Politehnica University Timișoara, the promoter of virtual academic mobility

The Open Virtual Mobility project

Between September 27 and 29, 2018, the third Open Virtual Mobility project was held in Timişoara. The host was Politechnic University Timisoara, partner in the project, which organized the meeting within the ID / IFR and e-Learning Center of the university.

Twenty teachers, researchers and staff from the project partners (Beuth Hochschule für Technik - Germany, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven - Belgium, Cineca Consorzio Interuniversitario - Italy, Fondation UNIT / AUNEGE - France, Universitat de les Illes Balears - University Degli Studi Roma Tre - Italy, Open Universiteit Nederland - Netherlands and Politehnica University Timișoara - Romania).

The Open Virtual Mobility project aims to promote and enhance higher education capacity in Europe by developing, evaluating and recognizing the virtual mobility abilities of academic staff and students in higher education in accordance with the Bologna Principles and Open Learning / Open Data.

The expected impact of the project is to increase the awareness of virtual mobility in European higher education, to evaluate and recognize the skills of VM (virtual mobility), to increase the training and trust of academic staff and students to participate and implement VM . By making free and accessible online courses, learning for continued development, evaluation and recognition of VM skills, increased transparency in the distribution and level of VM skills in European higher education can both be achieved.

During the meeting in Timisoara a series of steps to be taken in the project, which is in the second year of implementation, were discussed. Discussions began on the realization of online MOOC (massive open online course) and OER (open learning resources), followed by clarifications on the skills to be acquired by those studying on the educational platform. This platform, conducted by the UPT team, has been discussed further. Then came the types of online verification that will be approached as well as the models of open badges. The ID / IFR and eLearning Center team has been working on developing promotional materials and explanatory videos by taking part in the meeting.

Diana Andone, PhD (UPT), project coordinator for Romania, said: "This meeting was extremely productive. The OpenVM project is a very current one in the context of the European and international cooperation that has been extremely debated lately about creating a workforce with current, digital, intercultural skills that can work equally anywhere in Europe. Providing various virtual mobility programs encourages the experimentation of different learning environments for those students who may have time or financial limitations. The most interesting thing is that the project has a much wider addressability, and the quality of the educational materials offered can attract any adult who wants to learn. We live a period of digital natives who will be permanently educated throughout their lives. UPT's involvement in this project is a dual one, our team having both an educational and pedagogical contribution to the models and structure of virtual mobility programs and the implementation and technical maintenance of the educational platform on which the materials and programs of the project partners will be uploaded". This year's OpenVM Online Courses will be open to all.

https://www.openvirtualmobility.eu/ro_RO/ - project site

https://hub.openvirtualmobility.eu/ - the educational platform of the project, developed by Politehnica University Timisoara.