VCSE Guidebook/How to promote the VCSE-model/The VCSE-model for virtual mobility: Difference between revisions

For over 20 years, the European Commission has been stimulating physical mobility of students and teachers in higher education through the Erasmus program. The objectives of this international exchange program range from promoting a sense of European citizenship and the competence to cope with cultural diversity, to improving access to high quality education throughout Europe and improving the quality of higher education through international collaboration and competition. The Erasmus program can be considered a success, given that more than 1.5 million students have participated since 1987 (European Commission, 2006) . In fact, however, in each academic year, less than 1% of the total European student population take courses at a university in another member state (Bijnens et al., 2006). The European Commission is currently aiming for a major increase in student mobility by 2012 (European Commission, 2008) , but it appears that these targets will not be achieved by physical mobility alone. Even if the campaign is successful, the large majority of students will not be internationally mobile, due to a variety of social, organisational, administrative, financial and physical barriers. It is for these students that an alternative has been suggested in the form of virtual mobility, i.e., ‘using information and communication technologies (ICT) to obtain the same benefits as one would have with physical mobility, but without the need to travel.’ One type of virtual mobility is a ‘virtual campus’. A virtual campus is a web-based platform to deliver either a collection of virtual (e-learning) courses or an entire virtual study program. In addition to teaching and learning functions, a virtual campus usually includes administrative support services, such as web-based enrolment, and sometimes also social functions, such as a web-based ‘cafeteria’ (chat rooms). It is based on international cooperation between higher education institutions, involving formal or informal agreements on quality assurance, entrance requirements, transfer of credits etc. (cf. European Commission, 2007) .

Recent reviews of virtual mobility initiatives list many actual or potential advantages and benefits at student and teacher as well as institutional level (Bijnens et al., 2006; Brey, 2007 ). These range from better Europe-wide access to courses for students, to an enriched, internationalized work environment for teachers, and a cost-effective expansion of the number of courses being offered for universities. '''Table 2''' lists the major benefits of the VCSE, as perceived by its members. A benefit to students that deserves particular attention is that virtual learning environments offer great potential for effective development of the competence to work in international (multi-cultural) and multi-disciplinary project teams. In the field of study covered by this campus, sustainable development, the issues are particularly complex and have a strong international dimension. As a consequence, there is a great disciplinary and cultural diversity in perspectives and concurrently a need for students to communicate, learn and collaborate across the boundaries of the different perspectives. An international virtual campus can provide computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments, that allow communication and collaboration, independent of time and place, between geographically dispersed students in multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary teams at low cost. This educational benefit would apply just as well to other interdisciplinary fields of study requiring an international and multidisciplinary approach in teaching and learning.