Collaborative online Training on Virtual Exchange and blended mobility integration

The Pilot ‘FRAMES Collaborative online Training on Virtual Exchange and blended mobility integration’, running from 18 October to 14 November 2021, has proven to be a successful experience for participating staff, i.e. IRO staff and related offices (mobility officers, educational offer, career offices), management and educational leaders as well as academic staff of the 3 FRAMES partner HEIs. Organised by UNICollaboration, in cooperation with Sharing Perspectives Foundation, the course aimed to develop the participants’ capacity to design, implement, assess and multiply relevant mobility schemes enriched by Virtual Exchange (VE).

The experiential, connectivist and project-based approach adopted by the training course enabled participants to be exposed to an innovative and interactive way of learning how to successfully integrate and accredit VE within their HEIs through tasks and activities that were both asynchronous (fora, materials to read and watch, and weekly tasks on Moodle) and synchronous (weekly meetings via Zoom), and which committed participants for approximately 4 hours per week.

37 participants participated in the pilot course, of which 14 from the University of Granada, 13 from Limerick University, and 10 from the University of Siena. During the course, participants were able to explore, through 4 Modules: 1. What VE is and what it is not, and why it differs from Virtual Mobility; 2. How to integrate VE at HE level; 3. How to accredit VE; and 4. How to draft a project plan on VE integration. 

After the end of the Training Course, a MASTERCLASS was held on 19th November from 10.00 to 12.00 CET, addressed to educational leaders and the top management from FRAMES Partner universities for them to become familiar with VE and be informed about the main take-aways of participants in the FRAMES Pilot training.

Upon completion of the course, 25 participants have been awarded an Open Badge.