DescriptionVirtual mobility and virtual exchange have become a way for international and intercultural collaboration of institutions, teachers and students, when the development of key competences and transversal skills are at focus.
In fact, the importance and need for HE institution modernisation/internationalization and focus on student centred learning approach, as well as rapid technological developments in everyday life require new actions, perspectives and approaches from organizations involved in education and training activities.
Examples, EU projects and theoretical methodology will be discussed in this webinar, both for virtual mobility and exchange.
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Moderator

Sandra Kučina Softič
President of EDEN,
Assistant Director for Education and User Support, University Computing Centre SRCE, Croatia
Sandra Kučina Softić is the Assistant Director for Education and User Support at the Zagreb University Computing Centre (Croatia). She is also the Head of the E-learning Centre and the Head of the Office for E-learning at the University of Zagreb. Her work is focused on monitoring and fostering e-learning in Croatian higher education and providing support and advice to institutions, teachers and students in implementation of new technologies in learning and teaching. She was appointed Croatian representative in ET2020 Working group on Digital Skills and Technologies (2016-2018) and in ET2020 Working group on Digital Education: learning, teaching and Assessment (2018-2020). In 2018 she was appointed member of European Education and Training Expert Panel.
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Speakers

Airina Volungevičienė
President of EDEN Digital Learning Europe
Director of Institute for Study Innovations, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
Prof. dr. Airina Volungevičienė has been working among leading researchers, methodology specialists and education policy makers in the area of technology enhanced learning (TEL) development in Europe and Lithuania since 1997. Having established the national network for distance and e-learning in the country, then Lithuanian Distance and e-Learning association (2010), she continued as a leader in research and project work to promote the development of TEL in Lithuania and Europe, introducing many innovations in different education organizations from school, VET, adult learning and higher education sectors. Her main concern at Vytautas Magnus University is to direct Institute activities to implement its mission: to advise University teachers to design distance learning and teaching (DL/T) curriculum, to ensure DL/T quality, to get DL/T curriculum quality assurance at University, to organize online studies successfully, and to ensure DL/T accreditation and quality assurance at the national and international level.
She is involved in EDEN Governance since 2009, as the Board member, Vice President for Research (2016 – 2019) and the President (2016 – 2019). Collaboration with UNESCO IITE in application of technologies in education, OER development, as well as UNESCO IBE for Collaborative Master study program of „Curriculum development“ allows mainstreaming of expert knowledge and the development of open professional collaboration of teachers and academia on global level.

Francesca Helm
Researcher at the Department of Politics,
Law and International Studies at the University of Padova, Italy
My research is in the areas of intercultural communication and virtual exchange, online literacies, applied linguistics, education and language policy, ethical internationalisation. I am currently researching the European Commission’s Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange pilot project.
I’ve published in several international journals and am a reviewer for LLT, Linguistics and Education, and a member of the editorial board of the journals ReCALL and System. I was chair of the Education Innovation working group of the Coimbra Group of Universities, and member of the Steering Committee of Scholars at Risk Italy.

Wim Van Petegem
Professor at KU Leuven, Belgium
EURODL Editor-in-Chief
Wim Van Petegem (1964, Belgium) holds an MSc degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Ghent (Belgium) and one in Biomedical Engineering from the KU Leuven (Belgium). He got his PhD in Electrical Engineering from KU Leuven in 1993. He has worked at the University of Alberta, Edmonton (Canada), at the Open University of the Netherlands and at the Leuven University College (Belgium). From 2001 till 2012 he was the head of the Media and Learning Center (formerly known as AVNet) and later he became Director of the Teaching and Learning Department at KU Leuven (Belgium). Currently he is Professor at the Faculty of Engineering Technology at KU Leuven. He is actively involved in different networks of universities (like EuroPACE, SEFI, EDEN, IACEE, MEDEA and the Coimbra Group). His current research interests are in the field of multimedia production, new educational technology, networked e-learning, virtual mobility, lifelong learning, open and distance learning, knowledge transfer, innovative entrepreneurship and science communication. He and his team are involved as contractor, partner, coordinator, expert, or evaluator in many implementation and development projects mostly financed by the European Commission (DG Education and Culture). He is also heavily engaged in development cooperation with the South, and volunteer board member of several non-profit organizations.

Elena Caldirola
Director of the eLearning Center of the University Pavia, Italy