Two seminars on blended mobility

The aim of the seminars was to raise awareness on the opportunities and challenges of virtual/blended mobility and to exchange good practices in organising such activities.
On June 10th, 2010, the Move-IT team and the Coimbra Group jointly organised the first seminar in Iasi, Romania at the Coimbra Group Annual Conference. This event included three presentations and two discussion sessions. First, the speakers introduced the audience two best practice examples of virtual and blended mobility activities. This was followed by a presentation about the concept of virtual Erasmus. During the discussions the participants had the opportunity to exchange ideas on a feasible approach to implement virtual support initiatives for mobile students and to discuss what could be the role of the Coimbra Group to implement these strategies. During a second discussion round, the participants shared their thoughts on the challenges and possibilities of virtual Erasmus.

Presentations:

• The Move-IT project, Mart Achten, EuroPACE ivzw, Belgium
• European Campus project – ESN Galaxy, Adam Wlodarkiewicz, Erasmus Student Network, BE
• Virtual support for mobile students: experiences from the University of Edinburgh Nora Mogey, University of Edinburgh, UK
• Towards recognition of Virtual Erasmus, Reporting of the EPICS project, Johannes De Gruyter, K.U.Leuven-AVNet, Belgium

A second seminar was organised on October 14th, 2010 in Leuven, Belgium. After an introductory presentation about the Move-IT project and four best practice examples of how to support students effectively during their exchange, the participants were asked to share their own experiences during two round table discussions. The topics that were addressed were “virtual support before, during and after the exchange” and “virtual work placements”.

Presentations:

• Introduction to the Move-IT project, Mart Achten, EuroPACE ivzw, Belgium
• Online education and evaluation tool of the Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences - Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kristien Jacobs, K.U.Leuven, FABER, Belgium
• The Virtual Buddy System, Carina Saelen, KHLeuven, Belgium
• The EU-VIP project, Mariet Vriens, K.U.Leuven-AVNet, Belgium
• European Campus: enhancing overseas student mobility, Giorgio Marinoni, UNICA Network, Belgium

The recording of the seminar can be viewed here

Two webinars on e-coaching

Two webinars were organised on May 7th and 27th, 2010, specifically addressing the topic of e-coaching and demonstrating several technical, pedagogical and organisational aspects related to the e-coaching of mobile students from a distance. The format of the webinars was so that there were three possibilities to attend: through web conference, through live streaming or through local presence.

Presentations:

• Move-IT project, Mart Achten, EuroPACE, Belgium
• Frameworks for success for e-moderators and learners using simple forums and bulletin boards, Prof. Gilly Salmon, University of Leicester, UK
  ▪ VM-BASE project, Ilse Op de Beeck, AVNet-K.U.Leuven, Belgium
• Ready for Virtual Mobility? More VM!, Mateja Geder, DOBA College of Business Maribor, SIovenia
• E-coaching, Steven Verjans, Open Universiteit Nederland, The Netherlands
• Go Abroad!, Anne-Mari Karppinen, Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Finland
• Virtual Exchange of Students Mobility Experience & Multilingual Survival Kit in GIS, Grégory Lucas, University of West-Hungary, Faculty of Geo-informatics, Hungary

The recordings of the webinars can be viewed here:
Webinar 1
Webinar 2