Classes, Cultures? Connect!

On February 6 2019, the Virtual Exchange projects EVALUATE, Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange and EVOLVE gave presentations together in the workshop “Virtual Exchange for digital skills and global citizenship” at the European Parliament in Brussels. The workshop was organised by MEP Yana Toom on the occasion of her recent report on Digital Education in Europe. The event was attended by approximately 45 MEPs and stakeholders from other organisations with offices in Brussels. This included members of the Commission, the German DAAD and the European Students Union. Robert O’Dowd, Sarah Guth, José Díez Verdejo, Pilar Garcés (Ministry Castilla y León, Spain) and Sake Jager presented the state-of-the-art of VE in Europe reporting from the projects in which they are involved.

Sarah Guth and José Díez Verdejo introduced VE and presented results from the groundbreaking Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange project.

Robert O’Dowd presented the results of  the EVALUATE Project which he is coordinating and Pilar Garcés, director general of universities in Castilla y León, explained how her public authority was using the outcomes of EVALUATE to integrate Virtual Exchange in their policy development.

Sake Jager, as project coordinator of EVOLVE, had selected the motto “digital is the new international” for his presentation, pointing out that VE is not yet well known in Higher Education, neither as a tool in digital education nor as a tool for internationalisation. He believes that digitalisation and internationalisation strategies and policies should be further integrated to reap the benefits of this innovative educational practice, which practitioners worldwide are beginning to embrace as a form of collaborative online international learning.

What is Virtual Exchange (VE)? How is it relevant for Higher Education today? And how does EVOLVE support developing it further? Watch these videos to hear the team experts’ views on VE and EVOLVE.