework of the European Higher Education Area.
The main aim is to help establishing a common understanding on possible organizational, pedagogical and technical approaches to the implementation of Virtual Mobility within the European Qualification Framework.
It intends to be a step‐by‐step guide that may be used by students, course developers or Institutions, to help them to achieve Virtual Mobility in a diversity of scenarios. When referring to Virtual Mobility in the context of the European Qualification Framework, we are aiming at extending the current Erasmus experience by intensive use of ICT. Virtual Mobility lacks several components of the physical mobility, of course, but can offer other dimensions, including different learning pathways, creation of virtual communities, collaborative projects, and international cooperation with a lower investment.
The consortium has collected 13 Case Studies from 8 different countries and that have used the guide and its annexes with real courses offered at present. In general the feedback received from the testers is that the document is useful but some changes and improvements must be done.
If you are interested to have access to this document and test it within your institution, please, contact the project via email to virqual@reit.up.pt and let us know. The more feedback we receive the better the final product will be. VIRQUAL will be accepting this type of contributions until end of September 2011.