The EDUSC project (European Digital University Staff Competences) is an Erasmus+ KA2 project involving Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), Tor Vergata University of Rome, YERUN, KIRON and CONFIA.
The project aims to encourage higher education staff to embrace digital transformation, create a community platform of an interactive digital toolkit of resources, and create Open Educational Resources (OERs) on digital transformation in internationalisation of higher education. Through these activities, EDUSC will create impact at different levels:
- On an individual level, the project aims to improve the competencies (data and digital) of individual staff members.
- On an institutional level, the project expects the accelerated uptake of modern and evidence-based digital processes and tools for all areas in higher education: internationalisation, teaching, administration and management.
- At national level, the project will provide policy recommendations to facilitate and support the adoption of open educational learning environments and the digitalisation of higher education.
- At European level, the consortium aims at having a direct impact on how the European education policies and programmes take into consideration the project outcomes and further support the update of the project through Erasmus+.
With those objectives in mind, the project is pioneering new teaching and learning methods, but also looking into how digital tools can complement international mobilities.
Two staff trainings were held in 2022. The first one in June, at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, focused on “Technologies For High-Quality Teaching”, with the objectives of: exploring different educational methodologies that can be applied to teaching, as well as the purpose of each one of them; learning about different educational technologies and tools that can support the implementation of different educational methodologies; analysing different educational scenarios in which methodologies and technologies can be used and the relationship of these scenarios with the levels of Bloom’s taxonomy and the European framework of digital competences of teachers (DigCompEdu).
A second training was held in July, at Tor Vergata University of Rome, which focused on virtual mobility. During the training, participants had the opportunity to learn about different solutions that may be implemented for developing a virtual mobility programme. They analysed the change in the approach to mobility during the pandemic period by focusing on the differences among different scientific areas and the other geographical regions. Finally, they focused on opportunities and risks in developing virtual mobility programs starting from the pandemic experience via a SWOT analysis of Blended Intensive Programs, Collaborative International Online Learning, Dual and double degrees, and joint degrees. Participants worked in group works on different types of real case studies in order to evaluate the best practices for selecting the type and the mix of academic offerings for a virtual mobility.
“Virtual mobility is not an alternative to face-to-face mobility but it represents the most innovative and effective solution to increase inclusivity in the Erasmus exchange programmes” says Gianluca Mattarocci, Associate Professor of Banking at Tor Vergata University of Rome.
The EDUSC project will continue until February 2023, when a final multiplier event will be held in Brussels presenting the policy recommendations of the project.
Cover Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash
