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April 2009

Virtual Campus and Virtual Mobility – What did we learn from EU projects?

The European Commission has set a goal in its Integrated Action Programme for Lifelong Learning [1] whereby in the year 2013, 3 million European students should participate in its Erasmus programme, which is about 20% of all European students. But what about the remaining 80% of students: those who do not have the opportunity to participate in Erasmus for social, financial or other reasons? Virtual Mobility and Virtual Campus schemes could offer an answer for them with educational opportunities that are no longer location dependent and allow for collaboration with students and teachers abroad and thus promote intercultural understanding. But what is actually a Virtual Campus? And what do we mean by Virtual Mobility? And how "virtual" is this campus or this mobility? 

Virtual Campus and Virtual Mobility in higher education

One of the earliest projects addressing the issue of virtual campuses is BENVIC [2]. In this project the concept of the Virtual Campus is used to describe “a specific format of distance education and on-line learning in which students, teaching staff and even university administrative and technical staff mainly 'meet' or communicate through technical links”. A classification was proposed, ranging from virtual class, where teaching and learning is happening in a virtual environment, over virtual campus, which also includes research communication, as well as scientific services to the society at large, to virtual university in which case most, perhaps all of the university working processes are virtualized.

Since then the ideas about Virtual Campus initiatives have evolved quite a lot, even in such a way that we nowadays add another concept to describe virtual learning activities, i.e. Virtual Mobility. The Being Mobile project [3] opted for the following definition: “[it] is a form of learning which consists of virtual components through a fully ICT supported learning environment that includes cross-border collaboration with people from different backgrounds and cultures working and studying together, having, as its main purpose, the enhancement of intercultural understanding and the exchange of knowledge”. Based on this broad definition different types of virtual mobility activities are identified, like virtual courses or seminars, complete virtual study programmes, virtual student placements and internships, virtual support activities to physical exchanges, and virtual learning communities.

In the last decade many institutions and organisations have been working on exploring and refining the concepts of Virtual Campus and Virtual Mobility, through several projects, e.g. cEVU [4], MASSIVE [5], REVE [6], VENUS [7], and Re.ViCa [8]. Many of the outcomes of these projects are also commented in European Networking and Learning for the Future. The EuroPACE approach (A. Boonen, W. Van Petegem (eds.), 2007, Garant Publishers).

Critical Success factors

When it comes to real implementations of Virtual Campus and/or Virtual Mobility initiatives, clearly not all of them have been success stories. By trial and error we have been able over the years to identify some critical success factors along three dimensions, i.e. from a pedagogical, technological and organisational view point.

Without being comprehensive, we think of aspects like clear distribution of roles of all stakeholders, good timing and careful planning with respect to academic calendars, formal agreements between institutions, appropriate (national) legislation and regulation, respect for and adaptation to local situations, firm business model implementation (including organisational structures, financial responsibilities, support measures, infrastructural facilities, training opportunities, etc. at central and de-central level), empowerment and motivation of teachers and learners, commitment of university management and other stakeholders, new didactical models (probably with a well-thought mixture of virtual and contact moments), proper assessment procedures, accessibility to technology for everyone, interoperability of digital learning environments, effective dissemination of good practices and lessons learnt...

New competences

The new working environment in a university enforced by Virtual Campus and Virtual Mobility activities, demands for new competences, both at an individual level and at an organizational level.

As globalization continues to confront the European Union with new challenges, each citizen, thus also every teacher and student will need a wide range of competences to adapt flexibly to a rapidly changing and highly interconnected world of learning. The following Key Competences for Lifelong Learning are identified in the Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 [9]: communication in the mother tongue, communication in foreign languages, mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology, digital competence, learning to learn, social and civic competences, sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, and cultural awareness and expression.

Organizations like universities very much depend on the competences of its constituting members, i.e. teachers and learners. At the one hand one could say that an organization has reached a certain level of competence if all its members have achieved at least this minimum level. At the other hand, even if only one single member reaches a certain level of competence (be it basic or excellent), the whole organization could benefit from the in-house expertise, provided it is well nurtured and taken care off. Growing in competence as an organization must be embedded in an overall strategy of the organization.

Starting from a clear mission and vision on high quality teaching in balance with its research ambitions the institution must take necessary measures to achieve its own goals, e.g. by offering a formal, comprehensive and complete training package for new and experienced teachers. We believe that this clearly enhances the competence of not only the individual teachers, but also of the university as an organization. Next to that, there must be a culture in the organization that fosters this growth in competence, e.g. through communities of practice, both in person as on-line. Teachers and teaching staff members who have a common interest in certain topics want to share their experiences and enhance their skills through peer-learning at the occasion of seminars, or other learning events, or even in the digital learning environment of the university. The same applies – mutatis mutandis – for students as well.

Final reflection

Striking to see in all the above is the gradual shift from stand-alone virtual initiatives towards integration of virtual components into traditional universities. Indeed, through our experiences, we notice a shift of concepts, from pure Virtual Campus and Virtual Mobility, to “blended models”. Indeed, the more traditional universities open their borders, collaborate supra/intra-institutionally and often (inter)nationally, and/or involve non-traditional students in their traditional learning environment. In this way every campus becomes a Virtual Campus, and all mobility has now some form of Virtual Mobility included.

A huge challenge for universities remains to help students (and teachers) to reflect upon and to grow in the new key competences. Possibly no single university or higher education institute can find enough expertise from within the own institution to address all challenges. We need to network and to collaborate with others, both at the individual and at the organizational level, in order to develop quality education in the European Higher Education Area. International mobility and also virtual mobility could create the right opportunities for open and social interaction between different actors within and outside the universities, growing together in competences for the future.

Wim Van Petegem

Wim Van Petegem has a background in engineering (MSc in Electrotechnical, and in Biomedical Engineering, PhD in Applied Sciences). Currently he is working as Director of AVNet at K.U.Leuven. With his team of 40 colleagues he is in charge of support for multimedia and multicampus education. His research interests are in multimedia for education, new educational technologies, networked e-learning, virtual mobility, open and distance learning, knowledge transfer, and science communication. He is coordinator or partner in several projects, mainly funded by the EC Lifelong Learning Programme, or by the Flemish Government. He is actively involved in many European networks, like EDEN, EuroPACE, EADTU, EUCEN, Coimbra Group, LERU, SEFI, etc. He is also teaching courses and organizing trainings in this field, at his university and abroad.

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